box around a imported part

[Anonymous]

As most job shops experience. you get pre drawn parts from many different cad packages. Sometimes they come in with weird origins. 

Parts that come from stl data is the worst especially if your client got there stl from a scanner that never bothered to alinge the data before sending. 

also as there is no support currently for routing purposes and nesting 3D parts. There is a need for a box to be abled to be toggled on to the part when imported. This will aid in getting the part alinged. 

I did put this idea forward before but it did not get enough votes so i thought i would explain it better this time with some screen shoots of what I intended. 

So the next photo is of a part I had drawn in polyworks. It originates from a stl file and then was rendered. 

So I had to draw a box around this stock to find out where the center of the extremes are. 

This is so you can find the center piont as you can see in this slide. 

You can the use this piont for many differnt things. 

Inculding 

copying the part and moving it for 3d nesting. 

[daniel_lyall]

did you not like the way I did it with using two 90 degree faces to create a center plane, that modle does have two faces like that.

if it is imported with a center plane, or with a option to include modle stock, that would be good to, then nesting would be easy copy and past move stock, size plus 2x cutter

[Anonymous]

your way of doing it was easy. 

A problem still reamins though when your imported UCS is off center. Like above. 

what you see in the picuters tock me about 3 attempts. The center dot can be found for the extreems of the model. 

when it came to setting the cam hights up though what you did was spot on. That center plane makes it easy to just select +3mm. That way I can can keep my holding tab right arounf the part while I flip it over to do the reverse side. 

The model above though will be more tricky to do the bottom inlet on. 

I havent figured out how to remove the excess stock on that yet and stiil keep it clamped up for the inlet. 

The model above can not be nested in this case. It was just used to show the idea. 

[ekinsb]

Here's a Python script that will do what you want.  I quickly created this so there are things that can still be improved that I hope to get to at some point but I wanted to make this current version available because it does work.

To use this, unbundle the zip file in any location and then use the "Scripts and Add-Ins" command to load it.  Use the green "+" as shown below to browse to the folder and select CenterOfRange.py.  You only need to do this once and then Fusion will remember the location after that.

To run the script, once it's been loaded, run the "Scripts and Add-Ins" command, select "CenterOfRange" from the list of scripts and click "Run".  It will prompt you to select a body, which can be a solid, surface, or mesh and then will ask if you want it to draw the range box.  It will create a new sketch that contains a point representing the center of the range box of the selected body and optionally will draw sketch lines to represent the range box. The result is not intelligent so if the body changes in some way, the sketch will not update.  However, if you run the script again and select the modified body, it will update the existing graphics rather than create a new sketch.  An example of the result is shown below.

 I'm happy to hear about any problems or suggestions that I might be able to use when I get the time to work on enhancing this version.

[smallfavor]

This will aid in getting the part alinged. 

I have a minor issue along this line - its the z-axis comes in as what I generally consider the y and any imported models have to be fooled with.  It seems that function would be useful in this case as well.

[Anonymous]

I know what you mean. The plugin Brian came out with helps get the part copied. But could be used to locate the proper WCS. 

My work flow changed with the plug in. 

I now don't seem to worry about where the WCS is any more. 

I just import the part get my center of extents piont and go from there. If the plunging gets Into the program then it will mean a whole lot of work is done for you. But as a stand alone fix it's certainly solves the idea issues. 

Obvuiosly it needs to be in the main program so people can see it there.  Other wise it will, be left to us forum users to constantly piont it out. 

I aslo use the cam set set up to state which orientation I need for the X,y,z zero. 

[smallfavor]

You mentioned a plugin?  Is it available?  Name?

[Anonymous]

@smallfavor 

@ekinsb posted the python script the very post above your original post on this thread! 

[smallfavor]

Thanks.  Now I just have to figure out how to install it.  Is this only doable on windows?

[Anonymous]

I shouldn't think so. 

Give @ekinsb a PM if you have issues. He also details how to instal and run it in his post. 

[Anonymous]

 Great script @ekinsb ! I noticed this works with files created within Fusion, but not with imported .step files for example. It error'd out at line 73 - RuntimeError: 2 : InternalValidation Error : fragment.

Any way to accomplish bounding box for imported .step files? Thanks!

[ekinsb]

The problem was that the program didn't support designs that were set to not capture design history (Direct Modeling), which is the default when you import a STEP file.  I've updated the program so it now supports for parametric and direct modeling designs.  My first post above has the link along with directions on how to install and enable the script.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for explaining this and addressing it @ekinsb

[colin.smith]

Unfortunately this idea did not get the support of the community and as such we will not be pursuing it. Please feel free to rework and resubmit this one down the road. Thanks for taking the time to submit your idea.

[Anonymous]

@colin.smith

is this marked as achieved because of the python plug in. Or will this feature in the actual program? 

Will it now work with STL for example? 

Cheers

simon