About AutoDXF v4.5
AutoDXF is
an add-in for Autodesk Inventor. It's available from assembly
environment and is used for batch creation and exporting of sheet
metal flat patterns from entire assembly in few easy steps. It also
offers some additional handy features to make handling of sheet
metal flat patterns easier.
AutoDXF
v4.5 main features:
§ Automatically finds and lists all sheet
metal parts in assembly
§ Enables you to quickly locate and open
specific sheet metal component
§ Enables to quickly identify flat pattern
status of sheet metal parts
§ Automatic creation of flat
patterns
§ Previews of bent parts and flat
patterns
§ Direct rotation of flat patterns by 90°
steps
§ Flat pattern generation for parts derived
from sheet metal parts (mirrored parts and parts derived from
multibody sheet metal parts)
§ Automatic detection of threaded holes on
flat patterns. Those can be optionally placed on separate
adjustable layer when exporting to DXF format
§ Automatic placement of Points in
centres of threaded holes (when exporting to DXF)
§ Batch export of DXF or DWG flat
patterns
§ Add configurable text descriptions to DXF
files
§ Flexible DXF and DWG file
naming
§ Set layer names, colours, line weights and
line widths
§ Export list of sheet metal parts including
thumbnails of bent parts and flat patterns to Microsoft
Word
System
requirements
AutoDXF v4
works with Autodesk Inventor 2018, 2019 and 2020. Microsoft Word is
required if you want to use Export to Word
functionality.
Demo
version limitations
Demo
version is limited to finding only 4 sheet metal parts and creating
4 DXF files. There is also “Demo verzija” text included in DXF
file.
Purchase
For
purchasing fully functional AutoDXF please visit http://www.basic.si/autodxf
AutoDXF functionality
To open
the tool click AutoDXF button in Tool ribbon in
assembly environment:
After
clicking the command AutoDXF window shows up:
In the
bottom there are 3 main buttons:
Find
sheet metal parts –
searches through assembly structure and lists all sheet metal parts
in the list
Flat
pattern preview –
creates thumbnails of flat patterns
Export –
creates DXF or DWG files of flat patterns of selected sheet metal
parts
The way
how Find sheet metal parts and Export commands work
is set in Settings and Layers tabs.
Find sheet metal parts
Click
Find sheet metal parts command to list all sheet metal
parts. Based on the settings the command will find and list
all the sheet metal parts and/or create missing flat
patterns. The result of the operation is shown in the image
below:
Explanation of list columns
Select
|
Check
if you want to export the specific sheet metal part. Click [1]
button to select all or [0] button to deselect all.
|
File name
|
Sheet
metal component file name.
|
FP
yes/no
|
Checked if flat pattern exists. Not user
selectable.
|
FP
status
|
Flat
pattern (FP) status:
Manual – flat pattern was already created
manually
Auto, OK – flat pattern was successfully
created automatically
Auto, error – automatic creation of flat
pattern failed
Auto, not OK, check – flat pattern was created
automatically but it’s possible that it’s invalid (based on
geometry checks done after auto-unfolding)
|
Max
bend line length [mm]
|
Maximum bend line length. If it exceeds
allowed max bend line length the line will be coloured
yellow.
|
Model Preview
|
Thumbnail of model in final (bent) state.
|
FP
Preview
|
Flat
pattern preview. The thumbnails of flat patterns have to be created
before they can be displayed. There are 2 ways to create
them:
-
Manually for selected row by right
clicking on a row and selecting Flat Pattern Preview
command
-
Automatically for all sheet metal components
by clicking on Flat Patterns Preview button
|
Quantity
|
The
quantity of the component from the BOM. You can multiply the
quantities using the multiplier:
|
Material
|
Material of the component.
|
Mass [kg]
|
Mass
of component in kg.
|
FP
length [mm]
|
Length
of the flat pattern in mm.
|
FP
width [mm]
|
Width
of the flat pattern in mm.
|
Part number
|
Part
Number iProperty
|
Stock number
|
Stock
Number iProperty
|
Thickness [mm]
|
Sheet
metal thickness in mm.
|
Description
|
Description iProperty.
|
DXF
units
|
Length
units of the component.
|
Customizing list appearance – sort, order, size and select
columns
You can
click on column names to sort the components by the value in
the specific column.
You can
reorder the columns by drag and drop on new location:
You can
resize the columns by dragging the column edges:
You can
show and hide the columns by right clicking on column
header:
Click
Reset to change the list to default view – default order,
size and visibility of columns.
Manage custom iProperties
In
addition to base properties you can include any number of custom
iProperties. Click Add Custom iProperties… to manage the
included custom iProperties:
Clicking
the button opens custom iProperties dialog. Following screenshot
already includes 2 custom iProperties:
Adding
custom iProperties:
Click
button and enter precise name of the custom
iProperty you wish to include.
Deleting custom iProperties:
Select the
property and click button or press DELETE button
on keyboard.
Click OK
to close the dialog and to add new properties to list of sheet
metal parts. To update the values for new custom iProperties you
have to run Find sheet metal parts command.
New custom
iProperties are also added into panels for defining the
DXF/DWG naming structure and properties included as texts in DXF files.
Automatic creation of flat patterns
Automatically create flat pattern if it doesn’t
exist – if the tool
finds sheet metal part without flat pattern and this option is
selected the flat pattern will be created automatically.
This is
also valid for derived sheet metal components that were created
using Make Components tool from master multibody sheet metal
component. In this case it’s required that “Link Sheet Metal
Styles” option is checked when creating components using
Make Components tool.
Auto-detect and unfold assembly mirrored sheet metal
parts – creates flat
patterns for sheet metal parts that were created using
Mirror tool in assembly.
Sheet
metal style and thickness are automatically read from parent sheet
metal component. The style must exist in Sheet Metal Style library
to make the automatic flat pattern generation work.
Generating flat pattern previews
AutoDXF
enables you to see the shape and orientation of flat patterns in
one place before exporting them to DXF/DWG. Contrary to thumbnails
of bend models the thumbnails of flat patterns are not saved within
IPT files so they have to be generated before they are
displayed.
There are
2 ways to generate the flat pattern thumbnails:
-
Manually
for selected row by right
clicking on a row and selecting Flat Pattern Preview command
from menu
-
Automatically
for all sheet metal components
by clicking on Flat patterns preview button
Automatic creation of flat
pattern thumbnails can be slow for assemblies with lots of sheet
metal parts.
Flat pattern thumbnails are not linked to components – if the
geometry changes you have to manually take care of regenerating the
thumbnails.
|
After the thumbnails are created they are displayed in the FP
preview column:
Rotating flat pattern by 90°
You can
right click on a row and rotate the flat pattern by 90° steps using
command Rotate Flat Pattern for 90°:
After
rotating the flat pattern thumbnail updates:
Copy data to clipboard
You can
copy the table content to clipboard by clicking button.
Tab
delimited data can then be pasted to a text editor:
Copied
data can also be pasted directly to Excel:
Export list including thumbnails to Microsoft Word*
Click the
command to
export the list of selected sheet metal parts including thumbnail
images to Microsoft Word.
*Microsoft Word has to be installed on the computer for
this functionality to work.
Word Settings
Click on
the button opens the Word Settings dialog. You can
define which properties to export to Word and their order. You can
also change the display name of the properties.
Settings
are:
Page
orientation
|
Portrait or landscape can be selected
|
Paper size
|
A4 or
Letter format can be selected
|
Table header on each page
|
Select
if you want to include table header on each page of the
document
|
|
Reset
property names and order to default settings
|
Changing property names
Click on
the row and then click again on the property name to change its
name. This way you can change Word table column names so they are
different as actual iProperty names.
Choosing the properties and changing their
order
Only
selected properties are exported to Word. You can also change the
order of properties displayed in Word table. Use drag and drop to
define the order of properties. The following image shows moving of
Part Number property to another location:
Click OK
button to save the settings and create Word document. The message
appears after the document creation is finished:
Switch to
Microsoft Word (click on Word icon in Windows Taskbar), format the
table if necessary and save the document.
Work with specific component
Right
clicking the component in the list opens context menu:
Open Part
|
Open
selected component
|
Find in window
|
Zoom
to selected component
|
Flat pattern preview
|
Creates flat pattern thumbnail for selected row.
Click for details.
|
Rotate flat pattern for 90°
|
Rotates flat pattern by 90° step and updates the
thumbnail. Click for details.
|
Hide unselected in list
|
Hides
all components that are not selected for export in first
column
|
Show all Sheet Metal parts in list
|
Shows
all components in the list
|
Export files to DWG or DXF
Click the
Export command to create DXF or DWG files for flat patterns
of selected components. You can select the format of exported
files: DXF (version AutoCAD 2000) or DWG (version AutoCAD
2000).
Please note that adding text
descriptions is not supported when exporting to DWG. Use DXF format
if you wish to add text descriptions into exported flat pattern
files.
|
You
can see the exporting progress in bottom left corner of the AutoDXF
window:
DXF/DWG
geometry settings, layers settings and file naming are based on
selected settings.
Settings
All the
settings you make in the Settings tab are automatically
saved when you exit the program.
Language setting
You can
select English or Slovenian language of user interface. After
selecting the language please restart the AutoDXF twice to fully
apply the language change.
DXF/DWG save location
In this
section you can set where the DXF or DWG files are saved. There are
2 options:
Same as
IPT document
In this
case the exported files are saved in the same folder as parent IPT
file.
In
folder
All
exported files are saved in a selected folder. Select the folder by
clicking button or click to select the folder of current
assembly.
There is
an additional option Create subfolders by material thickness
in this mode that enables saving DXF files in subfolders based on
sheet metal thickness. In this case you get DXFs grouped by their
material thickness:
Overwrite existing files: if this option is checked all existing DXF files
with same name as new ones will be overwritten. If the option is
not checked new DXF files with same name as existing will get
sequential number at the end of the name.
Automatic detection of threaded holes
AutoDXF
can automatically detect thread holes on flat patterns.
If Put
threads on separate layeris selected then all threads will be
placed on a separate customizable layer when exporting to DXF
format. You can change the thread layer name and color (Layer
name and Layer color).
Create
points in thread centres defines that Point objects are created in centres of
threaded holes.
Auto detection of threads is
supported only when exporting to DXF format.
|
DXF/DWG file naming
You can
specify DXF/DWG file naming system in this section:
You can
select which properties to include in the file name by selecting
them in file naming table (image above).
All the
properties that are checked will be included in DXF/DWG file
name.
You can
also change the prefix (green column) – that is fixed text
that will be written before specific property.
The
properties that can be included are listed in property column: IPT
File Name, Material, Thickness, Quantity, Part Number and Stock
Number. The table also includes optionally added custom iProperties.
The
properties are divided by selected divider in Divider
dropdown:
You can
change the order of properties by dragging and dropping.
Part number is put in front of Thickness in the example
below:
Some
examples of file naming:
It’s recommended to include
“IPT File Name” property in file name to ensure that exported files
will have unique names. If you build the file name expression in
such way, that there is possibility that some files will have the
same name, then uncheck the option “Overwrite existing
files”.
|
DXF texts
You can
include text descriptions in generated DXF files. Checking Add
text descriptions to DXF will enable this option.
Please note that adding text
descriptions is not supported when exporting to DWG.
|
Available
properties to include as text are listed in Property column:
Thickness, Quantity, Material, Part Number, Stock Number and Unit.
Additionally there are also added custom iProperties available in the list.
Properties
that are checked in “select” column will be included in DXF
text.
You can
change the prefix (green column) – that is fixed text that
will be written before specific property.
You can
change the order of properties by dragging and dropping them
up and down the list.
The text
is created on a specific layer. You can set its name in Layer
name text box. The colour of text layer is defined using
Layer colour dropdown.
Example of
text included in DXF file:
The text
is positioned approximately in the middle of flat pattern
geometry.
The text
height is defined in basic.autodxf.nastavitve.xml
settings file.
Flat pattern settings
This area
includes the settings regarding creation end export of flat
patterns:
Combine
profiles in polyline – lines and arcs will be joined to polylines.
Replace
splines with line segments – splines will be approximated using linear segments with
selected tolerance.
Rebase
geometry to 1st quadrant – all the geometry in DXF will be created in
1st quadrant so all the X and Y coordinates are
positive.
Check bend line lengths
Checking
this option will mark the sheet metal parts of which any bend
length exceeds the one you specify in Max. allowed bend line
length. This is useful if you want to quickly identify the
parts that are too large to be bent on a specific bend machine.
Following image shows that all the components with at least one
bend longer than 500 mm are marked yellow:
Length units
You can
select the length units for displaying sheet metal thickness, flat
pattern length and flat pattern width in list of found sheet metal
parts. A restart of AutoDXF is required after changing this
setting.
Open the settings folder
Click the
button to open the Windows Explorer in folder
where AutoDXF settings are saved. Deleting .ini files
(customiProps.ini, DXFime.ini, DXFopisi.ini and WordSettings.ini)
from that location resets AutoDXF to default settings.
There is also an XML setting file basic.autodxf.nastavitve.xml in that
folder. It includes settings for defining text heights for texts in
DXF files and settings for number of decimal places used for
displaying flat pattern lengths, widths and sheet metal thickness.
You can open the file in any text editor (e.g. Notepad) and edit
the values.
You have to restart AutoDXF to enforce changed settings.
Layers
In this
tab you can set the DXF/DWG layer properties: layer names, layer
visibility, colours, line types and line weights.
Enter
layer name - you can
enter the name of the layer
Object –
list the object types (not editable)
On/Off –
enables or disables the layer
Color –
specify layer color
Line
type – select layer
line type from dropdown
Line
weight– select line
weight from dropdown
Load
last used configuration on next startup – check this option to load current layer
settings on next start-up of the tool
Save
configuration… -
Save the current configuration to a file
Load
configuration… -
Load configuration from a file
Default
settings – Sets all
layer settings to default