Filtered Export add-in. Review, test and suggestions wanted

[lichtzeichenanlage]

In this thread @Anonymous has described the problem that the Save AS STL command generates to many STL documents. He was right about that, because Fusion's export exports each and every instance (copy, pattern etc.) of a component. 

I've created the add-in Filtered Export that exports all bodies from all components based on a unique component list. The export parameters are a simplified version of Fusions options and you can configure the resulting filenames. Everything is still a bit rough around the corners, but it's a 0.1 version...

I've tested the add-in under Windows 7 with the attached project. If someone wants to do any further tests, he is very welcome. Also welcome are code reviews (I'm not a Python programmer, never used the Fusion API), feature suggestions, etc.

Known Issues

• If a body has several instances (e.g. the body was source in a pattern feature) each instance will be exported
• Export does not protect existing files. They are overwritten without #
• Documentation is not available

Wish List

• Add more STL export options
• Add more export formats
• Make it nice  (icons, etc.)

[TrippyLighting]

@lichtzeichenanlage I don't have a 3D printer dan do anything with .stl but awesome effort !!!

[lichtzeichenanlage]

Might this be useful for other formats like .STP, too? Perhaps not on a "by body export" but with something like "export if component does not have sub components"?

[lichtzeichenanlage]

One file was missing in git hub, I've fixed that. I guess the plug-in wouldn't worked on your side before. Sorry for giving you a hard time.

[lichtzeichenanlage]

Update: I've simplified the UI for the STL export a bit and I've added a "batch copy save as"function. You can select several components or just export all components with different fitlers. Like the STL export the goal is to avoid duplicate exports.

[Anonymous]

Hello. 
I have finally managed to test Your AddIn 🙂

Sadly, the export doesn't work fine for me. Not sure if I have to use components for all of the objects inside the scene, but anyway... I have new model with wheels attached. All of the wheels come from one file with just one component in it (all of the bodies have been joined). What happens after using Your plugin is that... it goes too far with reducing copies 😉 I have only one wheel exported, while there are about 20 of them. The positions of all objects also seem to be the same while after exporting with normal Save As STL all objects keep their position. 

Anyway thanks for Your engagement. I think this issue should be adressed by someone from staff... unless they are not interested as there is a problem with my workflow....

[lichtzeichenanlage]

Thanks for the feedback. I've some questions

• The goal of the add-in is to avoid duplicate exports. If you e.g. patterned a wheel (and it doesn't mattered if it's local or linked) 20 times, than the export will create one stl file. Why should I want to have 20 times the same stl? Last time you had e.g. 4 components with each e.g. 10 bodies and you didn't like the resulting 40 stls. 
• Not sure what you mean by "all bodies are joined". You can't join bodies. 
• Because you didn't liked the naming scheme either I changed it. It looks like, that this resets the origin within the stls.

[Anonymous]

My problem was that all of STLs were exported too many times. 

So: if I have one wheel duplicated 16 times (4 furniture pieces x 4 wheels) the problem is not that I have 16 wheels but... 128 of them! (or more, didn't really count). So that each of 16 wheels is exported 8 times in the same position. 

Luckilly I have found the solution in Blender - a script that finds duplicated objects and selects them so I can remove it in one click. 

I didn't really care about the naming scheme 🙂

I really appreciate Your effort.

[LeonardoBN]

I always had a hard time exporting Components, which had that known long filename.

This add-in solved my problems. Thank you!

[lichtzeichenanlage]

Glad that I could help you. This is still my preferred way to create stl files. 

[lichtzeichenanlage]

I've deprecated this add-in and created a new and IMHO better one. 

https://github.com/WilkoV/Fusion360_ExportIt