Community
Fusion Design, Validate & Document
Stuck on a workflow? Have a tricky question about a Fusion (formerly Fusion 360) feature? Share your project, tips and tricks, ask questions, and get advice from the community.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Placing a Decal at Correct Scale

117 REPLIES 117
SOLVED
Reply
Message 1 of 118
davidcuesta76
12904 Views, 117 Replies

Placing a Decal at Correct Scale

Correct Scale

 

I have a decal which I have designed in illustrator for a bottle design and saved out as .PNG.

The decal is meant to be 30mm tall. My bottle is 55mm tall. 

I need to know how to import the decal so it is the absolute correct size on the bottle.

 

Simple enough you would think. However if I take the advice from other posts and make the decal 30px it comes out very low res. 

And even then in imports not really at correct scale. I can manually scale it but that is not very precise.

 

What is the best tested and true way to get the decal to appear in its actual correct size at hi enough res that it does not look pixelated.

 

Perhaps I could use a different tool, but I actually just want to place it as a label.

117 REPLIES 117
Message 41 of 118
Phil.E
in reply to: ken

When I was using Inventor to make consumer electronics from 1999 to 2010, the path from mechanical model to silk screen started in Inventor and ended in Adobe Illustrator. The CAD model always has the up to date geometry to build a silk screen from.

 

Are you making the silk screen designs in Corel based on model geometry that is exported from Fusion, such as a dxf? 

 

If not, can you please describe the workflow you use to go from model geometry to silk screen art? Understanding your workflow will help us improve Fusion.





Phil Eichmiller
Software Engineer
Quality Assurance
Autodesk, Inc.


Message 42 of 118
ken
Enthusiast
in reply to: Phil.E

My methodology is probably not the smartest or most efficient, but I start with a drawing in Corel based on dimensions from CAD, It's very very easy to sketch something like a front panel in CorelDraw from the CAD drawing, didn't even think about importing.  Good idea if it allows it. I use Corel for the screen creation because of how easy and fast it is to modify text, resize, color the text and panel, Try different color schemes, make adjustments and so on.  When it's done I just then overlay it onto the CAD image to be sure it does indeed fit.  If it's a go, then I just create a PDF from Corel to send off to the vendor.  So having an accurate import to CAD is vital and should be a one step process.

Message 43 of 118
Phil.E
in reply to: ken

Okay, thanks for explaining.

 

In my opinion you would benefit from working it the other way around. Much like how CNC programming is made by using data from the design, making a precision silk screen is also a manufacturing process that is done using data from the design. In this case, sketch data is perfect for generating a silk screen.

 

Steps:

  • When you have a panel ready for silk screen, make a sketch on that face. Add nothing to it.
  • Find it in the browser, then right click on it and use "save as dxf"
  • Open the DXF in Corel
  • Add silk screen art in the dxf.

start with a sketch of the panel.png

Benefits of this method:

  • A dxf file is a perfect rendition of the panel geometry, highly accurate.
  • The dxf is created by the existing geometry. It's always up to date, and most importantly for you, it's already done. No double design work is needed.
  • Avoiding cumbersome work using a command that is not intended for the job. Decal is not built do validate silk screen art. This is a little like using screenshots and video to validate tool paths. Images are never as accurate as CAD geometry.

Thanks,





Phil Eichmiller
Software Engineer
Quality Assurance
Autodesk, Inc.


Message 44 of 118
ken
Enthusiast
in reply to: Phil.E

It had never occurred to me that I could import a dxf file into CorelDraw.  I just tried it and it works perfectly.  This was a great idea!  Thanks for suggesting it. 

Message 45 of 118

Also have great trouble placing a decal. Any progress in fixing the decal placing, scaling etc.? How deep is it down in the backlog?

 

Workflow:

1. Model the part in Fusion 360.

2. Make a drawing for the part that shall have the screen print (drawing with nothing more than the lines for the part).

3. Export as pdf.

4. Open the pdf in Inkscape and place the drawing in a separate locked layer.

5. Draw the screen print graphics.

6. Export only the graphics layer to a png. 

7. Back to Fusion 360 and import the png when creating the decal.

8. Change position and size to match the model.

9. Get frustrated, take a deep breath and go back to step 8.

 

8-9 are repeated until giving up.

 

Just fixing the scaling and position to be NOT cumulative would be a great improvement. How hard can it be?

Message 46 of 118
avivco3
in reply to: Phil.E

It is a must !

Message 47 of 118

Found this thread, wanted to share my experiences to maybe, bump this?

I'm currently using fusion for personal. I'm drawing a gooseneck trailer to present to the company in hopes they see the benefits of 3D. (Also gets me back into the groove of 3d)

There are company decals, and also, my main pinch point currently. Reflective tape!

Our tape is 2"x5 3/4" for each rectangle, and as it goes on many many parts of the trailer, the auto scaling to sizes proportional to the face it was placed is not great. 

I'm not sure how I want to go about this now, but I'll figure something out.

Never thought I'd be at a point in my career where a sticker is trying to beat me :confused_face:

Message 48 of 118

Hi, Because the reflective tape on gooseneck trailers is white , red and rectangular, my workflow would be this:
1- Create a sketch on each face where you want your reflective stickers, scale the sketch exactly as you want the stickers, location and size
2- From the tool bar select MODIFY/SPILT FACE, select the face with the sketch, then for the splitting tool, select the rectangle sketch, Split type (Split with surface).

3- Do that for all faces you drew rectangle sketches on for the stickers, yes it will be a lot of face splitting.

4- Once done, select the face where you want your sticker, select Insert/Decal and scale it to fit.
TIP- MAKE SURE CHAIN FACES IS ON, this way the decal only fills the aria of the face you split, it will be scaled to the size of the sticker, 
**PRO TIP** for ease of scaling, make your stickers square, this way the red and white will be centered and you can see where the center is easier. 

 

OTHER WAY, LESS STEPS AND usually pretty good results.
just place the decal on the surface and eye ball it. MAKE SURE to record on a piece of paper your scale numbers, so that when you place the next stickers, you can scale them exactly as you did the first one.

Message 49 of 118

I just wanted to reitterate the fact that the thread is from 2016, and people still have to do something that seems overly complicated like your response.

Accuracy isn't hugely important to me here, as its just for general renders, but for others I can see the frustration because even though I may not need it to be accurate it still bothers me when the things that I produce aren't true to size.

And for anyone wondering, my workflow for that little reflective tape was to just make an extruded rectangle (I chose .01"), paste decal to face of newly created extrusion, scale to be close enough, copy my new component where needed. Doesn't hurt that our reflective tape is pretty thick with it having multiple overlays on it.

 

 

Message 50 of 118
mark.j
in reply to: OneHandedRuiz

gotcha, yes
Message 51 of 118
stiller.design
in reply to: Phil.E

Keyshot, the rendering software does a great job for scaled decals or what they call stickers. also their way of manipulating the position is superior to Fusion
Message 52 of 118
Raluca-CoffeBased
in reply to: Phil.E

Hi Phil (or any Fusion techsupporters here) - this is a feature that should be improved asap, it is a great pain that the scale and position of a decal cannot be accurately determined, it really is a show-stopper, please fix this!!

Message 53 of 118
Phil.E
in reply to: Raluca-CoffeBased

Can you describe what you are using the decal for? This really helps inform the decision makers why they should prioritize improvements to decal.





Phil Eichmiller
Software Engineer
Quality Assurance
Autodesk, Inc.


Message 54 of 118
Raluca-CoffeBased
in reply to: Phil.E

Hi PHil, i think everybody in this article has described exactly what's wrong, I don't need to spend time to rehash the same problem: the decal tool simply is not up to par, cannot allign to specific points, the size of the imported image is not correlated with the size of the face/object being placed on and as such the scale/size and position of the decal are impossible to control in any way that feels even remotely accurate. It's so amateurish it hurts.

Message 55 of 118
Phil.E
in reply to: Raluca-CoffeBased

Can you describe what you are using the decal for?





Phil Eichmiller
Software Engineer
Quality Assurance
Autodesk, Inc.


Message 56 of 118
mjames
in reply to: Phil.E

I need to mockup Fusion-designed kiosks for customer approval.  Even though the graphic has dimensions built into the file header, Fusion ignores this and places the graphic at an arbitrary size. Every **** time.

 

Sourcepass_Mockup_9.7_Portrait_Roo_2022-Aug-03_08-30-43PM-000_CustomizedView33902860834.png

Message 57 of 118
davidcuesta76
in reply to: Phil.E

Dude Phil man, I love all the great comments and patient responses you give. But see what the man said. We have explained why decal does not work properly. The tweaks are relatively easy. 

 

The texture map tool just does not really serve the purpose for placing a flat layout design onto an object.

 

Decal really just needs to respect scale of original imported file and anchor it self.

 

Thanks again.....

Message 58 of 118
Phil.E
in reply to: mjames

Thanks for giving a visual example of why this is important to you. It really helps to show examples when explaining the issue in places like improvement tickets that are logged.  





Phil Eichmiller
Software Engineer
Quality Assurance
Autodesk, Inc.


Message 59 of 118
davidcuesta76
in reply to: Phil.E

Hi Phil,

 

This is some of the stuff I have been making.

 

These are from a few years ago, as can't share the most recent stuff, but as I always say. Love the software. 

 

Still use it all the time to do packaging mockups.

 

Hopefully this should explain why I need precision when placing a label.

 

Some of the boxes and bottles get 3D printed and then sent to manufacturers which is why I prefer to use Fusion as opposed to Photoshop or Cinema 4D to do these, but it is also why it's key to be able to place the decal at correct scale to understand wether the type is the right size or not.

 

 

 

 

Box_Option_2A_2016-Nov-08_06-50-06PM-000_CustomizedView9087528557.jpg

 

 

Bamford_WellnessRange_Presentation_DD4_V4_Render.jpgRHG0001_Daycream_Nancy60_V1_2019-Nov-01_06-25-42PM-000_CustomizedView8982453240_Retouch.jpgRhugWildBeauty_CleansingLotion_Option_B_RGB.jpgScreenshot 2022-09-05 at 20.29.29.png

Message 60 of 118
mark.j
in reply to: mjames

I struggled with Placing a decal at the correct size when I started using fusion as well.
I found a pretty solid work around that has always worked for me.
1- Create a sketch on the surface of where you want your decal, if your decal is 4" X 6", then draw a 4x6" sketch.
2- Finish sketch

3- Insert Decal / select surface / apply decal to surface
4- Once decal is on surface, scale it to size.

If dealing with a round surface, I can get pretty close to perfect by scaling up after drawing a rectangle on a flat surface first, then applying to round surface like a wine bottle label.

If your applying decals to an oval or cylindrical surface, it's great to have chained faces either on or off, but worth playing with chained faces. The decal application process can distort on round surfaces.
Sometimes I have had to cut my decal up into multiple PNG images and apply them individually to multiple surface faces to create one image, basically tiling the image to make up one image.

 

Hope this helps.

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report