Life with SolidWorks
Import/Export
Imagine my surprise when I tried to import an AutoDesk Inventor part file into SolidWorks. It’s one of the file types you can select on the open dialog box. But you get nothing…unless you have the version or newer version of Inventor that the file came from installed on your system. Which in this case means that SolidWorks ‘works’ in conjunction with Inventor to import your file into SolidWorks. I’m sorry but I have a problem with this logic! If I can afford to have both programs installed on my system then do I really need to translate from Inventor to SolidWorks?
In all fairness I guess the reason this capability is included at all is for persons switching from Inventor to SolidWorks. It seems that we had something similar for Mechanical Desktop files way back when we switched. But I have to wonder what the hold up is, I mean we can import SolidEdge, Catia, ProE, and CadKey why not Inventor. Granted with the mentioned formats we end up with a ‘dumb’ solid but we get nothing with Inventor!
I’ll be on the phone today talking a customer through saving a STEP file of his Inventor part so I can import it. Seems like a waste of his time and mine. Such is:
Life with SolidWorks
