I spent the evening trying to figure out how to get a clean SVG and text file into Fusion 360 and being able to extrude and fillet it without problems or errors, and most importantly without all the cleanup that is normally involved. All the testing I did using illustrator gave me curves with hundreds of points...well that causes Fusion 360 or any 3d app for that matter to crawl and eventually lockup or crash. What I found was if I use Inkscape (which is a free app) I can generate size accurate and flawless imports into fusion. So lets get started.
Anyone that has used the text tool in Fusion 360 knows it can be a headache in its current state, to be honest I like this workflow better then a native tool which I will explain later.
Paul posted on the Design and Documentation forum about not being able to use a font that he had to use for work so I will make this tutorial use that font. It can be downloaded here:
I can only describe the windows work flow as its the only OS I have.
After downloading the font double click on the file a window should open with an install button at the top of the window, click install.
Download Inkscape for your OS here and install:
Open inkscape and you will be greeted with the app running in a window, click the maximize button so you have something that looks like this:
Right now we are not going to worry to much about document size, but we do want to set the orientation, grid and units.
So from the top menu, top left corner click file->Document properties and a window will open like this:
(Set everything the way it is in the screen capture)
Now click on the grid tab at the top of this window, then click New and set everything up like this:
Now click the X at the top of the dialog box to close it and you will see our page is setup in inches with a grid that has 1/4in blocks for reference like this:
As marked in the picture this is where the origin will be in fusion when you import the SVG file. This is important so we know where the text or layout will appear when we import the SVG file. Click on the text tool, set the font and click somewhere towards the top left corner of the page to start typing. The actual location doesn't matter because we can move the text after it is created.
After we enter out text, click on the selection arrow in the top left of the tool bar and click on the lock between the width and height numerics in the top bar and set the units to inches and the height to 0.25in like this:
Ok now we have our 1/4in high text, all we need to do now is position it and ungroup it and export. If you place your mouse cursor over the text it will turn into a hand and you can left click and drag it to the top left corner: it should snap into place when you get close enough. Now with the text still selected click Object -> Ungroup and you should see little box around each letter like this:
Now we are ready to export the text. This next step is very important. With the text still selected click File -> Save As. In the dialog box hit the drop down for file type and select Plain SVG like this:
(NOT INKSCAPE SVG) Name the file and click save. Now open Fusion 360 and click Insert -> Insert SVG like this:
In the dialog box that opens click on the little folder and select your SVG file like this:
Click ok and exit the sketch. Now to get the scale correct. With the sketch still selected go Modify -> Scale and set it like this:
Click ok and check your text to the grid and make sure its 0.25in tall now. From here we can do the press pull select the letters and set the height, then click ok. You should have something like this, nice clean letters that don't need any clean up:
Now I will bevel the corners of the letters like this:
Now to add a rule fillet like this:
I hope this helps someone, later I will do a more advanced tutorial.
Cheers
Phil Procario Jr.
Owner, Laser & CNC Creations
