step files produce varied units and constraints

[Anonymous]

For some reason when I make a step file I have to set every single item in an assembly to identical units or when I open them in CAD I a group of different scales.  On top of that I'll have parts in weird places that are not where they were in the assy.  Is there a way to fix this, it's quite a pain to have to modify every part in a library to one set of units just to transfer files.

[Jon.Dean]

Firstly just to be sure. Are you going from Inventor to STEP or from STEP to Inventor?

I you have an example I could do some testing for you.

Jon.

[Anonymous]

Inventor 2011 to step to ACAD Mechanical.  I'll try to send a file.

[Jon.Dean · Accepted solution]

Interesting workflow. From what you say I assume you are take a 3D model from Inventor and via STEP, importing into AutoCAD.

I would have thought that a better workflow would be to go via SAT format, which is the Autodesk native format.

[Anonymous]

I'll try the SAT, I've never used that before. 

What I'm doing is taking files from IV and then bringing them into ACAD where I can slice them.  I use ACAD to do this so that I don't have to do a copy object and split a few thousand times.  Once they're sliced I bring them back into inventor because the measurement options and picture quality is superior. 

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'll try the SAT, I've never used that before. 

What I'm doing is taking files from IV and then bringing them into ACAD where I can slice them.  I use ACAD to do this so that I don't have to do a copy object and split a few thousand times.  Once they're sliced I bring them back into inventor because the measurement options and picture quality is superior. 

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I don't understand why you need AutoCAD to do this and can't do directly in Inventor.
Can you post an example (or make up a simple example if your dateset is proprietary).

There might be an easier way.