Promote drawing dimensions

When you import AutoCAD data into a drawing, dimensions are placed on the drawing sheet as drawing dimensions. The geometry is placed on a sketch associated to a draft view . You can promote the dimensions to the sketch and use them to control the size of the geometry parametrically.

1. Click Open.
2. Select an AutoCAD file and click Open.
3. Click Options and select Next.
4. In the Layers and Objects Import Options dialog box, select Next.
5. In the Import Destination dialog box, select Promote Dimensions to Sketch.

You can also promote the dimensions to sketch dimensions after importing an AutoCAD file.

1. Select the dimensions to promote.
2. Right-click and select Promote to Sketch from the menu.

After a dimension is promoted, it behaves the same way as any sketch dimension. You can edit it or change its format and display.

Note on opening DWG files

If you do not require AutoCAD objects translated into Autodesk Inventor objects, you can directly open any AutoCAD DWG (.dwg) 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: You can use the dimension command to measure AutoCAD objects in Autodesk Inventor. AutoCAD dimensions in Autodesk Inventor are not associative and any changes made to an AutoCAD dimension in Autodesk Inventor are not updated in the corresponding file in AutoCAD file.

For more information, see .