Convert tspline to solid

[Dan_Margulius]

Hello,

i am playing with Fusion and it is amazing!!! Please dont laugh on my skills 🙂 

How can i convert my model to solid body and open it in Inventor.

Thanks

Dan

[AndrewSears]

Hi Dan,

The first thing you need to do is extract a solid body from the t-splines body.  To do this select the t-splines body, RMB and choose convert.  This will create a solid model that can be exported.

The next step is to export the model.

This will open another dialog and allow you to choose what format you would like to export the Fusion file as.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Andy 

[deyop]

That is a fine set of headphones Dan.  Interesting that many people start with headphones as a learning project.  I know I did.

You will want to use the Convert command from the Modify menu in either of the three workspaces (Sculpt, Model, Patch).  Or you could preselect the T-Spline body and you will find the Convert command on the Context Menu.  The Context Menu is displayed when you press the right mouse button.  Depending on what is currently selected the appropriate commands are displayed hence Context Menu.

When you have the Convert command open and the input selected just press OK and the conversion will execute.  The input T-Spline will be made invisible (but still available in the browser) and the BRep will replace it. Let me mention that if a failure on the conversion does occur it's because T-Spline faces or edges cross over each other so it is a good idea to use the Sculpt-Modify-Display Mode to review the model in box mode if you have any problems.  Intersections are more easily discovered in box mode.  Use Edit Form to move edge or vertices to correct any intersections.

When your conversion is complete you can export the model from the dashboard in SAT or STEP to use in Inventor.

The Convert Command was updated in the last release.  In addition to converting T-Splines to BReps it can also convert BRep faces to T-Splines and quad meshes to T-Splines.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any problems.

Thanks

[Dan_Margulius]

Hello Andy and deyop,

Thank you for the answers. The thing is that when i try to convert and pick the brep option 

it goes out of selection...I changed the display mode and it looks fine, I think. 

I am attaching the file maybe you will see something i missed. is there a "check" command in

Fusion so you can locate potential problems? 

Thanks

Dan

[jakefowler · Accepted solution]

Hi Dan,

I think the issue here is that there are some self-intersections on the T-Splines body, which is causing problems for the conversion process. These self-intersections aren't apparent when looking at the smooth model, but changing the Display Mode to Box or Control Frame (Sculpt > Modify > Display Mode, or make a selection on the model and and press Alt-1 for Box mode or Alt-2 for Control Frame mode) will show you the control polygon for the T-Splines body, which reveals a couple of interferences: one at the top of the headband, and one between the headband and earpads:

You can use Edit Form to adjust these a bit and remove the interferences (I've attached an f3d file with these modifications, in case this is helpful):

...and the model should convert as expected!

Saying that, generally we're able to detect this kind of issue upon converting, and return an error message to advise that the model has some issues that are preventing a successful conversion. I'll follow up on why this didn't happen with your model.

We also have a tool designed for detecting potential problems on T-Splines models (Repair Body, in the Sculpt > Modify menu), but unfortunately it's not able to give an early diagnosis for this kind of self-intersection issue at the moment - this is something we are working on though! For now, it's worth toggling your model to Box Display Mode if you encounter any problems with conversion, as this often reveals issues that aren't readily apparent on the smooth model (in fact, personally I check Box mode fairly frequently during a modelling workflow, to 'monitor' the quality of the model as I'm building it).

Concerning the selection issue in the Convert command: the Selection Filter you choose in the Convert command should actually relate to the input body, not the desired output body. In this case, the input is a T-Splines body, so selecting the T-Splines button here will let you select the model. The conversion output for a T-Splines input will always be a B-Rep (the output may be a solid or surface, depending on whether the input T-Splines model is closed or open).

One more thing that might help if you're eventually going to take this model in Inventor: it's actually possible to export the model directly as an Inventor file from the A360 Dashboard. Navigate to the model in the Dashboard, enter the model Details page and click Export, and Inventor 2014 should be available from the list of options:

If you're using a version of Inventor earlier than 2014, SAT (or STEP) might be the preferable export format.

Hope this helps, and sorry for the trouble. Very glad to hear you're enjoying Fusion 360; if you're still encountering any problems, do let us know!

Jake

[Anonymous]

Hello, Is it possible to convert the TSpline model to Bezier surfaces? Currently, I am creating my model in Fusion freeform then export it as igs then import the igs into Rhino where I can convert it to Bezier using their ConvertToBezier command. Can I do that in Fusion as well. If you are curious for what I need Bezier surfaces, it is for an isogeometric analysis solver that I have implemented. The input geometry, required by the code, must be in Bezier form; in other words, I use Bezier extraction of TSplines for structural analysis.

Cheers,

Hadi

[TrippyLighting]

No.

I believe this is not possible in Autodesk Inventor either, because both Fusion 360 and Inventor use the same modeling kernel ASM (Autodesk Shape Manager).

For this you likely need to use a surfacing software so you might be able to do this using Autodesk Alias.

[Anonymous]

@TrippyLighting

Thanks Peter, it should be relatively straightforward to extract those Bezier surfaces after exporting the freeform to igs. I would do that as part of my meshing code. Apart from that, it seems I am collecting all the pieces required for structural simulation together. Will update you soon.

Cheers, Hadi