A360 coordinate input from Excel data?

[donzapple]

I design machines with complex, but precise shapes that are pre-defined in X,Y, Z format in an Excel spreadsheet.

Rather than creating an image then drawing lines on top of it in 360, is there a method I can use to import the coordinates directly to form a sketch profile?

An example of a raw data file is attached, this would be filtered to identify which curve is needed for the A360 model.

Could anyone suggest a more efficient workflow than tracing the curves?

Regards,

Don

[Bud_Schroeder_ADESK]

Hi Don,

A360 is actually a viewer, are you using something else that allows you to draw? For example AutoCAD 360? Let us know for sure what you are using and we can move this to the right location so that others can jump in and help out with your question.

Thanks again for posting to the forums and looking forward to hearing back from you on this.

[donzapple]

Sorry - wrong abbreviation  ! - yes, I am using Fusion360 for the design and modelling system and well as simple manufacturing.  

So the question should be: 

Rather than creating an image then drawing lines on top of it in Fusion360, is there a method I can use to import the coordinates directly to form a sketch profile?

An example of a raw data file is attached, this would be filtered to identify which curve is needed for the Fusion360 model.

Could anyone suggest a more efficient workflow than tracing the curves?

Thanks for any advice,

Don

[donzapple]

Ok, so I played with this for a while. The easiest way so far is to create a DXF then import it into Fusion360.

Messy, awkward, time consuming.

Maybe this could be a feature request, unless I'm missing something obvious.

Any suggestions?

[James.Youmatz · Accepted solution]

Hi @donzapple,

One way to do this would be to use a CSV (comma separated value) file. What you can do is set up three columns in Excel (x,y,z) and then export that file as a CSV and import that into Fusion 360. The steps below are steps I wrote for someone to import a .DAT file that had airfoil coordinates. If you are just using your own coordinates, feel free to skip those steps and just do the export! Let me know if this works for you or if you have any questions!

1. Open the .DAT file in Excel.
2. Go through the .DAT import wizard. On the first screen, make sure to choose the appropriate option under "Original Data Type". For the test DAT file I used, I did not have my values as comma separated, so I needed to use "Fixed Width" in order to make sure that my values for X fell into column 1 and my values for Y fell into column 2. If you click Next, it will give you a breakdown of the columns, just verify here that it works. Make sure to create a Z column if there is not already one and add all zeros.
3. If all is okay, press Finish.
4. Double-check the Excel sheet and verify that there are no row breaks or invalid characters as this will mess it up in Fusion 360
5. Save the File from Excel as a .csv (comma delimited).
6. For verification, open the .csv in Notepad or Notepad++ to see if it is properly separated.
7. In Fusion 360, in the File menu select Scripts and Add-Ins. Scroll down to Import Spline CSV and double click the one with the yellow and blue icon. Then open the .csv you created and the airfoil should be created from the data points.

[donzapple]

Perfect ! Thank you !!!!

[rkivanov]

Thank you James for your help!
I found Sketch+ (plus) in the Autodesk App store:
https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=3503731250698603666&appLang=en&os=Win64&autostar....
It works fine.