Steps for exporting from blender for import to Fusion 360

[robertcgarvin]

Hey all. I'm new to Fusion and Blender (Been using fusion "comfortably" for a few months, just started Blender). I need to take a file modeled in Blender and turn it into a body in Fusion. Furthermore, I need to join that body with existing bodies in Fusion and perform further functions on it. In a word, I need this model from blender to behave like it was modeled in Fusion. 

My experience level is so fresh that, even after reviewing a few existing posts (namely this one) I couldn't understand what they were recommending to do. 

Here is a link to my blender file. 

For me and my knowledge level, every export has resulted in a mesh imported into Fusion, but a mesh that I can't seem to select when I try to perform any function. I also don't know what function I need to do to get the file to be workable. 

Any help is appreciated!

[TrippyLighting]

I cannot download the file and it seems password protected (I need ro request access).

[robertcgarvin]

Access has been updated. Try now. 

[TrippyLighting]

I looked at the file and in its current form it has over 500k quad faces. 

To convert that into something useful in Fusion 360 you'll have to:

1. export the mesh as a .obj file from Blender. 
2. import the .obj file into Fusion 360
3. create e new (empty form feature
4. while in the form feature, select the mesh and select "Utilities ->Convert"
5. The UI panel should have pre-selects Quad mesh to T-Spline.
6. Click OK and wait patiently.

However, There is no way this mesh will convert due to the memory required.

So in the curve settings in Blender you'll have to lower the resolution of the bevel to "1" or even "0".

At a level of "0" the mesh has 72,656 faces.

But even then, on a computer with 32 GB of memory Fusion 360 consumed all of it an then was not able to convert it successfully into a T-Spline and then into a BRep (solid bodies). 

[TrippyLighting]

Soooo...

At home I have a rig with AMD Ryzen 5950X and 64GB of memory.

To reduce the amount of faces and complexity, in Blender's curve settings I reduced the Bevel resolution from 12 to 0 and disabled the end caps.

That reduced the face count to:

In the Scene settings I set the units and unit scale to :

Which resulted in these dimensions:

Then I exported the .obj  (with the wire mesh selected) with the following settings:

In Fusion 360 I used Insert mesh:

Then I created a form:

and selected the imported mesh in the viewport.

In the Utilities I selcted the Convert menu:

And with the mesh selected it should default to 

then I clicked OK. The conversion take several minutes on 

While waiting I started the resource monitor to watch Fusion 360 consume an absolutely obscene amount of memory:

Once the conversion is completed, I click on "Finish form" and after several more minutes the conversion generates a surface body for each wiggle wire.

That file when exported is 60+ MB in size. Not small, but not excessively big either. 

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

[robertcgarvin]

Holy Mackerel! That's amazing! Thank you! This is perfect! I often find that, in my search for a shortcut, I end up taking the scenic route! 

I had previously disregarded another forum post, which has proven to also be a viable way to get the effect I want. 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/creating-a-microphone-mesh/td-p/6551570

The video is extremely small and grainy, but it's enough to see what's going on. 

Finally, I embarked on this because I felt the mesh material in fusion wasn't sufficient for my school project. After a week of hunting solutions, my professor said applying the mesh material was fine! (facepalm) Should've just gone to her first!

Thanks, @TrippyLighting. I'll definitely remember this, and use it for one of my renders! 

[TrippyLighting]

The method he shows in the video would be extremely laborious when used with a mesh as dense as yours.

If you need it for rendering, I would actually suggest exporting the model from Fusion 360 as a .fbx and use that in Blender for rendering.