It is Alive in the Lab

Updated iCopy Installers Now Available: Is It My Name?

Todd Rundgren in concert. Photo courtesy of Tim Barrios.

I just got back from Akron, Ohio where my wife, friends, and I attended a concert where Todd Rundgren performed his A Wizard, A True Star album in its entirety. One of the songs is titled "Is It My Name" which covers the musician's struggle with his record company to get his albums promoted. Rundgren is a Swedish name that means "round branch," and is not the easiest word for the record-buying public to pronounce nor remember.

So imagine my sense of coincidence when I return to work to receive the following comment on my blog:

Dear Scott,
It's good that Autodesk listens to their customers, so let's see how fast you can fix this: The names of the installers are wrong. I tried the Fabrication_2010.msi installer and that seems to be the installer for the 2009 version. Some others are also wrong... Why is it called Fabrication anyway? Nevertheless, keep up the good work!!
Regards,
David

In response, the iCopy team created new installers which I zipped up and placed on the site. The ZIP file now contains:

You can now download the new zip file with the aptly named installers at:

Free Download of iCopy for Inventor on Autodesk Labs

So yes I guess the problem was our name. To quote Kenan Thompson from Saturday Night Live, "It has been fixed!"

Updated iCopy for Inventor Now Available

User feedback points us in the right direction.

The iCopy for Inventor team has released an update. You can download the updated version from

Free iCopy for Inventor Download on Autodesk Labs

This new version corrects a problem where a crash could occur when you: Start a New Drawing, Start Base View Command and source file, Select Custom View Orientation, and Right click in the Graphics Window. Thanks to Mark Flayer of RAND Worldwide for this test case.

Making things better based on your feedback is alive in the lab.

Updated iCopy for Inventor Now Available

The iCopy team has a new iCopy install available on the Autodesk Labs site. It has been verified by the Inventor QA team.

Free Download of iCopy for Inventor Technology Preview

Just like the original install, there are 4 flavors of the new add-in: 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Inventor 2009 and Inventor 2010. The updated add-in has a fix for a crash we got via CER (CER #28223437, #28078597). Here is the description of the problem that will be fixed from George Hudetz, the iCopy Product Designer:

“I am not sure how many customers may have seen this so far, but it affects a fairly common workflow. Basically, the user does not even have to use iCopy functionality – as long as the add-in is installed, the system will crash if the user creates a new weldment subassembly and then right-clicks the weld node. Since iCopy is very frame-centric, and since frames are welded, it seems like a good candidate for a (iCopy) hotfix.”

Responding to internal feedback with defect corrections is alive in the lab. To share your own thoughts or defect reports, please let us know at labs.iv.icopy@autodesk.com.

design reform: Inventor – iCopy Frame - Part 02

Through feedback to labs.iv.icopy@autodesk.com, I was alerted to a Garin Gardiner video excerpt from that Steve Sanderson posted to the design reform site:

design reform: Inventor – iCopy Frame - Part 02

This brief video shows the iCopy for Inventor tool in action. You can download the free technology preview and let us know how iCopy works for you.

Updated iCopy for Inventor Now Available

Yesterday Software Engineer, Alison Davis, provided me with an updated version of the iCopy for Inventor tool. I was happy to place it on the site to solicit your feedback.

Free Download of iCopy for Inventor on Autodesk Labs

This updated version:

• Continues to support 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Inventor 2010 but also provides support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Autodesk Inventor 2009.
• Corrects some minor install issues with the original version. Vista users are no longer required to use the "only me" option when installing; however, Vista users should continue to turn off UAC.

Now both 2009 and 2010 users can also help shape the future of this technology with feedback to labs.iv.icopy@autodesk.com. So please let us know what you think.

Expanding our technology preview to allow more people into the tent is alive in the lab.

iCopy for Inventor Installation Tip for Microsoft Vista Users

Installation tip from one of our experts

The iCopy for Inventor tool allows you to make duplicate copies of objects that automatically resize. A Mr. Richard Feder of Fort Lee, New Jersey had some trouble installing iCopy for Inventor on his Microsoft Vista system. Software QA Engineer, Chun Du, offered the following suggestion:

If you are running Windows Vista, please try these steps.

1. Turn UAC off.
   User Account Control (UAC) is a security component introduced in Windows Vista. UAC enables users to perform common tasks as non-administrators, called standard users in Windows Vista, and as administrators without having to switch users, log off, or use Run As. A standard user account is synonymous with a user account in Windows XP. User accounts that are members of the local Administrators group will run most applications as a standard user.
   source: Microsoft TechNet

2. Choose the “Only me” installation option when you step through the wizard.
   Installing only for yourself places the files in a location that is specific to your login. It does not attempt to put files in system locations where all computer users can access them.

If after following these two steps, you still cannot install, please run this command in a command console and provide us the log file (c:\Fabrication.log) at labs.iv.icopy@autodesk.com.

Msiexec.exe /I [PATH]\Fabrication.msi /L*v C:\Fabrication.log

Thanks Chun! Sharing installation tips is alive in the lab.

iCopy for Inventor Now Available

iCopy allows for fast copying - like the shadow of a runner on the sand

Copy and paste are certainly two of my favorite commands when using a word processing application. In fact control-C/control-V are part of most applications. Their omission from most any Windows application would raise eyebrows. People are just so used to having these capabilities. Copy/paste produces an exact duplicate. What if I want to duplicate something and then need to modify it? With a word processor, I simply copy/paste and then backspace over the part and I wish to change and enter the new text. This is not too bad. It's certainly better than typing in everything from scratch. But what if I have to do that many times? It can get tedious.

Often designs will incorporate multiple instances of a standard element that needs to be adjusted with each instance. When dealing with a large number of elements, making these adjustments manually is time-consuming and prone to error. This is where the iCopy for Inventor comes in.

Free iCopy for Inventor Download

iCopy for Inventor allows you to make multiple copies of an assembly that automatically resize to fit your design. Right now, it is compatible with Inventor 2010 - both 32-bit and 64-bit. If there is demand, 2009 support may come later. By capturing a few key constraints, such as connection points and paths, iCopy creates and inserts multiple instances of the assembly and automatically adjusts the size and shape of each instance based on your functional requirements. Please take this for a test drive and let us know what you think at labs.iv.icopy@autodesk.com.

Previewing technology that could make it easier to create designs is alive in the lab.