inventor 2018 drawing edit annotation and export

[Anonymous]

First of all as someone who has been using different CAD software for over 17 years, I want to use this forum to express my disappointment with Autodesk Inventor. I moved from Solidwork To Inventor because I though it would be better and smarter, but I couldn't be more wrong. Inventor is very unstable and anything you want to do is a hassle. The parametric design engine is unbelievably unstable and getting your results out in the form of renders or drawing is horrible. I doubt if the designers of the program are the real users themselves. I can feel that there is a mentality that they know better what is good for the user, instead of just giving them what they need. Autodesk needs to spend more resources on their product otherwise people will move. If you want to stay in the market, please read the forums and if you see people have difficulties with something just change it, instead of justifying. I hope you understand the value of honest criticism. 

But the problem I have: I'm trying to get some drawing exported from the CAD design, which I made a mistake making in Inventor. but I can't.

1. when I export into PDF the lines are too thick:

2. In the drawing itself I just can't move the annotation within the drawing. for example the annotation below is in the middle of the drawing, I just can't move it a little bit upwards!

3. To use the drawing in my paper I need to get vector output. I tried using DWG format but no other program is able to open that up. I tried exporting as DXF (not to mention that you have to go save as>save copy as and I don't know of any other program like this. you could just easily put in export or save as!!!! ). unfortunately no other program is able to open the DXF. I tried Inkscape, Illustrator...

[YannickEnrico]

Hi there

First of all, if they listened and changed according to every little bit of criticism, every other user would find it way too complex with even more menus and options in each menu. The program would be heavier as well.

Are you running it on Autodesk certified hardware? Do you have updated drivers? Then you shouldn't have so much trouble with it crashing. 

In regards to question 1, you have two options. 

Either remove the line weights in the PDF export, or change the line weights in the style library manager. See the screenshot for the options export.

Press options while you're in the save menu.

In regards to question two, you can move the annotation. See the screenshot. The marked points are for line extension and just moving the letter.

I thought illustrator was capable of reading DXF? Or maybe it can only export as DXF. Inkscape cannot open DXF either. You should be angry at the developers of Inkscape for that, though. The same goes for lack of file formats for Illustrator. 

Inventor can export PDF, GIF, JPG, PNG, that both Inkscape and Illustrator can open. 

[Anonymous]

Dear Yannick,

First of all thanks for your reply. you solved most of my issues. some points:

1. I still think that the inventor workflow is not intuitive. just consider the dxf export. you want to export in DXF. you go to save as or export but you don't find anything. you search on google, and he results show how to get export using some addons or etc. Why on earth should they put in save as copy?!

2. for line thickens your solution works and the exported PDF is better, but i still have no control over the thickness, though the result are way better.

3. for moving the annotation, It seems there are more of those green-points, which cause the confusion. 

 to move the annotation in the picture I would expect to move the green points upward and it works, but it doesn't. there is another green point at the end of the line which you need to drag. there are 3 anchors, one moving horizontally, the other vertically and one does nothing. that's why I think Inventor is not intuitive!

4 for DXF export you may see that Illustrator is not able to open the exported drawing:

[YannickEnrico]

I do understand your concern about export DXF not being intuitive. And I agree, there are places where Autodesk needs to work on the menus.

My point was simply, that even if they are listening to criticism, they can't implement it all, and still have a nice program.

Personally I've only briefly used SolidWorks, so I won't know how oslidWorks handles these things. All I know is that they are similar, and they each have their strengths and weaknesses.

Ad 2.

You can go to Manage -> Styles Editor and change thicknesses of the lines. 
I know that can be confusing because there are tons of styles. Instead you can right click the lines you want to change and choose Edit Style. 
That way it opens the Style Library on the style that the given line is using.

Ad 3.
Personally, I find it nicer that there are more anchors for different parts of the line. That way I feel I have better control of it. It might not make too much sense for the section view, but if you use the Ordinate Set dimension for instance, it makes much more sense. 
That was why I highlighted the anchors you needed, though, because I understand it can be confusing. 

Ad 4. 
Try and choose an earlier DXF version. Maybe illustrator cannot handle DXF 2018, but only DXF 2013 or 2010? Again, in the save menu, click options, and you can choose the DXF version it exports. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot for your replies. 

about DXF export: I checked and Inkscape is able to open them, but not the ones out of Inventor, so is not Illustrator. I tried old version back to 2000, none works. 

[YannickEnrico]

From personal experience, I believe that to be a problem with Illustrator and Inkscape, then.

In my old job, I would export tons of DXF for laser cutting. They opened fine in TruTops. 

Is there any of the files that AutoCAD exports that Illustrator and / or Inkscape can handle? Because then you can try opening your DWG with AutoCAD, and then exporting using that. 

[Anonymous]

I tried AutoCAD export too. It does not work either. 

[YannickEnrico]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Workflow-Autodesk-Inventor-to-Illustrator-for-Lase/

Maybe this work flow will work? 

Don't know if it's for a laser or not, but they seem to make it go through Illustrator