How to Import in Inventor

January 2015
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW IN VXMODEL _____________________________________________ 3

2 REVERSE FROM VXMODEL ENTITIES________________________________________________ 4

2.1 HOW TO IMPORT A MESH FILE INTO INVENTOR ______________________________________________ 4
2.2 HOW TO IMPORT ENTITIES INTO INVENTOR_________________________________________________ 4
2.3 HOW TO IMPORT A GROUP OF ENTITIES SAVED IN THE SAME IGES FILE _______________________________ 5
2.4 HOW TO USE ENTITIES TO BUILD A CAD MODEL ______________________________________________ 6

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1 GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW IN VXMODEL
In order to import successfully your entities into Inventor, you should export the entities
in an .iges file from VXmodel.

Once imported, the entities will be converted into an Inventor item. Each imported item
will be displayed in the project tree with an increment number.

Tips: If you import a file containing more than 1 entity (ex: 3 planes in
one .iges file), you will have a single item in Inventor containing all the
entities and NOT 1 item per entity. Refer to section 2 for more details on
how to import entities.

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2 REVERSE FROM VXMODEL ENTITIES
2.1 HOW TO IMPORT A MESH FILE INTO INVENTOR
• Go to ‘‘Open file’’.

• Select .STL in the ‘’Type of files’’ box. To change the units for the import process,
click on ‘’Options…’’ at the bottom of the window.

Tips: In Inventor, the STL helps visualizing the entire part as you are doing
the reverse engineering. This “Graphic” STL must be opened with “Open file”.
This will prevent having unit issues, as the “Import” tool for an STL does not
allow to change the units of the import process.

2.2 HOW TO IMPORT ENTITIES INTO INVENTOR

• Once the mesh file is open in Inventor, go to the ‘’Manage’’ tab and click on ‘’Import’’.

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• Select the correct type of files (.iges) and open your file.

2.3 HOW TO IMPORT A GROUP OF ENTITIES SAVED IN THE SAME IGES FILE
• Follow the same workflow described in section 2.2, but click on ‘’Options…’’ before
opening the file.

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• Change the following options for a successful import.

2.4 HOW TO USE ENTITIES TO BUILD A CAD MODEL

Once in Inventor, the ‘’Surface Imported’’ and ‘’Imported’’ entities can be:
- Modified
- Used as reference “Sketch Plane”
- Trimmed together to shape a solid
- Used to cut solid.

‘’Imported Curve’’ can be used:

- As reference for sketches
- For measurements between different areas (points).

What cannot be done:

- Use the ‘’Imported curves’’ to create solid operations.

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