Import Autocad into Inventor

[karthur1]

I had a customer send me this file.  He says its a mech desktop file, but when I try to import it into Inventor.... it says that its not.

 

I can open this file in Autocad.  It looks like a 3D file, but when I open it in Mechanical Desktop 2009, it doesnt look any different.  I dont know anything about Mech Desktop or working with 3D Autocad files, but it is like the 3D information has been stripped off, if its possible to do that.

What I really need to do is make this part a "Solid" so that I can import this into Inventor.  Is it possible to do that?

Thanks,

Kirk

[blair]

It opens up within the "Review portion of Inventor. Probably much easier to create it from scratch in Inventor

[JDMather]

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@karthur1 wrote:

I can open this file in Autocad.  It looks like a 3D file, ....

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I didn't find any 3D in the file - only lines.
I also didn't see anything that would indicate it was created in MDT, but it has been years since I have used MDT.

A lot of users get confused between AutoCAD Mechanical and MDT.  (I didn' see any indication of AM either.)

[karthur1]

JD,

In that file I see this if I orbit and then pick this object.  All the holes are like this.

Is there a way to get this file to be a solid?  I could... and probably will redraw this in Inventor. But, there are a few file that he sent me that has surfacing contours on it that I will not be able to redraw.  I need someway to convert those into a solid, so I thought that whatever excersize I did here would help on that other part as well.

Thanks,

Kirk

[warrentdo]

Hello,

Open it in autocad mechanical, export it as a step file,

Open step file up in inventor.

It does open up but only as wires, not sure it thats ok for you though.

Cheers

Warren.

[JDMather]

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@karthur1 wrote:

JD,

In that file I see this if I orbit and then pick this object.  All the holes are like this.

.... But, there are a few file that he sent me that has surfacing contours ...

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OK, I didn't check everything, not sure why the apparently exploded the geometry.
That "hole" surface could probably be converted one way or another, but not worth the effort vs recreate from scratch.

The surface file could be an easier problem to deal with (run the List command and get entity type).

If you can post an example I can give steps to repair and get something useful out of the file.

[karthur1]

JD,

The file was too large to post here, even when zipped.  You should be able to download the file from here.  If you prefer I can email it directly to you.  It is about 4MB.

Thanks,

Kirk

[karthur1]

JD,

I was able to import some of the surface lines into Inventor by importing them into a 3D Sketch.  Is that what you were talking about?

Thanks,

Kirk

[JDMather]

I forgot about this thread and I'm close to my download limit for the month.
I will try to download the file at work tomorrow.