Any way to join sketch curves ?

[rumpelstielz]

hi,

i'm still trying to adapt to fusion coming from Rhino and am a bit confused while trying to wrap my head around the sketch environment in f360. For the moment i have this problem: i am trying to machine some parts but spend a lot of time preparing sketch curves which i then use as CAM boundary curves. So i have this part/model and project the feature curves i need .. but somehow i can't seem to get to the complete outlines of the parts contours and holes ... i have to project each surface edge one by one and there seems to be no way to project an entire outline as a closed curve, in Rhino i can do that with 'Curve from object > mesh outline' for example .. or i can extract edge curves and then join them so they end up as single closed curves.

The problem is that this adds a lot of work having to select the curve parts generated by F360 and is also quite difficult and time consuming to do depending on the models complexity, for example:

you can see at the number of points how many single curves i have to select just to do a contour CAM operation .. so is there any way to:

• project component/surface outlines as single closed curves

or

• join curve parts to become a single closed curve

[neljoshua]

See the post below.  I do not think there is a way to do this yet.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/joining-line-segments-in-sketches/td-p/49434...

[rumpelstielz]

ah ok, sorry for the double post, missed this in my search ... but being able to project mesh/component outlines/contours would be cool as well or the ability to select in the project dialog box how the resulting items should be projected, something like a 'combine/join curves' option

[jeff_strater]

@neljoshua is correct.  There is no "merge curve" in Fusion sketch.

It seems to me (and I am not a CAM user) that the problem here is not that there is no "merge curve" in Fusion sketch, but that CAM really needs a way to "chain" curves together.  Is that not possible? Do you have to individually select each curve to identify a contour path?

Jeff Strater (Fusion development)

[rumpelstielz]

in CAM the chain selection seems a bit random, sometimes it will catch the whole chain sometimes not. But the problem is really that there is no way to generate single closed curves in sketch mode. What i'd like to do in this instance for example is to offset the outline curve of the object but this isn't possible, i'd have to offset each partial curve but even that is not consistent, it'l combine some parts of the curves but not others.

Since the offset command only allows a single object to be selected at a time that's a lot of additional work where a single operation could do what needs to be done. On a side-note the same btw applies to the align command, only being able to select a single object makes for a lot of unnecessary work when you are trying to align several object.

The other way round is also a problem, i've run into situations where i wanted a partial curve but just because it was overlapping/touching another curve fusion would treat it as a single curve. In general i don't see a lot of consistency between how sketch curves work in sketch mode and in cam mode. It feels random but there might be an underlying logic here i just don't grasp .. i don't have a formal CAD background and the whole concept of doing everything through sketches still feels odd to me.

As a Rhino/Rhinocam user i have to say that i much prefer Fusions CAM module to Rhinocam but i find the sketching environment very limited compared to the direct curve modeling in Rhino. But really, Fusion is a very cool software and the licensing is very nice for a small time user like me 🙂 .. i also really appreciate how reactive you guys here in the forum are, so i have faith that in the long run all will be good

[HughesTooling]

Any chance you can export the design and upload. Looking at your screen grabs what I'd do is delete the lines around the outside leaving the 4 corner arcs then draw 4 lines to make a closed profile.

Do you know you can modify the path when you select a boundary in the CAM workspace, see screencast below. I hardly ever need a sketch in the CAM workspace but it does look like your model is a a bit of an angle so the boundaries in the CAM workspace might not work.

Mark

[rumpelstielz]

thx for the tip Hughes, i've used this method a couple of times already. In fact this particular model might not be the best example for why i'd like single closed curves or the ability to join curves. Going over the file again i noticed that i missed a tiny litle edge and that was why the CAM part didn't pick this up as a loop, it now does it. But it would still be great to be able to join curves (for the offset operation previously mentioned) or to be able to project a closed edge loop. Have a look at the screencast of how tedious this process is now where it could be a single click:

File is also attached.

[HughesTooling]

Yes pretty tedious, the irony is you can select the edge in the CAM workspace with one click so I'm not sure why you're making a sketch, but like you say perhaps this is not the best model to show the problem.

One thing I noticed looking at how you set up the 2d adaptive, you are misusing the model selection. The model selection within an op is to add surfaces to the model selected in the setup, as you're not adding any faces you don't need to tick\select Model in the op, the setup model will be used by default.

Here's an example of what the Model selection does. Lets say you don't want the cutter going into the slots, you just want it to machine the whole surface as if there's no slot. What you'd do is create patches then select them as Model Surfaces and check Include Sutup Model. These extra patches will only be seen\used in the op where they're selected' they are invisible to the other ops.

Mark

[rumpelstielz]

i'l post some other files which show the need for sketch curves better when i next come across it, until now this has happened often, but it might well be that my need for sketch curves in CAM just comes out of habit having to do it in Rhinocam and my lack of deep knowledge of the Fusion cam tools.

and yes for sure my grasp of the adaptive operation is a bit sketchy, the model selection was really just a last resort try to see if this solved the collision problems i've been having, i've tried various options strategies for a couple of hours and couldn't solve it so in the end i hit the model option to see what it does

btw, i've created a separate post for this particular part here: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/computer-aided-machining-cam/best-way-to-machine-this-3d-part/td-p/62...

and thanks so much for helping me out Hugues !

[rumpelstielz]

Mark you were right, having played with the different strategies a bit more it is true that there is hardly any need to use sketch curves for machining. One instance where i was using curves was when pocketing with open curves/edges but i discovered that there is the option to extend the passes which solves most of the difficulties i had.

But still for sketching and modelling i haven't found a solution yet to the offset problem described above and joining the curves would be nice although the workaround to delete parts of the curves and close them with line works most of the times. It's till weird though that in the CAM workspace FUsion recognizes the entire edgeloop but in sketch mode i cant project this edge loop as a single closed curve and have to go through the tedious single edge selection shown in my screencast.

many thanks again !

[HughesTooling]

I have a couple of suggestions, one design the part in Fusion then you'll have all the sketches without needing to extract them from the model.

Second more serious, bring the model in before you add the fillets, extracting the edge from a fillet is going to be more error prone, see screencast below where I remove the fillets from your model extract\project the edge. At the end I add the fillet back and you'll notice the fillet is more simple than the original, less sections.

Original fillet.

Fusion fillet

Mark

PS. what program are you designing the part in, if it has a good DXF\DWG export you can use those formats to get the model and the curves. You have to upload through the data panel for DXF if you want the 3d and 2d data.