Creating a bounding box for an organic shape?

[rlrhett]

I'm surprised I can't find an answer to this already.  Perhaps it is simply missing terminology.  I don't know what Fusion 360 calls it, so I can't find it.

I often have organic shapes, both 2D and 3D, that I need to fit within certain spaces.  In Rhino3d there is a very useful command for generating a bounding box of the sketch or body.  That way I can see the extents of an otherwise complex organic shape and determine if it will fit the maximum allowable dimensions.

How do I do that in Fusion360?  For example, if I have a sketch that is built of multiple flowing spline curves how can I automatically determine where on the sketch is the "high water mark"?  Think, for example, of a stylized cloud shape.  It is hard to even know which curve reaches the highest just by eyeballing it.  I need some way to calculate the extents EXACTLY in x, y, z.

That bounding box would likewise be useful for scaling the object to fit the parameters.  If, for example, the object has to fill but not exceed a 3cm cubed space I could measure the existing edges and scale the object in each dimension by 3 divided by the measurement.

What is the way to do this in Fusion360?

Thanks.

[jeff_strater]

Hi @rlrhett,

There is no way that I know of to do this in the Fusion UI today.  I suspect you could do this, maybe, with a bit of work via an API script.  @ekinsb, are there enough APIs to figure out the bounding box of a shape?

Jeff

[TrippyLighting]

Yu cannot really design a bounding box, but every 3D object in Fusion 360 has a bounding box.

If you right-click on the body or component and select "Properties" you'll find the size of the bounding box:

[ekinsb]

I wrote a program before to calculate the bounding box of a body.  I need to repackage it so it's easier to find and use but you can find the existing version here.  Look for my first posting in the thread.  https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideastation-request-a-feature-or/box-around-a-imported-part/idc-p/596...

It doesn't work for sketches but it should be possible to extend it to work with sketch geometry.  No guarantees but I'll see if I can make some time later this week.

[rlrhett]

Thanks.  I don't do Python (JS is my preferred coding), so it will take me a little bit to unravel.  But it is very much what I need.  I have similar issues as the OP in the thread you linked to.  Odd shaped items drafter by others that I need to normalize so that it can be actually manufactured.  Eg: This has to be milled out of 3/4" stock, so scale it to fit.  Hard to do when you have an organic shape unless you have a bounding box.  This artwork has to be engraved on an existing part of exactly .125" from the outside edge. Etc...

[r.biswas1]

Can you please include support structures features within Fusion 360?

[AlfonsoGo]

Having the same issue. Just imported a Subd mesh to fusion and worked with it but at some point i needed to have some references to move it.

I believe maybe exporting the bounding box with the object might be helpful?

[TheCADWhisperer]

@AlfonsoGo 

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

It seems to me that a surface body box set to transparent would serve this purpose nicely.

[ARTFiT3D]

Hi Ekinsb, Many thanks for this useful tool. It worked great for a 10k faceted mesh that I need to find the center of, then move to origin. 

Question, do you know of a way to use the center of mass glyph to move an object to origin?

Thanks

[rushabhthakkar_910]

@ARTFiT3D , Have a Look at THIS..

[bagonon730]

hey

[richard_buss]

I can't seem to find Surface Body Box anywhere in Fusion, has it moved? Or used different terminology?

[laughingcreek]

"surface body box" isn't a command in fusion.  the suggestion was to create a surface body thru regular modeling techniques that boxed in the part.