Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I use a machine called a shopbot to cut wood projects.  Students draw the parts in Inventor, place them into a idw and use the save copy feature to save it as a DXF file.  The shopbot uses a progam called partworks v2 and it reads DXF files.  This worked great for the past few years until this summer when we installed the 2013 inventor on our computers.  I contacted Shopbot and they said other people are having the same problem and the solution for most of them was to save the idw file as an older version.  Last year we had AutoDesk 2011 and it worked fine.  Does anyone know how I can save a 2013 idw as a 2011 idw?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Techteacher5466,

I might be misunderstanding, but I think you can get what you want just by saving the IDW file as a DXF.

Click the big I button, > Save Copy As, and select DXF file as the Type of File. Then click the Options button, and choose the DXF version you want to save as.

Most likely the 2013 installs defaulting to saving the DXF as a newer version than the other software will read. Using the options button should let you resolve this.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[#3]

Thanks for the quick reply, but I forgot to say that the 2013 DXF file comes up "failed to import data"  on the shopbot

[#4 · Accepted solution]

As curtis already said....When saving the IDW as a dxf file simply hit the options button before you save.. There you can select multiple versions of dxf files.. Pick 2007 dxf or whatever.. Clearly Shopbots software does not work with newer dxf files..

[#5]

Just to clarify for you, it's impossible to save an idw file as an ealier version. I think what the people at shopbot meant was what McGyver and Curtis just suggested. That is, saving to an earlier dxf version.

I have to save all of my laser programming dxf's as 2004 or earlier for my outdated CNC software to read them.

[#6]

Thanks, it worked.