Trying Out InventorDay 4

I've been tooling along with Inventor for the last week or two, the reason being a new book that I'm working on. I've been looking at how Inventor and AutoCAD are similar and different, especially since Autodesk has been tweaking the user interfaces of both products to make them more similar.

For example, the Dashboard added to AutoCAD 2007 mimics Inventor's Panel. (Which leads me to wonder, "Why Inventor?" Why not make AutoCAD and Revit more alike?)

But not everything is particularly compatible between the two. Last evening, I wanted to insert a DWG file into an otherwise empty sketch. After I selected the .dwg file, Inventor displayed this dialog box:

"Sorry, this pre-release version has expired."

Strange message, since I'm running released versions of both software products.

Inventor generated its error report and sent it off to Autodesk. Moments later, I received an automated email from Autodesk:

We recently received an error report from you. While we have not yet determined the resolution to the error, we have determined that the latest maintenance update has not yet been installed for your product.

I was gratified at the quick response (expected, I suppose, when machines are running things), but soon found that the email wasn't quite telling the truth. Reading the service pack's Readme file, I found that there is a resolution to the error:

3. This patch does not address the “End of Evaluation Period” error with the AOEMView 2008. Please refer to the details and follow instructions provided by the links below:

- Hotfix - End of Evaluation Period error during DWGIN
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9741651&linkID=9242019

Still, I was pleased that there is a fix to the problem. Yet, I remained puzzled that such an error existed at all.

Update

The hotfix is a 151MB download!

Comments

[RobiNZ]

With the AutoCAD > Revit comment I hope you mean make Revits UI more like AutoCAD. I like many things about Revit but the UI isn't one of them.

Recent related post:
http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2007/07/revirritations-.html

[Ragnar Thor Mikkelsen]

Ralph, I am afraid your experience with Inventor and Autodesk is not bad luck or something, but quite symptomatic :-)
I'm looking forward to the next episode...