Rigid Group and Combine

[Anonymous]

I was using Fusion 360 and I am planning to 3D print my parts(I am using joints), but I was confused if I should use the Combine tool and then turn the one body into a component or turn all my parts in to component  and use the Rigid group tool? Are there differences between the 2 ways or is just the same thing?

[jodom4 · Accepted solution]

Hey kalavala.pranesh,

Unless there is some space between the surfaces of two components, there won't be any difference in the printing result if you combine the bodies. The most straightforward way to 3D print parts is to have all the components you want to print set to visible in the browser, then either do an Additive Manufacturing setup in the Manufacture workspace, or export the top-level component as an STL.

[laughingcreek]

when you export separate bodies/components as an stl, fusion exports it as a combination of separate "shells".  most slicers seem to be handling this fine these days, although that wasn't always the case.  occasional even now the resulting .stl will be interpreted incorrectly, and the slicer will try to print one or more of the shells as a void.  if you do run into problems with the slicer you can always do a boundary fill of the bodies to get a single body without having to mess with the structure of your model.