Mesh

[rushabhthakkar_910]

How Do you use Mesh, And Why and When....?

[o.briggs.1 · Accepted solution]

Depends what you want to do. But you may have to turn on the mesh workspace in your preferences to be able to access it. 

Meshes are used a lot in 3D printing as .STL files are meshes. If you download an STL from an online site such as Thingyverse and want to edit it, you will often have to work with the mesh. 

[rushabhthakkar_910]

Thank You @o.briggs.1 for the Reply...

Other than 3D Printing, WHat is MEsh used for..?

Any Particular where it can be used in Day to Day Designing...?

[o.briggs.1 · Accepted solution]

Personally I don’t know of any specific function in fusion which would need the mesh workspace: I am sure there are some specific examples I don’t know about. I think it is more there to be able to edit and export files to wherever is needed outside of fusion. A lot of other software use mesh for example simulations and CFD typically use mesh files as far as I know. As does fusion (but you often don’t need to deal with it) when you do a simulation, gen design etc fusion often converts your body to a mesh. The principal reason I often need to use the mesh workspace is to fix an error. For example, when doing a simulation, the automatic conversion by fusion may cause an error, in which case you can manually create the mesh and edit it to fix the error. (Although it’s often easier to edit the model and not the mesh if you can) 

fusion has it so you can control the mesh you might need and make sure you have a good mesh size, shapes etc but I can’t think of any reason you would want to specifically design an item directly as a mesh. 

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

You'll have to first differentiate between what kind of mesh.

A triangulated mesh in .stl file format is used as an output for 3D printing or for sharing with the community without giving away the IP of the creation process of its geometry.

Scanned meshes can be used to reverse engineered CAD geometry from the mesh. This can require substantial skills and expensive software tools. Fusion 360 has only a very, very limited toolset to do so with the mesh workspace.

The holy grail of meshes is Sub-D or T-Spline control cages/meshes. If done properly those are pure quad meshes and they can be converted into CAD data (NURBS surfaces).

They play an increasingly big role in Industrial Design and Product Design and high-end surfacing software such as Autodesk Alias recently added a Sub-D mesh workflow.

Ultimately, in anything related to CAD and computer graphics, meshes are omnipresent. 

[rushabhthakkar_910]

Thank You so much @TrippyLighting and @o.briggs.1...!!

But Still I have Some Doubts..

When we Download some Models from Net, Why do they get inserted in Mesh Form.... 
Because I think not every Design that is available on Net was a Mesh when Designed/Uploaded...

[rushabhthakkar_910]

Secondly, In such cases if we want to Edit Mesh, Do we only have a choice to cnvert them with (Mesh to B-Rep) Option..... Because if I want to Render it, I need to Select Single Faces to render them....

[rushabhthakkar_910]

Thirdly, If I want to Edit the Design , do I have any Option...?

I Still am Learning Fusion and Exploring Workspaces... So, Currently Exploring Fusion by Inserting Designs from Net...

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

Triangulated meshes as can be found for example on Thingiverse are for the most part not meant to be modified.

While that still can be done - there are many tutorials on the internet that show some techniques, for a beginner, this is not a good idea.

Try GrabCAD for models in CAD formats. 

[rushabhthakkar_910]

@TrippyLighting, I downloaded the Models from GrabCad Only...

But, all 3-4 of them got inserted in Mesh Format..... 

And if I Tried Editing them, It was getting Selected as a Whole Body, So, I had to Convert them to B-Rep... 

And then Single Single Faces were getting Selected....

[rushabhthakkar_910]

At first it had more than 60,000 Parts, And Conversion was Aborted...

SO, I had to Reduce it and then it was Converted to B-Rep....

[TrippyLighting]

You need to pay attention to the file extension. .stl files contain meshes. .step files usually contain real CAD geometry.

[rushabhthakkar_910]

@TrippyLighting, I am New to Mesh but not new to Fusion 360......

Previously, I hadn't used Mesh that frequently........

I belive that at any age and any Position, Learning never Stops.... If I have some Doubts even If I have So many

[rushabhthakkar_910]

And @TrippyLighting, I asked it because all the 3-4 Files had both .stl and .step files.....

But Yet, Both got Inserted in Mesh Format....

[TrippyLighting]

You still need to differentiate between types of meshes.

The meshes you are using are triangulated meshes and when downloaded do not lend themselves easily to modifications.

.stl files can only contain triangulated meshes. The purpose of the mesh workspace in Fusion 360 is to reverse engineer CAD data from mesh data. However, the functions are so limited that we tend to send people to Meshmixer.

I apologize for my remark on your badges!

[rushabhthakkar_910]

No Problem Sir, I too take back my Words.....

And I created this Topic because I choose Files of all Different Extensions like Solidworks, Inventor, AutoCAD, etc.... 

But, Stangely, all of there files were inserted in Mesh Format....

I Still am getting deeper into Mesh, And after seeing what happened when I Inserted these Files, I thought of asking the Experts like you about some Dept into Mesh so that I can also get some reason behind this and gather some more dept about Mesh....

[TrippyLighting]

Could you provide a link or other reference to one of these files on GrabCAD ?

"Mesh" is indeed a very deep and also interesting subject.

[rushabhthakkar_910]

Sure Sir...

Attached a File in .STEP Format... But yet, It got Inserted in Mesh Format...

[TrippyLighting]

That file contains CAD data, no mesh. You can use any of the tools in the solid or surface tab to modify that geometry.

However, STEP is a generic format that only contains solid geometry and no timeline or design history.

Even Inventor, or Solid Works files when imported into Fusion 360 only contain CAD geometry.

[rushabhthakkar_910]

I don't know why here, it's getting inserted in Mesh..... 

I guess now I have one more issue that needs to be looked into...