About AutoDXF

AutoDXF is an add-in for Autodesk Inventor. It's available in the Inventor assembly environment and is used for handling sheet metal parts and batch creating and exporting sheet metal flat patterns from the entire assembly in a few simple steps. It also provides many handy features that make working with sheet metal flat patterns easier.

AutoDXF v5 features in a glance

· Automatically finds sheet metal parts from the assembly

· Allows you to quickly locate and open specific sheet metal component

· Enables easy recognition flat pattern status of sheet metal parts

· Automatic creation of flat patterns

· Thumbnail previews of bent parts and flat patterns

· Direct rotation of flat patterns in 90° increments

· Rotation along the longest edge and rotation along the longest bend

· Automatic flipping of flat patterns so most of the bends are in up direction

· Automatic detection of tapped holes on flat patterns. These can optionally be placed on a separate layer when exporting to DXF format

· Automatic placement of points in the centers of threaded holes (when exporting to DXF)

· Automatic detection of small holes. Those can be optionally placed on a separate layer when exporting to the DXF format

· Writing of bending angles and directions on bending lines in DXF files

· Creation of bend marks at the starts and the ends of the bend lines

· Batch export of flat patterns to DXF or DWG files

· Add configurable text descriptions to DXF files

· Flexible naming of DXF and DWG files

· Setup of layer names, colors, line weights, and line widths

· Export a list of sheet metal parts, including thumbnails of bent parts and flat patterns, to Microsoft Word

System requirements

AutoDXF v5 works with Autodesk Inventor 2022. Microsoft Word is required if you want to use Export to Word functionality.

Trial version limitations

The trial version offers limited functionality. The limitations are:

· Finds a maximum of 4 sheet metal parts and creates 4 DXF or DWG files

· 'Demo verzija' text is added to DXF texts

· Only up to 4 small holes are detected

· Only up to 4 angles and directions are written on bend lines in exported DXF files

Purchase of the full version of AutoDXF

To purchase the full version of AutoDXF, please visit http://www.basic.si/autodxf or call +386 1 5830 100.

How to run the program

To run the software, click the AutoDXF button on the Tools ribbon in the Inventor assembly environment:

After clicking the command AutoDXF window shows up:

User interface language can be changed in General Settings tab. Currently there are 2 languages available: English and Slovenian.

There are 3 main buttons at the bottom of the window:

Find sheet metal parts – searches the assembly structure and places all sheet metal parts in the list

Flat patterns preview – creates thumbnails of flat patterns

Auto flip – automatically flip the flat patterns in such way that most of the bends are in UP direction

Export – creates DXF or DWG files of flat patterns of selected sheet metal parts

The way the Find sheet metal parts and Export commands work is defined in the General Settings, DXF/DWG settings and Layers tabs.