About Creating Factory Layouts

A factory layout is an Inventor assembly file that contains additional data used by the Factory Design Utilities add-in. There are two factory layout templates; one uses metric units and the other uses inches. Depending on which units you select during installation, one of them is copied to the default template directory and renamed StandardFactoryLayout.iam.

When you click New Layout on the Factory Launch panel of the Get Started tab, it looks for and uses the StandardFactoryLayout.iam template file. If you click New on the Quick Access toolbar, the New File dialog box displays the Inventor template files. The Default tab contains the standard templates. When you click the Factory tab, the Factory Layout (in).iam and Factory layout (mm).iam template files are displayed.

If you want to create a factory layout with different units, you can access the template from the New File dialog box. If you want to change an existing file, you can specify the units using Document Settings on the Options panel of the Tools tab.

A new factory layout can also be created from an existing AutoCAD DWG file. If the AutoCAD layout contains any placed 2D assets or chainable assets from AutoCAD Factory, they are automatically replaced with their 3D equivalents when opened in Inventor Factory. The New Layout from DWG command essentially combines the Add DWG Overlay and Auto-place 3D Assets commands into a single, streamlined operation. It also creates a bi-directional associative link, called Layout Sync, between the AutoCAD 2D layout and the Inventor 3D layout.

Note: The New Layout from DWG command is accessed by clicking the New Layout drop-down menu on the Factory Launch panel of the Get Started tab. If a factory layout is already open, click Factory tab Suite Workflows panel Create from AutoCAD .