Known Issues with the Inventor viewer

Controlling Inventor Viewer

Starting with version Meridian Enterprise 2003a, it is possible to view Inventor drawings, assemblies and parts using the Inventor Viewer control. This control is a standard part of Inventor release 6 and later. To install this viewr stand-alone, download and install Autodesk Inventor Design Tracking from the Autodesk Web site.

To control the display in the viewer, the following controls are available:

• Pan – Press and hold the mouse wheel
• Zoom – Turn the mouse wheel
• Rotate – Press and hold the left mouse button

Viewing assemblies

When viewing assemblies, Inventor Viewer is only capable of locating parts and subassemblies if they are at the same location they were when the assembly was last saved. After importing an assembly with the Assembly Import Tool, these new locations typically do not match the original locations and the assembly will display empty. To resolve this, open the assembly in Inventor and save it once.

Starting with Meridian Enterprise 2004d, if Inventor 9 or Inventor 9 Design Tracking is installed, assemblies are displayed correctly if Local Workspace is enabled.

Viewer does not display the current state

Under certain conditions, such as the viewer opened the part or assembly before the last save, it is possible that the Inventor viewer does not display the current state. This is caused by the Inventor Viewer control not releasing the file. To work around this issue, close the PowerUser and reopen it.

Viewer instability

Viewing Inventor files in the PowerUser with the Inventor 10 viewer may cause instability and eventually crash the PowerUser. BlueCielo is working with Autodesk to resolve this issue. Until then, there are a number of workarounds:

1. Use the ICViewPlugin viewer instead of the Inventor Viewer. This will show the last version of the thumbnail instead of the actual assembly or part.
2. Browse the vault with the viewer pane disabled and use the viewer full-screen only when necessary.
3. Configure the PowerUser to manually refresh the viewer using the Refresh button.

Viewer does not work from within Inventor

The Inventor viewer does not work from within the Inventor file dialogs (Application Integration).