1:1 Templates?

[ipmcc]

I have a design, and part of the design is a hole pattern that I need to transpose to a pre-existing composite part. My thought was: "Oh, this'll be easy! I'll print a 1:1 template, tape it to the other part, and use that to drill the holes in the right places." But I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to create such a print out.

I saw a couple of posts here talking about needing this to cut fabric. The solutions involved some Fusion add-in called ExactFlat, but that Add-In appears to be dead. It's not in the App Store, and people talk on forums about it being abandonware. 

Any hot tips? Thanks.

[Warmingup1953]

Can you share your Fusion file? You want to cut pre-preg by hand?

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! If I understand your request correctly, you may create drawing views from the design and set the scale to 1:1. Next, print the drawing.

Many thanks!

[ipmcc]

With @johnsonshiue 's advice, and some flailing, I was able to get what I needed. That said, I wanted to leave a few comments for anyone who finds this thread later:

• When creating the drawing, I only see options for ISO paper sizes (A3, A4, etc). You can override this setting when you go to actually print it (in the print dialog) by selecting the paper size to be US Letter. Important: You have to explicitly set the scale to 1:1, then shift the drawing around to be centered on US Letter paper. A Y shift of -10.0 worked for me. There is an option to make a custom sheet size, but that option is not available in the Personal Use edition, and requires a paid subscription, so I don't know anything about it. In the end, if you leave it on the default of "Fit to Paper" it, very likely, will not come out 1:1. 
• Part of my problem here was that, although my part is rectilinear, it was not coplanar with XY, YX, or XZ, so I was ending up with a distorted drawing. None of the options in the Orientation drop down worked for me. I assume that there must be a 'real' way to do this, but after a half hour of beating my head against it, I simply exported my part, opened the exported version, oriented it to be coplanar with XY, and then created the drawing, and everything was OK. That said, it seems quite evident that the Drawing feature is meant to produce arbitrarily-scaled engineering drawings, with witness lines and measurements, and not 1:1 drilling templates. I get that mine may be an unusual use case, but there it is.
• Fusion implements its own print UI that is very un-MacOS-like, and doesn't mesh very well with the MacOS print flow. For instance, the print-to-PDF workflow that's built into MacOS, so that (virtually) every application has the same print capabilities/flow, does not work in Fusion. If you dig around enough, you can find things that look like they'll work, but then Fusion just sends it to the physical printer anyway. Meh. It's not a deal-breaker for my present use case, since I ultimately want a printed paper template, but it's incredibly annoying in the abstract. Many more complex graphics packages like Photoshop and Illustrator, bolt on some custom UI at the beginning of the print flow, but continue to fully take advantage of the MacOS printing system, if nowhere else, then as the very last step in the printing process. 

Best wishes to all! And many thanks to @johnsonshiue!

-Ian

[ipmcc]

@Warmingup1953 :

No, at this moment, I'm not cutting pre-preg by hand, but I've certainly cut a lot of pre-preg by hand in my time. 🙂  In this case, I have a fiberglass part (think like a PCB) that has to bolt up to another part, and the bolt pattern has been a real bear to get JustRight™, so I really just wanted to get it right in Fusion, print a template, spray-mount the template to the composite part, and drill as appropriate. 

Another feature I miss from other 3D packages is an "unfold" option. I know that Fusion can do this for Sheet Metal parts, but ISTR using another app that could do it for solids, and that app had the ability to add glues/tape tabs so if you were printing it out on paper, hoping to create a paper model of your part, you could print it out, cut it out, and glue/tape it up to get a draft physical model. I'm not sure how important this is in the modern era of 3D printing, but I liked it, and it was a fun way to quickly mock up a certain subset of parts.

Thanks!

-Ian

[TheCADWhisperer]

@ipmcc 

There could be an easier way - but all I see is words.

[ipmcc]

Heh. I assume you're referring to the fact that I didn't upload a design file. So, here it is.

As a footnote: I'm fully aware that I'm here asking for help, with my proverbial hand out. And I really try to stay as humble as possible about that. And I'm beyond grateful to @TheCADWhisperer and others who frequently swoop in and come to the rescue. I really am! That said, after participating here for a while I've realized that, "upload your F3D file" is this forum's version of "pics or it didn't happen!" which can be very frustrating. 

Similarly, after uploading a file, a comment I've gotten a number of times is to the effect of "well, ya know... your sketches aren't fully constrained, so maybe do that first, and then see if you still have the problem." That feels like the equivalent to showing up to the hospital with a gunshot wound and being told "You smell awful! Go take a shower, and then maybe we can take a look at this gunshot wound." Unless the lack of constrained sketches obviously applies directly to the cause of the problem, why jump all over people about this?

I understand where these things come from. I worked for the better part of a decade on mass-market consumer/office software. Bugs are always easier to diagnose, reproduce, and fix when the end user gives you a file, along with rock-solid reproduction steps. But it's not always feasible. Someone who's working on their company's quarterly earning report spreadsheet isn't going to just attach that spreadsheet to a bug, or to a forum post, and that needs to be OK. There has to be a vocabulary for discussing issues in the absence of direct evidence.

The first one reduces to "how are we supposed to help if we can't see the problem?", and the second one reduces to, "you're missing some of the basics, here. Maybe, just maybe, deploying some discipline would (collaterally) solve your problem, but if not, let us know." I get it. I really do. But both of these comments can very easily come off as passive/aggressive. I certainly felt that way when I first showed up here. Now, I just feel I've recognized these things have come to be the price of entry here... I just wish it weren't like that.

-Ian

[TheCADWhisperer]

---

@ipmcc wrote:

The solutions involved some Fusion add-in called ExactFlat, 

Any hot tips? Thanks.

---

@ipmcc 

When you mentioned ExactFlat and fabric - I assumed you had geometry that needed to be "unwrapped" from compound curved faces.  But your part is already flat.  Don't take the term "sheet metal" literally, think any uniform thickness geometry (perhaps from an unwrap to create a template).

I don't know how Mac works with DXF, but on Windows I would simply export a dxf for the template.

It is often said, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

My CAD corollary to that is, "A CAD file is worth a thousand pictures."

When you mention Exact Flat and previous discussions it might be assumed that you want to unwrap (Flat Pattern) a template.

Maybe something like this simple example, or maybe something more organic...

[laughingcreek]

@ipmcc - side note FYI.  If you use ASME instead of ISO when you create your drawing you will get U.S. paper size options.

Also, I use a program called pepakura to make paper/cardboard models of objects designed in fusion.  It's relatively inexpensive (currently $70 for lifetime license.  it was $20 for the version I first bought many years ago) and is lots of fun to use.

[Warmingup1953]

Wow! That is quite impressive! I note that you have accepted a solution, but may I ask if all you need is a simple way to print a paper template with the PCB silhouette and these four holes?

[ipmcc]

The task at hand was actually for the mounts in the back . Each of those 'bosses' on the back receives a (pre-made, nylon) M3 hex standoff. The standoffs get glued into the bosses, then the control board needs to have corresponding holes for the M3 screws to screw into the standoffs. For various reasons, this has proven to be much more challenging than it seemed like it should be. 🙂 

[Warmingup1953]

Ok, that also is easy.

Because the Face you need is not a standard view, select it, then press that SawTooth "Look At" icon circled in green. That will get you looking square on to the selected face, then create a "New Named view"" circled in red.

Now move to Drawing Workspace and create a new Drawing 1:1 based on the Named View. I renamed the new named view "TEMPLATE"

Then you will end up with, depending on your Licence, a Drawing file you can send 1:1 to your printer or you can create a .pdf, again 1:1:

[g-andresen]

I think this thread clearly shows how important it can be to share a file for analysis in order to gain a better understanding.

Günther