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Inventor DimFactor - Converting Inventor Models to AutoCad drawings

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Message 1 of 6
sedington123
483 Views, 5 Replies

Inventor DimFactor - Converting Inventor Models to AutoCad drawings

Often i take 3D models and lay them out flat in Sheet Metal.  Take the flat layout and convert it to DXF in AutoCAD.  I recently came across an issue i havent seen before and am confused as to how it occured.  I dimension the blanks in Inventor since Inventor is much more user friendly then AutoCAD as far as dimensioning goes.  Somehow my DIMFactor was switched to .8 in AutoCAD which made my model scaled to 1.25 and therefore incorrect.  I have no clue how i switched my DIMFactor to .8 in Autocad, maybe i did it by accident.  My question is:  Is there anyway i triggered this scaling issue through Inventor?

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Message 2 of 6
mcgyvr
in reply to: sedington123

nope not that I can think of.. Its an Autocad thing..

I've heard of people getting metric/english messed up but dimscale is only an Autocad thing..

 

 



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Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

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Message 3 of 6
karthur1
in reply to: sedington123

Do you put all the blanks on a single sheet in Inventor and export this one idw to dwg format?  Then when in Autocad, export this to DWF?

 

If that is what you are doing, then what option are you using during the export?  If I  am doing something like this, in order to get the parts scaled correctly, I make sure that:

1. All the views on the sheet are the same scale.

2. I use the "Base View Scale-Model Space" option during the export.

 

Using this option, if some of the views are not the same scale, they will not be full size in Autocad.

 

Kirk

Message 4 of 6
sedington123
in reply to: karthur1

I actually dont lay them out on a sheet at all for this particular task.  I am just making blanks to be laser cut.  Laser company has there own software to lay out sheets.  As far as exporting goes i choose the "Export to DWG" and save it as an AutoCAD file.  I am not sure about the option you mentioned (2. I use the "Base View Scale-Model Space" option during the export.).  

But maybe my problem was that all my views werent in the same ratio.  I always show a folded model in the right corner of my drawing as a reference for myself and whomever may be viewing the blank layout so we know what part it is.  My 3D model in the corner was scaled down to .4 while my flat blank had a .5 ratio.  Could this be the problem?

Message 5 of 6
karthur1
in reply to: sedington123


@sedington123 wrote:

.....  My 3D model in the corner was scaled down to .4 while my flat blank had a .5 ratio.  Could this be the problem?


Yes, that could do it.  I will try to explain "why".  When you export using that method (its basically the same as using the "Save Copy As" that I mentioned), notice at the bottom of the export dialog there is an "Options" button to the left of "Save". On the second page of these options is a Data Scaling input.  If you did not select the options button (I assume you didnt b/c you didnt know what I was talking about), then by default, the "Base View Scale - Model Space" is the option that it exports with.

 

2013-12-31_1100.png

 

Notice what is says below the option (Very important)  .....  With this option, when it exports the data, it scales based upon the FIRST view that is placed in the idw. So, If you placed the iso view at .4 scale first, then the flat..... the flat would be scale wrong (I think the flat would be 1.25 times the actual size).  If, however, you had placed the flat pattern view first, then it would be scaled correctly and the iso view would be scaled based upon that.

 

That is why I say that I always use the same scale in ALL views if this is for exporting.

 

Kirk

Message 6 of 6
sedington123
in reply to: karthur1

I would have never figured that out and probably would have made that same mistake in the future! thanks!

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