Create Sketch from Face

[modfab]

I do a lot of modelling for laser cut projects and use the "Create Sketch" from the right click menu often.  I find this a convenient way to get an outline profile for use on the laser.   I recently modelled a Shure Super 55 microphone as a laser job with many, many components.  Rather than have to go back and edit sketches that might be missing some features, I will normally take a sketch from an extruded part so that it accurately matches the assembled model.  On this project however, all of the sketches that i have created on faces are missing curved lines that are part of the face once I have exported them as DXF files for the laser software.  It is very frustrating and has added hours to the file preparation for this job.

So I create a sketch from this extruded face.

Here is the resultant sketch.

Then I import it into The laser software and get this

This is the same outcome on all of the files which are composed of straight lines and splines.

The only workaround for this was to select the face, start a sketch from the top menu bar and then manually sketch all the lines and then add the spline and try to match it to the existing shape of the face.  

I'm hoping there's a fix for this because it really blows out my file prep time for laser work.

[laughingcreek]

feels like a bug.  when I extrude a sketch with lines AND splines (per your problem descriptor), then create a sketch on a face and do a "project faces edges" I get a screwy result.

I tried it using "project body" and that worked as expected.  can you give that a try and see if it works for you?

[etfrench]

It's probably that your laser software doesn't handle splines properly.  There is an add-in to convert splines to polylines.  I'd also recommend you contact the laser software company to see if they may have a fix.

[Warmingup1953 · Accepted solution]

I use a Free Add-in that is on the App Store DXF for Laser. It is a simple enough process You can adjust kerf right in the add in and it creates good clean .dxfs from planar faces of Solid Bodies. Clean-up on completion is great!

APP Store Link Windows 

[modfab]

Thanks for the responses everyone 🙂  I will give some of these solutions a try.