Drawings Workflow

A drawing communicates engineering design to manufacturing, purchasing, customer service, and others. Each company has standards for drawing content, based on the type of product and on established internal processes.

When you create a drawing file, it opens with a default sheet containing the border, title block, and other elements specified in the template.

Drawing format

When you create a drawing, you can use the default template, another predefined template, or a custom template that incorporates conventions and standard elements used by your company.

Standard drawing templates are installed with Autodesk Inventor. During installation, you specify which standard to use as the default. Your selection adds the appropriate default drawing template to the Templates directory.

The default template is Standard.idw. You can customize this file or create other templates.

Drawing views

Start by specifying a base view. Select a part or assembly file for the view, and specify a design view representation if the file is an assembly. You can create views of multiple parts or assemblies in the same drawing.

In an assembly, turn off visibility of those components that should not be seen in a drawing view. Save the simplified view in a design view representation and use it to generate uncluttered drawing views.

If your sheet format includes predefined drawing views, views are added automatically.

Drawing annotations

After placing views, add notes, dimensions, centerlines, center marks, symbols, and other annotations. The default attributes for most annotations are controlled by styles in the style library associated with the active drafting standard. If you are not using a style library, define annotation styles and store them in the drawing template file.

You can use the model dimensions defined in the design phase or add drawing dimensions that serve as annotations but do not alter the model. You can change model dimensions from the drawing, if that option was selected when Autodesk Inventor was installed.

A drawing sketch is a special form of annotation that acts as an overlay view to a drawing sheet. If a view is selected when you create a sketch, the sketch is associated with the view. Use the commands on the sketch tab to draw 2D sketch geometry. After you close a sketch, you can add drawing dimensions and associate symbols to the sketch geometry.

Printing a drawing

You can print all or just part of your drawing. Set the print options to print the appropriate portion of the drawing.

Use the Multi-Sheet Plot wizard to print multiple drawing sheets that include drawings of various sizes. You can select IDW, 2D DWF, and DWG files.

Model iProperties in drawings

Drawing Document settings provide a mechanism to copy values of selected model iProperties to the drawing iProperties on the first view creation. Copied model iProperties can be used in parts lists, title blocks, and other annotations that access model or drawing iProperties.

Model iProperties copied to a drawing are not refreshed automatically when the model is updated. Use the Update Copied Model iProperties command to refresh the iProperties.

Model iProperties are copied and updated in the drawing from a source model. The source model is always the top model from the first drawing view on the first drawing sheet. The source model is not available if:

Custom iProperties in drawings

Use the Additional Custom Model iProperty Source option in drawing Document Settings to make custom iProperties from an external file available in the drawing.

Additional custom iProperties are added to the Custom Property - Model list in the Format Text dialog box. The original drawing custom properties do not change.

Tip Add custom iProperties from an external file: