Inventor into .pdf
 

Came across an interesting question at work today. Is it possible to take an file in Inventor and EASILY change it to a .png file? We have the Acrobat Pro to create .pdf files from Word files.

Currently, I'm taking .pdf files of parts, using the selection tool to grab what I need, then pasting it into a new Photoshop file, then saving it as a .png to insert into the Word file to convert into the .pdf file for the shop floor.

Most of the planners are capable of learning new programs, but generally don't have the time required to put into the learning. Hence, we need to know if we can do the same thing between Inventor and the Word file in one extra step.

Two last notes on the issue:
1. Using the Print Screen function loses a great deal of the detail in the drawing.
2. Importing the images into the Word document takes up too much disk space. (I've saved things as .png that were .jpg and brought a file from 100Mb down to 1.5Mb.)

Thanks,
indieFan

Re: Inventor into .pdf
 

Well, why don't you just print as pdf through inventor using something like
PDFCreator

Much easier than going through the long convoluted process of converting to a word document.

Re: Inventor into .pdf
 

depending on what you are needing to render as images, you can switch into inventor studio mode and render a picture, there is a whole set of tutorials on doing this at www.autodesk.com/FIRSTbase

Re: Inventor into .pdf
 

Is Inventor Studio a part of Inventor or is it part of a software suite?

To answer why we don't just print a .pdf through something like PDFCreator: We are a large company. As such, there are strict guidelines to follow regarding what software we can and cannot use. FOSS (Free & Open Source Software) is not allowed. Paying for another program to do the same job as Acrobat Pro makes no sense, either.

To explain what we're doing a little more:
I write planning (instructions) for operators on the shop floor to follow. The planning is written in Word using a template to easily add, remove, or modify an operation in the future when the instructions change. To create useful planning, images are inserted into each operation.

Images are created by opening the .pdf of the part drawing, using the selection tool, and then put into Photoshop where I can erase lines and arrows that make the drawing difficult to understand. Or, I'll add color only to those portions of the part that are being dealt with at the time.

indieFan

Re: Inventor into .pdf
 

That better have a real good explanation, cus FOSS keeps alot of the world spinning, Apache anyone?
Apache web server 49.57%
Microsoft IIS 35.76%

Back to the question at hand, yes it is part of the suite. I cannot tell you if it was installed or not by your obviously blind IT department.

Oh and guess what I would recommend that you stop using google, there servers run linux.

Re: Inventor into .pdf
 

When an Inventor file is open, you can go to File>Save Copy As and choose BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, or TIFF.
(The "Save" dialog is different from "Save Copy As" dialog. Only the latter has file type options.)

In a drawing file, you can change the colors of different lines; in parts, change the color of a single surface by right-clicking on the surface and selecting "Properties".

Inventor Studio is part of Inventor; it's under the Applications menu in a part or assembly file. It's made to render images for presentation, so it might not be useful for the shop.

I know you said you don't want to use new software, but I recommend looking into Autodesk Design Review.

Re: Inventor into .pdf
 

Thanks for the information Dan. This is exactly the sort of thing we're looking for. I think I'll pass on Inventor Studio if I can do it all with Inventor alone. Now I just need to remind the professor to let me borrow the team's copy so I can tinker with it at home. ;-)

Thanks again,
indieFan