What's New

Two new application options have been added to the Launchpad to expedite workflows.

• Installation Drawing - Launches Inventor or AutoCAD depending on which application was last loaded. Select the part or assembly to be detailed, and then select the drawing template file to be used.
• 3D Layout from DWG - Starts Inventor Factory and creates a new 3D factory layout from a 2D AutoCAD drawing. Any 2D assets in the original DWG are replaced with their 3D equivalents in Inventor.

The asset browser tooltips in both AutoCAD Factory and Inventor Factory now display more information, as well as report the status of cloud-based assets.

Additionally, two new folders have been added to the Asset Browser.

• Favorites - Frequently placed assets can now be added to, or removed from, a Favorites folder for quick and easy access.
• Search Results - Assets matching search criteria are placed in a separate Search Results folder for easy reference.

New AutoCAD Factory Suite Workflows tools enable you to create a bi-directional associative link between a 2D AutoCAD layout and a 3D Inventor Factory layout. The link, called Layout Sync, can be established between Inventor and AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD Mechanical.

• Sync Inventor - Starts Inventor and creates a 3D factory layout from an open 2D drawing
• Create from Inventor - Creates a new 2D DWG from an existing 3D layout
• Update from Inventor - Changes made in a 3D layout are replicated in the 2D drawing
• Break Link with Inventor - Breaks the associative link between AutoCAD and Inventor

Certain types of factory assets such as conveyors, safety fencing, and walls are always connected or "chained" together. You can now quickly create connected assets using a procedure called Asset Chaining.

• Asset paths can be created interactively or by using existing 2D polylines
• Automatically populated with 3D equivalents when opened in Inventor Factory
• Chainable assets are represented in the Asset Browser with this icon

You can trim and remove unwanted portions of a DWG overlay using the new Crop Overlay command. Cropping removes unwanted areas of an overlay by retaining only the portion contained within two diagonal corners.

Single or multiple solids created in an AutoCAD DWG file can now be imported into Inventor Factory for asset creation. You have the option to import multiple solids as multi-body parts or as an assembly (the default).

Inventor Factory assets have properties similar to iProperties. These properties can be defined using iProperties or by using the new Asset Properties command.

Asset Properties dialog - General tab

The General tab shows the name, author, and other statistics for the active Inventor Factory asset. Although several of these fields are populated automatically, they can be changed.

Asset Properties dialog - Custom tab

The Custom tab adds custom properties to the selected asset. Use custom properties to classify and manage your Factory assets.

2D assets can be difficult to modify if variations are required in a 2D factory layout. The new Asset Variants command provides a very powerful solution by creating and publishing both 3D and 2D assets with dimensional (or other) variations. They can easily be selected and placed on the AutoCAD factory floor to satisfy the differing dimensional requirements.

Once an asset variant is placed (whether in AutoCAD or Inventor), it can easily be replaced with a different variation. Select the placed asset in the layout, right-click and select its replacement from the Asset Variant submenu.

Asset variants are distinguished from other assets in the Asset Browser with an icon that appears at the upper left of the asset. The numeral in the icon represents the number of variants defined for that asset.

• Assets can be published locally or to the cloud
• Pits and platforms added to publishable asset types
• New, streamlined Publish Asset dialog box
• New Publish Preview dialog box

Formerly called Elevate Floor, the new Reposition Floor command adds X and Y axis controls to the Z axis for greater repositioning flexibility.

Triad positioning flexibility

After selecting one or more components and clicking Done from the pop-up context menu, the triad now appears at the current cursor location - not on a component. You can then freely move the triad to snap to a midpoint or endpoint of a line without using the Move Triad option.

Precise angular rotation

You can now rotate an asset in Absolute mode which rotates the asset relative to the rotation angle of the factory floor origin (usually 0 degrees). You can switch between Delta and Absolute modes while rotating a component by right-clicking and unchecking or checking Delta Angle in the pop-up context menu.

One or more point clouds can now be attached to both part and assembly files. A point cloud is a set of vertices in a three-dimensional coordinate system usually defined by X, Y, and Z coordinates. The vertices are typically intended to represent the external surface of an object.

A point cloud can be moved, rotated, scaled, cropped, and uncropped. The point density can also be decreased, and work points can be attached to individual cloud points to facilitate the creation of work axes and work planes through the cloud. The new Snap to Point Cloud snap type lets you snap factory assets directly to points in the point cloud.

Twelve point cloud data file types are supported.

New Inventor Factory Suite Workflows tools enable you to create a bi-directional associative link between a 3D Inventor Factory layout and a 2D AutoCAD drawing. The link, called Layout Sync, can be established between Inventor and AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD Mechanical.

• Sync AutoCAD - Starts AutoCAD and creates a 2D drawing layout from an open Inventor Factory 3D layout
• Create from AutoCAD - Creates a new 3D factory layout from an existing 2D AutoCAD layout
• Update from AutoCAD - Changes made in a 2D AutoCAD layout are replicated in the Inventor Factory layout
• Break Link with AutoCAD - Breaks the associative link between AutoCAD and Inventor

A new 3D factory layout can now be directly created from an existing AutoCAD 2D layout. If the AutoCAD layout contains any placed 2D assets, they are replaced with their 3D equivalents when the drawing file is opened in Inventor Factory. An associative link is created between the 2D drawing and the 3D layout from which it was created.