topic Re: No Option to save as STL? in Fusion Support Forum

No Option to save as STL?

gavin.landon — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 02:11:47 GMT

I've had Fusion 360 for some time now, I have many projects and I save as STL a LOT, because I'm into 3D Printing and print my own designs. Today, I login to Fusion 360 and the option, when I right click on a body to Save as STL is missing. This is a saved project, which I know can cause it, but it's missing from right click on project, components, or any bodies. This seems to be across all my projects, not just this one.

Re: No Option to save as STL?

gavin.landon — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 02:15:52 GMT

I just found this article. Guess they changed it, but I'm just now seeing the change.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-export-an-STL-file-from-Fusion-360.html

Re: No Option to save as STL?

seth.madore — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 09:40:18 GMT

Honest question, and I mean no disrespect by it: You are a 3D printer enthusiast, and you knew where the "Save as .STL" button was located. Now it's been renamed to "Save as Mesh". Was there any curiosity as to what that button did, and isn't "Mesh" an interchangeable term for an STL?

Re: No Option to save as STL?

gavin.landon — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 11:44:15 GMT

Not really as I'm a software engineer, not a cad designer by trade; this is just my hobby. I see Convert to Mesh all the time, which I used once and found it was something I didn't need for what I was doing. So I assumed it was something I wouldn't use. I don't use 70% of what Fusion 360 has, but for what I use it for, it's worth the money for a piece of mind it will be around a year from now.

Re: No Option to save as STL?

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 18:45:25 GMT

I have intermediate experience with printing and can share my perspective... In this case (and often) I simply share my part designs with another engineer in the office who prints them for most of us. When I went to 'save as .stl', I noticed the 'save as mesh' change... stumbled for a moment wondering if that's just the same thing in the end, but when I proceeded to download the file I noticed the file-type was different (one I hadn't encountered before) and decided to abort. Which then prompted me to google where the 'save as .stl' option went. So here we are 🙂

Re: No Option to save as STL?

g-andresen — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 19:44:39 GMT

Hi,

STL is still available as an option in the menu.
However, the default setting is 3MF.
This is the format of choice and beats STL in almost all respects.

günther