topic Re: creating a drawing using more than one part in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

creating a drawing using more than one part

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 19:39:02 GMT

I need to create a drawing that contains more than object can this be done?

I have drawn each part as a separate design but wish to combine all the designs/parts on one drawing so I can then export to a DXF to laser cut.

David

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

Eng-OS — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 19:53:07 GMT

Newbie here but I had the same need and I created a new design in which I imported and placed all my components. Then from that new design I made a drawing and a dxf for my cutter.

Hope this helps.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 20:21:18 GMT

thanks for that solution, it is one way round the issue I just wondered if there was another way.

Attached is a screen shot of what I am building it is a model of Aylesbury railway station I have 3D printed the tower on the roof and other parts the walls will be laser cut.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

TrippyLighting — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 11:38:52 GMT

Inserting al of the individual parts/components into one design is certainly the correct way to get to one DXF that contains all ht parts.

As a mater of fact you should have created the whole design in a single file, not separate model files as that would have saved a lot of time.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 13:48:15 GMT

I was using Autodesk Inventor prior to Fusion and created assemblies from parts, so it did the same with Fusion. If I had created everything in one assembly could I have pulled off each part and created a drawing from that?

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

TrippyLighting — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 14:07:34 GMT

Yes. you can create a (manufacturing) drawing from every individual component in a Fusion 360 assembly file.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

HughesTooling — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 14:22:19 GMT

As @TrippyLighting stated you can create a drawings from individual components, just right click the component in the browser and select create drawing. One small problem though is the view will be from the document not relative to the component so if you've rotated the component the standard views might not be what you need.

You can work around this problem by creating a named view. Use the Look At tool from the bottom toolbar to align the view with a face then from the browser right click Named View and create a new view. When you create a drawing just select the named view as the base view.

Mark

Edit another problem with 2d drawings from Fusion is you can only save as DWG or PDF, no DXF and the DWGs can only be read by AutoCAD so your laser cutter might not be able to use them.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

burnandreturn — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 19:19:00 GMT

To put it bluntly you are up **** creek without a paddle on this one. Drawings are pretty much useless for exporting to a format most laser cutters will recognize. To get a .dxf out of Fusion you have to create the .dxf from sketches.

My number one complaint with Fusion. A lot of other peoples complaint also but the Fusion team just disregards this need. Lot of users have mentioned, complained, whined and pitched hissy fits but all on deaf ears.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

TrippyLighting — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 19:23:28 GMT

@burnandreturn wrote:

To get a .dxf out of Fusion you have to create the .dxf from sketches.

Correct. But what would be wrong with that ?

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

HughesTooling — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:25:45 GMT

@TrippyLighting wrote:

@burnandreturn wrote:

To get a .dxf out of Fusion you have to create the .dxf from sketches.

Correct. But what would be wrong with that ?

If you have an assembly of 10 parts you can put all 10 plan views into one 2d drawing but with sketches you need to create 10 sketches. Also there's no way to add dimensions for the laser cutter to double check the sizes, so you'd need to made a 2d drawing as well.

Mark.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

Eng-OS — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:35:21 GMT

Interesting, I was having the same issue and was wondering if it was me not knowing how to do it but after some research it seems like this is a serious issue of Fusion 360.

What is wrong with that ? Well it forces you to re-draw in a sketch what you already have in 3D or as a view in a drawing. It could be extremly long to do and can lead to mistakes if you forgot one edge or something.

Just imagine if you want to make a dxf of this:

One way I found to get a quick dxf from one part is to select all the geometry while in sketch mode and then save the sketch as a .dxf, saddly this doesn't work on an assembly. 😞

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

TrippyLighting — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:40:25 GMT

@Eng-OS @Anonymous @HughesTooling @burnandreturn If you give me an hour, or so I see if I can show what I usually do when I have to get stuff cut on the water jet, which should be rather similar. Whether that is a very efficient workflow can be argued - and by all means should be - but I tend believe it's not too bad.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

Eng-OS — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:54:30 GMT

@TrippyLighting Is it something like this ?

1.Create a view with all the components you want to cut flat.

2.Create a sketch and use the projection tool (select bodies in the tool).

3. Save the sketch as dxf.

This is what I'm doing now. It works and it's not that long to do. But you have to make sure you don't forget to select one body at step 2.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

TrippyLighting — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 21:17:21 GMT

Yes, that is what I was going to suggest.

Well, in a multi part assembly there is always something to forget 😉

What I do is that I create an additional component/assembly that I call Waterjet layout. I copy/paste all the components I want to have cut into that assembly and then lay them out on my sheet size. Then project their outlines into a new sketch that I create a DXF from.

That copy/pasting of components is an additional step, but has the advantage that design changes to the components in the assembly are reflected in your cut profiles and the sketch.

But, again I am interested in discussing a more efficient workflow. Whenever this topic comes up, nesting is a common request. In the preference pane there is a preview feature for water jet and laser cutting, but I have no idea what that actually does 😉

Also, there is no reason not to start another one of these threads. In my native language German there is a proverb "Steter Tropfen hölt den Stein" and google translates that into "constant dripping wears away the stone", so lets turn on the shower 😉

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

burnandreturn — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 21:35:59 GMT

The point is one shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get what is an industry standard. The work around is a clutz and prone to mistakes.

Why not create a drawing with dimensions and then click on export as .dxf? Why not, because you can't and the Fusion team refuses to even consider implementing this option.

They don't actually make things. They write software. Some of them might have at one time actually got their hands dirty in a shop but they have turned their back on the real world and are lost int the clean domain of writing code and marketing.

I have 2500 students stay at my place every year. We make things as one of the programs that we offer. Yep, real physical world things from wood and metal. At this point in time I confine what we make to 2D objects. Model a part, make a drawing, export a .dxf and go mill, cnc plasma cut or cnc route. I wish I could use the one stop fits all Fusion 360 but I can't at this time.

So I use SpaceClaim or GeoMagic. I use Fusion to model a part and then render it in SimLab to show how realistic things can be made. Most always ask why I can't or don't use Fusion 360 to do the parts we actually make. I have to tell them that Fusion is not for real work in actual shops. It is for hobby users because you have to do too many workarounds to get what you can do easily with SpaceClain or GeoMagic. What the students really like is to see their creations come to life in wood and metal. Every student leaves with something they either made themselves or watched being made.

Fusion is loosing a lot of users every year because they won't implement functions that are needed in the real world. I know they lose the 2500 students at my place. They love the direct modeling in SpaceClaim and bam export .dxf import into SheetCam and cut. NO muss no fuss.

My next addition will be a couple of good 3D printers so we will also be able to model and print parts.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

TrippyLighting — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 21:43:59 GMT

@burnandreturn wrote:

They don't actually make things. They write software. Some of them might have at one time actually got their hands dirty in a shop but they have turned their back on the real world and are lost int the clean domain of writing code and marketing.

While I certainly understand your frustration, your assessment is, quite frankly uninformed and unprofessional. Period!

I know a good number of the Fusion 360 team members personally including some of the program managers, software architects, community mangers etc.

Your assessment that they only write software and don't make things could not be further from the truth.

If you're ever been at Autodesk's Pier 9 facility in San Francisco you'd know how uninformed your assessment is.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

burnandreturn — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 06:30:25 GMT

Yes I painted with a broad stroke but to me it is worse that they are in fact people that actually make things and have not implemented such a basic feature as to be able to export .dxf from drawings. If they have in fact sent a file to a laser, waterjet or cnc plasma cutter I would be interested to know what they sent and how they did it prior to Fusion 360. I would be 99% sure they made a .dxf from drawings that had dimensions. As to me being unprofessional, how unprofessional have they been to not implement export of .dxf from drawings? I would say far more so than me. I design and build prototype machines with my own two hands. I have a complete machine shop to do most everything in house. I don't have a CNC laser cutter and have to send that out so that is why I don't use Fusion professionally. I don't want to be bothered with work arounds. It makes no sense to me. That is why I dropped my paid subscription to Fusion when I realized we had different priorities.

I need tools that work efficiently not work arounds. What about top down direct modeling without sketches? Where is the efficient path to .dxf files? Maybe I have missed something.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 20:23:15 GMT

I can export a DWG and convert in AutoCAD to a DXF for laser cutting but it would be much better if I could export to a DXF directly, also if you don't have AutoCAD to convert it then you are unable to convert to a DXF which is a pain.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

TrippyLighting — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 20:25:19 GMT

PLease re-read the post in this thread that explain how this is currntly done in Fusion 360.

You can directly export a DXF from Fusion 360.

Re: creating a drawing using more than one part

burnandreturn — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 20:45:54 GMT

You can not export a .dxf from a sketch and to my knowledge it will not be dimensioned. So then you also have to export a drawing with dimensions.

You Tippy don't seem to get the problem.