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Autodesk have today released Service Pack 1 for Inventor 2010, Autocad Mechanical 2010 and also Autocad Electrical 2010.

Both x32 and x64 versions are available for download.

Inventor 2010 – http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13713884&linkID=9242019

Autocad Mechanical 2010 – http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13842127&linkID=9240898

Autocad Electrical 2010 – http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13777929&linkID=9240738

These will be installed at Nova over the next couple of days. I’ll provide feedback as required.

A recent issue has come to light :

When trying to launch AutoCAD 2010 as a non-admin user or any other new user whose windows profile was created after AutoCad installation you may get the following errors/warnings:

- Unable to load profile file. Some profile information saved in last session may not be restored.
or/and
- Customization file load failed. File not found: acad
or/and
- Font not found: simplex, Specify Font for FONTALT
or/and
- Missing workspace ribbons

As discussed here – http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=6224260

I can confirm the following fix (as provided by Greg.Toews) works.

If the user’s registry profile is corrupt for some reason you can also just delete it and then start AutoCAD. AutoCAD will then create a default profile from scratch. (HKCU\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\Rnn.n\ACAD-nnnn:nnn)

SolidWorks have recently issued a patch (V2009 SP4.1) to fix the major issues encountered by SolidWorks 2009 (especially X64 edition) and Internet Explorer 8 installed on the same workstation.

So far, we’ve found no issues with the service pack and IE8 runs fine.

I’ll provide more feedback as and when if things change.

We have an issue with converting Inventor R2009  *.idw files and saving them into Autocad.dwg.  When doing a print preview in autocad, using monochrome pen settings, some lines and text are not black, but retain the colours used in the *.idw file. This seems particularly evident on text and sketched lines from Inventor.

Has any body has similar experience or knows an answer ?

A useful piece of information that has been bought to our attention – From the CadDigest news website. This appears to be valid for Autocad, Inventor and Revit applications.

There are situations where you would need an Autodesk CAD application in an older version than the version you currently own – just for a specific project (external job, completing an older project, etc.). In these cases you can use the enhanced license conditions you get with the Subscription program.

One of the advantages of the Autodesk Subscription program is the right to use older versions (up to 3 versions older release) of the CAD application you own (e.g. if I own AutoCAD Mechanical 2009, I can also use Mechanical 2006). This applies even when you have never owned that particular older version. If you do not have it, you can download it from your Subscription Center and claim a separate serial number from Autodesk.

Such older versions cannot be used to increase the total number of the licenses you own – you cannot use them concurrently to your current license (e.g. for another user or computer). This right to use older versions is in effect only for the period of validity of your Subscription contract (renewable).

Autodesk have now changed their policy regarding their redline / markup ‘Design Review’ software and made it free of charge to download and install. Click here to jump to the download page.

What is Autodesk Design Review?

Autodesk® Design Review software helps save time and money with easy-to-use tools for team members to review, mark up, and revise designs and 3D models. This free tool is tightly integrated with all Autodesk design software products and enables project teams to move to a two-way design review process and gain timesaving functionality in their markup and approval processes. Specific timesaving functionality includes the following:

* Intuitive measure, markup, and annotation tools
* DWG™ file viewing, plotting, and publishing
* Ability to combine project data such as images and specifications in a single file
* Powerful status tracking to manage engineering change orders
* Round-trip markup integration with Autodesk design software products, so designers can overlay changes and comments on the original CAD file.

As reported here, and experienced last week internally within Nova, there are issues with importing older 3D models from Mechanical Desktop into Inventor.

Link : “Yesterday, one of my collegues had problems importing his old 3D DWG model into Inventor 2009 on his new workstation. He was sure this or similar model went fine before.
The reason of the problem was simple. This DWG file originated in Mechanical Desktop. And for importing MDT models into Inventor you need Mechanical Desktop installed on the same PC. As he did not installed MDT with new Inventor 2009 (it is not a part of the installation), MDT files could not be imported. Simple installation of MDT has fixed the problem.
It is important Autodesk will keep Mechanical Desktop (even when it is no longer developed) available for future Inventor versions.”

The progressive phase out of MDT started with the release of Inventor 2009 as reported here. It will be interesting to see Autodesk’s solution to this as and when V2010 is released.

Autodesk have released Service Pack 1 for the Inventor 2009 series of products.

The above link points to both the X32 (31MB) and X64 (68MB) versions of SP1. Our initial findings internally are that Inventor opens a little quicker and does seem more stable.

We have also received an link via the Autodesk Subscription System to some Productivity Tools only currently available to those on subscription. These are for Part Modelling, Drawing Management and Assembly Design.  Those users on subscription can download the tools now – Unfortunately, those not on subscription will have to wait until the release of Inventor 2010 next year.

NOVA are pleased to announce our latest upgrade to the Autodesk Inventor Suite 2009. This also includes the update to Autocad & Autocad Mechanical 2009.