Importing ACad drawings to Inventor Sketch - Open Loops

[Anonymous]

I'm sure this question has been covered before.
When importing Acad files is it possible to imprort without having to fix the sketch in inventor? Meaning, if the Acad drawing was drawn so all the lines attach to another ("closed loop") why is it when I import and select all the layers or (no layers) that i can not extrude the sketch in inventor without always having to fix.
-Redundant points
-Missing Coincident contraints
-Overlapping curves
-open loops
-self intersecting loops

Before importing the autocad file, what needs to be done to the autocad drawing before importing for a flawless sketch so i can just extrude it in inventor?

[JDMather]

I would not use AutoCAD as my sketcher - but in rare occasions - move logical location for symmetry to 0,0,0. PE and Join to closed polyline in AutoCAD before importing into Inventor.

If there is any great difficulty, to me that is clear indication not to trust the AutoCAD work.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that the AutoCAD file is bad. I'll bet that this file
imported into a CAM program would produce garbage tool paths as well.

Can you post the DWG file?
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr. Tel. (260) 399-6615
http://teknigroup.com

[Anonymous]

Thankyou for your respone guys,
The file is attached.

I do alot of converting of old profile drawings from Acad to inventor, i just seem to run into this issue alot. If that means I need to go into Acad or inventor and redraw most profiles would be really painful.
I'm not to familiar with AutoCad in general but i can understand direction to solve this problem.
I totally agree to not trust a Acad file to be drawn correctly.
Is there a feature in AutoCad Mechanical 2009 to check this before i import to Inventor?

Thanks again,

[Anonymous]

Nine times out of ten, no matter how much "repair" work I do, i.e. extend/trim lines to be sure they intersect, go around every sharp corner and put a "0" radius, delete and re-create every fillet or chamfer, it still fails to be completely closed in Inventor. I've just learned to live with it....

[Anonymous]

haha, fair enough. I wish you could just select the whole drawing in Acad and an change all lines into polylines even if it wasn't drawn correctly! wouldnt that be a perfect world.
Thanks for the responses guys, I will have to trace over my Acad drawings (using polylines) and delete the old layers, which im starting to think will give me the least amount of problems when importing to Inventor.

[JDMather]

> I wish you could just select the whole drawing in Acad and an change all lines into polylines ... ....I will have trace over my Acad drawings (using polylines)

You can - you are trying to do too much work.
All kinds of problems with this one.
Horizontal and vertical lines were not horizontal and vertical?

Extra line on right side.

Extra zero length line on right side.

Try attached file.

[Anonymous]

Perfect, JDMather
Thankyou for your help!
My skills lack in AutoCad! Thats the problem! Haha

Thanks again JD

[Anonymous]

> {quote:title=JDMather wrote:}{quote}
> All kinds of problems with this one.
> Horizontal and vertical lines were not horizontal and vertical?

Should not affect an "Open loop" issue. Two lines that are off-horizontal and off-vertical can connect just fine and for a closed loop.

> Extra line on right side.
>
> Extra zero length line on right side.

Those will cause a problem and were probably the *real* problem with the DWG file.

[Anonymous]

You can "check" a profile in AutoCAD by using the "Boundary" command. It will error if its not a completed boundary, and also hopefully point out the areas that were incomplete with a small red circle once you exit the command. I believe it will only do this for more recent versions (at least 2012+ to my knowledge) Keep in mind, that if you have an incomplete profile within another completed profile, it sees it all as just one large profile. (Example: Put a box inside a circle, but detach a corner of the box so the points aren't coincident. It skips the box because both inside and outside of the box is of the same continued "plane" space). Hope that makes sense, hard to explain without pictures.

[mcgyvr]

One of the import options (try to check it and see if that helps)

Constrain End Points

Select the check box to apply endpoint constraints automatically or clear the check box to apply constraints in the sketch manually.