To Insert or Break Links in Models and Drawings

You can link or embed external files in an Inventor model or drawing.

To insert links

You can link or embed external files (such as spreadsheets or word processing documents) in an Autodesk Inventor model or drawing. When you insert an object, a 3rd Party folder is added as the first folder in the browser. All linked or embedded files are found under the 3rd Party folder.

1. On the ribbon, click Manage tab Insert panel Insert Object.

2. In the Insert Object dialog box, choose the options to achieve the desired result:

   • To create a file, select the object type and select Create New. The application for the object type opens so that you can create the object. The new object is embedded in the model or drawing and does not exist as a separate file.

   • To embed the content of an existing file, select Create from File then click Browse to find the file. After the file is embedded, you can make changes that do not affect the source file.

     Note: You can link to an embedded file from another Inventor model or drawing. When you edit the external file from the linked file and save the edits, only the Inventor file where the external file was embedded is updated. Close the external file to update the linked Inventor file.

   • To link to an existing file, select Create from File, select Link, and then click Browse to find the file. After the file is added to the Autodesk Inventor file, any changes you make also change the source file. Save the edits to show the updates in Autodesk Inventor.

To break links

1. On the ribbon, click Tools tab Options panel Links.
2. In the Document Links and Embeddings dialog box, select the document with the link you want to break.
3. With the document name highlighted in the dialog box, click the Break Link button.