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movIng From aUtocaD to Inventor
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dimensions and other entities can be added and will remain intact when the file is opened
again in Inventor, but as a rule, objects must be edited in the application from which they were
created.
Creating DWG Files from Inventor Drawings
Users of Inventor may often find that they are called upon to create native AutoCAD .dwg files
from Inventor .idw files for use by customers or other people within the company. A user may
create a .dwg file by simply performing a Save Copy As and saving it as an AutoCAD .dwg file.
The newly created .dwg file will not be associative to the Inventor part or assembly or .idw file,
and will not reflect any changes made to the part, assembly, or Inventor drawing file. It is com-
mon to use Save Copy As on an Inventor drawing and save it to an AutoCAD .dwg just before
making revision changes, thereby preserving a copy of the drawing in a static state at that
revision level. Once the static copy is saved, revision edits can begin, and the original Inventor
drawing will update automatically.
DWG File Size
Although the benefits of using an Inventor DWG instead of an IDW may be favorable, you should
be aware that the extra abilities of the DWG file do come at the expense of file size. Inventor DWG’s
are typically two to three times larger than identical IDW files. If you create large assemblies, it is
advisable to use the IDW template as opposed to the DWG in order to keep files manageable. The
extent at which the DWG in Inventor is employed will largely be determined by the amount of col-
laboration required between Inventor and AutoCAD users.
Another aspect of working with an Inventor .dwg in AutoCAD is that whereas the Inventor
.dwg does not contain a model space by default, once it is opened in AutoCAD, you can access
model space. From model space in an Inventor .dwg, you can use the Insert command to place
the Inventor drawing views of the model as AutoCAD blocks. These blocks will update auto-
matically so long as they are not exploded and remain in the current .dwg. However, you can
explode the blocks and/or copy them into other .dwg files without worrying about having a neg-
ative impact on the Inventor .dwg. If objects such as these blocks are added to the .dwg’s model
space in AutoCAD, you will then be able to access model space for that file in Inventor. However,
you will only be able to view, measure, and plot the model space objects.
If you are familiar with the X-Ref tools in AutoCAD, there are some interesting workflows
that can be explored by inserting the block forms of the Inventor drawing views into the
Inventor .dwg and then using X-Ref to insert them into other AutoCAD drawings. The result
is that the drawing with the X-Ref will update when the Inventor file updates, allowing the
Inventor user to make edits on parts and assemblies and the AutoCAD user to get those updates
automatically in his or her layouts.
Moving from AutoCAD to Inventor
If you are moving from AutoCAD 2D to Inventor 3D modeling, you can have a great experience
in the process if you put design concepts used in AutoCAD on the shelf while learning Inventor.
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