Importing a DXF file

[Anonymous]

When I import a DXF file of a gear from Gearotics fusion 360 gives me an error message and shuts down.  Why?

[daniel_lyall]

A work flow is post on the gearotic forum where @Anonymous posted, I will have a look and get back to you

[HughesTooling]

Here's a workaround for @lukasdocuments file, I've put this in the other thread but thought the screencast might help here as well.

Here's a short screencast demonstrating how to fix one tooth and use that in a pattern to create the gear.

Mark

[daniel_lyall]

@HughesTooling your to quick

@lukasdocuments there is nothing you can do to it, it is closed but fusion can not see that it is.

So to get it to work and be closed you need to project it on to a work plane, onces you have done that it is ok.

if you require a vid just ask

[HughesTooling]

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@daniel_lyall wrote:

@HughesTooling your to quick

@lukasdocuments there is nothing you can do to it, it is closed but fusion can not see that it is.

So to get it to work and be closed you need to project it on to a work plane, onces you have done that it is ok.

That's crazy all it needs is projecting, really need a window select though.

Mark

[daniel_lyall]

@HughesTooling yer it takes a lot of time to select all the lines, it's crazy that the file is closed and fusion can not see it, I put it through V carve pro and it was fine. so projecting or how you did it

[Anonymous]

To clarify, are you saying that you project the DXF image onto a plane and then you can work with it as if it was a native Fusion 360 file?

Also how do you project it onto a plane?

Thanks,

Michael

[daniel_lyall]

@Anonymous yes, I will do it soon 

[daniel_lyall]

@Anonymous here it is I dont know how to places it on screen the link will take you to it http://autode.sk/1TPlj69

[HughesTooling]

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@daniel_lyall wrote:

@HughesTooling yer it takes a lot of time to select all the lines, it's crazy that the file is closed and fusion can not see it, I put it through V carve pro and it was fine. so projecting or how you did it

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Here's something even more crazy, I thought I'd try extruding in the patch workspace and see if it would stitch, when I tried to select the profiles it selects the whole profile as a closed chain! It still dosn't extrude though, I get this error.

Mark

[lukasdocuments]

Thanks Hughstooling, daniel_lyall!

Both of your strategies are a way to get there.

The one thing that I realized is that by doing it in a section, then applying a circular pattern, makes the final gear component slightly less challenging to work with. When I simply select all of the line segments and extrude, it works well, but when I then apply constraints and try to run it as a Contact Set with a second, matched meshed gear, Fusion 360 isn't able to handle it in either case.

I can use revolute constraints and a motion link to simulate the effect, but I can't actually use the contact set in order to get the appopriate distance between the gears because it's just too slow. 

Either way, at least I can get the gear profile extruded.

Thanks.  

[HughesTooling]

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@lukasdocuments wrote:

I can use revolute constraints and a motion link to simulate the effect, but I can't actually use the contact set in order to get the appopriate distance between the gears because it's just too slow. 

Thanks.  

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Yes gears are a bit to much work for contact sets. Does the program you generate the gears with have an option to include a circle for the pitch diameter as well. I wrote a script for Rhino to produce spur gears and made it draw the pitch circle as well. 

Here's a sample picture.

Mark

[Anonymous]

I have been able to open the gear DXF and before trying any operation I select the gear and extrude the gear to the desired thickness.

I then select the original DXF image and delete it.  I can then work on the gear but it is extreamly slow.  So slow that it really is not

doable to get any work done.

We need to get Fusion 360 to work with these DXF files otherwise this is a major downside for using Fusion 360.

Thanks for everyone's imput.

Michael

[HughesTooling]

What is it you're finding slow?

Attached is a file I played around with to test out setting up motion links, I made all the gears in Fusion using the gear script. Once assembled it all rotates quite easy.

Mark

[daniel_lyall]

@Anonymous I worked out yesterday another way to get the gear .dxf to work better, it is you project the gear on to a new work plane then it gives you a fusion sketch you just delete the original .dxf and it seems to work faster.

then once that is done start the time line and start a new component then drag the new sketch and work plane into the component, and it works fine you don't get that stupid lag.

it was for a gearotic .dxf with fusion not see it was closed the only difference's was it did not have the centre hole, there are certain types of .dxf fusion just does not like.

it is a fusion problem nothing else, there is nothing that can be done on the gearotic side, and you computer is fine.

onces art gets the cad working in Auggie you will be able to fix the files in there before bring them into fusion.

[lukasdocuments]

Thanks gentlemen. 

Indeed, using involute gears, Fusion 360 is much faster. 

Why I wanted to try and import the DXF is that I am using Gearotic and using a cycloidic gear profile rather than the involute (which is typical of gears for clocks and other precision mechanisms). Why I wanted the import is that I can then have an accurate size of the gear profile (as Involute and Cycloidic gears have different overall dimensions). 

@daniel_lyall: I will try to build a new mechanism with all of the gears designed as you suggest and see if I can see any speed improvement. 

@HughesTooling: Thanks for sharing the model. You are using the exact same techniques that I am. The only difference is that I am trying to use the cycloidic gear profile. 

I sure wish the DXF import worked and wasn't so slow. Many other programs, like Aspire which I tried on a friend's computer, work fine. 

Thanks everyone for the input. Much appreciated. 

[Anonymous]

It looks like you are trying to do the same thing as I'm, working on with the same problem.

I will let you know if I make any progress.  Like you I wish that fusion work just work with the Gearotic DXF's.

I wonder if Gearotic allowed us to save in a different format if that would work with Fusion 360?

Michael

[daniel_lyall]

just ask Art might say yes

[lukasdocuments]

Hi Michael, 

Yes, it appears we want to do similar things. I finally managed to import the DXF files from Gearotic into Fusion 360 but it was extremely slow going. I now have a working epicycloidal gear train in Fusion 360 (for a simple clock). 

Once I had the extrusions of the gears, it seemed to work a little bit better, but I certainly can't use the "Contact Sets" feature. Far, far too slow. 

I wish there was a better way, but in the future I will either cut up the gear and use a circular pattern to extrude a "lighter" version, or else try and extrude and go from there. 

Will keep posting any progress here. 

[Anonymous]

I posted a request on Gearotic to see if it's possible to add an option of saving the file in one of the four formats that Fusion 360 supports so that we could import the 3D file from Gearotic directly into Fusion.  I'm assuming that this would work better.  Will see if Art is open to that option.

Michael

[daniel_lyall]

@Anonymous you will have to weight 2 weeks Art has gone on holiday