How to install and access Inventor Optimization

Problem

Although the Optimization button shows up automatically on the Inventor ribbon, you can not enter the Optimization environment until you are on subscription and after you install a patch. How exactly do you obtain and install this patch?

Solution

Although the Optimization button shows up automatically on the Inventor ribbon, you can’t enter the environment until you install a patch and login with the correct subscription entitlements.

Inventor Optimization is only available for subscription users. This is made clear in the following dialog that comes up after clicking on the Optimization icon:

If you are not on subscription, we show you the path on how to become a subscription member.

If you are on subscription, simply login with your login name and password.

Download the patch by selecting the "I'm on subscription, install the patch!" button.
The other method for obtaining the product, is to browse to the Inventor Optimization Update in Subscription Center and download and install it directly from Subscription Center.

Once you have downloaded and installed the patch (size +/- 97 MB) , you will be able to proceed and use the functionality.
The patch is quite substantial because it includes Inventor 2012 Sp1, in case you have not installed Sp1 previously.

If (for whatever reason) the download of the patch fails, you won’t be able to get another attempt until you delete the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Inventor\Current Version\OptimizationUpdateNotified