Does anyone still use Mechanical Desktop?
How to get legal license of MDT this year?
Starting version 2013 Autodesk doesn't support Mechanical Desktop. Before it was possible to install it and have it in your pc if you have Inventor (versions 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012).
I am thinking would it be possible if you buy Inventor 2013 with subscription. Go to your subscription center, download older Inventor version, f.e. Inventor 2010. After it download Mechanical desktop and use it.
Would it work?
Maybe someone also has a need to get mechanical desktop? What your experience?

Thans!

I think its been completely retired. Hence AutoDESK Inventor-the "new 3-D" solution. Is there some sort of wierd functionality that MDT has that Inventor does not?

_________________
Swim - Bike - Run ...Repeat
@BreakingChad
The Company Website

Personally I am not user of MDT, but some customers still use it. Some customers have big database of applications, add-ins in mechanical desktop and now they have no possibilities to use these possibilities... I have a little problem

Does Inventor 2013 still need MDT installed (and working/registered) to import any old MDT files? If they've not incorporated MDT import entirely within Inventor then I can see a massive problem for any company with any old MDT data that they might need to access once in a blue moon...

Inventor 2013 has no code for Mechanical Desktop Import. Any company not to read the many emails sent out 9 YEARS ago and repeatedly over that time period are now hosed unless they are using a standalone, non-subscription seat of the software.

While on subscription you are entitled to use three versions back. MDT 2009 and Inventor 2009 are now legacy and therefore illegal to use anymore if you are on subscription.

Our company has actually wrote some code that will translate MDT files into Inventor and retain their file heirarchy (Inventor flattens it out in the translation process) and we have had some companies large and small use this in order to stay compliant. Otherwise the Autodesk lawyers have plenty of accounts to visit this coming year.

_________________
Mark Flayler
Application Engineer - Manufacturing Solutions Division
IMAGINiT's Manufacturing Solutions Blog: http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/
Twitter: @mflayler
http://vimeo.com/user1019444

Actually, let me clarify this a bit too. If you were on subscription with MDT2009 when it was available and you never let your subscription lapse over the years, you are still entitled to use it even beyond the three year stipulation.

The three year stipulation only applies to if you bought a new seat today you can use three versions back. But if you have been on subscription for the past four years you are still entitled to use the older MDT2009.

_________________
Mark Flayler
Application Engineer - Manufacturing Solutions Division
IMAGINiT's Manufacturing Solutions Blog: http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/
Twitter: @mflayler
http://vimeo.com/user1019444

Are you suggesting 2013 doesn't even have the option to import MDT files (with a registered MDT2009 on the system)?

I know the cut-off date for support and registration of MDT has been coming up but i'm honestly horrified that Autodesk hasn't incorporated some native MDT import into Inventor to support legacy data. We have been making products for the last 60 years, obviously before CAD and MDT, and we have those hand-drawn sketches for ref as/when needed - in the same way we still have our MDT data from the many years we used it prior to Inventor. Once in a blue moon we need to view this old data as components change (or become obsolete) and assess the need to update the product/assembly - if there are any changes then we import into Inventor and work with the data there. Almost as a rolling update as/when needed - and we have been working this way since about Inventor 6, but we still have a LOT of old MDT data that hasn't been converted which we may (or may not) need to access in years to come. Only this year I had some work evaluating updating an old product we've sold since 1998, so I had to go through the history of the product and can you guess what software that data was in?

So, if one of our computers dies, or we get a new cad-user, we are now unable to install MDT and thus view any MDT data or import into Iv (despite being on subscription for the last god-knows how many years)?!?

I can understand canceling support for an old piece of software and getting people onto Inventor for any work but I can't understand removing the ability to import old data into the new software. It's almost ironic that the users that are affected the most are those that have been the longest customers with the oldest data...

If you were on subscription for the whole time since MDT2009, you can still use it as legacy (and if a computer dies you can still load that license again), but if you let subscription lapse a year or you buy any new seats, those seats cannot use MDT2009 anymore.

And yes, the code for MDT translation is removed from Inventor 2013. You would have to load it through Inventor 2012 and then migrate it to get it to 2013 Inventor. I can understand your frustration, but having been told for 9 years that the day is coming is more than fair. In order for the coding to work with Inventor 2013 they would have to go back and rework the code in MDT2009 to work with Inventor for the file translation and since that product is officially legacy, it is off the table for programming work.

Technically if you stay on subscription you can keep using MDT2009 until your computers can't install it anymore, just not for any new seats.

_________________
Mark Flayler
Application Engineer - Manufacturing Solutions Division
IMAGINiT's Manufacturing Solutions Blog: http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/
Twitter: @mflayler
http://vimeo.com/user1019444