Export drawing as dxf to zero plane

[glessboards]

All,

When exporting a drawing as dxf the file doesn’t move all the geometry to the same (zero) plane. If a line is in 3-dimensional space in Fusion, the line remains in 3-dimensional space in the dxf file. The resulting file in my cnc software is unusable since the geometry isn’t flattened to the same plane.

I’ve tried opening the dxf file back into Fusion and editing the sketch, move the geometry to sketch plane, then write out the sketch as a dxf. This works unless there are tangent edges, those tangent edges aren’t selectable to move to the sketch plane. You can project the tangent edges to the sketch, but if there are a lot of them that’s pretty time consuming.

I’ve also tried QCad to flatten the dxf file, but when I opened the dxf file in QCad the part was “exploded”, with lines and arcs all over the place.

Drawing files written out of Inventor in dxf format come in “flattened” to the zero plane in 2D software.

Can someone please tell me if this issue is on the roadmap to address? Or is there another work around that I may be missing to get all the geometry to the same plane?

Thank you,

[jhackney1972]

You are trying to create a DXF from the model instead of the 2D drawing.  Take your model view into the 2D drawing environment and output the DXF from there.  You will not have any difficulty.

[glessboards]

 jhackney1972, Thanks for the response, but I'm exporting the dxf from the drawing environment, not the model.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

please share your file 

günther

[laughingcreek]

This is a behavior that I consider  bug.  AD apparently considers it a phase in their roll out of the drawing environment.  They seem to know that the 2d drawing environment outputs 3d dxf files, but don't seem to be thinking this is a bug.  Here is a link to a thread discussing this topic (with a couple of work arounds).  Maybe if enough users express their frustration with this behavior they will get around to changing it.

forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/export-drawing-as-flattened-dxf/m-p/9283457#M206384

[glessboards]

Hi Guenther,

Share the dxf file or the model?

Thanks,

[glessboards]

I also would consider this a bug, or at the very least a significant oversight.

Since AD invented the dxf format in 1982 it would seem they have the in-house knowledge base to correct this behavior fairly easily.

It would be nice to hear from someone at AD so they could tell us if correcting this is something they are actively working on or don't consider a priority.

I posted in the thread laughingcreek mentioned hoping someone from AD would respond, but no luck.

[davebYYPCU]

I may be off beam here, Save planar sketch as dxf is 2d, but not a suitable outcome?

[MRWakefield]

Can you attach your DXF so we can have a play?

[laughingcreek]

---

@davebYYPCU wrote:

I may be off beam here, Save planar sketch as dxf is 2d, but not a suitable outcome?

---

We're talking about exporting the drawing, not a sketch.  when you output a drawing as a dxf it's 3d, where as the pdf output is 2d

[laughingcreek]

example

[davebYYPCU]

So Drawings are not working for you, will Sketches get you there?  Does for my cutter.

[MRWakefield]

Thanks for that @laughingcreek . I managed to flatten your sample DXF in FreeCAD by scaling it with a factor of zero in Z only. I've also managed to flatten it in nanoCAD by selecting all the 'model' entities and setting their Start Z and End Z values to zero. I did a screencast and I tried to reply last night (my time that is) but the forum has been a bit screwy for me since then and It's not letting me embed the screencast. Not that it's relevant to this discussion but I can't 'Preview' posts either.

Here's a link to the screencast for the method in FreeCAD.

[HughesTooling]

---

@glessboards wrote:

All,

I’ve tried opening the dxf file back into Fusion and editing the sketch, move the geometry to sketch plane, then write out the sketch as a dxf. This works unless there are tangent edges, those tangent edges aren’t selectable to move to the sketch plane. You can project the tangent edges to the sketch, but if there are a lot of them that’s pretty time consuming.

---

@glessboards  Have you got an example DXF with tangent edges you can't select you can share? Not seen these in any DXFs I've created.

Thanks Mark

[HughesTooling]

@glessboards  OK, modified your model and added fillets, generated a 2d drawing and I see the problem. I'd say that's a bug @jeff_strater  take a look at the attached design of an imported DXF, edit the sketch, select all and use "Move To Sketch Plane" and some of the tangent edges move out of position or flip direction!

Before

After

Thanks Mark

[HughesTooling]

---

@glessboards wrote:

You can project the tangent edges to the sketch, but if there are a lot of them that’s pretty time consuming.

Thank you,

---

Using a selection set might help, here's a screencast.

Mark

[HughesTooling]

After creating the screencast I found you can improve the speed if you use a selection filter while creating the selection set. 

Mark

[MRWakefield]

Unable to edit my last post so here's a new one.

My FreeCAD/nanoCAD solution only works for drawings that consist of lines. Arcs or splines don't work so in reality... not a solution, so apologies for that! Just ignore me 😉

[glessboards]

@HughesTooling 

I've been trying to post with a couple of example files, but the forum is giving me troubles this morning, I'll try again later in the day. You've discovered some of the issues I saw with tangent edges. And the dxf comes back into Fusion on multiple sketches, so you have to edit each of those and then somehow get them to the same sketch to export the sketch as a dxf.

[glessboards]

Ok, since my previous reply posted fine without any attachments I'm giving it another go with the attachments in a zip file.