How to work with imported designs

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

I'm confused on how to work with imported designs. Everything I make in fusion 360 works well, but when I get designs from companies they are always tricky to work with.

A few things that may give you an idea of the trouble I'm experiencing:

1) Some models I import are all surfaces. I want to make the components solid bodies. If I try boundary fill, the surfaces disappear in the "choose a cell" step of the process.

I tried converting to T-splines but that didn't help

2) If I import a model and there are solid components, after grounding one and trying to move others that I make joints with, nothing moves.

3) I tried cutting an entire design in half but an imported component was unaffected.

Basically, I want to know tips on working with imported designs.

The above examples were given in case there is a feature I'm overlooking or need to become more familiar with.

At the end of the day, I want components that I've imported to behave as if I made them myself in fusion

Most of the designs I import are in .stp format

[HughesTooling]

If you have an unstitched model switch to the patch workspace and use the stitch feature to stitch into a solid, be careful with the tolerance as the default is 1mm and it can distort surfaces if there's a big gap. If you have several components in one design it could get tricky if you have identical surfaces in different components. Have you got any files you can share on the forum so people can help with the other problems.

Mark

[Anonymous]

I was trying to stitch it solid but its an assembly so there are many many
components I'd need to do this with. I will try to find the file concerning
the component that was unaffected by cuts from sketches and attach it when
I get a chance.

Thanks for the reply

[HughesTooling]

If the assembly has no organization to start with it's going to be difficult. Do all the surfaces come in in the root component or as separate components. Do you know what program produced the files, stp should come in stitched, igs can be more of a problem but some programs have the ability to export solids. Have you asked the suppliers if they have any export options allowing them to export solid bodies.

Mark

[TrippyLighting]

@Anonymous would you have an example hat you can share ?