8/17/2010
Welcome to Inventor 2010 Information Page
Indicates
Important new information for 2010.
Table Of Contents
High points of Inventor 2010
Graphics Requirements Before Installation
Product name Changes
Standalone License Best Practices: New 2010 information
Please read first
What is new for 2010
Dynamic Network Licensing: New 2010 information
Contains revision of released documents.
Errata, Useful Information and tips
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Licensing
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When switching Media allow time for media to spin up
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Security levels when installing, modifying or using Inventor.
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Debugging Access Blocked Situations
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Installation of Inventor on servers or Virtual systems.
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Importing custom libraries
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Canceling during installation of Content Center libraries
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Setup XP pr Vista for Optimum performance
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Using Custom Installation to ...
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Pre-check: Port 80 in use
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Installation form a Electronic fulfillment, media, and directories
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DirectX software fails to install
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Running on 64-bit
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If you need to report an installation Problem, click here
Known Issues
Miscellaneous Install Issues & Tips
Graphics Highlights
Licensing Highlights
Installation Highlights
Installation Issues?
Not enough space on the OS drive for the Content Center, Network installation or whatever else is needed.
Peripherals
General information for using Inventor
Welcome to Inventor 2010 Information Page
High points of Inventor 2010
- Using Inventor on a 64-bit operating system:
- Capacity or 3GB problems? Don't fight, switch to Vista 64. Inventor and ACM both run in native 64-bit mode, greatly increasing capacity beyond anything that can be done on a 32-bit operating system. Vista 64 has many improvements that are not in XP-64. It also supports DirectX10, which has additional functionality and completes Microsoft's vision for DirectX
- Suggest a minimum of 4GB of physical memory, configured to allow expansion to the maximum the workstation will hold.
- Physical memory is still the best buy for performance. It reduces or prevents swapping of data and code to a hard drive. It also allows Windows to pre-fetch more data from the hard drive, further improving performance.
- Note that physical memory is the actual memory installed in your computer. Address space on a 64-bit system will show as 8192GB in Inventors help dialog.
- Buy and configure memory cards in your system to allow the largest potential upgrade of memory in the future.
- If you are buying a new system, shop for 8 or more memory slots if you can.
- 32GB of physical memory is not unreasonable for a large project.
- A graphics card that supports DirectX10 with 256+MB of memory is recommended.
- Inventor and ACM both support network license timeout functionality where an idle license is returned to the license pool. This functionality must be enabled on the license server. It is designed to be totally transparent to the end user. For more information, click here.
- Inventor and ACM have enhanced network license sharing.
- Creating deployments:
- Two deployment images must be built to support both 32 and 64-bit
target workstations:
- A 32-bit image must be built for installation on a 32-bit target.
- A 64-bit image must be built for installation on a 64-bit target.
- If the deployment is being built from DVD media, you can
select to build a 32 or 64-bit deployment.
- Be careful to check the box for the type of deployment you wish to create.
- If you are using an electronic fulfillment, you can only build the type of deployment included in that file.
- The location the Administrative Images will be created, can be on either a 32 or 64-bit server.
- It will help if the deployment name includes either 32 or 64.
- Do keep the deployment path short. The limit is about 60 characters total. This includes the first "\" in the UNC path, to the last character of the deployment name.
- Two deployment images must be built to support both 32 and 64-bit
target workstations:
- To insure the installation of the correct installation of 32 or 64-bit software, always run Setup.exe to start the standard installation. Running the .msi files is not supported for general installation. When installing from a electronic fulfillment (downloading) you will have separate 32 and 64-bit downloads. Please keep them strait.
- Documents: On each DVD: The Docs directory on DVD 1 contains almost all documents. The DOCS directory on other DVD's will contain documents that apply specifically to that DVD.& After installation many of these may be found in the install directory After installation, look for a Docs directory under each products install directory. (Note on a 64-bit system, 32-bit products install to Program Files (x86).)
- SQL databases for Content center and Vault
can not be installed on compressed or encrypted drives
- This will fail and prevent the installation of the database.
- Vista Information
- If the Network License Manager is installed on Vista, UAC must be disabled while editing the license file.
- Before authorizing with a standalone license, you must be logged in as an Administrator.
- To change the Inventor addins loaded at startup:
- If logged in as a USER or ADMINISTRATOR with UAC enabled, run the addin manager "as administrator". If necessary, provide the password. It will always appear to work, but in reality, the changes will not be locked in, unless this is done.
Product name changes:
When reference is made to the whole product:
- Autodesk Inventor Professional, is now AutoCAD Inventor Professional Suite 2010.
- Autodesk Inventor Simulation Suite, is now AutoCAD Inventor Simulation Suite 2010.
- Autodesk Inventor Routed Systems Suite, is now AutoCAD Inventor Routed Systems Suite 2010.
- Autodesk Inventor Suite, is now AutoCAD Inventor Suite 2010.
These name changes affect the Suite products. The name of the product, Autodesk Inventor, remains the same.
Standalone License Best Practices: New 2010 information:
- The standalone license files must never be deleted or altered.
- With previous (pre 2010) licensing software,
Autodesk was able to help some users recover from a damaged license.
In some cases this will not
be possible going forward. Be careful.
- Any change will
trigger license failure. You will then be required to re-authorize
all impacted products.
- DO NOT DELTE THE "*.dat" LICENSE FILES AT:
- XP: <OS Drive>:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\Software Licenses
- Vista: <OS Drive>:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Software Licenses
- DO NOT DELTE THE "*.dat" LICENSE FILES AT:
- Do not restore your hard drive or Re-image it without first exporting the licenses with the Portable License Utility (Products before the Autodesk 2010 products) or the License Transfer Utility (2010 or later, requires an internet connection).
- Security issues: Installation and Maintenance
- Of course, if your site uses a network license serve, the workstations will not have any problems in this area.
Where can I find documents on the installation media?
- DVD media: on disk 1, go to <language directory>\SetupRes\Docs. This directory
contains most of the documentation.
- <language directory> will be something like "en-US". The media may also have a directory for your local language.
- On the electronic fulfillment media, look at the expanded directory
that has been installed on you system for either 32 or 64-bit products.
- It is a good idea to save the electronic download on a backup storage device.
- For associated products, like vault, a similar directory can be found on the first DVD of the set.
Please read first:
Inventor 2010 ReadMe, shipped with the media
Inventor installer Help, shipped with the media
What
is new for 2010?
Installer: What's New, shipped with the media
Planning installation, shipped with the media
Please note that this is a multiple medium installaton.It may be supplied on DVD, or Electronic download.
The media includes:
- AutoCAD Inventor Professional Suite 2010.
- AutoCAD Inventor Simulation Suite 2010.
- AutoCAD Inventor Routed Systems Suite 2010.
- AutoCAD Inventor Suite 2010.
- All variations of Inventor also include AutoCAD Mechanical.
Language is now separate from the software. English + one other language may be on the Media. Additional language packs will be available for download. Please contact your reseller for more information.
If you enter a serial number of 000-00000000 you will have a 30 day trial installation from the date the each product was first installed. If the last product installed is not the one you purchased, you will have to uninstall it and install the one you purchased.
For installation, you will need the serial number and the product key on the outside of the Box.
For a network license installation,the first time Inventor is run, it will pick up the serial number in the license file on the license server. (New for 2010.)
Dynamic licensing (below) may impact what you want to install at your site. This is totally new. I suggest taking a look at it before installing your software.
Network Licensing: License Borrowing (Original document shipped with Inventor this is now out of date.)
- The two documents below, supersede any other documentation on the subject matter they contain:
- These contain important new information that was not available at the time Inventor was released.
An older document that is still useful for other subject matter:
- Network License addendum shipped with the media
Errata, Useful Information, and Tips
Licensing
- Placing the network license server on XP-64 or Vista-64 will not work! The network license server must be updated to the software level distributed with the 2010 software (11.5.0.0) look in Lmtools help about to verify the version in use.
- Only one Acresso license server (lmtools) can run on the server. However, the license server can run multiple services. Please read the documentation installed in the same directory or a under LTOOLS.EXE.
- One service could be named ADSK (for Autodesk products) and another could be named Service2 for products from a different company that uses the same licensing product. These are both configured from the LMTOOLS "Config Services" tab. I my experience, the Acresso (previously Macrovision) software is backwards compatible, so the newest version of their software required by either product should be used.
- Stop the server.
- Install the new software on top of the old server
- Start the server.
- This process takes only few minuets. Autodesk licenses will survive without the server for a substantial time.
- The users will not be able to get a new license during this time.
- One important issue: The 2010 software no longer Automatically opens port 2080 on the license server. Please add a firewall exception for TCPIP port 2080 if it is the port used in your license file. (This is the default from Autodesk) The port number in use is in the third line of the license file.
- Please read the section on Dynamic licensing above. This is a major change and will be very confusing if the user is trying to borrow a license or the site administrator is checking which network licenses are in use
When switching DVD's please allow the media time to spin up before clicking OK.
Inventor security levels
- "Administrator" for installation (UAC off on Vista)
- "User" on all supported operating systems (with UAC on for Vista) for normal operations
- Expected Administrator activities (UAC off on Vista)
- Install, Uninstall, Repair,
- Install patches, and service packs
- Change addins to be loaded at startup from the Addin Manager or Inventor
- Run multiple versions of Inventor at the same time.(Inventor registration issue.)
- To re-register Inventor (happens when switching between versions of Inventor.)
- If you do not have Admin rights, you can reboot then access a different version of Inventor. You will be limited to one version of Inventor at a time. This is a serious issue. Do not ignore it.
- "Administrator" with UAC status = Don't care:
- Authorize the license (using Register Today).
- Expected "User" rights
- Can not change the addins that are loaded at startup (On Vista it will appear to work.).
- Can not access the expected restricted areas of the hard drive.
- For Vista many things have been moved from Program files to places where the user has better access. See the readme file.
- Can not run multiple versions of Inventor.
- The user may reboot between different versions of Inventor.
- This is not intended for normal production work.
Debugging Access blocked situations and running Multiple versions of Inventor:
- Messages like "This installation is forbidden by systems policy. contact your site administrator." usually mean exactly what they say. Your site administrator has placed limitations on what you can do. The general debug process for this situation is:
- Make sure that you do have full ADMIN rights (UAC off or "Run as Admin" on Vista).
- Make sure that restrictive applications such as anti-virus software are disabled. Autodesk does test installation with Anti-virus software enabled, but we can not test every package/version in the world.
- If installing with a standalone license, Click Here.
- Check this site, the Inventor news group, Product Support, and other resources for applications that conflict with Inventor.
- Make sure that you actually need to install the configuration you are trying to install.
- For example, are you trying to configure your workstation as a file server, this may not be what you really want to do.
- It is not recommended that you share files from your workstation. This can lead to Access denied messages for other systems when the workstation is busy.
- Inventor can use a lot of resources. to the disadvantage of file sharing.
- The alternative of installing Content Center (default for local installation of the Content libraries) is much simpler. It does not require a workstation to be a file server, which corporations may not allow.
- Hosting the content center on each workstation, does take more disk space, but also improves performance.
- This reduces network traffic and generally gives good performance.
- Work with the site administrator. The general process is to temporarily remove the corporate restrictions, then add them back one at a time, until the source of the problem is located.
- After installation, Inventor is intended to run as a standard (restricted) user.
- Currently on XP, data files, templates, samples etc, are stored under "Program Files" A User account does not have read access to them.
- The system Admin can set up read/write access as needed.
- Copy files to another location. Unfortunately, Inventor has hard coded references to some of these files, so copying them is not a complete solution.
- For Vista, all files to which the user needs access have been moved to the locations recommended by Microsoft. Please consult the Inventor readme (this was shipped with the media. This has been improved for 2010.
- Running multiple versions of Inventor at the same time DOES REQUIRE full Admin rights (UAC off on Vista) at all times.
- To occasionally switch between different versions of Inventor on the same system as a "user" just reboot when you desire to switch to a different version of Inventor.
Installation of Inventor and AutoCAD Mechanical on servers, Virtual systems etc., is not supported, or licensed.
If you are importing previous custom libraries while installing current products:
- Please allow several Gigabytes of extra disk storage space and carefully follow the instructions. See the readme.
Canceling the installation during the installation of content libraries:
- This may causes complex problems. If at all possible, let it run to completion.
How to set your XP or Vista operating system for maximum performance:
- Windows key + Pause key takes you to System Properties (Or use explorer, select "My computer" and right click and select properties.). Click on the Advance tab then the Settings button under Performance. Then click "Adjust for best performance". On Vista, with DX10 graphics, this will disable 3D effects almost everywhere except inside the Inventor and AutoCAD graphics windows, allowing the full power of the graphics card(s) to be dedicated to your CAD applications.This will change the display to look like Windows 2000 by disabling fancy desktop graphics and other things. For XP Pro, this resulted in about a 15% performance improvement. In this mode, XP runs as fast as Windows 2000.
- The Inventor graphics window maintains full acceleration
- No performance tests have been made on Vista, but I expect that it will improve performance in this mode.
- Aero look for Inventor: Aero requires DirectX 10 capable hardware. It shares graphics hardware acceleration with Inventor. Changing to maximum performance for the application will disable Aero hardware acceleration, maximizing the resources available to the Inventor graphics window, at the cost of the visual quality of the dialogs.
- NOTE: consider these only if you are comfortable with them.
- Disable the Recycle bin or any other product that keeps copies of every deleted file. (Right click on the recycle bin and select properties.)
- Disable System Restore. This saves disk space and access time. Bring up the system properties dialog (Windows key + Pause key, or right click on My Computer and select properties) > System restore and turn it off.
- Do regular system backups as this configuration puts you are more risk.
- Regularly defragment your hard drive. One way is to install a product like Disk keeper.
- Configure your anti-virus software to ignore Inventor files.
- Keeping your system up to date with Windows update will help to avoid getting the system infected.
- Hardware improvements:
- Multi-drive Raid 0 configuration. (This increases risk, so make frequent system backups.)
- Windows swap file on a different drive
- Inventor data on a different drive.
- Use the equivalent of 10,000 RPM Western Digital hard drives or better. The main thing to look for is average seek time. Below 3ms is good. Large On-board Cache memory for the drive: more is better.
- Large drives with multiple platters can write more data without moving the head, greatly improving performance.
- Fast Solid state drives are coming. Look for them soon.
- See powerpoint presentation for more details.
- Summery: Configure the system for best performance;
- Keep the OS drive intact
- Maximum memory
- Add additional disk drives and switch things around to maximize parallel access to the drives.
Using Custom installation
- The installer does not remember customizations. You may want to record your customizations for use when modifying an installation.
- Each customization applies only to the selected product at the time. It must be repeated for each product in a multi-product installation.
- For example, changing the installation location:
- From the "Review - Configure - Install" dialog, one must use "Configure" button to change the install location of each product you want to customize.
- The support software, that is automatically installed by a software package that needs it, will always install to their default locations.
- The same customization process is used to directly select products for installation with a network license .Configuring Inventor for a network license for Inventor does not automatically configure AutoCAD Mechanical.
Pre-check: Port 80 in use
- Click on the error message, it will point to the offending application.
- This is NOT a conflict with Inventor or it's Content Center.
- MS Security update 908531 (MS06-015) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165
installs a new binary program, Verclsid.exe. The Verclsid.exe program validates shell extensions before they are instantiated by the Windows shell or by Windows Explorer. If you have some old programs such as hp share to web running then the result will be that explorer will block port 80, which is the default port used by the Network licensing software.- To manually locate the application using Port 80
- In a command window type netstat -n -o
- This will give you a list of local/foreign connections and their PID.
- Look for a foreign address ending in 80. Write the PID for this address.
- Open Windows task manager to the process window. (Make sure that "show processes from all users" is clicked.)
- Add the PID column using the View pull down.
- This will show the process name.
- Possible conflicts: Skype, HP Share to windows.
- Thanks to the Inventor news group for this information.
To install from a Electronic Fulfillment instead of the physical media
- Download the Electronic fulfillment software. Place the 32 and 64-bit software into different directories. Do Not combine these directories.
- Execute Setup.exe in the top directory to start the 32 or 64-bit installation.
- Deployments: 32 or 64-bit deployments can be built by running the installer on the correct type of system using the correct download. The nature (32 or 64-bit) of the server on which the deployment will be placed does not matter.
- The nature (32 or 64-bit) of the workstation on which the deployment is being created does not matter.
- Note: Installation by execution of a MSI file is not supported.
- If DVD medial must be copied to a server put the contents of each DVD into a different directory. Use the DVD name and number as the name of each directory. This can be found by right clicking in explorer on the DVD drive in explorer and looking at the DVD properties.
- This is useful in working around media read issues, as this directory can be a shared directory or on a server.
DirectX software fails to install:
- Electronic fulfillment: go to <download Location>\x<"32" or "64">\support\DirectX
- On Inventor DVD1 go to Support > DirectX.
- Manually run DXSETUP.exe
Running on 64-bit Windows
- The virtual address space is 8192.00GB (8.12TB on any 64-bit Windows OS with Inventor 2010 which is running in native 64-bit. (The physical memory will be much less.)
- Windows Vista is actually limited of 128GB of physical memory.
If you need to report an installation Problem
- Autodesk Product Support needs your help. One useful method is to:
- Delete all files from your TEMP directory. Windows will not let you delete any files that are in use. Note these files.
- To locate your TEMP directory
- The default location is C:\Documents and settings\<your login>\Local Settings\Temp
- Or Type %TEMP% into the windows explorer address edit box if it is visible
- Run the installation.
- Zip up the TEMP directory (except the files that could not be deleted) and send it to Autodesk Product support.
- Go ahead and surprise them with some useful information.
- Or Press the "Windows" key Plus the "Pause" key to bring up the "System Properties" dialog
- Click on the Advanced tab
- Click environment Variables
- Look in the "User Variables for ..." window to find it's location, which will be the value of the TEMP variable.
Known issues:
Installation/Uninstallation initial startupIt is possible that either Install or Uninstall may fail.In either case the first thing to try is: reboot the system, let any pending updates finish. Then restart the operation.
Using aa 64-bit windows system for A LICENSE SERVER will not work.
Installation and un-installation/initial startup (in readme).
Redundant Network License Servers stop (In licensing section).
For A 64-bit windows workstation, the standard license file (Licpath.lic) located in the Product install or bin directory does not work. Please delete the license file and enter a system environment variable of the form
LM_LICENSE_FILE = <PORT>@<SERVERNAME>;
For example: 2080@My_server;
Graphics Highlights and Issues
For the 2010 Inventor products,
OpenGL is available only on Windows XP Pro/Home SP2. It is not available on any other operating system. OpenGL is now in a Legacy support stage.
DirectX 9 is the default graphics mode for Windows XP Pro/Home SP2, XP X-64
Vista defaults to DirectX 10 if the graphics card supports it. If not, it will drop back to DirectX 9.
For DirectX 9 or newer, the Microsoft WHQL certification will be considered as equivalent to the Autodesk certification.
When Inventor is installed on Vista, Tools > Application Options > Hardware has an option that is not worded very well.
Top Option: Direct X 10
Second Option: DirectX - This is actually DirectX 9. Some older graphics cards do not support DirectX 10. Switching between these two modes may also be used as a diagnostic tool. See this image for more details.
For OpenGL certifications on XP SP2, please request them from the webmaster (at the bottom of each page). Include the exact name of the card. This must be a workstation class Nvidia (Quadro) or ATI (Fire GL) card. You may need to ship the card or laptop to us for testing if it is not one we have.
Cards that are not Workstation class cards are not supported for OpenGL.
OpenGL Card Certifications always apply to the version of Inventor that they were run on and all older versions of Inventor.
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The AIS, AIP, AIP for Simulation, and AIP for Routed Systems 2010 network licensing has changed. (New for 2010)
By default Inventor installs in trial mode. A Serial number is not required for installation.
Network licensing has changed. See this old document for simple explanation of a single license server and Cascading licenses.
A late change to Cascading order or AutoCAD Mechanical and Inventor licenses. This order is different from any other documentation. The first license selected by default will be the lowest (bottom of the list below) one in this list that satisfies the license request.:
Autodesk inventor Professional 2010
Autodesk Inventor Professional for Simulation 2010
Autodesk Inventor for Manufacturing 2010
Autodesk Inventor Professional for Routed Systems 2010
Autodesk Inventor Series 2010
AutoCAD Mechanical 2010 (Inventor can not use this license.)
In addition, license timeouts are now available for Inventor and AutoCADM. They must be turned on in the server Options file.
See the license server documentation installed in the same directory as the license server. The options file should be in the same directory as the license file and named "adskflex.opt".
License timeout and recovery is totally silent from the user's viewpoint. The only way to see it in action is to look at the server status. One way is to run lmtools, go to the "Configure Services" tab, select the desired service and view the log.
Autocad Mechanical, installed from any Inventor 2010 media or AutoCAD mechanical media, will run on:
A network license for Autodesk Mechanical 2010 (ACM) or any Inventor 2010 product
If Inventor is running, ACM will share the active license.
If Inventor is not running,2010 licenses are searched in this order: Mechanical, Inventor Series, Routed Systems, Simulation, Professional.
For the 2008 products, this was a static sharing. Licenses for each product were obtained at startup and never changed.
For 2010, even if ACM is started first, it will move to the Inventor license after a short time. If Inventor is closed, ACM will not move back to a Mechanical license.
If Inventor moves to a different license, ACM will not change a second time.
License server:
The current version of FlexLM (ver. 11.5.000.0 in LMtools Help > About) or newer is required. It can be installed from the 2010 media.
For existing servers, stop the server, copy the executable files from the media on top of the existing ones. Then re-start the server (Reboot).
The executable can be found on DVD 1 of the Inventor 2010 media, > Support > NLM > Autodesk Network License Manager.
A sample Options file named "ADSKFLEX.OPT". (Required name. Place the file in the same directory as the license file.):
REPORTLOG +C:\report.rl
BORROW_LOWWATER 59600INVPRO_2010_0F 1
MAX_BORROW_HOURS 59600INVPRO_2010_0F 1
TIMEOUTALL 927
DEBUGLOG "C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk Network License Manager\License\debug.log"See the documentation installed with the license server for details. Please be aware that spacing is very important in this file. Old documentation may not exactly match.
Redundant Network License Servers stop
In the three redundant server configuration, one server must be the "Master". If this server goes down, all license services stop. A new licenses can not be obtained.
2009 and newer Inventor and ACM can continue to run for up to an hour before the user is forced to save his data and exit.
To restore licensing services, one of the backup redundant servers has to be manually converted to the master. See the documentation installed on the license server.
Installation Highlights
Applications that Conflict with Installation of Inventor
Spy ware, Anti-Virus, and Internet security programs, especially during installation.
Access to the internet should be granted when the installer requests it.
Installation can be completed without internet access.
Standalone licensing directly or indirectly does require internet, email, phone, or land mail access to authorize the license.
After installation, the new for 2010 License Transfer Utility does require:
Internet access
A valid registered and authorized serial number.
The system that exported the license can retrieve it.
A new system that knows the serial number can retrieve it.
The file Riched20.dll cannot go through the "BlackIce" firewall onto a system. The result:
An AutoCAD/MDT deployment image cannot be built on a server running BlackIce.
An AutoCAD/MDT deployment image cannot be installed on a workstation running BlackIce.
Workaround: Either disable BlackIce for these operations or configure it to let this file pass.
Support at BlackIce has confirmed that this is intentional.
The Inventor installers in the Autodesk Inventor® Series and Autodesk Inventor® Professional packages are not Microsoft Logo Compliment. Inventor can not be installed by Advertisement. This is a side effect of the technology that lets multiple versions of Inventor run on the same workstation.
An out-of-date version of Internet Explorer will have problems running our IE6 based Help system.
Some older versions of PDF Complete breaks Inventor. This is a PDF MS Office addin. When it is loaded into Office, Excel starts normally when run by hand. However, Excel will not open when requested by Inventor. This has been reported to Adobe. Workaround: Remove the addin from Excel or uninstall PDF Complete.
Avast Anti-virus 2008 will claim that they have found a "Win32:Vapsup" virus in the Vault software shipped with Inventor 2010. We have confirmed with Avast, that this is a false positive.
Special Installation Situations
Preparing for Deployments or installing from .msi files. This process is simplified if all systems have the prerequisite software pre-installed. This also reduces the potential of a deployment failing due to the needs of a reboot partway through the installation. The prerequisite list shows the dependencies that the main products have and the order in which they should be installed.
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Hot Fixes:
Hot fixes come out to address specific problems. The descriptions with each hot fix describe exactly how to use it.
Please note that hot fixes must not be blindly installed. They have had less testing than a Service Pack and may not be compatible with other hot fixes.
When installing a service pack is not advisable to pre-install all of the Hot Fixes. All hot fixes, except those that may conflict with each other or have a better solution in the service pack are normally wrapped up into the service pack.
Any that are left out of the service pack, are left out of the service pack for a reason.
Inventor:
Starting with AIS/AIP 11, Autodesk Inventor service packs are distributed as ".msp" files. They can be used directly by the Network Installation wizard. They can also be uninstalled.
Service Pack un-installation methods.
Login as local Administrator (UAC off on Vista) then Use "Add or Remove Programs". Be sure to check the checkbox at the top of the window "Show Updates".
The AIP Modules are now included with Inventor when a deployment image is created with the Network Installation Wizard.
The content Center libraries can not be distributed with a deployment image
Inventor service packs are historical. They must be applied in sequence.
For example, SP2 must be applied on top of the released product + SP1.
MDT and AutoCAD:
The service packs for these products continue to be distributed as ".exe" files. To convert them to .msp files:
Copy the service pack to x:\Temp. Where "x" is the drive you have selected to use.
Do not type the quotes in the following. However, any path name that contains spaces will require quotes.
From the start menu, select Run and type "cmd"
Type "x:"
Type "cd \"
Type "cd \temp"
Type: "<Product_name>.exe /e <Product_name>.msp". This will place the msp version of the patch in your x:\temp folder.
Rule: File names with spaces must be enclosed with double quotes.
Each AutoCAD based Service pack is complete by itself. They are cumulative and may be applied directly to the original release, or the original release plus updates, such as a previous service pack.
For example, SP2 may be applied to either the released product or the released product + SP1
Deployment images
Deployment images are patched in the same manner as the released products. See the description above.
System Requirements Before Installation
As a practical matter, all critical updates from Microsoft (including office products) should be installed before contacting Autodesk for support.
Updating workstations to current Microsoft levels will usually avoid installation problems and increase security.
If you and the Autodesk support person both have workstations at the same level of windows updates, it removes the state of your system from the discussion.
Please refer to http://www.autodesk.com/inventor-graphic-cards (this site) for the latest information about graphic cards and drivers. It is strongly advised to update the graphics database each time the driver is updated.
An Internet connection is required for internet downloads and Subscription Aware access.
Microsoft Excel XP or later is required for iParts, iFeatures, thread customization, and spread sheet driven designs.
Office 2007 has had the most testing.
NetMeeting is no longer supported. (it causes Inventor to switch to software emulation, and only supports 16 colors.)
Installs/Uninstalls:
These may have an error, because a reboot has been suppressed in our script. Workaround:
Reboot and try again.
Microsoft recommends that the size of the virtual memory swap file should be set to twice the size of the physical memory in the system.
If your are using the 3GB option on Windows XP, SP2+ Pro, the size of the swap file should be set to 4GB.
Check the FAQ section at this site for general information on using the 3GB option
Always remember that in this mode the OS has very limited functionality
OpenGL graphics is recommended as DirectX has troubles in this mode on XP-32, especially with 1 or 2 high resolution monitors.
XP-64, Vista-32 (3GB mode) and Vista-64 do not have any issues. Any of these options are recommended over XP-32 in the 3GB mode.
Microsoft suggests running no more than 2 applications at the same time due to limited Operating system table space.
The Graphics driver also uses the very limited operating system address space. When this is used up, you may get messages about lack of DirectX resources. Inventor will then switch to software emulation.
Workaround: Open no more than 2 graphics windows at a time.
When possible, close and re-start Inventor. This releases any leaked resources for both Inventor and the operating system.
The very best solution: Don't fight, switch to Vista 64, SP1. Inventor and ACM both run in native 64-bit mode, greatly increasing capacity beyond anything that can be done on a 32-bit operating system. Vista 64, SP1has many fixes, including greatly improved memory management, that are not even in XP-64. Vista-64 also supports DirectX10 (requires a card that supports DX10), which has additional functionality and completes Microsoft's vision for DirectX. (DirectX 9 is available as a fall back position for Vista 32 and 64.)
After installation, a workspace of 1GB minimum is required for the Undo file and other Autodesk Inventor® temporary files.
The default location is defined by your TEMP environment variable.
You can change this location by running Autodesk Inventor® and changing the location of the Undo file.
Inventor constantly puts files in your temp directory. Please delete them from time to time.
When removing Autodesk Inventor® or Mechanical Desktop (AKA AutoCad or Mechanical), if you have just recently run the application, you may get a message that the remove function cannot be performed because cdilla10.exe (or cdilla64.exe) is still running.
Logout then Login and uninstall the product.
Performance:
Disk drive technology and the amount of physical memory has a significant impact on performance.
Disk fragmentation has a major impact
Maximize parallel disk I/O. For example, put the Windows Swap file on a different physical drive than the Inventor data.
Memory that is not used by Inventor can be used by windows for disk drive I/O caching.
A minimum of 1GB of memory is required in all cases
More memory is much better.
Graphics Requirements Before Installation
Graphics card and driver information can be found at: http://www.autodesk.com/us/inventor/graphic_cards/. Please check your driver.
If it is rated RED in both OpenGL and DirectX, please find a different driver or card.
If a different driver is not available, select Direct3D and Software Emulation
If it is rated Yellow in one mode and Green in the other use the Green mode.
If it is a workstation card and not rated Green in any mode, we are working with the vendor to improve the rating.
Pease read the comments about the whole card family and the individual driver.
Direct X 10 or higher functionality requires support of the operating system and the hardware on the card.
DirectX 9 also has requirements of the graphics card. It should run on any card or chipset made after 2007. However, this does not guarantee satisfactory performance or quality of display.
DirectX is designed to keep running even if the card it's self does not allow much hardware acceleration.
On the motherboard graphics chipsets often share main memory:
- This takes memory away from Inventor. I suggest maximizing the physical memory in this case.
- It is unlikely that you will be satisfied with an onboard chipset that uses main memory, as this will slow graphics performance.
- Only Workstation class cards (sold by the vendor for use with CAD applications) are supported for OpenGL. They will likely need to be certified by us if used in this mode. Please send email to the webmaster link at the bottom of the page.
Supported for Inventor 2010:
Operating System Graphics Modes Supported XP 32 Software Emulation, OpenGL (requires Workstation Class card), DirectX 9 XP 64 Software Emulation, DirectX 9 Vista 32 Software Emulation, DirectX 9, 10 (DX 10 requires graphics card support) Vista 64 Software Emulation, DirectX 9, 10 (DX 10 requires graphics card support) Laptops with ATI graphics: If "Enable POWERPLAY(tm)" is checked, graphics hardware acceleration is lost and the display is degraded to 16-bit color when running on battery power. Inventor then reverts to software emulation to run the graphics. The laptop must be connected to power and re-booted to resume normal operation.
Modern workstation graphics cards require 32-bit color (true color) to enable hardware acceleration. The performance of Autodesk Inventor® depends on the graphics card hardware acceleration. For additional information about hardware issues and tips, explore this site.
Installation Issues?
Hijackers: Some search tools like NTsearch.com and coolwebsearch are in reality Hijackers that take over parts of your system. NTsearch prevents any MSI installer, like the ones from Autodesk, from running.
If you don't have enough space on the OS drive:
.
.
Peripherals
IOmega: Do not eject the zip drive while Autodesk Inventor is running.
If your Logitech mouse is slow when Autodesk Inventor® has the focus, check your mouse setup in the control panel. If you have a check box labeled: "Disable acceleration in games," clear the check mark. The driver is treating all OpenGL applications as games.
General information for using Inventor
As part of our Continuous Improvement process, Inventor contains a Customer Error Reporting (CER) system. When Inventor has an abnormal termination, you will be prompted to send a mini dump to Autodesk. To do this, you must have an internet connection. Please include an email address to enable the Rapid Response Team at Autodesk to contact you if they need more information.
Autodesk Inventor® (Series and Professional) stores the prior versions of a document as separate files in a folder called "OldVersions" located in the same directory as the current document.
The resolution of images inserted into sketches depends on the display resolution. If the display is set to 16 bits, a full color image can degrade significantly. For best results, use 32-bit resolution.
Temporary files may remain on your system after a process is terminated. Monitor your default windows working directory (%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp AKA %temp%) and clean it out as needed.
