Does anyone know how to use inventor with grab cad workbench? I tried making a project but after uploading the project when trying to lock an assembly it says that it said “Sub components could not be found”. I tried setting the inventor project folder to the grabcad local project folder and I also tried pack and go to the cabcad local project folder both with no luck. Any ideas? Also are there any other good PDM solutions out there? I’ve ruled out autodesk vault because out team doesn’t have the IT resources to maintain it.
You shouldn’t be so quick to rule out Vault. Yes it is some work to set up and learn to use, but once you do, there’s no looking back. We run ours on Amazon EC2 for about $32/month, and it’s worth it.
GrabCAD is one of the best pieces of version management or file sharing software I’ve worked with, so you should really try to get it working (and it’s free!). I use it with Solidworks, but it is happy to upload whatever files are in the folder, not just CAD files (pictures, spreadsheets, text files, etc). I don’t see why it would not like Autodesk files in particular. Especially if it doesn’t upload zip files either, that sounds like a solvable problem.
Try this. In GrabCAD, make a new project in a new folder inside your main GrabCAD folder. Then copy all of the Autodesk files to that folder and try to upload. That should take away any concerns about having GrabCAD pointed in the right location and just look at its ability to upload the files. Let us know if that works.
EDIT: It occurs to me that I should ask, are you using the standalone GrabCAD software or an Autodesk plugin? If you’re using a plugin, I would recommend trying the standalone software. For me, the Solidworks plugin works, but I prefer using the standalone software because it gives me more control and is more reliable.
Do you know any good places to learn vault? When our makeshift server wasn’t having problems, it seemed a little overwhelming and confusing. Also are you using vault basic or professional?
I did some more looking in grab cad and I was able to share assemblies but some features such as file locking the whole assembly didn’t work.
File locking is abit finicky and I really dont recommend it. The best way to ensure someone isnt editing the file is to always be talking with your other CADers. If you CAD at meetings thats easy, just be next to the other people and ask what they are currently in. If you are CADing from home then all you have to do is get in a voice call together, we use Discord for this but you can use whatever. It really helps ensure no one is editing other peoples documents.