Autodesk Inventor 2019: Insert points onto sketches

By Anite Ramgi

An alternative way to create sketches are from spreadsheets which contain points. These points could be obtained from scanning devices or manually created.

 To import the points from a spreadsheet into a sketch on Inventor, you will first need to have the spreadsheet in the correct format. Columns A, B and C represent X, Y and Z respectively. If your data has units which are different to the one you are working from on your Inventor sketch, you can specify this on cell A1. 

If your spreadsheet is not in a correct format, you will be prompted with the below message when you import the data. 

If you have cell A1 empty, the default units set on Inventor will be applied. 

Now on Inventor, choose either a 2D or 3D sketch based on your dataset. If you choose a 2D sketch and your dataset has 3D value, only the X and Y axis will be selected. Then on the Insert section, choose Points, the open window loads up, choose your spreadsheet. On the options…, you can import the points as only as points, create lines between the points or splines between the points. Click OK then Open. Your points will be imported.