INVENTOR AUTODESK 2009

[Peter Wikstrom]

is it possible to open a inventor 2009 file in mastercam x2

[Guest]

I do not believe so at this time. I think 2008 would be the latest.

[Mike@Dive Lab Inc.]

Actually I just opened up some INV 2009 files in X2 last night and worked fine. No issues for me

[Michael Sullivan]

I haven't been able to open any yet either. As far as I know there is no translator yet. We work with surface models in Mastercam so we just export .sat files from Inventor.......works great for a temp fix.

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

No, we do not officially support import of Inventor 2009 files yet. If you have Inventor 2009 installed, you might be in luck, but if not, we rely on software from Autodesk (InventorView) to access them, and they have not released the 2009 version of InventorView yet.

[malibu]

mine works ! just installed inventor 2009 and mastercam direct was on my menu bar. was I lucky?

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

"...was I lucky?..."

 

No - that should work out OK. Mastercam Direct should be OK.

 

The issue is whether you can save an IPT from Inventor 2009 and then open it in Mastercam via File/Open.

 

I think it'll work for you. It's the people who don't have Inventor installed and receive 2009 IPTs and IAMs that will be out of luck for a while.

[Michael Sullivan]

I have Inventor but I don't use direct Inventor because of the multi-MastercamX button bug.

Also, I don't really see any advantage to having Direct Inventor installed when the right translator is available. Mastercam could read the .ipt and .iam files directly with no issues.

 

I guess my question is....

Why can the files be translated with direct Inventor but not without it? Can't it use the same translator?

If direct Inventor works wouldn't it be reasonable to think Mastercam can translate the files?

 

 

Next question. Has the bug I stated above been addressed for Inventor 2009?

 

[ 04-25-2008, 09:03 AM: Message edited by: Michael.su ]

[Trevor Bailey]

do any of you inventor users also use the 3d civil engineering package?

[Michael Sullivan]

quote:

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do any of you inventor users also use the 3d civil engineering package?

---

not us. We only use Inventor and sometimes AutoCAD for Mechanical design/drawings packages etc. (AutoCAD only when forced ).

The electrical engineers here use P-Cad and other "black magic" tools.

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

To answer Michael Sullivan's questions...

 

Mastercam Direct for Inventor will properly pass Inventor 2009 files to Mastercam because customer using it obviously has Inventor installed - and that's good enough.

 

The problem is limited to customers who do not have Inventor installed. This is not a limitation that we have chosen, but it has to do with the way Autodesk provides us with the ability to open up Inventor files. There is no easy way, short of reverse engineering, to access the data inside an Inventor part file without a) Inventor or Inventor View installed.

 

But you are right in that there is no real advantage to using MCDirect for Inventor when you compare it to opening the IPT file with Mastercam's File/Open. Unlike the MCDirect for SolidWorks, the Inventor version does not attempt to bring the Feature Tree across. Maybe when I've got a slow couple months we could try that again (we tried a couple years ago and shortcomings in the Inventor addin API prevented us from getting very far with it).

 

Lastly, there is a fix for the PITA multiple Mastercam buttons in Inventor problem. If you want it I can email it. It is corrected in X3, but you can get it before then if you ask.

[Michael Sullivan]

Thanks for your detailed response Pete.

 

The first thing I have to say is AUTODESK!

 

The problem I have is a co-worker does not have Inventor therefore he is unable to work with our Inventor 2009 models for the time being we are going to bring back to the good ol' days and start exporting SAT files from Inventor again.

 

At the current time we do not have the solids module on our seats of Mastercam. Since we have a few seats of Inventor already for our modeling and drawings we see no reason to have another solid modeler. We currently work with surface models on that end of things.

 

That being said, If direct Inventor was improved to the point where models could be translated into Mastercam with a usable feature tree, I would definitely consider making a case for the upgrade.

 

At this point , I think I will wait for X3 to try the Direct Inventor again. We will get by with the .sat files at least until the Inventor view 2009 comes out.

Thanks for offering the fix though Pete.

 

 

-Mike

[ToolMan184]

Mike,

You can get the other user Inventor LT 2009 and not have to change anything. Its free to use for a year. Only limited to single parts, you cant open any assemblies, but may be good for your case instead of saving to something else.

[Michael Sullivan]

Thanks Toolman, I'll take a look.