You store Autodesk Mechanical Desktop parts in libraries in projects. Mechanical Desktop parts link to Autodesk Inventor assemblies through a special file called a proxy file. The proxy file contains link information, and specifies a template for the new component. The proxy file updates the assembly with edits made in the Mechanical Desktop file when you open or save the assembly.
If a Mechanical Desktop file contains more than one part, you can retrieve several Autodesk Inventor parts from one file.
Proxy files
You specify a library search path to the folder where proxy files are stored. Proxy files have an .ipt extension so that they are listed, and can be selected, when you place other components in the assembly. However, you cannot open or edit a proxy file.
Proxy files do not contain design data. If you accidentally delete a file, the assembly loses its link to the part file, but no data is lost. A proxy file updates automatically each time that you open or save the assembly file that references it.
Folders for Mechanical Desktop files
The part files and the proxy files must reside in separate folders. Every folder that contains Mechanical Desktop parts requires a corresponding folder for proxy files. To optimize your configuration, when you set up your folders:
- Store Mechanical Desktop part files in a single folder structure, and the proxy files in a separate, corresponding folder structure. The two folder structures can be on a local computer, a server, or two different servers.
- Do not use the root folder of a volume, or a temporary folder as the top folder for the files.
- If you work in a multiple user environment, store your proxy files on a central server that is available to all users. If you store the proxy files on local computers, all users must use identical library search path names for the folders.
Search paths for Mechanical Desktop files
Before you add the parts to an assembly, add the library search paths for Mechanical Desktop part files and the corresponding proxy files to the active project.
- Every project that uses Mechanical Desktop parts requires definition of one library path to the part files, and one to the proxy files. The names of the paths are the same, except that an underscore character precedes the name for the proxy path.
- Although you can define any number of library search paths, set only one pair of search paths to the top-level folders for parts and proxy files. With this configuration, it is not necessary to set a path to each subfolder.
- Assign a descriptive name to each library.
- Design properties (iProperties) are stored in proxy files. They are lost if you lose the proxy file.
Note: Migrate Mechanical Desktop files to the latest version before you translate it to Autodesk Inventor. When you open a file in the latest version of Mechanical Desktop (available on the installation CD for Autodesk Inventor), the migration tool tells you of any data problems so that you can repair them before you bring the file into Autodesk Inventor.