Odd Inventor problem

[teamtestbot]

I installed Inventor yesterday, and after firing it up for the first time, was hit with several of these error messages in a box.

[ERROR] Invalid XML value for 'Shininess'. Expected 'float' received '59' in
file:///C:/pie/Autodesk/Inventor%2010/Design%20Data/Colors.xml. <UTxRes(361)> [.\UTxXmlElement.cpp, line 1023]

Several meaning effective pages upon pages. Different variable names, expective types, values, line numbers, etc. but all XML errors.

Somehow the program still manages to run normally, but a second problem likely related to the first is that I cannot see the parts I make. The faces are there and become highlighted when I select the, but otherwise the entire part is invisible!

I uninstalled and did a fresh install today thinking that maybe it was a bad install, but the error is still there.

Trying some of the service packs and hotfixes on Autodesk's website didn't help either.

[Rod]

Originally Posted by teamtestbot

I installed Inventor yesterday, and after firing it up for the first time, was hit with several of these error messages in a box.

[ERROR] Invalid XML value for 'Shininess'. Expected 'float' received '59' in
file:///C:/pie/Autodesk/Inventor%2010/Design%20Data/Colors.xml. <UTxRes(361)> [.UTxXmlElement.cpp, line 1023]

Several meaning effective pages upon pages. Different variable names, expective types, values, line numbers, etc. but all XML errors.

Somehow the program still manages to run normally, but a second problem likely related to the first is that I cannot see the parts I make. The faces are there and become highlighted when I select the, but otherwise the entire part is invisible!

I uninstalled and did a fresh install today thinking that maybe it was a bad install, but the error is still there.

Trying some of the service packs and hotfixes on Autodesk's website didn't help either.

I would call AutoDesk. Inventor 10 is new to everyone here. Please post anything you find out.

[petek]

It sounds like the styles files didn't get installed properly. Most likely you'll need some guidance from Autodesk to figure out what went wrong, but if you want to try doing some troubleshooting, try this:

Start up Inventor, create a new part model, exit the sketch environment and go to Format menu and Purge Styles... It should give you a dialog with a long list of styles (though you may not see them if they didn't install) and click Yes to All and OK. Click Yes to the Delete Local Styles? dialog (if it comes up).

If all that works, save the file, exit Inventor and then try opening that file. Be sure to open the file from Windows, rather than opening Inventor and then opening the file from Inventor's Open file screen.

Note whether it opens ok or if you still get the error messages.

Next, with that file open, go to the Format:Styles Editor. Under Color you should have Default, Lighting should show Two Lights and Material should show Default. If so, try creating a new color and material, save the style and try drawing something and see if it shows up when you give it your style properties.

Then try saving the file, exiting Inventor and then reopening the file to see if you still get error messages. If it does work ok with the new styles, you would at least be able to do some stuff until you get Autodesk's styles installed properly.

[teamtestbot]

Hmm, nothing even shows up in the purge list.

A call to Autodesk is in order...

[petek]

Originally Posted by teamtestbot

Hmm, nothing even shows up in the purge list.

A call to Autodesk is in order...

Well that shows that the styles didn't get installed at all. Did you try creating a new color and material style? And if so, did it help at all?

[teamtestbot]

Yep, I made my own color and material styles and tried using them. Nothing shows up even on wireframe mode. I can mouse over/click things and they will be outlined and highligted, but once I click out, the screen is blank again.


Are we allowed to submit invisible works for the Animation award?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Autodesk is moving to XML files instead of the old acad text files for menus and customization. When you get the XML error message, either the file is calling for something that isn't installed or your previous version (do you have one on this computer?) included something that is no longer supported with Inventor 10. You may have inadvertantly chosen the missing surface type and that is why the parts don't display. They are probably there but the visibilty is 100% transparent. Try setting to a different surface, shading, or shininess and see if you get your parts back.

[teamtestbot]

That was definitely helpful. Looking at the style lists, all the settings are all at zero, black, or blank, including opaqueness. If I set opaque to 100%, I get a solid model of whatever I make, but non textured or colored(black). Is there a way to get the default styles back?

I don't have any previous versions of Autodesk products installed. I do, however, have Solidworks 2005, but would that affect it?

[petek]

Originally Posted by teamtestbot

That was definitely helpful. Looking at the style lists, all the settings are all at zero, black, or blank, including opaqueness. If I set opaque to 100%, I get a solid model of whatever I make, but non textured or colored(black). Is there a way to get the default styles back?

I don't have any previous versions of Autodesk products installed. I do, however, have Solidworks 2005, but would that affect it?

I suppose if you were doing a network install or specified an alternate installation path from the default, it's possible that the style files got installed, but Inventor can't find it... FYI, the default install path would be:
[drive]\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 10

I haven't found a default style file in the Inventor install (it would have a .styxml extension) which makes me wonder if the defaults are just embedded in the templates. If so, maybe just copying good default template files to the \Inventor 10\Templates directory would do the trick... I'm attaching the Standard.ipt (zipped) which you could try. Copy it to the Templates directory, start Inventor and create a new Standard (.ipt) file and see if it has the default styles associated. If so, I can send you the rest of the template files (email me).

BTW, in working on your problem I discovered there are a couple of style management tools in \Inventor 10\Bin that I didn't know about:
Style Library Manager, and
Style Management Wizard
I'm not sure if they would help with your problem, but they take care of one of my gripes with Inventor styles: it's a pain to manage styles (which bloat file sizes) on a file by file basis.

[teamtestbot]

It seems the default styles are just inside the XML files themselves. There's one under color, material, etc.

The problem seems to be that somewhere between the file and Inventor the numbers are lost or garbled. I'm guessing that is why it gives me "invalid value" errors, and all the fields inside the style editor are zeroed.

[teamtestbot]

Interesting events...

The problem's fixed itself. I'm not sure what happened between the time of my last post and now, but everything now appears and operates just fine.

It also doesn't crash and bluescreen the machine anymore. Before, if I exited without saving using the close button at the top right, the computer would crash.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by teamtestbot

Before, if I exited without saving using the close button at the top right, the computer would crash.

Interesting. I've had Inventor 5 give an error if anytime I closed without saving on a Windows 98 computer. Maybe I'll try saving first (or closing from the file menu) and see if that makes any difference. Thanks.