Modifications to dwg drawings

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am not an AutoCAD pro by any means but get by using Autodesk Inventor for most of my requirements. I recently got an assignment to modify certain dimensions in an existing .dwg file. This file seemed like a native AutoCAD file to me. I am able to read and open this file in AutoCAD. What I fail to be able to do is to modify the drawing. For example, if I want to change an existing dimension in the drawing from 7 inches to 6 inches (say), I am mostly able to change this number and it displays "6" in the drawing. However, the drawing itself does not change. In other words, the drawing now is no longer to scale. Is it at all possible to do what I am looking to do? Are there any settings that need to be modified to be able to do that?

Additionally, I tried to import the drawing into a sketch plane in Inventor (using the ACAD menu item). It loads up alright and I am able to alter some of the dimensions. There are issues with this as well. One is that some of the dimension lines are imported as lines and are not associated with a part feature. So when I change the dimension, the dimension line gets moved but the feature does not get altered. On some dimensions, the feature does get changed but if say an edge was aligned with another edge, when I change the dimension of one, these associations are not maintained and therefore the second edge does not move.

Any help is appreciated. By the way, I am using Autodesk 2014 products.

Thanks

Max

[pendean · Accepted solution]

AutoCAD is not Inventor: unless you turned on and created CONSTRAINTS throughout you will need to change the object first and the dimension will follow on it's own.

You'll need to fix the dimensions, put then back to 'reality' instead of your manual overrride: did you change only a few or did you edit a bunch?

[Anonymous]

Dean,

Thank you for your response. As I mentioned, I am not an AutoCAD expert, infact, barely a frequent user. I am not sure I completely follow your direction. I tried to click on a feature (an edge for example) in the drawing and clicked on "make object layer current". I don't know what to do beyond that point. Is this what you are referring to when you say "change the object"? If you could elaborate a little, that would be very very helpful to me.

Thanks

Max

[steve216586 · Accepted solution]

Check this short tutorial out for modifying objects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LmDf_5Uty8

[Anonymous]

Pendean and Steve,

I apologize but I had not realized that I had not answered your postings. Thanks very much to both. I was able to make my modifications from your suggestions. 

Regards

Max