Autodesk Inventor 2012 (Build 160)
March 7, 2011
Release Notes - Read Me file
Autodesk, Inc.
In a continuing effort to provide high quality products, Autodesk has released Autodesk Inventor 2012. This file
highlights significant known open issues and provides information that is useful while using Inventor.
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- .NET 4.0 is required for the installation of Inventor 2012. Please verify that .NET 4.0 is installed before you start
to install or deploy Inventor. If it is not installed the installer can be found on the source media under "…\3rdParty\NET\4\wcu\dotNetFramework\dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe".
- If you want to install Autodesk Fusion 2012 with Autodesk Inventor 2012, we recommend that you also install
Autodesk Fusion 2012 Service Pack 1. On the Autodesk Inventor 2012 Install - Configure page, click the small down arrow to expand
the Autodesk Fusion 2012 configuration section, and then select the service pack along with other configuration options.
- Please update your operating system before you install Autodesk Inventor 2012. Reboot your system after all
security updates, and so on, are installed.
- If you find some products cannot be selected to install, you can put the mouse on the red "prohibited" circle
in front of the product to get more information.
- If you are running Windows Vista 64-bit or Windows 7 64-bit, verify that you have the Microsoft fix for user
mode callback exceptions KB976038. This fix ensures that Autodesk receives the correct data from Inventor error reports. For more
information, and access to this and related Microsoft downloads, refer to Autodesk
Technical Solution 15492718.
- The Help installed with Autodesk Inventor 2012 contains a subset of the full Help. The subset includes What's
New topics, Tutorials, Tooltips/Toolclips and Reference topics. You can access and download the online
Full Help (http://www.autodesk.com/inventor-help-download) and
tutorial data sets (http://www.autodesk.com/inventor-tutorial-data-sets).
- When you browse a downloaded language as an Inventor language, select the language that matches the language of
the local, or English machine. Also, make sure all of the products you plan to install or deploy are of the same language.
- After you finish a silent deployment installation, reboot the computer before you launch Inventor. If the
version of MSI of your operating system is lower than 4.0, the operating system reboots automatically after the silent deployment install finishes.
- If you download the source files to a local folder with a name that contains non-English characters, make
sure that the language in Regional Settings is consistent with the language name of the local folder.
- If you install Autodesk Design Review 2012, it automatically uninstalls your installed Autodesk Design Review 2011.
- If you installed the Medium image library 2012 previously, the Suite Uninstaller Tool also lists it out. Remember
this behavior when you use the Suite Uninstaller Tool to uninstall Inventor 2012.
- Verify that the deployment log file path does not include non-English characters.
- Verify that the deployment image path is less than 65 characters.
- Non-silent deployment install sometimes takes a long time to initialize. During initializing, the installer
UI sometimes disappears for a while.
- When you modify deployment on Windows XP operating systems, please make sure the version of MSI is higher than
4.0. Otherwise, installer encounters an error.
- Close all Autodesk applications before installation, maintenance, or uninstalling of the software.
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- Inventor 2012 supports XP 32bit SP3, XP 64bit SP2, Vista 32bit SP2, Vista 64bit SP2, Win7 32 bit and Win7 bit64.
If the operating system does not meet these requirements, please update it before the installation.
- On Windows Vista, Microsoft Vista SP2 Hotfix KB971138 is REQUIRED in order to install Autodesk Inventor 2012.
For more information, and access to this and related Microsoft downloads, refer to Autodesk
Technical Solution 16323149.
- Verify that you have administrator privilege on your local machine to install Autodesk Inventor 2012.
- Installation on virtual machines is not supported.
- Flash Player 10 (or higher). The multimedia learning solutions require the Flash player. Download from the
Adobe Flash Player Web site.
- Adobe Reader is required to read documentation provided in PDF format. Download from
get.adobe.com/reader.
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Before you begin...
Install all Windows Updates that are pending on your machine and reboot:
Windows XP: Use the Windows Update utility located in the Control Panel.
Windows 7 and Windows Vista: Use the Windows Update utility located in the Control Panel, and on the sidebar.
On Windows Vista, Microsoft Vista SP2 Hotfix KB971138 is REQUIRED in order to install Autodesk Inventor 2012. For more information, and access to this and related Microsoft downloads, refer to Autodesk Technical Solution 16323149.
Verify that:
Note: If you want to install Autodesk Fusion 2012 with Autodesk Inventor 2012, we recommend that you also install Autodesk Fusion
2012 Service Pack 1. On the Autodesk Inventor Fusion 2012 install page, click the small down arrow to expand the
configuration section, and then select the service pack along with configuration options.
To install Autodesk Inventor 2012:
For Electronic Fulfillment users only:
- Download the appropriate Autodesk Inventor 2012 installation files to a temporary location on your
computer hard drive.
- Double-click the self-extracting executable file to access the Installer. The files are temporarily
extracted to the Temp folder. If this temporary location is nested too many levels deep, the install fails. It is
recommended that the extracted destination folder path is less than 84 characters long. We recommend that you use the
default destination folder, which is "C:\Autodesk\Inventor_2012\x86" or "C:\Autodesk\Inventor_2012\x64", as the
self-extract destination folder name. After the file is extracted, the Inventor installer wizard launches automatically.
If it does not launch, browse to the folder where all files were extracted and double-click setup.exe.
- In the Install > Configure Installation dialog box, click the expandable arrow to set preferences.
Important: If you are switching languages or adding a Language Pack, ensure you
browse to it and set that option before setting any other preferences. Changing a Language Pack will reset some of the
installation preferences to their default values.
- After configuration, confirm all your preferences are set as required before starting the installation.
- When the installation is done, click Finish.
- If required, reboot the system after the installation is finished.
- Based on the bit type of your operating system, insert the appropriate DVD.
- The Inventor installer wizard launches automatically. If it does not launch, open the DVD disk and
double-click setup.exe to start the installation.
- In the Install > Configure Installation dialog box, click the expandable arrow to set preferences.
Important: If you are switching languages or adding a Language Pack, ensure you
browse to it and set that option before setting any other preferences. Changing a Language Pack will reset some of the
installation preferences to their default values.
- After configuration, confirm all your preferences are set as required before starting the installation.
- When the installation is done, click Finish.
- If required, reboot the system after the installation is finished.
To verify the installation was successful, start Autodesk Inventor. On the Help menu, select About Inventor. If the About box
displays: Build: 160, Release: 2012, the installation was successful.
We make every attempt to support the migration of files created with or saved using a Beta version of Autodesk Inventor 2012. However, these files are not guaranteed to migrate to this release version of Autodesk Inventor 2012, or any of the subsequent releases, unless they were created with the final Autodesk Inventor 2012 Beta 3 release.
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- We recommend that you use a certified graphics card. See the Autodesk Inventor 2011 Release
cards and drivers. The certified graphics cards and
drivers are also applicable to Inventor 2012.
- If you installed Inventor 2008, 2009, 2010 or 2011 (in any combination) with Inventor 2012 on
Windows Vista or Windows 7, and want to switch to a previous version from Inventor 2012, use "Run as Administrator"
if User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, or if your current user is not in the Administrator group. This also
applies for using the Add-In Manager of earlier versions to change add-ins on Vista or Windows 7.
- If you installed both Inventor 2008 and 2012 on 64-bit operating system, do not use
Autodesk32-bitExplorerLauncher.bat shortcut icon when Inventor 2012 is active. This desktop shortcut icon (which
starts 32-bit Windows Explorer) is only for Inventor 2008. Inventor 2012 works with the 64-bit version of Windows Explorer.
- Inventor uses TrueType and OpenType fonts. Other fonts are not supported.
- For the document window title, Inventor 2012 follows the setting "Hide Extension for known file
types" in Windows Explorer like Microsoft Word or Excel.
- When working with very large assemblies on a 64-bit system, up to an additional 20 GB or more of
temporary free space is required for Inventor at run time, depending on the size of the assemblies. At a minimum, we
recommend 2 GB. For 32-bit systems, this requirement is 1 GB.
- Inventor now loads add-ins as needed, rather than loading them all at start-up. The Add In Manager
displays if an add-in is loaded automatically, and whether the add-in is loaded or not. If the add-in is not loaded,
we list the document type which causes the add-in to load.
- Inventor no longer loads VBA automatically when starting. Instead VBA is loaded on demand (when a
document with VBA loads, or the VBA Editor is opened.) If you are a regular VBA user, turn on the new "Load VBA on
start-up" option in the Application Options, General tab.
- There are minor changes in the Marking Menu contents in Autodesk Inventor 2012. To view the changes, if you previously
installed a beta build, please go to Tools > Customize. In the Customize dialog box, Marking Menu tab, select Restore
Default to Entire Inventor.
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Abbreviations used:
- CER refers to a Customer Error Report.
- NG refers to an item reported on the Autodesk Newsgroups.
Dynamic Simulation
- Inventor sometimes crashes when you save a simulation with a user-defined variable.
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Frame Analysis
- If torsional section modulus (Wz) is not calculated for non-circular tube profiles, in the Beam Properties dialog box,
check the Customize option, and then enter the value manually.
- On 32-bit operating systems, after you uninstall Autodesk Inventor 2011, the message "Failed to connect solver" displays. Use the
following on the command line to re-register: "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Autodesk Robot Structural
Analysis Engine 2012\System\Exe\rkernel.EXE" /RegServer.
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Stress Analysis
- Graphics from previous results are shown overlaid after you use animate, then use convergence.
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Mold Design
- Installation of Autodesk Inventor Professional includes a subset of the Metric Mold Design Desktop Content library
for tutorials and samples. The full Metric, Imperial and Meusburger Desktop Content libraries can be downloaded from
the Autodesk Inventor Updates and Service Packs web site.
- The Runner Balance capability in Autodesk Inventor Professional 2012 requires a valid installation and license of Autodesk
Moldflow Advisor 2011 or 2012. Additional installation steps may be required for Autodesk Moldflow Advisor 2012 to enable
Runner Balance. Please refer to the Autodesk Moldflow Advisor 2012 Installation Guide for details.
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Tube & Pipe
- In the Tube and Pipe environment, if you reset a Ribbon Panel, Tube and Pipe style is missing, and Inventor crashes.
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Cable & Harness
- The nailboard will not update for looms and labels if the changes are made whilst the nailboard drawing is closed.
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API
- On 64-bit installations, when editing VBA code in the Application Project you are not prompted to Save when Inventor is closed.
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Drawing Manager
- If EnableBackgroundUpdates is set to true, updating the view block in model space sometimes results in empty or invisible views through the API.
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Enhanced Visualization
- Approximate from Realistic style does not take effect for some Metallic Paint materials.
- Ray tracing does not support section views in the current stage.
- When you zoom or rotate the model under ray tracing, the view changes slightly.
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Framework
- On Windows Vista, all Add-Ins are disabled if you run Inventor 2012 with the Run As Administrator option and User Account Control (UAC) is
enabled. Inventor 2012 is UAC-friendly so you do not need to run with the Run As Administrator option.
- After you switch the input language to Hebrew(Israel), if you press the function key F4, the model does not orbit.
- The Marking Menu display remains on the screen after you switch to another application window.
- When the InfoCenter Search box is minimized, Command Aliases does not work.
- Signing into InfoCenter fails if you are using a non-Administrator User Account.
- When executing some commands, or opening a new document while ten or more windows are open, the Marking Menu and Context Menu
do not display correctly until you click ESC and right-click again.
- If you add iFeature commands to the User Commands panel with other commands, when you restart Inventor the iFeature commands do not persist.
- In the InfoCenter Search box, shortcuts Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V do not work.
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Part Modeling
- Extended status for the Fillet dialog is not persistent.
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Repair Environment
- Code changes were made to the Find Errors command in the repair environment. Bodies checked and saved in Inventor Beta 2 or Beta 3 may display different results when the Find Errors command is used in the released version.
- When you repair an error in the Repair Environment, there is no Help for the toolbar that displays.
- The command Find Errors in the Repair Environment sometimes reports Intersecting Faces errors when the Intersecting Faces repair tool cannot find any intersections.
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Translators
- BIM Exchange:
- Cannot promote BIM connectors created in iParts or iAssemblies to the parent assembly level.
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Notwithstanding the terms contained in the terms and conditions and the Autodesk Software License Agreement (EULA) accompanying this software, if you received this Software as a New Version or Cross grade (all as defined in the EULA), your license with respect to the previously licensed version of Autodesk Mechanical Desktop software ("Mechanical Desktop") shall not terminate, you shall have no obligation to uninstall such software and you may continue to use such Previous Version of Mechanical Desktop with your current version of Autodesk Inventor software.
Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Vault, Autodesk Data Management Server, Autodesk Productstream, Autodesk Autoloader, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Mechanical,
Mechanical Desktop, and AutoCAD Electrical, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Office
2003, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Portions of this software copyright 1996-2008 Acresso Corporation.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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We thank all our customers who identify issues and report them to us. These reports give us the opportunity to improve the product and provide
you with the best solution in mechanical design. We also thank you for your continued business and for the feedback regarding the content of this
update release.
Respectfully,
Autodesk Inventor Product Team
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Copyright © 2011 Autodesk, Inc.