Dimension Commands

Many AutoCAD commands are equivalent to commands in Autodesk Inventor. Autodesk Inventor has additional commands that have no equivalent in AutoCAD. In AutoCAD, you create 2D geometries to the required dimensions. In Autodesk Inventor, the dimensions drive the geometry parametrically.

Several commands in Autodesk Inventor combine the functionality of multiple single commands in AutoCAD. The General Dimension command creates a linear dimension when you select one or two elements, a diameter dimension when you select a circle, and a radius dimension when you select an arc. This command replaces several single-purpose AutoCAD commands.

This table shows AutoCAD Dimension commands and the corresponding Autodesk Inventor Dimension commands in 2D Sketch environment.

AutoCAD		Autodesk Inventor
	Linear Dimension		General Dimension
	Aligned Dimension		General Dimension
	Radius Dimension		General Dimension
	Diameter Dimension		General Dimension
	Angular Dimension		General Dimension
	Edit Dimension		Double-click the dimension

In addition, some AutoCAD Dimension commands have corresponding Autodesk Inventor commands that can only be used when dimensioning in a drawing file (IDW or DWG).

AutoCAD		Autodesk Inventor
	Baseline Dimension		Baseline Dimension
	Continue Dimension		General Dimension
	Ordinate Dimension		Ordinate Dimension
	Quick Dimension		Baseline Dimension Set
			Ordinate Dimension Set
	Quick Leader		Leader Text
	Tolerance Dimension		Feature Control Frame
	Center Mark		Center Mark

Note on opening DWG files

If you do not require AutoCAD objects translated into Autodesk Inventor objects, you can directly open any AutoCAD DWB file in Autodesk Inventor. You can then view, plot, and measure the file contents. Objects display exactly as they do in AutoCAD. In addition, all the AutoCAD data is selectable for copy and paste. You can open an AutoCAD DWG file in Autodesk Inventor, and then copy and paste AutoCAD entities into any Autodesk Inventor sketch.

AutoCAD dimensions enter as AutoCAD dimensions. In Autodesk Inventor, they can be viewed and plotted.

Note: Use the Dimension command to measure AutoCAD objects in Autodesk Inventor. However, AutoCAD dimensions in Autodesk Inventor are not associative. Any changes made to an AutoCAD dimension in Autodesk Inventor are not updated in the corresponding file in AutoCAD file.

For more information, see Working directly with DWG