The reason your imported files are rotated by 90 degrees is that inventor, like many true engineering CAD apps, uses the Z-axis as the up axis. Maya uses the Y-axis as the up axis by default.
You can fix this in three ways.
1. change the up axis in maya by going to windows > settings / preferences > settings and making the up axis the Z-axis for your clients files.
2. Have your client set the up axis in Inventor or his CAD surfacing app to be the Y-axis. I cannot recall where this is done in Inventor but I know it can be done.
3. create a mel as you have to rotate all imported objects about the X-axis by 90 degrees and freeze their transforms effectively making the Y-axis the up axis. I am not a mel guy so I cannot really comment on your script.
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675
Last edited by ctbram; 18-02-2012 at 07:01 PM.