Adding AutoCAD Electrical 2017 3D Content to Inventor 2017

In my past two articles I illustrated how to add additional content to the AutoCAD Electrical schematic and footprint databases.  Autodesk published additional content for Eaton components but has not released the AutoCAD Electrical 2017 installation routines.  The articles were a step by step process for adding this content.  If your company uses Autodesk Inventor and have loaded the Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser add-in, you may want to place AutoCAD Electrical 3D components directly into your Inventor models or use the Electromechanical workflow for linking your AutoCAD Electrical schematics directly to your Inventor electrical 3D models.  This article does not cover or explain the Electromechanical application but it will explain how to configure the Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser to allow the placement of the additional 3D electrical components listed in the AutoCAD Electrical Schematic catalog from the Eaton additional content.

During installation you have the ability to install the Autodesk Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser 2017 add-in.  You can check to see if it is installed and loaded by selecting the Tools tab in Inventor and then picking the Add-Ins command on the Options Panel.

If you find the indicated add-in and it is marked to be loaded automatically, you are ready to go.

If you do not see the add-in, retrieve your installation media and install it.  The screen shot below shows the entry and in my case it is already installed.

Once you have verified the add-in is present and loaded, open a new or existing Inventor assembly.  Select the Assembly tab and then find the Electrical Catalog Browser in the drop down list as shown.

This will open the same Catalog Browser used by AutoCAD Electrical.  You will notice it is also using the primary catalog database as defined in the AutoCAD Electrical WD.ENV file.  If you have a secondary catalog database defined, you can select it if desired.

Now for the bad news.  During the installation of Autodesk Inventor 2017 only a hand full of AutoCAD Electrical 3D models are provided.  You can add your own IPT models and I will cover this process in another article but first I want to show you how to add the additional Eaton 3D models supplied in the Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical 2016 content pack update-2.  These models will compliment the Eaton schematic catalog database update described in my previous article.  

The first step is to unzip the Eaton 3D content from the downloaded zip file.  If you have not downloaded the zip file you can find it here.  Opening the zip file you will find the 3D content listed in the folder shown below.  Extract the folder to the same location as the zip file to keep things organized.

Opening this folder you will notice the folder structure is by AutoCAD Electrical catalog categories.

Browse to existing Inventor Electrical Catalog 3D model location created during the Autodesk Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser 2017 add-in installation.  It is located by default in the following location.

Position these two folders beside each other, you will be coping the contents of each one from the zip file to the corresponding folder already existing on your hard drive.  If you find you do not have an existing folder on your hard drive, copy the complete top level folder, for example the TRMS and the XF folders.  The existing folders do not contain any Eaton content so no files will be overwritten.  If you desire, make a backup for the existing folder before copying.

The next step is to modify your Inventor project file to point to these 3D models.  The addition of the following library entry will accomplish this.  The library name can be anything you desire.  If you have moved the default Inventor Electrical Catalog 3D content, modify the path as needed.  Save the project file, close Inventor and restart to load the file references.

You can test your configuration using the following method.  Configure the Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser to show the "SYMBOLS3D" column.  Refer back to my previous article if you need assistance on how to accomplish this.  Using the additional content PDF found on the Autodesk update webpage, I have selected a MS (Motor Starters/Contactors) A25 Series.

Browsing in the Inventor Electrical Catalog browser, I have selected one of the A25 listings and noticed a Symbol3D model file is listed but the placement icon is missing. 

There are two methods of associating the Eaton 3D part to the catalog entry.  The first is to edit the component and link the 3D part name in the SYMBOLS3D column.  This is the harder of the two methods.

The second method is to select the browse icon during placement and browse to the SYMBOL3D 3D part name using the library folder.  Once selected and after pressing the "Open" icon the following dialog box will be presented.  If you select "Yes" the 3D part model will be permanently mapped to the Electrical Catalog Browser entry, selecting "No" will not.  If desired, you can set a default answer and check the option to not show the dialog box again under the Prompts entry.  Either method will associate the 3D part and the catalog entry for future insertions.

When placing the same component next time, simply select the new component icon and place the component in the assembly model.

In my next article I will cover the process of adding company developed electrical 3D components models which uses a very similar process.