AutoCAD Electrical/Inventor

[STEVENAR]

Hi,

Does Inventor offer the features that AutoCAD Electrical offers, for example can you create a project in Inventor then open the same project using AutoCAD Electrical to create the Electrical drawings?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Hi!

Electrical couldn't open Inventor .iam, .ipt and other file formats. Only .dwg and .dwt

But you can make data export/import from one to another.

[STEVENAR]

Thanks for your reply.

Does Inventor allow you to create a WDP.file (project database file) then allow you to open the same project file using AutoCAD Electrical to create electrical drawings?

[Anonymous]

As far as I know - no, because Inventor project is .ipj (and this file contains settings, no data, as I know).

But maybe somebody here know some kind of trick how to do this.

[dougmcalexander]

The connection between Inventor Professional and Electrical is via XML export/import.  The WDP file existed long before Autodesk acquired what we now know as AutoCAD Electrical.  Electrical stores all data in the DWG file and the project definition file.  The database is more like a scratchpad that the software uses to expedite internal operations.  The database can be deleted with no loss of data, because the source of the data is ultimately the drawing files that make up the project.  The export to Inventor function extracts the drawing data and compiles it into XML format.  Inventor imports the XML file.

[STEVENAR]

Thanks for your reply.

So is it possible to create a project using Inventor and create a P&ID then open the project with AutoCAD Electrical and create the Electrical Drawings? We need the Electrical Drawings to link to the P&ID in the project.

Thanks again.

[dougmcalexander]

You can create electrical schematics and P&ID drawings in the same AutoCAD Electrical project and link the components using the WDTAGALT attribute. This can be exported via XML to Inventor Professional for modeling, not the other way around.

[drathak]

I agree with Doug.  

While technically, you can do your wiring in Inventor and export it back to Electrical, you wouldn't want to.  The ability exists to act more as a feedback mechanism if something previously imported and routed in Inventor gets changed for some reason.

The workflow should have the schematics done in Electrical first or in parallel with the panel design then export the wiring information to an XML file for Inventor to import.  There you can use the wiring harness tools to route the wires.

Disclaimer: I am only tangetially familiar with Inventor, but I've seen it done.

[Anonymous]

I'm somewhat new to AutoCAD Electrical and Autodesk Inventor. I've taught myself a lot over the past few weeks, though. Actually, I had never used either program before about a month ago.

Thanks.