Transfer from 2D AutoCAD to a 3D Inventor workflow

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In this video, we'll be focusing on using the Factory Design Utilities in the 3D inventor workflow.

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In this scenario, we're developing a packing and palletizing station adjacent to a loading and unloading area.

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In this example, we must assume that all process testing and validation is complete,

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and we're simply placing the desired components in the most appropriate location.

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To get ready for this Inventor presentation, I actually need you to open up AutoCAD.

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We want to open up the file "Production C - Inventor Start", and then on the "Factory" tab, we need to click "Open in Inventor".

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You'll be prompted to save the file and Inventor should open and automatically import this drawing into a new Inventor factory layout.

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You'll see the 2D assets laid onto the Inventor factory floor.

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And then over time during the import, you'll see the 3D asset land on top of the 2D footprint.

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This may take some time depending on your internet connection and the fact that you may have to download some of the supporting assets.

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Once your files loaded, please do a quick save and then we'll begin our presentation.

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Now we started this demonstration by linking some of the AutoCAD data that we created in the previous video to this Inventor factory layout.

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But I need you to understand that you can create an Inventor factory layout from scratch.

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Let me show you how to do that.

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Over here, I've got my layout browser already set up inside of Inventor.

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You can find this option under palettes.

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This gives me the option to create a new layout.

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If I select "Create Layout", I'll be prompted to give my new layout and name and I'll click "Save".

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You'll see that a factory floor is automatically added to the Inventor assembly.

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In Inventor on the factory tab, you can access all of your factory utilities.

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Under options, you'll find the floor in grid settings, which allow you to modify the way the floor looks.

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Under layout, you can create a solid floor or you can choose to resize the current floor or reposition it vertically if necessary.

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Now, I'm going to close that file and hop back into our original dataset.

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Regardless of which workflow you choose to use, usually, one of the first steps you do is reference the building footprint in your design.

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Now, to do that, I'm going to go here to the layout tab and select "Add DWG Underlay".

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I'm going to go to my drawing data set and I'm going to select the "Factory Footprint".

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This data will automatically be added to the factory floor.

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And it's very important, we all understand that in this particular scenario, the origin was defined by the building.

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And it's important that all of the stakeholders utilize the same origin point,

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and work relative to that point as they're designing their portions of the factory layout.

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If this is the first time, you're looking at the Factory Design Utilities,

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you might not have your asset browser, your factory properties palette visible.

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I'm going to close mine and show you where to get those.

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Very similar to AutoCAD, if you go to the factory tab inside of Inventor, you'll see the palettes option.

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Under palettes is where you find the asset browser, and it's also where you find the factory properties.

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The asset browser is where we access all of the predefined assets that were created for the Factory Design Utilities.

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You find all of those in the system assets folder.

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You'll see categories including architectural building utilities, conveyors, even material handling.

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And I would encourage you at your leisure to explore all of the assets that come automatically with the Factory Design Utilities.

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So, let's add some assets to this layout.

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The first asset I'm going to place is just a palette of boxes.

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I'm going to go up instead of navigating into the asset browser and looking through the categories.

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I'm going to go to the search criteria and just type in boxes.

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I have a cloud asset out here that we can all use called palette boxes stack.

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I'm going to drag that into our layout and I'm going to zoom in to the end of this conveyor.

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When you drop off an asset, it'll automatically put you into what's called the reposition command.

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The reposition command is this little triad that appears at the corner of your asset.

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This allows you to raise the asset up and down by dragging on the shaft or spinning the asset by dragging on the tip.

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Now, in this case, I want to spin my asset around 180 degrees, lock it in place,

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and I'm going to scoot it over here, on this axis,

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and then I can lift it off of the ground and very easily put it right up here on top of the conveyor.

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When you're finished, right-click and select "Done".

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It usually wants to add another asset, the same asset that you placed earlier.

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You can always hit "Escape" to finish the command.

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Now I want to add a robot to the design.

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I'm going to come up here to this robot riser and in the asset browser, I'm going to type in "Fanuc", F-A-N-U-C.

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Now the asset I'm going to use here is Fanuc M-710iC50.

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It's a carton handling robot.

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Again, I'm going to drag it in.

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Now, in this case, this asset has connectors built into it.

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In this example, it's the little orange dot.

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You'll see that as the dots get close to each other, they're actually kind of magnetically drawn together,

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and they'll automatically snap together, making it very easy for you to place your assets.

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Now, this is a spectacular asset.

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Some assets in the asset browser are static like the pallet of boxes, and then some of them are highly dynamic.

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This particular asset, if I select it, actually, has its own logic form to help you place the robot where you want it.

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So, I can come in and change the rotation angle, very easily.

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I can move the arms up and down or change the rotation of arm number two if I want, I'm going to select "Done".

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And then I'm going to add another asset to this.

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In the search criteria, I'm going to look up gripper and there's actually this small gripper right here.

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I'm going to bring that in and you can see that there's a connector right at the end of the arm, I'll snap it to there.

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Those connectors make placing assets so much easier than the traditional constraint approach that many Inventor users are used to.

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In our previous video, we added this case sealer to our design,

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and I can look and see that the case sealer is actually going to interfere with the robot that's going to be attached to this riser.

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I'm going to select this case sealer and it also has an iLogic form.

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In this case, they have turn and mirror display added.

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So, I can click "Turn", watch the asset change its orientation, or I can click "Mirror" and get the opposite hand effect of that.

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I'm going to pan over and add two more robots to the design.

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I'm going to go back and reference the previous asset that we used earlier.

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We'll snap that one there, and snap this one here.

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And again, I'm going to go back to gripper.

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And I'm going to add a box gripper, add that here,

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and the palette gripper.

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Now as nice as assets are, occasionally, you're going to have to work with just generic models,

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and you need to include a generic model maybe from a machine provider into your line.

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Well, don't worry about that.

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There's a very nice command up here on the utilities called "Insert Model".

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Let's go ahead and click that and I'm going to go out and select an ipt of a packaging machine.

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But before I place it, I do want to show you all the different file types that are available for you to place into your factory layout.

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Just about any parametric modeler that's out there on the market today is listed here, along with STEP, IGES, ASMs.

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It's almost easier to tell you what's not here than it is to show all the different options of models that you can work with.

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I'm going to click "Open" and the model comes in.

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Now, the model comes in in a bounding box, you can drop it off and then you can determine which way up is one of three options.

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But I'll select my default and there's my machine, and then I get the reposition command right on top of it.

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Reposition command allows me to rotate the model around.

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And I can do planer moves by selecting the little plane between the axis.

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When it comes to documentation, at this point, you have two clear choices.

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You can go up to the "Factory" tab and select "Open in AutoCAD",

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and you'll sync all the changes that you've made back to your original AutoCAD drawing.

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We'll go ahead and save our assembly and the command executes automatically.

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You also have the option to do your documentation inside of Inventor.

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You can use the typical Inventor drawings to create top views that actually include the DWG underlay information,

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and you can also generate isometric views for installation drawings.

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Well, this is going to conclude our course in the introduction to the Factory Design Utilities and the various workflows included.

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I hope you see that the Factory Design Utilities are incredibly versatile.

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You can start off with process analysis, work your way through AutoCAD into Inventor,

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and finally, the Navisworks, or you can simply start a project in 2D AutoCAD,

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or, as you saw here in this video, you can do the entire project inside of Autodesk Inventor.

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The choices are up to you.