Guest Post by R.K. McSwain of the ‘CAD Panacea’

One of the new features of AutoCAD 2013 is the ability to import 3D models from a variety of sources including Autodesk Inventor. All versions of Inventor Part (.ipt) and Assembly (.iam) files are supported.

To get started, click the Insert tab, Import Panel, Import button. Change the files of type to Inventor, browse to find your file, and then click Open. The following information dialogs may appear.

Click OK on both and the Inventor model will be imported in the background while you continue working. Depending on the size and complexity of the Inventor part or assembly, it may take several minutes. Once the import process is complete, a bubble will appear in the tray.

Click the link in the bubble and the part will be inserted as a block, on layer 0, into the drawing at coordinate 0,0. This block contains the 3d model which can be used just like any other 3D model in AutoCAD. Use the new tools on the layout tab to create 2D documentation from this model. Kate Morrical has just finished a nice three part article on documenting 3D models in AutoCAD 2013.

The completed part as imported is shown here.

Thank you R.K. McSwain of the ‘CAD Panacea’.

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