Export of drawing data to AutoCAD

You can export an Autodesk Inventor drawing file in AutoCAD format when you must fully translate the content into AutoCAD objects and access to the AutoCAD geometric entities in the view blocks (for example, lines, arcs circles, and so on).

Note on saving drawing files as Autodesk Inventor Drawings (.dwg)

Autodesk Inventor files saved in Autodesk Inventor Drawing (*.dwg) format can be opened directly in AutoCAD where you can view, plot, and measure the Autodesk Inventor data. Autodesk Inventor drawing views remain linked to the parts and assemblies from which the views are created. However, this drawing data is not fully editable in AutoCAD. If you require a drawing that is 100% editable in AutoCAD, then export the file.

For more information, see .

DWG file translation

The AutoCAD Drawing (.dwg) files are created according to the options you set when exporting an Autodesk Inventor drawing file.

• If your drawing file contains multiple sheets, you can choose to export all sheets or make a selection of each sheet you want to export. The Out of Date icon is displayed next to each sheet, part, and feature that is not up-to-date as a notification of the state of the sheet and its contents.
• You can choose to export only Model geometry or export all data. Exporting Model Geometry only exports the base and projected views and excludes annotations, dimensions, section views, detail views, text, and so on, from being exported.
• Geometry can be exported to its true dimensional size ignoring the scale factor set in Drawing View dialog box. Or, geometry can be exported to the scale factor set in the Drawing View dialog box.
• You can export drawing files to model space or layout. A new DWG file is created for every sheet in your drawing file when exporting to model space or layout.

Create template to export AutoCAD drawing

To deliver a DWG file from Autodesk Inventor that is fully editable in AutoCAD, an Autodesk Inventor drawing (*.dwg) may not completely satisfy that requirement. You may still need to use translation to export an AutoCAD drawing. Work in DWG format and start with a translation-friendly DWG template to improve translation results and reduce post-translation cleanup work in AutoCAD.

For more information, see Create drawing templates.

Mapping line types, annotations, and colors

When exporting an Autodesk Inventor drawing to an AutoCAD or AutoCAD Mechanical file, you can map the line types in the drawing to the AutoCAD line types in the destination file.

The translator compares the definitions in the two files and sets the default mapping to an appropriate match when possible. If no appropriate match can be found, the Autodesk Inventor line style is mapped to the Continuous AutoCAD line type. You can use the Mappings Options dialog box to change the default mapping.

Note: LIN files (.lin) contain one or more AutoCAD line type definitions. Each definition contains a name, a description, and a set of numerical codes. Each definition spans two lines. The first line contains the line type name and a description. The second line contains the numerical codes that define the actual line type pattern.

You can use any .lin file as the source of AutoCAD line types. To use a different .lin file, in the Line Type dialog box, click Browse to find and select the appropriate file. Note that changing the current .lin file or selecting the current .lin file again causes Autodesk Inventor to reset the line style mappings to default values based on the selected file.

The Continuous AutoCAD line type is always available regardless of the contents of the current .lin file.

Click Reset defaults to reset Autodesk Inventor to use the default .lin file and default line style mappings.

You can choose to export dimensions as AutoCAD dimensions or as lines and text. You can export symbols as AutoCAD blocks or as lines and text. You can also select to use AutoCAD color indices for entities and layers.

Saving in AutoCAD Mechanical format

If AutoCAD Mechanical is installed on your computer, you can set options to save the drawing in a format that uses AutoCAD Mechanical capabilities.

Part references are created according to the following rules:

• You can specify whether to create the part references for all the parts in an assembly or just the first level parts and subassembly components. The name of each part reference is the file name for the component.
• Layer groups are created for each part or component instance in the assembly. The geometry and annotations associated with the component are placed on the layers in the appropriate layer group.
• Part references are not created for parts that are not visible in the Autodesk Inventor drawing.
• If there are multiple base views in the Autodesk Inventor drawing, the first base view on the first sheet is used as the basis for parts list information.