DWG TrueConnect; the secret strength of Inventor 2008

- Thom Tremblay

When Autodesk Inventor 2008 was released it included a monumental and largely unheralded feature; DWG TrueConnect.

So you didn’t hear about it? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I’ve been finding both in my travels to different campuses, through the Q&A section on the Education Community, and in speaking with users that a lot of people would like it to be easier to share information with AutoCAD users but don’t realize that with DWG TrueConnect it can’t get much easier.

What is DWG TrueConnect?

Let’s start with what DWG TrueConnect allows and doesn’t allow. We’ll break this down for the Inventor user and the AutoCAD user.

Capabilities for Inventor users:

·         Reuse existing AutoCAD templates (.DWG) to maintain consistency

·         Open, View, and Print AutoCAD drawings (regardless of version) without installing AutoCAD

·         Create 2D drawings that can be opened directly in AutoCAD 2008

·         Copy data directly from the AutoCAD drawing for reuse in Inventor

·         Add drawing views, text, and other information to existing AutoCAD drawings

·         Add ‘Layouts’ to an existing AutoCAD drawing

·         Cannot modify existing AutoCAD geometry

Capabilities for AutoCAD users:

·         Open Inventor Drawings without the need for a conversion process

·         Drag and drop Inventor drawing views into existing AutoCAD drawings as blocks through Design Center

·         Add notes, details, existing blocks and other standard information to the Inventor Drawing

·         Add ‘Sheets’ to an existing Inventor Drawing

·         Cannot modify Inventor component views

What’s more is this can all be controlled through Autodesk Vault. You can even find demonstrations of the tool on the web. Here’s an example I found on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onVegWVpIZc 

How do I start using DWG TrueConnect?

So, how do you get this to work? If you installed Inventor 2008 with preferences for the AutoCAD user you’re probably creating .DWG files already. If you installed with the Inventor preferences you can change your settings to allow for creating .DWG files as your default.

To do so go to the ‘Tools’ pull down menu and select ‘Application Options’. In Application Options you can select the ‘Drawing’ tab and choose to use .DWG as your standard as show below here.

   

(Click picture for large view)

 

What about my existing .IDW files?

Whether or not you convert any of your existing .IDW drawings to .DWG is entirely up to you. There’s no difference in the quality or capabilities of the drawing, just in how easy it is to exchange with AutoCAD users.

To convert an existing .IDW file simply open it and us the ‘Save As’ tool by changing the ‘File of Type’ to .DWG. Saving the file to .DWG will create a new file. This new .DWG file will have the same associative behavior as the .IDW file had. The .IDW file will still remain until you delete it if you should choose to.

If you have a lot of .IDW files and would like to convert them in bulk you can set up an automatic or manual conversion through the Task Scheduler.

What if I use older versions of AutoCAD?

Object enablers are available to allow AutoCAD Releases back to 2000 to open Inventor 2008 .DWG files directly. Note that Inventor can open old AutoCAD drawings without an enabler so everything will be OK "round tripping" the data. I've personally used AutoCAD V 2.17 data in Inventor and regularly demonstrate the use of AutoCAD Release 9 data and it's associative dimenstions. Here are the links to then enablers:

AutoCAD 2007 DWG TrueConnect Object Enabler:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9611377&linkID=9242019 

AutoCAD 2004 (2005, 2006) DWG TrueConnect Object Enabler:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9611360&linkID=9240618 

AutoCAD 2000 (2000i, 2002) DWG TrueConnect Object Enabler:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9611336&linkID=9240618 

Who would want to create Inventor Drawings as .DWG files rather than .IDW?

An easier question to answer would be “who wouldn’t?” DWG is the standard for engineering communication around the world. IDW worked well and there was nothing wrong with the format other than the fact you had to convert it to .DWG to communicate with so many people. If you can have all of the great drawing creation and editing capabilities Inventor had with the .IDW file plus you can send files directly to AutoCAD users, why wouldn’t you?

Explore DWG TrueConnect and I think you’ll enjoy the experience and the opportunities it creates for streamlining your workflow.