Autodesk Factory Design Utilities
Factory Design Utilities is a suite of intelligent design tools that help engineers plan, visualize, and optimize factory layouts in 2D and 3D. Integrated with AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor, it allows you to create coordinated factory models that improve spatial planning and reduce costly layout errors.
Design Smarter Factory Layouts
Create accurate digital layouts of manufacturing facilities using intelligent assets and parametric equipment models. Easily place and reposition machines, conveyors, workstations, and material flow systems within a unified environment.
2D/3D Synchronization
With bi-directional associativity between 2D AutoCAD layouts and 3D Inventor models, Factory Design Utilities allows seamless updates in both environments. This helps teams quickly assess space usage, identify collisions, and validate layout concepts in real time.
Asset Reuse and Collaboration
Build and reuse a library of configurable factory assets to accelerate design. Collaborate across teams using shared asset libraries, cloud storage, and Autodesk Vault to ensure consistency and improve version control.
Key Features
- Integrated factory layout design with AutoCAD and Inventor
- 2D and 3D model synchronization for coordinated planning
- Library of intelligent, parametric factory assets
- Collision detection and spatial validation tools
- Material flow analysis and process visualization
- Cloud collaboration and asset management support
Who Uses Factory Design Utilities?
Factory Design Utilities is ideal for manufacturing engineers, plant designers, industrial engineers, and factory planners working in sectors like automotive, aerospace, logistics, food processing, and consumer goods. It helps reduce downtime, improve layout efficiency, and streamline production planning.
⚠️ IMPORTANT:
Windows Only: Factory Design Utilities is Windows Only. It relies on Autodesk Inventor and Navisworks, neither of which has a native macOS version.
Suite Dependency: This is not a standalone product. It is a set of tools that connects AutoCAD, Inventor, Navisworks, and Vault. You must have these host applications installed, meaning the combined system requirements are very high.
Disk Space: Note the massive recommended disk space (160 GB). This is because a full "Factory" installation involves installing four separate heavy desktop applications plus the Factory Asset Library.
🏭 System Requirements: Factory Design Utilities (2023–2026)
| Operating System (OS) |
64-bit Windows 10 (v1809+)<br>64-bit Windows 11
|
Windows 11<br>(Required for best performance with 2025/2026 versions)
|
| Processor (CPU) |
2.5 GHz (Basic) |
3.0 GHz+ (Base), 4.0 GHz+ (Turbo)<br>(4+ Cores recommended.[1] High clock speed is vital for Inventor/AutoCAD sync)
|
| Memory (RAM) |
8 GB (Only for very small layouts < 500 parts)
|
24 GB – 32 GB+<br>(You are often running AutoCAD, Inventor, and Navisworks simultaneously. High RAM is non-negotiable)
|
| Graphics (GPU) |
2 GB VRAM, 29 GB/s Bandwidth<br>DirectX 11 compliant
|
8 GB+ VRAM, 106 GB/s Bandwidth<br>DirectX 12 compliant<br>(NVIDIA RTX series recommended for Navisworks walk-throughs)
|
| Disk Space |
40 GB (Minimum install)
|
160 GB free space (Recommended)<br>(SSD required. Includes space for Factory Assets, Inventor, AutoCAD, and Navisworks installations)
|
| Display |
1920 x 1080 |
3840 x 2160 (4K)<br>Preferred scaling: 100%, 125%, 150%
|
| Spreadsheet |
Excel 2016 (Local Install) |
Excel 2019 / 365 (Local Install)<br>(Required for Bill of Materials and parameter editing)
|
| Framework |
.NET Framework 4.8 |
.NET 8 (For 2025/2026 components) |
💡 Performance Advice for Factory Design Users
The "Sync" Workflow:
Factory Design Utilities allows you to click "Sync to Inventor" inside AutoCAD. This opens the 3D model in the background.
Implication: Your computer must be strong enough to run AutoCAD and Inventor at the same time. If you have only 16 GB of RAM, your system will likely freeze during this sync process. 32 GB or 64 GB is strongly advised.
Asset Library Storage:
The "Factory Assets" (conveyors, robots, racks) are downloaded on demand or stored locally.
Recommendation: Configure your Factory Asset library path to be on a fast NVMe SSD. If these assets are on a slow network drive, placing them into your layout will be frustratingly slow.
Graphics Card (GPU):
While AutoCAD is light on GPU, Navisworks (used for factory walkthroughs and clash detection) needs more power.
Using an integrated GPU (Intel Iris/UHD) is not supported and will result in missing textures or crashes in the 3D view.
Mac Users:
Not Supported.
Because this workflow relies on Inventor and Navisworks, there is no viable way to run this on macOS natively.
Virtualization: Parallels Desktop is generally too weak to run the full Factory suite (AutoCAD + Inventor + Navisworks) simultaneously with acceptable performance. A high-end Windows mobile workstation is the only real solution.
