Converting 3D Inventor Parts to 2D Drawings

By Pablo Ramaswamy
The two methods for extracting an AutoCAD drawing from an Inventor model are as follows:
1. Exporting a face as .dxf or .dwg
2. Exporting a sketch as .dxf or .dwg
The following is an overview of each method:

1. Exporting from a Face

One can hover over any part of our 3D model and export the shape of that face as an AutoCAD file.
Simply right click on the face and select Export face as:

A window will pop up giving asking the location and file type for the file to be saved:

Once the file is saved, it can be opened from AutoCAD

2. Exporting from a sketch

Any 2D sketch that is drawn in Inventor can then be exported as an AutoCAD drawing. Here is a basic 2D
sketch:

If you right click the sketch in the model tree (left part of the screen), you will be given multiple options.
One of them is Export Sketch As

Click on it and a window will pop up asking where the file is to be saved and what file type to save it as
(recall that the .dxf file is the one that the lasercamm software uses).

The drawing can then be opened from AutoCAD:

Note that this method works for ANY sketch, even if your part is already a few sketches in and has been
extruded.