Imported part and drawing associability

[hoaglin14]

My company has thoughts of becomming more three dimensional by using Inventor over AutoCAD.  We feel it would be beneficial to work in 3D when updating designs.  We receive drawings and models from customers who use Unigraphics NX 7.5 and I have been trying to figure out just how to transfer both the drawings and model assemblies from NX to Inventor and still keep its associative properties.  By that I mean, we would be able to alter the 3D model in Inventor and it would change the drawings automatically.  Or if we have to create new drawings in inventor for that to be possible.

I do not even know if this is possiblem, I was just hoping someone might know a little about it.  Thanks for any help

[MariaManuela]

Hi,

Like Help says:

"Part and assembly files from other CAD systems can be imported for use in Autodesk Inventor. The import operation does not maintain associativity with the original file (exception - associative import is available for Alias). As a result, changes to the original file after the import operation do not affect the imported part or assembly. Likewise, changes to the imported part or assembly do not affect the original file.

When assemblies are imported, Autodesk Inventor attempts to preserve the assembly and subassembly structure of the original file.

The import process creates base features in Autodesk Inventor representative of the geometry and topology in the source file. You can use Autodesk Inventor commands to adjust the base features and add new features to the Autodesk Inventor feature tree. You cannot modify the original definition of the base features"

[Allen.Bai]

Unfortunately, only NX 3D models can be imported into Inventor, and you can create Inventor drawings based on imported 3D models.

If you also want to import NX Drawing, you may need to convert it to AutoCAD DWG file and then open it in Inventor, however, the associative is not there.

[mcgyvr]

If all your customers use NX 7.5... Buy NX 7.5

[JDMather]

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@hoaglin14 wrote:

By that I mean, we would be able to alter the 3D model in Inventor and it would change the drawings automatically.  Or if we have to create new drawings in inventor for that to be possible.

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Just addressing this subset of your overall post - yes, if you alter a 3D model in Inventor and create the 2D drawing in Inventor from your 3D model the new drawings are associative.  They will automatically update the changes.

[hoaglin14]

1) We have NX 7.5

2) Not all our customers use it

3) We only update drawings in AutoCAD, hopefully Inventor soon enough

but thanks

[PaulMunford]

Don't forget that AutoCAD 2012 has alimited ability to create 2D drawings from referenced 3D models. Might be worth checking out.

If you need to work on the models Inventor/Fusion might be the way to go.

It is also worth considering the Inventor Feature recognition pligin available from Autodesk Labs.