Can you overlay an AutoCAD dwg as an XREF in Inventor? also about Routing

[spittle]

And vice versa?

Anyone able to give me the pros and Cons?

And is the routing comparable to Soldworks? Also is there a library for flanged fittings for DI pipes?

Basically Soldworks failed because of it's lack of ability to play with AutoCAD and 2D XREFs. We are currently looking for another solution.

[MarkFlayler]

The Inventor Routed Systems package does contain a large library for fittings and pipes. It is fully customizable and is based on the Content Center. It uses a really nice 3D routing tool to create the run and then it populates it with the fittings.

Inventor will not use an AutoCAD drawing as an X-REF, but you can overlay it in the model. The new Inventor Factory coming to Labs shortly may have this functionality but I can't say any more about it yet.

Inventor Views can be placed into AutoCAD from the ADCENTER though. So if you create a piece of machinery and want to see it in a layout in a factory you can quickly place the view you created in an Inventor drawing into AutoCAD by dragging and dropping.

As a monetary decision, you do also get AutoCAD with Inventor so this could reduce your subscription costs overall.

[shift1313]

And vice versa?

Anyone able to give me the pros and Cons?

And is the routing comparable to Soldworks? Also is there a library for flanged fittings for DI pipes?

Basically Soldworks failed because of it's lack of ability to play with AutoCAD and 2D XREFs. We are currently looking for another solution.

Do you have the dwg editor for solidworks? I have been very impressed with SW compatability with Acad dwg files and blocks. You can import 2d and 3d data right into SW as a new part and use this as routing paths.