The purpose of this project will be to analyze and report on fusion's various functions. To report on bugs, and to request new features when the need arises. The "project" will consist of modeling a remote observation system. Ill be modeling everything from scratch and will be utilizing many features of the fusion program such as cnc programming, sheet metal design and simulation. Once I complete the cad project I will have the parts 3d printed.
In the end, I hope to have a clearer understanding of the design and prototyping process as a whole, as well as to develop an effiecient workflow for future jobs. I also want to help make fusion a better program for mechanical designers.
Through out the project Ill be covering these things and more :
here are some screen grabs of the said project. There over three hundred parts in this assembly. There is sheet metal parts, top-down modeled parts as well as some complex lofted geometry. Hopefully Ill cover all of this with this project.
I imported the obj meshes into fusion and ran into a few issues. The mesh faces seemed to be smoothed and shows some dark areas around the parts.
Is there any way to control the face normals? Is it possible to set the normal to face?
The grouping information gets lost when you import a mesh into fusion. In this example I exported a grouped obj from Maya and imported it into fusion when the model popped up it showed up as one component. If I upload several models at once, They all appear in the file browser which makes sense. But there is no option to upload all of the parts into one assembly, or maybe I missed that option.
In spaceclaim, it is possible to construct a work plane and even a work axis from a mesh. You cannot do this in Fusion. I am aware of the option to snap a tspline surface to a mesh but the results seem unpredictible based on what I've seen in the past. There is no way I can use the mesh to build any axis or work planes which limits the potential to create accurate models from 3d scans.
Another big thing is sectioning the model. I was having trouble trying to find the section tool, and there seemed to be no way to section the mesh file I had imported. In Spaceclaim I was able to select a face and section the entire assembly so that I can draw a new sketch. Again, due to the limited functionality of the imported mesh, I cannot create any sections to build new sketches.
There is also no way I can line up the part with the origin planes so my sketches are going to be off.
Ive uploaded some videos to show an example of interactivity between Fusion and Spaceclaim when it comes to importing and working with mesh files.
Here is an image of the face normals issue I am having. Can I set the normals to face in another application and re import? will that work?
Here is an image of the work axis I was able to construct using the extruded solid. I can create an offset plane and draw a circle on that plane that is centered with the work axis.
I tried the same thing in Fusion. I can create a work axis, but when I construct a plane and draw a circle or any shape, I cannot center my sketch to the axis.
Its possible I may be missing something, but it hasnt worked for me so far.
I noted that the point of this project is to explorer workflows with non-CAD geometry (mesh files). However, you may consider trying to use the IGES format from Maya instead of a mesh format. This should bring everything in as a BRep solid/surface which will make it easier to add planes and section parts, etc... This should also enable you to bring in multiple parts in at one time.
Some other tips that may help are:
I hope that helps.
Thanks,
I worked on a few parts yesterday. For some of the features I sectioned an obj file, sketched a profile, then revolved the profile along the work axis to create a solid .
I have attached a few components for download in various formats to see if someone can replicate the parts using the obj model as a base. I was not able to replicate this workflow in Fusion
Ive tried using the convert to brep option but it does not work on obj files. Ive tried projecting the obj geometry to a pane and I cant seem to get that to work either.