How do I print out a sketch?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

What's the best way to go about printing out a sketch on a regular inkjet printer to scale?

[jamieQ6FGQ]

i dont have export to PDF in my drop down tab

[patrickdonker01]

If I click Export to PDF I get a pop-up that this needs a payed subscription. What a joke!

[colinNJB25]

I use Fusion for work so I have a paid subscription and can't test things but you can try using the print command from the file menu. I normally output as a PDF first because all drawings get saved into our purchasing database. However, there is a built in print feature in the drawing environment. I tried it once or twice and I just had to make sure all the printer settings were at 100% to get a good scale.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

File > Print > select printer > „print to PDF“; "PDF Creator" ...

günther

[jmvannoy]

---

@g-andresen wrote:

Hi,

File > Print > select printer > „print to PDF“; "PDF Creator" ...

günther

---

So the answer hasn't changed.  You still can't print a sketch.  You can completely re-create it in the drawing environment, and then print that.

[RA_Nouveau]

There is a program called GreenShot which lets you easily take screenshots of things. It was my workaround for this as I use a digital notebook to store a log of what I have been trying to accomplish. It's 3d art so there are a lot of dead ends.

[grad2]

Holy crap! 9 years of this and we still can't export a sketch! 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Export??

1. Browser > Sketch > Right-click > Save as DXF
2. Drawing > activate sketch > add dimensions > change line type to continuous > file > print

günther

[dieselguy65]

Because 9 yrs and some can't realize a sketch in 3d modeling has never been
needed to be printed.
I'll say, it's a feature that's never going to be implemented. Because
it's an absolute unneeded feature of 3d modeling.
This isn't 1976 and 2d drafting......


Brian A.

[jorgieJ4TNL]

Every few months this discussion starts again. Those of us who want it do not want to have to go through the additional embuggerance of having to generate a 3D model just so that we can produce a 2D drawing which gives us the exact same details as the sketch we have just produced.

You may not agree with our process, you may not think this is the right tool for us, however, that does not make us wrong.

That means we will continue to ask for this feature and continue to wonder why it has not been progressed.

[dieselguy65]

And you'll continue to not get it.
There's absolutely zero need to print a sketch in 3d modeling.

Your local thrift store may be able to provide you a cheap copy of 2d
autocad......


Brian A.

[joshCPH3D]

Yet Fusion 360 has an entire drawing space specifically created to print 2d sketches of 3d models. People have been asking for years to be able to print 2d sketches to they don't have to dimension a sketch they already dimensioned. Obviously you aren't the authority on this subject and people do things differently than you do. I mean you picked a really weird way to be totally wrong, but that's cool I guess.

[khankins5]

God I love this.  9 years & response is you don't need it or it would be offered or. Living in the 70s.   I can't believe my simple question was ..you can't get there from here.  The use case was for template making.  Ok no problem.  Sketchup handles just fine so went that route.  Once templates complete export to cnc to do cuts.  Hoping admits will close the thread as the answer is just "No".  Cheers all

[mastertechjohnny]

The reason why people who claim this is a 3D program are wrong is because some of us use the program to arrange 2D parts into 3D objects. The reason doesn't have to make sense to you or to everyone We are simply asking for Fusion360 to make a simple way to export a sketch that was drawn in 2D. Even if it is eventually turned into a 3D body sometimes being able to simply check measurements in mire seconds waiting on a inkjet printer. Rather then waste metal plate or wait an hour or more for a 2 layer 3D print. 


Simply put not everyone will like the idea and say to use a different program I don't pay for this program to have to redraw my items in a different program when it would be so useful to just print a quick template.

[dieselguy65]

It's kind of entertaining honestly.
Setting how many feel this is a needed feature, vs those who realize it's
not. And obviously it must not be........ or it would be a thing long
ago.......

[jorgieJ4TNL]

Dieselguy65,

As many have pointed out we have to draw a sketch to produce a 3D model then then open the drawing package to then produce a 2D drawing and dimension it again.

You keep saying nobody needs it because why would you want to produce a 2D drawing in 3D modelling software. The irony here is that we do have the ability to produce a 2D drawing but we simply want a more convenient way to get it. 

If a team member from Autodesk would like to step in an unequivocable state that we will not get what we are asking for them we will shut up. However, unless that happens will will be asking for this feature to be considered as we feel it makes our lives considerably easier.

I often want a 2D pattern to be confirmed before I spend the time creating a 3D model.

[dieselguy65]

That's a really cool story.

[grad2]

Today I had 9th graders who can't use the program directly because they aren't allowed to receive emails from autodesk till school starts in the fall. I just wanted to print them a template of the signs we are going to print out, so they could draw their designs instead of using the computer, and then we'd convert them to profiles and cut them. 

So I make a quick object, a 7.5x11.5 box with a couple of holes in the corners where the bolts go. And what I want to add is a set of lines in a grid on that, to give them something to draw on. Preferably with control over the lineweights so I can make them very very faint. In order to make that one thing, which I already had in a sketch, I had to create this silly extrusion, which required me to click on every single one of those squares to extrude them in a grid. There are OTHER REASONS that one needs drawings of things that are built out of parametric geometry. 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Why so complicated?

günther

[jorgieJ4TNL]

It is not complicated just a heck of waste of time when you already have the details in the sketch that you had to produce to be able to then recreate in the drawing package.

It took you 2 minutes to reproduce what you already had.