Inventor Conversion

[Iam_second]

Is there a way to convert Inventor files (IPT and IAM) for Alibre Design. Attached is an IPT file that I cannot open. Thanks...

 

[Ralf]

Please take a look, I send a STEP file.
I have renamed the file at the end with: -v1

 

[Ralf]

Here is the imported STEP file Alibre V25037:

 

[Iam_second]

Hi Ralf... How did you open it to convert it to a STEP file?

 

[Ralf]

Was my file helpful for you?

I have tried it with several apps and got several different error messages.
Then I used: CST CAD Navigator (On my MacBook)

 

[Iam_second]

I thought Alibre was able to open Inventor files directly.

 

[HaroldL]

Maybe the file is too new. Looking at the file in Notepad there are several references to Version 8 and one reference to a 05/262022 date but that could be the date the file was created.

 

[Iam_second]

It is a brand new version of Inventor and yes the part itself was created on 5/22/2022. When I try to open the file I get message that says:

System NullFileReferenceException. Object reference not set to an instance of an object sta alibre_server.com alibre design prc: PRCConverter importFile(String fileName, ImportFile OperationOptions, Profile userProfile, IBusyBodyContextObject

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!

 

[HaroldL]

Note that the Help manual snipppet in your screen shot states that Alibre can open Inventor files "Up to 2021". If the version that created the file is newer than that then I suppose it won't open the file

 

[simonb65]

System NullFileReferenceException. Object reference not set to an instance of an object sta alibre_server.com alibre design prc: PRCConverter importFile(String fileName, ImportFile OperationOptions, Profile userProfile, IBusyBodyContextObject

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!

Yes! but you need to be a programmer/developer to understand it.

In laymans terms, there is a bug in Alibre due to the fact that it doesn't deal with things that it isn't expecting. In this case it's trying to process a file from a version of Inventor it doesn't understand.

The fix is for Alibre to validate the parameters for validity (i.e not NULL) before passing them to a function that expects them to be not NULL, or for the checks to be made inside the function before trying to use it.

From a UI point of view, the user friendly thing to do would be check the version info from the file and just tell the user that version isn't supported or if the loading of the file fails, then the file is either corrupt (if it is a version that is supported) or simply that the format is currently unsupported.

 

[Iam_second]

Thanks Simon... I will try to see if they can save the file in a previous version.

 

[HaroldL]

If "they" have a drawing it would likely have taken less time to recreate it in Alibre than what has been taken so far looking for a conversion.

That's what I have done in the past, asked the customer for a drawing rather than a model file that may not convert easily or have conversion issues.

Just sayin'.