topic Re: Imported dwg empty in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Imported dwg empty

alexandwirtz — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 08:33:41 GMT

Dear community, I've imported this dwg via upload to the data panel in fusion but once opened it seems to not contain anything. When I open it in edrawings everything is displayed fine.

I then converted the dwg to dxf and other versions of dwg with no success when uploaded and opened.

I do not have autocad to tweak more options, can someone make the attached file work in fusion? (better show the way how to if possible)

Thank you!

Betreff: Imported dwg empty

g-andresen — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 08:56:44 GMT

Hi,

DXF files saved in Autocad are ignored.

Try to get the parts from the manufacturer or via Insert > manufacturer part.

günther

Betreff: Imported dwg empty

alexandwirtz — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 08:59:45 GMT

Thanks for your reply, the drawings are not on any platform but come from our suppliers of extrusion profiles. The original file i received from them is a .dwg file.

Re: Imported dwg empty

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 15:58:29 GMT

@alexandwirtz wrote:

I do not have autocad to tweak more options,...

@alexandwirtz

Original geometry was Regions.

I moved to Origin and Exploded into lines and arcs.

Save As dxf and then Import into Fusion (see Attached).

It helps to have a full understanding of AutoCAD geometry types.

Re: Imported dwg empty

HughesTooling — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 11:54:36 GMT

@TheCADWhisperer Are regions just a surface? I opened the DWG with Rhino and the "Regions" import as a surface, might be Rhino is just converting to something it supports. But what I found with a bit of experimentation is Fusion seems to ignore single unjoined surfaces in DWGs.

If I create new surfaces in the file they are also ignored but if I join another surface to create a polysurface Fusion sees and imports the polysurface fine. So it seems like there's a problem importing unjoined surfaces from a DWG.

Here's my test. I've added 2 surfaces, one joined to one of the original regions.

Only the polysurface import into Fusion.

Using STP instead works fine so unjoined surfaces are not a problem for Fusion in other formats.

Mark

Re: Imported dwg empty

alexandwirtz — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 05:12:43 GMT

@TheCADWhisperer : Thanks for your response and adjustment of the data! For non autocad users it would be great to not worry about this kind of problems... I thought it would be more easy with dwg files to go from one to the other system. Fusion should be able to convert dwgs in some form after uploading...

Thanks for your help.

Re: Imported dwg empty

wersy — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 07:30:05 GMT

@alexandwirtz schrieb:
Fusion should be able to convert dwgs in some form after uploading...

Fusion is able, but not in the free version.

Re: Imported dwg empty

alexandwirtz — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 08:55:54 GMT

I'm on a subscribtion, but so far I do not have the experience that a dwg is importet without problems. So a conversion to the degree that I can work with the file is not the case.

Betreff: Imported dwg empty

wersy — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 09:30:15 GMT

When the option of dwg import was still available, I only imported bodies. That went without problems.
I have no experience with dxf import.

Re: Imported dwg empty

alexandwirtz — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 08:49:29 GMT

What can i forward to a supplier that uses Autodesk, to make sure fusion can read dwg or dxf files with no problems? What are the best settings etc.?

Re: Imported dwg empty

Warmingup1953 — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 09:55:09 GMT

Ask for .dxf. It was conceived and born to be the CAD Tower of Babel!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoCAD_DXF

Re: Imported dwg empty

alexandwirtz — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 07:08:11 GMT

Even with importing dxfs the problems persists, not all lines are displayed. Viewing the file in edrawings shows all lines and it seems to be OK. See attached screenshots.

The dxf is from the supplier, maybe you can take a look at it and find a solution?

Re: Imported dwg empty

HughesTooling — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 07:45:19 GMT

@Phil.E Can this be looked at? Seems like and unjoined surfaces in a DWG\DXF are not converted to a surface when translated. Open polysurfaces and solids are fine.

See my post #5 above for more details.

Thanks Mark

Re: Imported dwg empty

Warmingup1953 — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 08:28:35 GMT

The attached .dxf file is a .dxf of the complete Drawing Sheet...Not of the Cross-section of the extrusion (s)

Re: Imported dwg empty

Phil.E — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 20:32:40 GMT

@HughesTooling If you can please send me a file and succinctly explain what is expected, I'll file an improvement request for the translation developers. A file and a few short steps, please send to phil dot eichmiller at autodesk dot com.

When the most recent dxf is opened in AutoCAD, it throws errors for missing shx fonts and missing xrefs.

This means that the Fusion translators are going to have the same problems.

Solution:

remove all dimensions, text, title blocks, etc. prior to export as dxf
explode all xrefs (or whatever makes them not xrefs)

Next, I notice the extrude profile imports into Fusion very far from the origin.

Solution:

Move the profile to the origin prior to export as dxf

Hopefully this helps. These same steps might work for dwg file type as well.

Conclusion:

AutoCAD creates many objects that are only valid in AutoCAD. Fusion, and any other application that consumes these DWG/DXF files is at a disadvantage. Fusion, and other apps, simply do not have the full code stack of AutoCAD available to address these objects that are used in AutoCAD workflows.

In order to consume information from AutoCAD today, it is helpful to strip it down to the very essential information and no more.

Could Fusion do better? Sure, but there might be a requirement to include a new UI to help you clean up these files on the Fusion side: layer control, text font control, xref control, etc. This is not on the Fusion development road map at this time. We can look for automatic ways to translate files like this.

Re: Imported dwg empty

HughesTooling — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 16:57:43 GMT

@Phil.E I'm not too worried about the dimensions, text, etc.. If you import the DWG in the first post you don't get anything, no sketches or surfaces. If I open this file in Rhino I find the profile is a surface, @TheCADWhisperer mentioned this is a region in AutoCad. Not sure if Rhino is just making the region a surface because it doesn't have regions. But what I found is if I add unjoined single surfaces to that file they are also ignored but joint polysurfaces read in fine.

Attached is a simple example.

In Rhino I have a single surface and a polysurface

When this is imported into Fusion only the polysurface imports.

I'm guessing if Fusion imported unjoined surfaces in DWG\DXF it would import the 2 regions in the DWG in the first post?

Thanks Mark

Re: Imported dwg empty

HughesTooling — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 17:15:39 GMT

And the same goes for the DXF, there's a region for the main profile. I don't think this needs to be translated as a sketch profile, just a surface would be enough.

If I join a surface to the profile in Rhino it will then import into Fusion.

Rhino

Imported into Fusion. I'm sure people could work from this OK.

Re: Imported dwg empty

Phil.E — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 20:33:35 GMT

I'm happy to look into what you propose @HughesTooling but first can you confirm that data like this is supported?

https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-import-DWG-files-into-Fusion-360.html

Is the original request to use 3D dwg or 2D dwg? I think it's about 2D dwg.

The reason I ask is that if I follow the instructions in that page, I get this result in Fusion working with the dwg attached.

Lovely extrusions

Note: DWG files from AutoCAD and other software can contain data that Fusion 360 cannot read. Fusion 360 can only import DWG files containing 2D sketch geometry or 3D solid bodies. For AutoCAD drawings - open the file in AutoCAD and purge the file, making sure to remove XREFs and images.

So I think non-solid bodies are not supported.

Re: Imported dwg empty

HughesTooling — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 18:13:44 GMT

@Phil.E wrote:

Note: DWG files from AutoCAD and other software can contain data that Fusion 360 cannot read. Fusion 360 can only import DWG files containing 2D sketch geometry or 3D solid bodies. For AutoCAD drawings - open the file in AutoCAD and purge the file, making sure to remove XREFs and images.

So I think non-solid bodies are not supported.

That's the problem, what do you do if you don't have AutoCAD.

Non-solid bodies do import, single unjoined surfaces don't. DWG\DXF are quite useful because they allow you to import pretty much anything. A DWG\DXF can have solids, polysurfaces, meshes and sketches and import fine but it seems not single surfaces.

You can import single surfaces in STP or IGS but you can't import sketches, this has been requested on the old ideastation and was marked as implemented but it never worked. The request for IGS and STP to import sketches entities has come up a few times. You can view IGS\STP files with curves on the cloud but when translated you only get surfaces, solids.

Thanks Mark

Re: Imported dwg empty

HughesTooling — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 18:18:50 GMT

@alexandwirtz Have you tried QCad or one of the other AutoCAD clones to see if they open your DWG files correctly?

Mark