Using BIM Collaborate/BIM360 with Inventor.

[KobusE]

Good morning,

I am assuming most of the Inventor users work in some sort of mechanical design environment and probably use something like Vault or similar to control their work, even if it is the free version.

Just curious, who also uses something like BIM Collaborate / BIM360, either in parallel with a PLM/PDM or just on its own? What is the general feeling about using BIM with Inventor knowing as we do that it actually is primarily aimed at the building construction industry and Autodesk seems to stick to that approach?

I use BIM Collaborate to enhance my remote work and freelance practice and have found that whenever I introduce it to a client, they actually appreciate it for the enhancements in our workflows and communications, even using it in a mechanical environment. I would enjoy a direct link between Inventor and BIM Collaborate though.

Just my Friday thoughts....

Awesome weekend for everybody.

Kobus

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Inventor is a desktop CAD application. In general, it does not interact with cloud drive or cloud path directly. Currently, it requires Desktop Connector to link your Inventor files to BIM360 or Fusion Team.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2021/ENU/Inve...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/bim-360-team-forum/inventor-workflow/td-p/7975026

Many thanks!

[kobus_erasmus2BMH6]

Good day,

Almost 3 years later and I am still fighting this battle. Some points on this:

1. We are using Desktop Connector - it is still a buggy application but its the only one.
2. I understand the difference between Inventor being a desktop application and ACC / BIM Collaborate being a cloud based application. So is AutoCAD Plant 3D a desktop based application but it works (almost) seamlessly with ACC.
3. I have been told by our reseller that Autodesk does not really recommend using Inventor in the ACC environment, but like most projects and reality based design offices, we have a project where this is the better way of doing what we do. We have a project where we have 2 teams, one using Plant 3D and one using Inventor, and the models have to be coordinated. We are using ACC because we have teams in different physical locations as well, and ACC works great for Plant 3D.
4. Some of the issues we have noted with using Inventor on ACC:
   1. Inventor files sometimes do not sync back to ACC. We eventually get to a point where we have to save the files in a local folder, uninstall Desktop Connector, reinstall and move the files back into the proper folder. This is a solution we found after many trial and error efforts.
   2. Inventor assemblies seems to only sync back to ACC once one saves and closes the assembly file. As long as you remember this, it should not be an issue, but it does bite us from time to time.
   3. Content Centre parts location should be set up so it resides in the ACC environment, but that creates its own problems. We work around this by placing all Content Centre parts as Custom options, which sort of negates the advantages of having a CC (my opinion only).

So in all, using IV in ACC is doable but not painless. It might be something that Autodesk wants to investigate, using BIM does not necessarily mean that we use Revit (over my dead body) or Fusion (not really suitable for what we do). I go back to my earlier question of anyone having developed a workflow or method that allows a more seamless work environment for Inventor in BIM Collaboration. Let's hear about it.....

Regards

Kobus

[rena_andrews]

Hi,

Not sure if this will be of much help for your use case but thought it might be worth mentioning, especially if you are using Vault Professional. I know some folks use Vault to sync projects with ACC, as it gives you a little more customization when it comes to how and when the projects are synced. You can schedule or manually upload/download to and from your mapped cloud drive (in this case ACC) and specify the direction (or bi-directional sync). I'm no Vault expert so there could be some other limitations here, but perhaps it could help alleviate some of the current pain points with synchronizing projects. Here's some info from Vault Help: Vault 2025 | Project Sync  

Thanks,

Rena