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?

[lichtzeichenanlage]

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@Anonymous wrote:
... Note that Fusion360 is marketed for hobbyists as well, so we may not be able to afford large printers or design shops, but we certainly have a cheap printer handy!!

But it's still a professional tool. Just because AD is kind enough to give it to us hobbyist it doesn't mean that the implement shortcuts. 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

If a sketch has a significance for manufacturing, it is also contained in the geometry of the component. However, I can convert this into a drawing with the views and sections that are important for the service provider. The only thing that may have to be done additionally is a dimensioning relevant to the production.
If I want to have an expression of a sketch, which does not end in a body, I extrude this minimal and then create a drawing derivative.

My basic recommendation for drawings is to activate the sketches to generate additional points for dimensioning.

günther

[Dirtboat]

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@g-andresen wrote:

If a sketch has a significance for manufacturing, it is also contained in the geometry of the component.

My basic recommendation for drawings is to activate the sketches to generate additional points for dimensioning.

günther

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Remember that not all of us are involved with manufacturing, and having the geometry "in the component" doesn't help when reviewing a sketch.

What many of us are asking, is why should that step be necessary?  A sketch already contains all desired dimensional information.  I don't feel it should be required to go to "create a drawing" and having to add information ALREADY PRESENT in the sketch.  Without having to go to the effort of completing an entire 3d body I'd like to pass a conceptual sketch to someone (not in "manufacturing") who is not sitting at a cad station for review, or have a dimensioned print next to my non CNC machine tool.  Think of something like a blueprint.

This functionality is in nearly every cad program I've encountered.

I'm grateful for Autodesk providing this powerful a program for us hobbyists/enthusiasts, and I understand they can't make everyone happy.  But I could be even more happy.

[Dirtboat]

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@dieselguy65 wrote:

i cant believe this is still alive even.

i have yet to ever need to print a "sketch".

a "sketch" in fusion isnt something i see the need to print.

i cant see doing it in any CAD software.]

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It's alive because although you don't see the need for it, many others do.

And nearly every other CAD program can do it.

[dieselguy65]

But, you have to realize what exactly a sketch is. A sketch isn't something
to be printed. A sketch serves not much purpose other than to develop a 3d
model. A sketch itself is not a 2d model or drawing.
We can already print drawings.

It would be great if those wanting to print sketches, research and find out
why it isn't a thing you really need.

[Dirtboat]

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@dieselguy65 wrote
A sketch serves not much purpose other than to develop a 3d
model. A sketch itself is not a 2d model or drawing.
We can already print drawings.It would be great if those wanting to print sketches, research and find out why it isn't a thing you really need.

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I'm obviously not going to change your mind.  You believe that everyone who uses 360 needs to create a sketch or sketches, create a 360 model which can then be printed, and go to manufacturing.  You don't understand the usefulness of being able to talk to other people over a sketch, or that some people can stop at the sketch and need not go further, and that's ok.  Were here to ask Autodesk to implement a solution to a problem you don't seem to have, and that good for you.  But you can only offer work-arounds using existing processes, so it doesn't help our cause.

A lot of what I do with 360 involves making a sketch and going straight to post processing.  And then to my plasma table.  No drawing.  Not even extruding a body.  All that's required is a tool path.  I keep everything in the 2D world.  Note that this would be the same for anyone with a vinyl cutter, laser cutter or engraver. For this type of work the sketch is the beginning and the end (other than post process).  I'd like to be able to  show that sketch to someone (not a screen print).  You'd have me follow a process that should not be required.

[dieselguy65]

Actually, you are creating a3d part. You can't seem to see that. Any part
you make on a plasma table, water jet, laser, etc is 3d. It has thickness.

I'm not giving you a work around. I'm just saying everything you want to do
is right there, and so very easy to do.
A sketch is not going to get you to the "post processing" stage. You are
missing the CAM stage at a bare minimum.

Honestly, you are using the wrong tool for the job by using fusion360 in
the way you are trying. There are plenty of strictly 2d cad type packages
out there. I do plasma table, water jet and some vinyl cutting, and it's
never been an issue. But I wouldn't use fusion for vinyl cutting, when
there's so much more specific software. Inkscape would be a great choice,
or any of the dedicated vinyl cutting software.
BTW, inkscape also works great for plasma tables

[Anonymous]

The reason that this thread is still around, is that despite the evangelistic proponents of a modern 3D design tool, there are still enough people who don't believe you have to produce a 3D model to be able to print out a drawing.

They also don't believe that you should have to create the same "drawing" from a "sketch" to print it.

Even with the addition of being able to print a "sketch" on a "drawing" I still have to perform extra steps to get all the dimension that come free when producing a "drawing".

Wikipedia - Technical_drawing

Using an old fashioned analogy is that during the development of a drawing I could take the piece of paper down to the shop to discuss the "sketch" before returning and completing the drawing by removing the construction lines etc 

What is frustrating us is that at we cannot print that "sketch" without having to produce a "drawing", using extra steps.

Try this example:

1 Create a 20 mm by 30mm rectangle, and put a 10mm circle in the centre. Note The dimension for the circle is automatically displayed.

2 Dimension the rectangle.

3 Create a drawing with this sketch.

4 On the drawing dimension the rectangle

5 Dimension the circle.

What is being asked for is that at the end of Step 2 being able to print the Drawing that now exists.

Instead we have to perform at another 3 steps

I should also point out that once again we are being told to go and use another tool to do our, supposedly flawed, work flow.

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[Dirtboat]

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@dieselguy65 wrote:
Actually, you are creating a3d part. You can't seem to see that. Any part
you make on a plasma table, water jet, laser, etc is 3d. It has thickness.

I'm not giving you a work around. I'm just saying everything you want to do
is right there, and so very easy to do.
A sketch is not going to get you to the "post processing" stage. You are
missing the CAM stage at a bare minimum.

Honestly, you are using the wrong tool for the job by using fusion360 in
the way you are trying. There are plenty of strictly 2d cad type packages
out there. I do plasma table, water jet and some vinyl cutting, and it's
never been an issue. But I wouldn't use fusion for vinyl cutting, when
there's so much more specific software. Inkscape would be a great choice,
or any of the dedicated vinyl cutting software.
BTW, inkscape also works great for plasma tables

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You say "Actually, you are creating a3d part. You can't seem to see that."  Of course I know I'm creating a 3D part, but I'm doing it in a 2D manner by creating G code in a sketch which does not create 3D bodies in Fusion.

A sketch wont get me to post processing?  I'm missing CAM?  I stated in my previous post that I go straight to post processing from sketch.  Do you not realize that the post processing is being done in Fusion 360 using the CAM (now "Manufacture") tab and can be done straight from sketch?  So, for plasma I can go to CAM straight from sketch to generate G code, and then export to Mach3 CNC interpreter on the PC controlling my table.  I'm wondering if you fully understand how Fusion360 works.

I also output files in the 3D world for milling and lathe work, so why should I learn another tool for plasma?  Fusion 360 is my best all around tool for the job.  The "best"  tool for a job is the one you understand and are comfortable with.

You tell me that "everything you want to do is right there, and so very easy to do."

If that were true then all of the people coming here asking for a print sketch function would say "Oh, look.  I hadn't realized its that easy to do!"  As you can see, we're not going away.

Lets agree to disagree.  I'm done.

[dieselguy65]

Well, you are using a very specific 3d modeling tool, to attempt to do 2d
drafting work.
And you still are missing the point, a sketch isn't something printable.
There's no need for it to be.


If you desire 2d drafting, that's the proper tool to use for the job.


Again, if fusion was, and a sketch was a functionably printable thing, I'm
sure it would have been implement some time ago.
But it's not.


Use the proper tool for the job at hand.
That's what I been taught from the beginning.
An airplane is the proper tool is the job at hand is flying from point a to
point b.
However, an airplane isn't the proper tool to use if point a and point b
are underwater. A submarine would be the proper tool.
No matter how many times you try to convince the guys who design and build
the airplane that you need to go use it to get underwater, I doubt they
redesign it

[Anonymous]

I feel this thread is getting very close to the point where it will degenerate into name calling.

I have expressed my opinion as have many others, both for and against.

I believe it's now time for a formal response from the developers of the product to close this argument off, either a statement to the effect of No we will not implement what you are asking for or yes we will implement it and we have the solution planned for implementation.

[Dirtboat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I feel this thread is getting very close to the point where it will degenerate into name calling.

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Agreed.  I'm done.  There's no convincing people wearing blindfolds whichever side they align with.

Either Autodesk implements the change, or they don't.  I can live with either result.

[ride4sun]

Well I looked into the drawing workflow and it's like learning another
tool. I just want to print some of my sketches period. I don't want to
create something else because most of the time the sketches reflect
exactly what I want to print. Drawing might be a good idea when u need a
production. Workflow otherwise it just creates a bunch of more work than
necessary. Seems like judging by the size of this thread that many people
feel the same way and Autodesk should listen to the user. Add a print
button to the sketch and keep the drawing for more complicated workflows.

[jakefowler]

Hi all,

To try and provide some clarity: it is not in our near-term plans to support direct printing of sketches. We totally understand that this is a useful feature to have, but as has been raised on the thread, the core function of sketches is to act as an input for 3D modeling, not for documentation itself. That’s not to say that we will never support this, but our development resources are focussed right now on improving the sketching engine and capabilities to make it more powerful for that core function of building 3D models. While direct print may seem like a trivial thing to add, it’s not as trivial as it seems, and implementing this would certainly have an impact on other things we are working on.

A few workarounds/suggestions for doing this have been raised on the thread, and those workarounds and workflows may get better for this purpose in future (e.g. today we can display model sketches in a drawing, but they always render with a phantom linetype - something we do plan to offer in future is control over this linetype). If I were to want to achieve this in Fusion today, I would probably extrude the sketch into 3D (maybe using Derive to derive the sketch into a new linked design, if I didn’t want those extrusions in my ‘base’ 3D model), then make a 1:1 Drawing from that extruded shape, and dimension the view to create the printable document. It’s a bit of extra work over a direct print, but the tools to achieve this are all available today (understand there’s a bit of extra learning here, but dimensioning a drawing view is very similar to dimensioning a sketch, and just doing this shouldn’t necessitate learning the complete drawings workflow). Plus, since this uses native Fusion data end-to-end you would maintain a live link between the original sketch and the printed document (i.e. changes to the original sketch would push through to the document).

Hope that helps clarify, and sorry if that was not the answer everyone was looking for, but hopefully this sets accurate expectations around this.

Many thanks,

Jake

[Anonymous]

Hi Jake,

I'm sure there will be others that agree with me, when I say thank you for clarifying ADs position on the development of this function.

Knowing that the idea is understood by the developers and supported, but not planned for implementation in the near future is a much better outcome than some would have us believe.

Thank you.

Sean

[etfrench]

Why not just add an option to import the sketch dimensions into the drawing?

[jakefowler]

@etfrench  I'm afraid it's a similar story to direct print; bringing dimensions along with sketches shown in drawings has certainly been discussed and considered, and is clearly a nice option to provide, but from a software development standpoint it's not as trivial as it might seem to implement, and there are just a fair number of more impactful projects that both the sketch and drawing teams are working through at the moment. Therefore this hasn't risen to the top of the development priorities, and probably won't do in the immediate future given the current roadmap. Realize that isn't an ideal answer, but this is unfortunately the true nature of this for now.

Hope that clarifies,

Jake

[Anonymous]

The is no output button on my ribbon.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

try this:

drawing: output & print

günther