Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Hi,

I am an art student and not a CAD pro so please excuse me if the wording of my question is poor.

I have created a sketch of a tent in Inventor 10. I used Inventor because I have experience using it in high school robotics competitions and like the parametric features. I would like to use the sketch in Rhino or 3DS Max from which to build surface meshes. My problem is that I cannot import just a sketch into Rhino or 3DS. I can only import polygons. 

I know that this may be better answered in a Rhino or 3DS forum but, if anyone has any insight to a solution or workaround, I would very much appreciate your help. In the end I may have to recreate the sketch in Rhino or 3DS but am on a tough deadline with many other projects due and am hoping not to have to redo the work. 

I have attached the file if anyone would care to have a look.

Thank you,

Henry

[#2]

Don't use Rhino.. but can't you just export the tent as an STL file from Inventor and import that into Rhino..

[#3]

Define "sketch of a tent".

Step supports wires. Rhino will read wires in step.

[#4]

Define sketch: By sketch I mean a 3D sketch but with no 3D features added such as extrusion, loft, revolve, sweep, etc. Sorry for lack of terminology but I mean just the lines or edges in the sketch with no 3D features. I will try STL and STEP.

[#5]

To further explain, by "tent' I mean just that: a fabric shelter. Inventor was used to design the solid ribs of the tent. This particular tent is similar to a bivouac sack and is meant for a single inhabitant. There is a plugin for Rhino that is used for tensile membrane structure design that I was hoping to leverage to develop patterns for the tent fabric. The plugin can wrap a framework and then unwrap it for developing patterns from which to cut fabric.

I've tried the STL and STEP format and cannot export anything meaningful without including some 3D geometry so, I think I am faced with redrawing the model.

Thanks for your interest and your time,

Henry

[#6]

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henryanthony wrote:

I've tried the STL and STEP format and cannot export anything meaningful without including some 3D geometry so, I think I am faced with redrawing the model.

Henry

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You should be able to export STEP with 2D and 3D sketches and no solids or surfaces needed with these Options.

(just tried myself and it worked - imported in Inventor - I don't have Rhino to check)

[#7]

JD,

Your post has given me some hope

Unfortunately, my version of Inventor is 10 and I don't see those save as options. I am registered to download educational versions of Autodesk software so I will go get the most recent version and try your suggestion.

If it would not be too much trouble, could you please reply and attach the file you converted so I could test? It would save me precious time. Inventor will be a long download.

Thanks so much,

Henry

[#8 · Accepted solution]

A simple 3D sketch polygon (the geometry was made with 3D sketch, but it is all actually 2D) and a 2D sketch rectangle in the STEP file.

Attached a second example.

[#9]

JD,

I imported the stp you attached into Rhino and got a smaller rectangle inside a larger rectangle. Both were in the same plane. Are my results consistent with the file you built?

Thanks,

Henry

[#10]

JD,

That second file was exactly what I was looking for. All I need do now is download the latest version of IV. Thanks alot, I really appreciate your help.

All the best,

Henry