Can I insert large 3d solids from AutoCAD into inventor as a background/foundation?

Morning! New to inventor

I'm assigned to show a track crane in use unloading trucks in our warehouse and wonder if I can use the dwg of the 3d layout of the warehouse to attach the crane to as somewhat of a 3d background. I would make all of the motion parts of the crane and truck in inventor and would try to create stationary parts of the warehouse in AutoCAD. With that, if I apply materials to AutoCAD such as glass for windows and apply sunlight will the light transfer through the glass material or will not all of the features of the material translate?

Thanks for the help!

Entirely possible, but Autodesk Factory Design may be a better choice than Inventor by itself.

Is A.F.D. capable of recording the video? I'm mainly using this assignment as a tutorial into Inventor Pro for a good glimpse of how to use Inventor Fusion, which all of our CAD team is equipped with. How would I insert the dwg into Inventor? Do I need to turn it into a part? In the long run, will it be simpler to import a 2D drawing dwg as a sketch to extrude, add holes, etc.? And if so, how do I insert a 2D dwg into a sketch?

A.F.D. is not one that I have heard of; is it created for macro 3D layouts?

Thanks again for the help!

Inventor Fusion is a FAR cry from Inventor. Do not even start to think they are the same thing.

A.F.D has a DWG Overlay command that Inventor by itself does not have. Inventor Factory is the highest superset of licenses for Inventor. What this command can do is overlay the goemetry of your floor layout and then automatically palce 3D assets you create on the overlay. The 2D side of the layout will also go Transportation and Material flow analysis on your warehouse.

This is Facotry Design Suite: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=15084831&siteID=123112

Video of Demonstration of Factory:

I see the suite you were talking about, but I cannot fully encourage the purchase of this suite for our CAD dept yet. Although it is definitely considered with NavisWorks Manager alone. Cases such as this assignment with mechanical movement is an almost one and only case and very unlikely for future use by current projection. However if I were to sample the programs for a factory design, which program would I need for the large layouts? It appears that I would be able to make the mechanical parts in Inventor and apply them to these other programs?

and btw, online videos are blocked at my office

Usually there is a crossgrade opportunity so that price would be diminished if you upgrade a seat of your AutoCAD.

For the large layouts, Inventor is used for the Factory Assets and then things are compiled in Navisworks if there is other sources (point clouds, MEP models, etc).

I do feel sorry that your office has no understanding of engineers need to continue their education through online video tutorials. I would say that you cannot be as productive without it. If it is a blanket statement, then your IT staff is just lazy.

I would agree on the engineering view of it (I'm a Civil EIT myself). But I work for an electrical construction company with which AutoCAD MEP was sufficient until I was assigned to transit 20 months ago and began numerous designs for fabrication. 3D models with solid profiles have been enough until recently, and I am starting to propose the upgrade of possibly 25% of our CAD staff to Inventor for its abilities in cases such as this. The Factory Ultimate Package is now on the proposal list after seeing that add this morning, so thanks for that heads up.

And the video part was because of everybody else watching YouTube during their shift wasting time and processing space in our server. haha

If justified, we get authorized to certain sights, but YouTube is a hard one to get approved

If justified, we get authorized to certain sights, but YouTube is a hard one to get approved

Work up a cost quote for on-site training ($k).

vs

Youtube ($0) (OK maybe a bit lost time for abuse - find the abusers and discourage them in the strongest possible terms)

and submit the training request to your supervisor.

Hey JD, was hoping to see you. Been following a lot of your forum posts on inventor over the weekend. Would either of you be able to suggest particular sources on YouTube for the tutorials on Inventor, especially an upcoming challenge of working a pulley system with the moving cable, so I can show an example to encourage justification on the video access? Thanks