Solidworks to Inventor

Discussion created by 1-ABXXD2 on May 1, 2009
Latest reply on May 19, 2009 by Chad Schmidt

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Does anyone use Inventor and import assemblies from solidworks? I
normally would save a solidworks assembly file as a step file because
it should be the most application friendly translation. I don't have
inventor and would appreciate any verification on what it can import
while still maintaining the ability to be manipulated into position or
measured.

Thanks in advance

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8 Replies

Louis Kaltenrieder May 12, 2009 4:39 AM
I use both Inventor and SW2009. There doesn't seem to be any major problems as I usually convert the SW part to a STEP file and then import it into Inventor. There are always the exceptions! I have noticed that Inventor is not always too hot in importing or exporting files! Most of the time, however, you should not experience any problems. STEP is probably the safest way to do the conversion. Good luck!
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Kevin De Smet May 12, 2009 4:49 AM
It's deceiving how Inventor demos show you direct import of CATIA V5 files for example, I somehow have a hard time believing that...
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- Louis Kaltenrieder @ Kevin De Smet on May 12, 2009 10:28 AM
  Inventor does seem to be lacking in its ability to import and export other file formats. For importing into Inventor, STEP seems the most reliable, Parasolid doesn't seem to work and neither does SAT or IGES. I recently had a part in SW that was created using surfaces and then converted to a solid. I created a STEP file and imported it into Inventor only to find Inventor had imported it as surfaces and not a solid. The only format that worked: In SW I saved the solid as a Pro-E file and then imported it into Inventor!! Go figure!!!
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Ricky Jordan May 13, 2009 2:24 AM
Most of the Inventor users I talk to prefer to stay FAR FAR away from IGES files. I experimented a while back with Inventor LT when it was a free download and saw first hand why. STEP or ACIS (.sat) are your best bets.
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Kevin De Smet May 13, 2009 5:35 AM
I haven't had much success with .IGES in SolidWorks either.
On a recent part I worked on, multiple faces were just gone!
While .STEP was flawless and of course so was .X_T.

I will admit the faces that were gone were difficult n-sided faces with lots of curvature - but still - the other two formats could handle them.
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Ed Burris May 19, 2009 2:10 PM
Both SW and IV claim the ability to import native geometry from several other solid modeling packages, but from what I've experienced, the capability is less than claimed. I've never gotten IV to import SW geometry unless the SW file was AT LEAST one release older than the current IV release. We always save the SW file as a .stp and then open it in IV, and we also have the problem of any part that has lofts or sweeps coming in as a surface model. Going the other direction, IV to SW is pretty much the same, although we've not had AS MUCH of the problem of geometry coming in as surfaces. With SW2009, we're experiencing a lot more heartburn just getting SW to save a large assembly (8856 instances of 466 parts) as a step. It starts the save as, then hangs up and never finishes.
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Stephen Gioacchini May 19, 2009 4:22 PM
I am currently in this situation. A client wants a step file to import to inventor. SW for some reason is not doing it. I get a .err file instead.

I sent him an iges but he says inventor doesn't like that. Now I sent him a parasolid and waiting to hear.

Any clue why I can't export ti step file? I can't see anything I am doing wrong.
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Chad Schmidt May 19, 2009 11:05 PM
Inventor used too only support versions upto 7 for the ACIS format. I'm unsure if this is still the case but if it is then you shouldn't send ACIS (*.sat) to Inventor users. One of the many reasons I stopped using this Inventor.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/s...5222009&linkID=9242018
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Solidworks to Inventor

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