3D AutoCAD to Inventor

[dhdschamp]

Is there a "BEST WAY" to exort 3D AutoCAD and import into Inventor 2016?

I tried as IMPORT DWG and walked through the menus. This way takes a VERY long time, but I seem to get all the files/assemblies, when it works.

I tried exporting the AutoCAD out as an SAT file, then importing into Inventor... Some of the parts/assemblies don't seem to make it all the way through though, so I end up with something that almost unusable. A co-worker said to explode the AutoCAD assembly first. That helped, but still not a complete export/import.

I'd appreciate info for doing it 2 ways:

1. On Import, it is an assembly with individual parts

2. On Import, it becomes 1 solid part (or I think composite, is what it might be?)

There has to be a "best way"... I just need some help with how to do it best or would make most sense.

Thank you!

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi dhdschamp,

3D AutoCAD can be a lot of things (Solids, surfaces, proxy objects, etc.)

Can you attach example file that other can look at?

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[dhdschamp]

How do I attach an example? Not sure what you mean... A screenshot?

[Curtis_Waguespack]

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@dhdschamp wrote:

How do I attach an example?

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Hi dhdschamp,

See this image for where to find the Attach button in the Reply page.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[dhdschamp]

I'll try once the import that I started finishes... It has been 20 minutes now and I have know idea how much longer this is going to take.  The first time that I tried the import, it gave me an error because it didn't like that I still had the file open in AutoCAD.

[JDMather]

Run the -dwgunits command in AutoCAD and read the command prompt.

Are the document units reported what you really intended (for most of AutoCAD history in was not "units aware" and this trips up a lot of translations.

Run the List command and select any geometry that wasn't getting translated when using the SAT output.

What does the command line report as the geometry type? 

You should not be exploding anything unless you know what you are doing.

The only thing you should explode is blocks and then List should report 3d solid.

But if you explode a 3d solid you have gone too far.