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Hundreds of drawings to export - is there a macro?

Printed From: CAD Forum
Category: EN
Forum Name: Inventor
Forum Description: Discussion about Autodesk Inventor
URL: https://www.cadforum.cz/forum_en/forum_posts.asp?TID=2654
Printed Date: 08.May.2026 at 09:54


Topic: Hundreds of drawings to export - is there a macro?
Posted By: Kunoichi
Subject: Hundreds of drawings to export - is there a macro?
Date Posted: 11.Nov.2009 at 11:51
Hi,
 
I'm using Inventor 2010 and produce the drawings in .dwg format (not .idw - dont ask me why - the company I work for do it this way).
 
When checking files into Vault a .dwf is produced and we usually send those, however our client wants 2D drawings in .dwg format (so he can tinker with the drawings/use them in layouts etc)
 
I have to manually open each Inventor .dwg and save as an Autocad .dwg
 
There are hundreds of drawings... it takes hours!
 
Does anyone know of a macro or program that will export Inventor. dwg's in Autocad .dwg format files???
 
Many thanks In Advance!!


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Ku


Replies:
Posted By: KobusErasmus
Date Posted: 12.Nov.2009 at 11:07
As far as I know you dont have to do that.  Autocad will open them anyway a slong as they are saved as Inventor dwg files.  I actually checked now, it does open, you do not have to save it specifically as an Autocad dwg.

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Kobus Erasmus
Piping design draughting
Contract draughting

Posted By: Kunoichi
Date Posted: 12.Nov.2009 at 16:14
Hi Kobus,
 
Thanks for replying. I am actually after a code or program to export the Inventor.dwgs into AutoCad.dwgs.
 
As far as I'm aware when opening Inventor.dwgs in AutoCAD, AutoCAD acts as a 'viewer' only and the drawings cannot be edited. Also the Inventor.dwgs would be too big to email.
 
As I explained, our client needs to be able to edit the 2D drawings
(fully edit them - blocks are no good).
 
 
but thanks anyway!!


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Ku

Posted By: KobusErasmus
Date Posted: 19.Nov.2009 at 08:02
Ok, I understand what you want.  The problem is the fundamental difference in the way IV creates a drawing to the Autocad does.  There is no way to do it like you want, this issue has been discussed on various Autodesk seminars and discussion groups for the last few years.  IV's idw is basically just a reference to the original 3D model (almost like an xref) which gives it the ability to be updated. 
 
I suppose one can write a macro or lisp that will combine the 3D model and the 2D drawing into one file, but your paperspace objects will always be blocks, unless you then go and reproduce that one by one.  Sorry but I cannot see and easy way of doing this.  Get your client to upgrade to IV, it gives them much better design abilities than Autocad does....
 
Maybe somebody has solved this problem - I would like to see how it was done, but in reality when looking at the difficulties in doing this, I doubt it.
 
Regards


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Kobus Erasmus
Piping design draughting
Contract draughting

Posted By: KobusErasmus
Date Posted: 19.Nov.2009 at 19:23
I have to correct myself, if you use the "Save copy as" option in IV, and select the option "Autocad Drawings (DWG)" you then get a 2D drawing of your drawing sheet that can be edited the usual way in Autocad.  And seeing that it is a normal meu command, I am sure somebody with some VB knowledge can put together a bit of code that can do this as a macro.
 
My apologies for first taking you down the wrong path, but your question made me think and investigate.
 
Regards


-------------
Kobus Erasmus
Piping design draughting
Contract draughting


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