Data Exchange > Associative Topology Bus > Working with Autodesk Inventor > About ATB-enabled Autodesk Inventor
About ATB-enabled Autodesk Inventor
The import of Autodesk Inventor *.ipt part and *.iam assembly files creates Translated Image Models (TIMs) in Creo. Autodesk Inventor part *.ipt files import as TIM parts or assemblies. Autodesk Inventor assembly *.iam files convert to TIM assemblies. The TIMs show standard Associative Topology Bus (ATB) behavior just as the TIMs created by the import of all other 3D formats that support ATB.
You can use the ATB commands on the TIMs created by the import of the Autodesk Inventor files to Creo Parametric as follows:
The Check Status command to check the status of the TIMs.
The Update command to update the TIMs that are identified as out-of-date.
The Change Link command to change the links of TIMs.
The Make Independent command to break the association between TIMs and the original reference models.
Creo Parametric supports the selective import of Autodesk Inventor assemblies. You can selectively import the product structures of the Autodesk Inventor assemblies with or without their display data while you can import the complete assemblies by default. During import, if you set Representation to Structure in the Import New Model dialog box, you can right-click a TIM component on the Model Tree and access the Read Graphics and the Read Master commands on the Associative Topology Bus menu to change the content level details of the TIM components. You can, alternatively, select a TIM component and click Model > Operations > ATB to access the Read Graphics and the Read Master commands and switch from the product structure representation of the assemblies and components to their graphic representation or their master representation, respectively.
During an ATB update of the Autodesk Inventor TIMs, the tags of datum features such as points, axes, coordinate systems, and planes, remain persistent and preserve the geometric references of the models and their associativity. Additionally, the persistent tags of datum features enable the ATB update of legacy TIMs that use non-tag based updates. After the update, the TIMs store the tags so that you can perform subsequent ATB updates of the models.
You can right-click a TIM component or an import feature on the Model Tree and click Information > ATB Info on the shortcut menu to view the details of the Autodesk Inventor TIMs and the ATB-enabled features in the Information Window.