If It’s Broke, Here’s a Workaround – Inventor

A vast majority of software installs go without a hitch. Inventor is no exception.  Occasionally though, installs can appear to go smoothly and it’s not until you try to use certain functionality, that you realize that there are some problems.  I recently had a client experience issues when editing one of Inventor 2017’s Content Center Family Tables. Autodesk is aware of the problem and working on a fix.  If you’ve experienced anything similar, there is a workaround, but let me first describe the problem (Note: I was not able to reproduce the problem, and it may in fact be present due to other programs installed on the system).

In this case in point, the user selected the ANSI S I-Beam family and did a Save Copy As, maintaining a Link to the parent family.  Once completed, he then proceeded to edit the newly created family using the Family Table Editor.  This is where things go awry.  By simply trying to modify the part number cells to align with his company standards, the other cells in the table automatically change to new values.  These cells are the profile dimensions of the beam shape, and are not driven by the Part Number cell in any way.  In short, this shouldn’t happen.

In the image below, row 4 has the data as published out-of-the-box.

The Part Number is edited in row 4, and then the profile dimension cells update/change to different values.

If this is happening to you, there is a workaround until a fix is found.  The basic answer is: don’t use the Family Table Editor to edit the values directly, but use Excel instead.  Here are the steps (from Autodesk Support):

1. Open the family table and select the option “Edit via Spreadsheet”
2. Make the necessary modifications, close excel and save.
   *   You will notice that the information in the cells are highlighted in yellow, but the only information modified is the one you modified in the spreadsheet
3. Apply and publish.
   Note: If you make any modification in the family table directly from the Content Center the issue will be triggered again.

This will hopefully be resolved soon, and those affected with this issue can resume normal Family Table Editor techniques.

Till next time…