This only works for g/cm^3 though. It seems quite odd that you cannot do value substition on this in the Parts List or at least get lbs/in^3 to even show in the iProperties when you can input that way in the Materials Editor. Why have some settings for US Customary units and then force the use of g/cm^3 only?

Are you using a dual screen setup? If so, try to adjust your windows settings to be only one screen and see if it shows up.

I see no reason why not. It may just involve some extra coding. I know there are some limitations with iLogic and iParts without accessing the API for them.

I believe the SDK tool uses a best fit type of option for this.

Here is a link to an old post which describes it. http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/2010/11/inventomizations-slice-graphics-pattern.html It will also be in an upcoming AUGI World magazine with some other customizations to Inventor.

Give the new 2013 SDK kit a try it seems to have worked fine for me. The one in this post seemed to have to be used in earlier versions Inventor. As a disclaimer, make sure you have admin rights as well as the UAC and antivirus turned off before you try the new installer in the SDK folder.

For each of these products you absolutely can. For Force Effect you would use your free Autodesk cloud account.

I can get it to be the same color as the Part Color so there is no "concrete" look to it, would that suffice as transparent?

I have not found a way to change the background to a picture. When you say layout, do you mean like a plant layout or overlay? If so then you can do this pretty easily with the Factory Design Suite package of Inventor.

Actually the system is pretty forgiving and does a good job if you do a fair amount of pinch zooming to get it just right. There are also stylus' that can assist with this as well. Truly the more effective system for Sketchbook is using the Desktop application that comes in the Design Suites. With that you can use a Wacom tablet for even better control and more design options.

You shouldn't have to change the ini file to create the drawings and the part, when you perform the translation on the Mechanical Desktop file that has the drawing it it, it will automatically create the part as long as your X-References are valid. But once you get a configuration you want you can save it from the import wizard.

Our Automated tool is available currently as a purchased service, not as a separate software purchase. We have custom Excel macros and proprietary coding we have done to accomplish a complete batch translation. For more information, you can contact your sales rep and reference this post.

No, unfortunately not, you will have to continue to use the sheet metal cladding techniques of skeletal modeling and manual derives for your sheet metal parts to update based on a single model. Conversely you can model a multibody part, make the components and then convert it to sheet metal.

No, there is no functionality for this other than writing iLogic code to do it.

You have some valid points as mentioned, although you have successfully hijacked a post about PLM. Maybe you can add some context where CAM fits into PLM and what this means for a CAM user? How about the fact that this can save companies millions of dollars in implementation and start up of PLM where other attempts have failed before.

I think CAM is on the Autodesk radar, but for most larger companies, for every 50 seats of Inventor there may be 3 seats of CAM software. If you look at smaller companies, that ratio will be a lot smaller. I think they will get there eventually, but this current statement is rather large in comparison to adding CAM to the portfolio. I think built in PDM is the first step though. Let's get that in there!

This is actually a much easier way than Design Assistant or adding any rows to the Windows Exlorer: http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/2008/11/which-version-is-it-part-2-inventor.html

No 3D models can exist in the DWG before bringing in the Inventor model. You do not use the Import command for this either, you only have to start the Base View command.

Only your 3 licenses have access to Tube and Pipe functions. The Premium seats do not have Tube and Pipe functionality, but they can still open designs with Tube and Pipe Runs, they just can't do anything with them. If you are on network licensing you will only pull the required license when it is needed. So in your FlexLM everyone will get Premium first and then Ultimate will be pulled when an AIP command is issued. That user will keep the Ultimate license until he has exited Inventor and then restarted it. If you are on Standalone then you will have to cherry pick your installs.

Nothing was changed in this regard in Vault 2011. Are you using Custom iPart configurations? Are they not published to Content Center?

I am using a HP Elitebook 8540w with 6 GB RAM, 1 GB Nvidia Quadro, Win7x64, with a Core i5 processor.

I am still able to perform the standard array with the -AR in the command line.

Usually this is a red flag as most users use PDF to protect their drawings and to prevent improper reuse. This has led the majority of AutoCAD users to understand this dilema. You can always bring in PDFs as X-Refs for reference though without incringing on someone else intellectual property. If you must though, there are plenty of 3rd party addins to do this, but I doubt there will be mainstream appeal to circumvent a current method of protection of data.

I have a client that makes windmill blades just fine in Inventor and they are quite impressive. Honestly most high complexity surfaces (G3) are better done in Alias rather than Inventor or Solidworks. It's all about using the right tool for the job. It's also a nice benefit to get a free add-in for Inventor with Alias Design as well.

Some additional information and videos... http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/2011/02/autodesk-tinkerbox-providing-edu-tainment-for-our-young-minds.html