Fusion 360 DXF export fail

[Suneboe]

I've done a design of a radiator cover that has been laser cut in MDF board.

To generate DXF files for the lase cutter company, I followed the process explained in this video:

Youtube Fusion 360 dxf export

Basically just creating a new sketch on each of the faces that I wanted to have cut. Everyting looked fine. Even when I attached the DXF's to an email, gmail gave me a preview of the files - still prefect..

Now the finished cut came back from laser cutting and to my big dissapointment it is NOT what I sent them - I thought. All fillets/radiuses have turned into sqares/ straight lines. I called them and explained what have happened and they told me that when they open the dxf's, that's what they look like. 

I went back to my computer and looked at the email attachments. Gmail still displayed them correct. Tried to open them in an online viewer - still looked right. I then tried to import them very same files back into Fusion 360 and then things changed. This in how Fusion now interprets its own export:

So, the result is clearly dependent on the program thay opens the file. But Fusion is not displaying the imported dxf the same way as what has been exported from it. And clearly SolidWorks doesn't either (what they use at the laser cutter company). This is a quite costly **** up for me (considering the budget) and I would like your help to:

1. Determine if I have ****ed up or Fusion360 has?

2. How can I generate these files to have new pieces cut? 

Brg Sune

(I have attched the dxf file shown above)

[HughesTooling]

Can you attach a screen grab of the original sketch in Fusion, when I open the DXF in Rhino the outside in a single polyline so I wonder if the sketch is a spline or is it all lines and arcs. Could you move the sketch into a new component and export the component with just the sketch. Just right click the component and select export and save as an f3d file.

Thanks Mark

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @Suneboe,

I just took a peek at the file you sent over and that is strange that happened. I think @HughesTooling is on to something though for what happened to the file originally. Based on your DXF, I did some testing and recreated your sketch and put in my own fillets for the sketch curves (arbitrary radius's). I then exported it as a DXF and brought it back into Fusion that way and it seemed to work okay for me. Attached is my .f3d file so you can adjust the radius and the DXF file so you can see that it worked correctly.

Thanks,

[Suneboe]

Hi Mark,

I can't do a screen grab of the original sketch (i assume you mean the one that was exported as dxf) as it dissappers from Fusion when exported. I have tried to replicate it, and here's a screen grab:

I moved it to a new componen and exported it as f3d. Please find file named "test" attached.

Brg Sune

[Suneboe]

Hi James,

I tried to import your test f3d file and i looks like it should 🙂 I can't make fusion upload the dxf though. I have been watching the "Upload progress:" getting nowhere for an hour now. Restating does not help. So unfortuneatly I don't know how your dxf looks. 

Brg Sune

[HughesTooling]

---

@Suneboe wrote:

Hi Mark,

I can't do a screen grab of the original sketch (i assume you mean the one that was exported as dxf) as it dissappers from Fusion when exported.

Brg Sune

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I don't understand why it would disappear, strange!

I don't think we can figure out what happened without the original sketch, I just tried the f3d you attached and everything is OK.

Here's the sketch in Fusion as you can see the arc is an arc.

And here's what I get if I export as a DXF and open in Rhino.

And here imported back into Fusion, the original is on the right the DXF on the left.

The only thing I'd suggest is in the future reimport the sketch and see it comes back in OK, this is something that you should probably do with all exports. I've read this advice being given for other software and should do it more often! 

Mark

I've attached the DXF exported from your f3d.

[Suneboe]

Yes that's probably what I need to do in the future, even though it annoys me. I've never encountered anything like this with similar programs. I must admit that Fusion has acted quite unstable and this issue did not improve my trust.

But using Fusion - double check must be the answer 🙂

Thank you both for all your help trying to figure out what happened. 

Brg Sune