About Inventor Apprentice Server

The simple way to think of Apprentice is that it's a smaller version of Autodesk Inventor that does not have a user interface. Without a user interface the only way to access its functionality is by using its API. Apprentice is actually an ActiveX component. Apprentice can be very efficient because it's smaller than the complete Autodesk Inventor application and because it runs in the same process with our console application.

About GenerateIFC

GenerateIFC console application is a supplementary application of IFC Exporter for Inventor, that takes advantage of Apprentice Server and runs without Inventor's user interface. Using console application needs that Inventor Apprentice Server is installed on the computer.

https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/tsarticles/ts/7E5yOOlf0n3RxRfXa3F1to.html

Name of the console application is GenerateIFC.exe and it is installed together with main plugin. It is installed in Apprentice - folder of the plugin. Plugin is installed either in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins or C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins folder depending on selected option (all users / for me only) in installation program.

So you need to call ..\GenerateIFC.exe in batch file with 2 to 4 command line parameters.

GenerateIFC.exe takes following command line parameters:

1st         Input file (.iam or .ipt)

2nd        Output file (.ifc)

3rd        Class mapping file (.xml)

4th        Property mapping file (.xlsx)

Mandatory command line parameters are input filename (.iam or .ipt) and output filename, others are optional. If you also like to use class mapping and property mapping files then they 1st need to be created with our IFC Exporter for Inventor plugin and saved to .xml and .xlsx files.

Appsettings

Application settings file appsettings.json is in plugin's ..\Apprentice - folder and can be edited to run GenarateIFC with alternative settings.

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New IFC Exporter for AutoCAD Plant3D version has an option to create tessellated IFC elements (IfcFaceBasedSurfaceModel) instead of default elements. Settings tab has new Tessellation group where user can select which object groups to create as tessellated elements.

 

It may be useful to create tessellated elements in some cases like if geometry is having holes that default implementation can’t handle.

 

There is also a variable Faceter Length in the settings that controls the density of the generated triangle mesh. It is the maximum edge length of the generated triangles. A suitable value for metric projects is 10-50 depending on the required accuracy. Please note that using lower values will increase file size a lot.

 

Control valve created with Faceter Length = 40

 

Same valve created with Faceter Length = 10

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Latest version of IFC Exporter for Plant3D (2026.3) includes enhanced Export to AutoCAD function.

With Batch Export function users can export Plant3D drawing with external references into the plain AutoCAD format. Function gathers referenced files and creates an aggregated DWG file with external references bind to the main drawing. It can be then opened with plain AutoCAD.

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