Announcements
Visit Fusion 360 Feedback Hub, the great way to connect to our Product, UX, and Research teams. See you there!
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Export Sketches to vector drawing formats (dxf, dwg, eps, whatever)

Export Sketches to vector drawing formats (dxf, dwg, eps, whatever)

Hey Fusioners Smiley Happy

 

this may sound different to you but i'd like to export from Fusion360 into the ol' fashioned 2D world. "Why should i want to do that" you may ask... well.. for reasons 🙂

 

Especially when you're living in a construction world like i do (well mine is primarily hobby driven) and if you're a workshop geek like i am, you live somwhere between 3d printing, cnc milling, probably a lathe and maybe a laser cutter (some of them probably at friends, fab labs or somewhere else). Beeing able to design new stuff in 3D in a sleek and easy way like Fusion360 offers it in most parts is a great opportunity then but you still have to fire up 2D construction software at many points to bring parts of your design - wich probably are going to get milled out of wood, acrylic, to reality. Most of the time this is easy work like drawing the outline, placing some holes and cutouts _but_ you have to do it again in the CAD software of your choice after it was probably already drawn nearly all of it in Fusion360 to get a good view of the assembly.

 

To give you a good example i'd like to give you a view of a 3d printer design i'm currently working on.

 

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/0acc8764-d2f5-47ed-98a2-eee89808d64a/d6dcf95f121bb3a2aef17daeca...

 

(sorry, inserting the image didn't work this time - don't know why - that's why only a link is here. Disclaimer: printer design is not mine. i've just imported it and am now reworking some parts and changing stuff).

 

Now what if you could just export the outlines of the frame panels surrounding this printer each by itself into a path and save it to a dxf file somehow similar like projecting it to an offset plane? Shouldn't be to hard to realise, is it? 

 

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/9b755ce2-d18e-4b00-ac19-70f973059dd3/bca0a23db8737630aee6a5dfbf...

 

The deluxe version of this could then be a possibility to define bodys/faces/sketches/projects that are "made for 2D" and beeing able to export them all at once to a dxf file on command. So if you have to tweek some things you don't have to export each and every part again but can just click on "export 2d parts" and all the previously marked faces get exported again.

 

Too much of a dream? I don't think, but i'd even more like to hear your oppinion on this idea.

 

 

13 Comments
stanh1
Contributor

2D output, particularly in dxf format, is a necessay part of many manufacturing workflows. In fact many laser cutters, routers, hot wire cutters, water jet cutters etc. will only take a dxf file as a tool path. Most of my machines will run gcode. But sometimes it's just convenient to take a plain vanilla, defacto standard, dxf file and just start cutting. Unfortunately dxf is the only universal vector format that cuts across all machines, software and language barriers world wide. I've found that I can say "dxf" to a chinese machine operator who has as much difficulty with english as I have with mandarin and we are instantly speaking the same language. The dxf format is also very much alive with millinnial generation Rep Rappers and makers.

Helmi74
Collaborator

As this already got 10 kudos over time and my need to have such a function is coming closer every day i thought i'd better push this once again and hope there will be some feedback from the team on this.

Nick_Ernst
Observer

Hello,

  I am new to Fusion myelf and have the same need as you.  I like having the ability to draw up my design in Fusion, which by the way is very nice compared to other softare suites I have used, and then export certain faces to have them cut on a laser.  I wanted to see if this has by chance been added, either by a plugin or software update, or through a secondary program.  I really dont want to use a different software suite that has the dxf exporting capabilities, but I may have to if this is not possible.  Thanks

rada.mar
Enthusiast

Hey, that's a great feature, I'm desiging some mechanims and some parts I'll cut o laser curtter and waterjet, so I need to simple export the profile of some parts.

This is super easy on Inventor, just click on the face and them click export face as DXF, simple and fast, why not implement in fusion 360?

Helmi74
Collaborator

Well this is exactly the simplicitiy i wish we had. This would make my workflows easy peasy. Currently i have to redraw everything that needs to be cut on the mill or the laser cutter in another Software (Any 2D CAD) as even exporting to 3D DXF and converting is more complicated.

deyop
Alumni

We are working on a method of saving a sketch to a DXF format.  The method would be similar to "Save as STL" with the selection of a body.  The selected sketch would include a "Save as DXF" option in the context menu.  If multiple sketches are selected they would be included in a single DXF.  They could be separated into different layers.  From this conversation it appears the DXF is needed for CAM requirements.  Any other issues we should be considering? The DXF would be saved locally. similar to STL.  Is that your expectation?

 

I saw your comments on the issue of units and am investigating a solution.

 

Let us know your thoughts.

 

SaveAsDXF.png

 

rada.mar
Enthusiast

Hi,

 

 

exporting the body face as the same fashionable way as Invetor does!

 

when this feature will be available?

it's very necessary to short cut the process of exporting those profiles,

now I'm importing on Inventor and selecting the faces I want to export.

 

 

fff.png

 

 

 

Helmi74
Collaborator

just wanted to connect the discussion going on here to this thread so nothing is missed:

 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Get-Help-with-Fusion-360/Best-workflow-to-get-2D-dxf-from-objects/td-p...

schneik-adsk
Community Manager
Status changed to: オートデスク審査落選
 
schneik-adsk
Community Manager
Status changed to: Implemented
Save as DXF was added in the May 21st update
rada.mar
Enthusiast

yeah!! cool it works! 

JetForMe
Collaborator

Any chance of getting other output formats, like PDF, including/excluding dimensions, etc.?

 

In my case, I want to send the profile of a blanking die to a manufacturer.

andresGPZMB
Participant

"Any chance of getting other output formats, like PDF, including/excluding dimensions, etc.?

 

In my case, I want to send the profile of a blanking die to a manufacturer."

 

+1, at the very least including dimensions.

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Submit Idea  

Autodesk Design & Make Report