Tricks of the Trade, a Tip on Orbiting in Inventor

“One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop.” G. Weilacher

With only about an hour before 'All Hallows Eve', here's one little trick that Rick Renda of KETIV shared today. Consider it an early 'Trick that's also a Treat'.

If you want to perform an orbit function in Inventor, there's always the icon for it, which most of us all know.

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What isn't as well known, is that the 'F4' key can also perform the orbit function as well. But even then, this is fairly well known.

The trick that Rick shared, was that you can hold down your 'Shift' key while holding down the middle mouse button, and also access the orbit function!

We'll I'll be darned! I never knew that one!

Thanks Rick!

And Happy Halloween!

It's just a flesh wound!
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Autodesk Subscription Advantage Packs Available

“Start where you are. Distant fields always look greener, but opportunity lies right where you are. Take advantage of every opportunity of service.”

Robert Collier (American motivational author, 1885-1950)

First the 'disclaimer'. The info I'm going to talk about this time is for those on Autodesk Subscription only. Apologies to the guys who aren't on subscription. I'll owe you a post!

So that's it for disclaimer, on to the info.

Like the title implies, the Autodesk Subscription Packs are out on the subscription site HERE.

You'll need your subscription login. If you don't have it, your local friendly neighborhood reseller should be able to help you out.

So what do they bring to the table for the Inventor user? It depends on the product, but for Inventor, here's what you get.

* DWG Block Browser—Browse for your AutoCAD Blocks and put them into Inventor files!

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* Chain Dimensioning— Tools to make creating chain style dimensions easier

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* Multi-View Create—Create multiple views simultaneously. (this is my personal favorite!)

* Architectural View Scale— Architectural scales are now available in fabrication templates

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They've also added the following tools into Simulation. I'll confess that I haven't had a chance to even touch these yet, but I'm hoping to take a look soon!

* Materials Assignment for Simulation—Multi-select materials in simulation. It makes it easier to change them (you use to have to do it one at a time)

* Editable Simulation Reports—Output simulation results to a single file for editing. Just makes this a little easier.

Autodesk Manufacturing Academy. That's a Wrap!

“The riders in a race do not stop when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voices of friends and say to oneself, 'The work is done.'”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr

This time last week, we held Autodesk Manufacturing Academy. It was challenging, exciting, and yes, at times quite frustrating as I wondered if I'd be ready in time.

Ultimately, things fell into place, and it was a great event.

For myself, it's always great seeing all the Autodesk users that I've spoken to over the phone and e-mail, and seen how they've approached the challenges that they've faced over the course of the years.

It's also rewarding to know that I may have helped in my own, albeit small, part.

And even though I'm there to 'help them use their software more efficiently', I always learn something from them too. It's a two way street that I'm always grateful for.

So once again, I was thrilled to do it, I have a brain full of new thoughts, ideas, and concepts that I can use for next year!

And for all those who attended, thanks!

Checking in
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My 'kit' as we kick off
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The Welcome Speech
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Lunch, a must have at any engineering event.
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What is this 'sleep' you speak of?

“Sleep is like the unicorn - it is rumored to exist, but I doubt I will see any”

Sleep Quotes

So with Autodesk Manufacturing Academy (AMA) on the horizon, I can say that I haven't had hardly any time to breath, let alone blog, but I did want to give a mention that I do have some blogs and videos in mind.

In the time between blogs, I've learned a bunch of cool stuff with Camtasia, not to mention dabbling in Autodesk Revit, and immersing myself in Inventor during all my waking hours!

I'm learning a ton of great stuff, but it's definitely put a crimp on my 'playing with the software for fun' time.

But I'm getting excited about AMA, getting to see some of the people I've spoken to over the phone, and maybe 'geek' out a little with some of the CAD tinkerers.

So stay tuned, once AMA passes, I'll post some pictures, and get back to blogging some tech tips on some of the cool things I know I'm going to learn!

A Case for Assembly Level Features.

“Greatness is a by-product of usefulness”

Greatness quotes

Before going into the 'gory details' of the subject, what is an assembly level feature?

An assembly level feature is a cut that's made into components at the assembly level, after they've been put together. At the part level, no cut appears. The cut only appears at the assembly, and only at that level.

A question I'm sometimes asked, is 'why would I want to place a cut only in the assembly, and not down at the part level?'

The cheeky answer is you may not. It's a tool, that much like a pair of safety wire pliers, may not be useful to anyone but those who truly need it.

Safety Wire Pliers
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However, here's the example that taught me the place where an assembly level feature can be very useful.

I was building a night stand for a woodshop class I was taking, and naturally, since I had access to Inventor, I used it. But part of the design encountered a challenge, although not a difficult problem to overcome.

The side of the table was 24 inches wide, and about 30 inches tall. Now if you're using lumber (not plywood), it's nearly impossible to find a board that size, and of you can find it, it's going to be expensive.

A more realistic solution is to use a 'glue up' take smaller boards, and glue them up to create the board you need.

Boards to be 'Glued up'
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But there are slots that need to be cut in the side that will hold the rails for the drawers, floor, top, etc.

These slots will all run through three of the four boards. This is where we run into the beginnings of our challenge.

1) The boards are the same, with the exception of the slots, they would come out of sizing (jointer and planer) the exact same shape.

2) Why wouldn't I cut these slots separately and try to join them later? It's nearly impossible to get them to line up, and even if I could, it would take so much work, it wouldn't be worth it.

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So the result is to cut the feature after the boards have been glued up, using a simple jig to guide to tool. But how to I represent it correctly in Inventor?

I could 'fake it' (and in the old days we did), by cutting the features at the part level, but one of the parts has a blind slot. That would mean creating two distinct parts (three with the through slot, and one with the blind slot).

That translates into an inaccurate Bill of Materials, since the parts have the slots cut after their assembled. In effect, the blanks are the same.

So that's where the assembly level features can make a lot of sense. You can cut the slots at the assembly level, where they should be, and still have a nice, accurate bill of materials that reflect the materials you need to buy and prepare.

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So you may never need them, like that pair of safety wire pliers. But just because a given user doesn't find a tool useful, it doesn't mean it doesn't have a purpose If you do need them, they can be a critical tool that is indispensable it its usefulness. Just like the mechanic that needs those pliers.

And if you're wondering what those pliers are used for? It's used to twist wire through bolts and prevent them from vibrating and falling out in racing and aviation applications. It also ensures that the bolt has been checked for proper torque (the bolt should be checked before it's wired).

So even though we don't personally use it, the mechanics fixing the commercial aireliner we may fly on are!

An example of safety wire on an older airplane.
But it's still used today.
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Happy inventing!

Are Your Ports Under Blockade? Firewalls and Autodesk Network Licensing.

“The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards.” – Gene Spafford

For some reason, tech issues seem to swarm. It's like they happen in threes.

Here's one that for some reason, came in one of those little swarms. So I took it as an opportunity to go ahead and blog it.

Firewalls and network licensing and how they work (or specifically don't work) together.

For those of us who aren't sure what network licensing is, it's how software (including, but not exclusive to, Autodesk software) can manage distribution of licenses when multiple users need to share a license pool.

In short, your licenses are maintained on a server, while your software is installed on a client machine. When you start the software, your client sends out a ping to the server. If a license is available, the server issues a license. If not, you'll get a message telling you that a license isn't available.

For example, lets say you have a license pool of five licenses, but you have ten users that need to share the pool (they're only part time users).

If you request a license and one of the licenses is avaiable. You get a license and are on your merry way.

But if you get to work late, and the five license have been used by the five users who beat you to work, you'll get a message indicating no more licenses are available.

You can think of it like checking out a book from the library. If the book is there, you can have it. If not, sorry, have a nice day.

But, what if the only road to the library has be closed because of 'police activity'. You can't get to the library and get your book. It doesn't matter if there's dozens of books on the shelf.

That's what a Firewall can do to the Autodesk Network Licensing Manager (or FlexLM). By no fault of the license manager, it fails to acquire a license.

It can be frustrating for the users and administrators involved. You check your license manger, it's running beautifully. You check the client, everything seems fine. Try to start the software, and 'poof'! An error message. Maybe, just to really confuse things, maybe some of the clients are getting a license, while others are not.

Sometimes, it's as simple as the firewall. For Autodesk software, ports 2080, and ports 27000-27009 have to be open. If not, your hosed (this is the official I.T. term for it).

The licensing daemons (the utilities that pass license packets back and forth) need these ports open to pass their packets. If not, it's like closing the bridge to the library.

By default, Windows Firewall will block these ports (this is the only Firewall I'm personally familiar with, but I'm sure others do as well).

So we know the ports are blocked. How do we open them?

It will vary depending on your version of Windows and your firewall, but this should get most users in the ballpark.

Go to your Windows Control Panel, and choose Windows Firewall.

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Depending on your version of Windows, the screens may look different. The screen shown here is for Vista. Of course the simplest solution is to just turn the firewall off entirely. Many companies do just this. They have other firewalls between them and the 'rest of the world', and don't need a firewall between clients.

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I'm going to assume that for some reason, we can't, or won't turn off the firewall. So now, we have to open up the individual ports that the license manager needs.

So to do this, we choose the 'Exceptions' tab, then choose 'Add Port'.

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A new screen will appear and ask you to name the port, and enter which port you want to open.

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Give the port a meaningful name (so you know what program the exception affects). The capture above is shown for 2080. The steps will have to be repeated for 27000 through 27009 (that means 27001, 27002, up to 27009).

Once you have that done, you shoud be able to start accessing license (assuming there's no other issues with the licensing environment). Bear in mind, that this may have to be done in multiple places (routers, servers, etc). Anything blocking this ports will prevent the license packets from getting through.

So if you have that 'phantom issue', and run into that case where all the systems can pull a file except for 'that one guy'. There's a good chance this could be the culprit.

When in doubt, check it. If those ports aren't open, everything else is for naught.

Good luck!

For additional information on network licensing, check out KETIV's tech tips here!

Importing AutoCAD into Inventor with a Little Style

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things
Jean Cocteau

Autodesk Manufacturing Academy is starting to loom now, and I've been busy trying to get my info put together. It's a little stressful, but it does help sharpen the skills.

Recently, I was working with some 2D AutoCAD data, and needed to bring it into Inventor.

One of the things I like to do when I'm copying and pasting into Inventor is to copy the data out of AutoCAD and paste it into Inventor using Windows Copy (Ctrl+C) and Windows Paste (Ctrl+V).

But there's one small trick I'd like to share that sometimes gets overlooked. This trick can help make AutoCAD drawings a little easier to paste and extrude once it's in Inventor.

First, I'm going to start with this drawing of a fixture base I want to create a 3D model from.

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Next, I'll select the geometry I want to copy, right click my mouse, and choose 'Copy' (or use Ctrl+C if you're a hotkey sort of user).

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With that done, I can switch to Inventor. Make sure you're in a sketch mode (create a new sketch if you need to), right click and choose 'Paste' (or use Ctrl+V).

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Here's the trick, before left clicking the mouse to paste the AutoCAD drawing into Inventor, right click again. A dialog box pops up, with 'Paste Options' being one of the choices.

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Choosing this, I get to the dialog box I'm really after.

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Here's the big secret. This dialog box lets you change the units of the import, just in case you have a sketch drop in and find the scale is off by a factor of 25.4 (it happens rarely, in my experience, but it does happen). I can also choose whether or not contraints are added or not.

This includes coincident constraints. Coincident constraints are probably the most important of all because they help ensure that the profile closes and extrudes correctly.

Once these options are selected, the sketch will paste, and you can extrude it using Inventor commands.

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Of course, there has to be a disclaimer. The better the data coming in from AutoCAD, the better, the output in Inventor. If there are open entites in AutoCAD, they may not heal once their in Inventor. But the option is there, and it's definitely another tool in the toolbox!

As for me and adventures at Planes of Fame.... I passed my museum guides test! Now they'll let me perform floor duty and ultimately guide tours on my own. It's time consuming, but I have to say I'm having a great time doing it.

My next assignment? The women in avation event on the 3rd. I'm looking forward to it!



Then... Back to studying for the Autodesk Manufactuing Academy!

Windows Vista and User Access Control. You're Not Cleared for that Citizen.

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security

Benjamin Franklin

For some reason, User Account Control in Inventor was the absolute bane of my existence last week. I ran into it no less than three times.

I've only recently migrated to Vista myself, primarily because I was waiting on a couple of utilities to swing over to Vista. So at last, I'm on Vista. For the most part I'm happy, then I hit the U.A.C. wall. More importantly, Murphy's law hit, and I ran into several tech issues with U.A.C.

User Account Control is a utility in Windows Vista. (insert 'Psycho' theme here).

So what is User Account Control? To be honest, I'm not sure, other than the fact that it really annoys me, and can really mess up certain softwares (not just the Autodesk Software).

Generally, it makes sure that as little as possible runs as an Administrator, even if it's in a user account, but it's also overly paranoid, and the price paid for that is nag screens, and software that often misbehaves.

So what have I seen?
1) Inventor content partially disabled
2) Gotomeeting acting up when a user was allowing me to remotely operating a computer. Certain screens would disable the drive function, even if the user granted me permission.
3) Installations treating a perfectly valid CD key as incorrect.

It's tough, it's frustrating, and in a lot of ways, totally random. It seems to affect things it should have no apparent bearing on.

So now that I've ranted on it, how do I turn it off?

First, go to your Vista control panel

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Once in the Control Panel, choose User Accounts

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You'll get a second screen, click on 'User Accounts' again.


Now we've found it. Click on 'Turn User Account Control on or Off'.

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Once you hit this, you've found the mark. Uncheck the User Account Control option, uncheck it, and you're home free!



Once that's done, your Vista experience should be a little bit more pleasant.

In other news, the Sheet Metal and Interoperability Autodesk Manufacturing Academy are starting to come together at last. Time to start finalizing and getting data sets ready!

Lost in BIM Space. My Second Revit User Group Meeting

There's a lot of space out there to get lost in.
John Robinson (William Hurt) Lost in Space (1998)

So today I attended my second South Coast Revit User Group meeting. I almost thought I wasn't going to make it. I misread the e-mail and went to the wrong place first!

But I made it with a few minutes to spare.

It was good to see some familiar faces and old friends, as well as a few I'd spoken to on the phone but never met in person.

The presentation was by Jim Balding, and he presented on some of the challenges and the responsibilities of Project Managers.

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Granted, there was quite a bit that wasn't clear. Being an Inventor guy, some of the lingo is a little foreign.

But alas, the more that we are different, the more alike we become!

Many of the challenges of the architectural project manager are the same for their manufacturing counterparts.

Things like coordinating teams, customers, and government regulatory agencies keep them awake at night. They have to define what format files are to be delivered in, make sure the correct information flows correctly. In short, they're the air traffic controllers that keep everything moving, and preventing collisions that bring the project to a grinding (and expensive) halt.

So how can this one Inventor guy help this world of Building Information Modeling?

By becoming another link in the chain.

The models created in Inventor are now able to be exported to Revit via AEC Exchange, and now the information created by the designers using Inventor can now become a part of the Revit information stream.

Here's the overview video from the lastpost. I'm working on some data for a bit of show and tell.



I'm planning on getting some data together. I'm hoping to have a nice little data set for the Autodesk Manufacturing Academy!

Happy Inventing!
.

Codecs, Codecs Everywhere...and Which One to Use for Showcase?

“I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side” Audre Lorde

A question from a user prompted me to write this post, and while I can't say that I know it all, that doesn't mean I can't share what I know.

Something that I've found is a bit of a mystery in Autodesk Showcase is, which codec to when animating a movie. I can't say I have it all figured out. I can only say that I've learned a few things by trial and error.

First, let's define what a codec is:

It's a small program that compresses and decompresses (that's where codec comes from. COmpressor-DECompressor). Wikipedia has a nice definition HERE

We're all familar with the trial and error method. It goes something like this.

1) Try to create something
2) Fail miserably.
3) Shake your fist and curse your computer.
4) Repeat until you get a desireable result.
5) Repeat step 4 until you figure out how you stumbled onto the desirable result.
6) Promise to take better notes next time.

So which have I used so far?


I've tried most of these at one point or another, of the 'standard' ones, and of the standards, yields the best results.

The downside? The files are HUGE. And when I say huge, I mean really HUGE. I'm talking 50+MB, and it's not that hard to get through the 100MB ceiling.

If you can live with this, it works pretty well.

I've tried Intel UYUC, and although I haven't used that one too much, it seems to work well too.

Screen Shot of a movie using the Intel UYUC Codec. Results are pretty good.
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The one that seems to have given me the poorest results, is Microsoft Video 1. In my experience (which may be subject to user error), it takes really good Showcase videos and produces pretty pixelated videos from them. And when I mean pixelated, I mean Atari 2600 pixelated.

Screen shot of a movie using the Microsoft Video 1 Codec. What can I say. UGLY. I haven't found a setting to improve it.
(click to enlarge at your own risk)

If you don't know what an Atari 2600, think of it as a prehistoric X-box or Playstations. Neanderthals and Prehistoric Humans played them. The Neanderthals lost, and due to the terms of set prior to the games. Neanderthals had to go extinct.

My favorite codec is from Techsmith (the folks who make Snagit and Camtasia). You can download the codec (TSCC.exe) from HERE.

So far, my experience has made the Techsmith codec my favorite.

Screen Capture of a video using the Techsmith codec. My favorite.
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The only (in my opinion) downside of the Techsmith codec? If your sending the files to another person to view, they'll also need the Techsmith codec (so you'll have to send them the file, or link). The file is small, but not everyone is comfortable installing software.

Are there more codecs? Absolutely. More than I know of. I'm still looking for more good ones, but so far, the Techsmith codec has kept me pretty happy.

Still, if you have any suggestions, I'm always happy to hear the input!

Autodesk Manufacturing Academy is back! Check it out HERE

Showcase vs. Showcase Pro. What's the difference?

“There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.” G. K. Chesterton quotes

As I'm sitting here tonight, I'm getting ready for a class tomorrow, just running through some of the data sets, refreshing my mind. I'm also thinking of the differences between Showcase and Showcase Pro. Yes, there is a Showcase and a Showcase Professional.

A raytrace from my practice for the night!
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The differences are listed on a PDF file from the Autodesk Website here.



But, for a quick summary, here's the one's that caught my eye:

1) Import FBX files from other programs (Max, Maya, etc) - FBX files are an animation program that can be exported from other rendering systems. You can import them into Showcase Pro and reuse them in Showcase.-
2) Batch and distributed tesselation. - I confess, I've never come close to using this one myself. Probably for the advance user, but if you're importing a lot of files, this might come in handy.

3) Storyboards - Create a quick way to move from different variations of your components

4) Remote Collaboration - Use your Showcase Pro to collaborate across the web. Could be useful for those design 'jam sessions'.

5) Side by Side Comparision - Show alternative designs side by side for quick comparing and contrasting of different iterations and variations

6) Cluster Support - Support showing images across multiple screens or projectors.

7) External user interface - Customize your own interface with html or flash. Useful for putting a 'company face' on Showcase Pro.

So that's the skinny on the difference between the two. Other than the cost of course.

Which one is right for you? Ultimately, it's the one that meets your needs. For some, Showcase will give you everything you need, for others, they get a little 'foamy in the mouth' when the see some of Showcase Pros abilities. Personally, I like having the Storyboards, and Side by Side comparision.

But at least now, you can take a little longer look and decide which is right for you.

That's it for now!

Jonathan Landeros

Creatures of Habit... Even in Inventor, That's Me.

On the other hand, our old ways were once new, weren't they?

Tevye in Fidler on the Roof

Like most people, I find myself to be a creature of habit. When I go to Starbucks, I get the same drink (which the Baristas will now tease be about). I take the same roads to work, and I like the same places for breakfast.

When using Inventor, I'll sometimes do something the exact same way, even when a new way presents itself.

Take templates for example. If you haven't created them, odds are, you'll need to. Even if you've made them, you sometimes need to add to them.

In the old ways, you created your template, and hit some variation of 'Save' (Save or Save Copy As). Inventor would open up a director defined by your project file.

(You are using projects, right? If not, you should! For info on projects, Dennis Jeffrey has a nice article HERE.)

Now this means you have to browse to the location the templates are located in, and it means the nag screen telling you you're saving outside the project file.

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For what it's worth, this is one of the few cases you can ignore this message. Templates aren't linked to any other files, so this is one of the few cases where ignoring this message is okay.

But the screen is annoying, and many users get nervous seeing this message (which is probably the sign of a prudent user).

While the previous method works fine, there is slightly quicker way to do it.

If you click on the big 'I' and choose Save As. If you hover for a second, you'll see the menu on the right side of the screen show the option 'Save Copy As Template' (among other options).

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This will drop you directly into the template directory, no muss, no fuss, no clicking through a bunch of menus until you find the correct location, and no nag screens.

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Is it huge? Probably not in the sense of tools we use in the daily grind. But it will make dealing with templates just a little easier.

And when somethings a little easier, we're a little less likely to put it off. Which can, over time, be quite a big deal!

That's it for this Labor Day!

Happy Inventing!

Jonathan

CAD The End, or the Means?

“To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”

Oscar Wilde

It's an interview with Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters fame in Popular Mechanics, and he how he views the use of CAD software on projects. (see link HERE)

Now the astute will point out how he used Solidworks on his project, and you might start poking fun at the Inventor guy for how the 'SWX' word was used on my blog.

Poke away, says I. But it's not the name of the software in the upper left hand side of the applications screen that matters. I happen to agree with him wholeheartedly.

I agree that Mr. Hyneman's got a point whether your using products from Dassault (Solidworks, CATIA), Autodesk (Inventor, Showcase, Revit), or Siemens (UG, Solidedge).

The tool is just translating the ideas of the person sitting in the computer. It may help us get there, but it's not going to make us smarter (darn it).

In any case, there's no sense in me reiterating what Jaime said, I hope you enjoy the link!

Happy Inventing, no matter what the app name says!

And finally, a special thanks to 'Help4Engineers' in Twitterverse for posting this interesting link.

Jonathan Landeros
KETIV Technologies.
It's back. AMA 2009!

Tuning Your Ride - Adding an icon to Inventor’s Quick Access Toolbar

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

Robert C. Gallagher

With the onset of the Autodesk Manufacturing Academy (AMA), things have gotten exciting, so I have to confess that the blog has suffered a bit. So much to do, so much to do! Getting ready with Sheet Metal, Interoperability, among so many other things. It's fun, but it's a challenge too.

But even though I'm trying to get some of the metal ducks in a row (which, to carry on with animal analogies, has been more like herding mental cats), I thought about some of the ribbon customizations that can be accomplished in Inventor.

One of the things that I've wanted to adjust is the 'View Face' (formerly known as 'Look At') tool. Even with my Space Pilot Pro, I still use it from time to time. But in R2010, it's a little inconveniently placed, at least in my opinion.

By default, it's on the View tab, with the other viewing tools, which I don't use quite as often, or access by other means.

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Not hard to get to, but not easy either

I'd like to move it somewhere it will always be within easy reach. Fortunately there is a location where you can do just that, called the Quick Access Toolbar.

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One of the nicer properties of the Quick Access Toolbar is that it's always visible, no matter what ribbon your currently using. Add to that, you can place your own icons on it, like…. View Face for example.

How do I do that? It's actually pretty straight forward. If you right click on the icon you want to move (View Face), you can choose 'Add to Quick Access Toolbar', and you're off! That's it.

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Now the Quick Access Toolbar will have a 'View Face' icon available.

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What's the benefit of this? No matter what ribbon you're using, you'll always have the 'View Face' icon available.

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One final note, I'm sometimes asked how I feel about customization. I tend to keep my customizations to a minimum. As a matter of fact, this is the only customization I've made to my Inventor interface, and even then, I was slow in making it.

Why? There're two simple reasons for me.

1. The simple reason, I have to train Inventor, and I can't really have my interface customized to the moon. So I keep it pretty vanilla.
   
2. The more 'practical' reasons. If I have a more vanilla setup, I can walk up to the majority of Inventor stations, fire them up, and start modeling, I don't have to mess around with importing, or recreating the customizations.
   

That's it, no great secret. This one, I'll probably keep. This may be my sole customization for a long time. But with so many things, this is up to the individual.

Happy Inventing!

It's back! Autodesk Manufacturing Academy

Well That's Not Supposed to Happen! Changing Screen Resolutions.

“There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes” Richard Buckminster Fuller (US engineer and architect, 1895-1983 )

This is one for the ages. Like that relative that nobody talks about, but appears for Christmas in years with the number '6' at the end, I've only seen this one come up three times in my entire career. Two I directly saw, the last I ran across on a discussion group.

When you start a program in Windows, all of a sudden your screen resolution drops to 'ugly'. I'm showing this one in Inventor, but it's not limited to Inventor, or even Autodesk at all. You can change the same options on programs like the 3Dconnexion Driver, and some of the Adobe products as well.

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If you shut off your program, it magically goes away. It's quite infuriating (like when that same relative empties your refrigerator). So what would cause it?

If you right click on the short cut that starts the Windows Program (Inventor in this example).

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Choose properties, click the 'Compatibility' tab, and you'll see the following screen.

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You'll usually find that one of the check boxes on this screen are checked, causing the program to drop the resolution when you start it.

Unchecking the box (256 colors) in this example, has fixed the issue every time I've encountered it.

Why does it happen? I haven't a clue. I've only seen the aftermath. It's not even a setting that a user could easily find and check by mistake.

It's kinda like coming home and finding that your relative has crashed your car into the swimming pool, but somehow all the fences around the pool are still intact.

So that fixes what might be one of the strangest 'errors' I've encountered. It seems to me more prone to happening on an XP box (I couldn't force my Vista 64bit box to create the error), but who knows. It's pretty strange.

Definitely one for a game of geek trivia!

And on one final note! Autodesk Manufacturing Academy (AMA) is back! October 15th for us in So. Cal., and October 22nd in No. Cal.!

Check it out! I hope to see everyone there!