One of the most challenging processes that any engineer or designer faces is dealing with CAD data conversion. You may have multiple CAD packages inside your organization, or you may need to import or export CAD data to a format that is not your standard CAD format. Regardless of the challenge, you are facing Autodesk Inventor has multiple solutions for working with non-native data.
If you’re working with 2D AutoCAD data, Inventor and AutoCAD provide multiple options to share that data as an import/export or associatively either direction. Check out this Autodesk University class for detailed workflows with AutoCAD and Inventor: https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/2D-3D-Get-Best-Both-AutoCAD-and-Inventor-2020
When it comes to non-native 3D file formats, Inventor has always had lots of options; In fact, Inventor can open over 20 different file formats and convert them to Inventor parts, assemblies, and drawings.
The Feature Recognition app for Inventor has been available for a number of releases on the Autodesk App Store. This tool converts neutral 3D CAD models into full–featured Autodesk parts. It’s available for download here: https://apps.autodesk.com/INVNTOR/en/Detail/Index?id=9172877436288348979&appLang=en&os=Win64
AnyCAD was released with Inventor 2016 and allowed for associative connections with non-native file types. This means you can choose to keep your non-native data in its original CAD format. When an update occurs, Inventor will prompt you to update the data with no need to re-insert or rebuild parts and assemblies.
AnyCAD supports the following file types:
Format Version
CATIA V5 R6 – V5-6R2018
PTC Creo Up to 6.0
PTC Wildfire Up to 5.0
SolidWorks 2001 Plus – 2020
Siemens NX Unigraphics V13 – NX 12, NX 1872 Series
Alias v11 – Later
AutoCAD 2d Up to 2018
STEP AP203E2, AP214, AP242
Solid Edge V18 – V20, ST1 – ST10, 2020
You may need a feature-based intelligent model, not an import/export or a referenced model in some situations. In this situation, you would typically remodel that component/assembly from scratch on an as-needed basis. What do you do if you have lots of 3D models and you need features and design intent? You might find yourself with one of these challenges:Check out this Autodesk University class for detailed AnyCAD workflows: https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Inventor-AnyCAD-What-It-and-How-Do-I-Use-It-2020
- You have the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection or Autodesk Vault and would like to standardize on and Autodesk Inventor
- Running in a multi-CAD environment and are looking to standardize on Autodesk Inventor
- Customer or supplier require feature-based Inventor data as part of the project deliverables
Typically, you have had two options for mass data migration. The first is simply a BREP conversion. Think of opening a step file; you get the shape, size, and detail of the object but no design intent, model intelligence, or features. Your second option is manual remastering. This process is slow, expensive, and requires significant quality control to ensure proper methodology and design intent if done externally.
Autodesk and ITI have partnered up to provide options for migrating to Inventor as your CAD standard. GoToInventor from ITI offers a fully automated CAD conversion process. Feature mapping from the source CAD tool creates consistent and repeatable conversion for intelligent 3D models in the Inventor format. Parts, sub-assemblies, and top-level assemblies are converted in a specific order to ensure proper assembly structure and relationships between components.
GoToInventor also supports sheet metal parts, associative drawings, and family tables and configurations. GoToInventor also supports library components; this ensures that multiple instances are only converted once. File naming/renaming and attribute mapping is also supported. GoToInventor supports conversions from Solid Edge, CATIA V5, NX Creo, and SolidWorks.
Check out these Autodesk University classes for more detailed information.
Instructional demo: https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Work-Legacy-Data-or-Data-Other-CAD-Systems-Different-Ways-2020
Industry talk: https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Automatic-Feature-Based-CAD-Conversion-Inventor-2020
Regardless of how you want to work with data:
Whether it is repurposing legacy 2D AutoCAD, importing and exporting non-native 3D CAD files, leveraging AnyCAD workflows for associative connections, or mass migration of data to the Inventor file format, we have options that suit your specific requirements.
For more information on GoToInventor and CAD data conversion for Inventor, please contact the ITI team here.
