Trouble importing STL

[vilts]

I have one STL file that Fusion just doesn't import correctly. Same file works fine with Inventor, Meshlab and ArtCAM. I tried to convert it from other programs to OBJ and other things, but it still has the same broken effect. 

This is how it should look like:

And this is what Fusion thinks of it:

Also, the model size in Fusion is 10x bigger than it should be. Correct in all other programs.

Any ideas and/or suggestions?

[mccoym · Accepted solution]

Hello,

The "broken" looking geometry is an artifact of the way the mesh is shaded. We are working on a fix. The geometry has been imported correctly. If you apply a matte material to the object, it may reduce the appearance of the artifact.

If you are inserting the mesh into Fusion, you should get a dialog asking you to define the input unit. The default unit is mm.

If you change that to cm, your scale problem may be solved. Please let me know if that works.

Thanks,

Manjiri McCoy

Fusion development

[vilts]

Yes indeed, that is the case, thanks. Good to know that the fix is on the way, the looks really threw me off.

But there seems to be another "problem", not sure if also somehow fixable, when just uploading the STL to the cloud. Then I can't set the units and it uses the wrong ones for some reason. When I import the mesh, it sets the correct units and size is ok.

So, uploaded version is 10x bigger, uses cm. Imported is correct, and I can change the units as well.

[deyop]

Unfortunately our ability to modify the default centimeter units setting in the cloud STL converter is limited.  There currently is no interface that would allow us to set the units as there is locally when inserting the mesh.  This is forcing users to apply scaling when the object is opened or inserted.  We have considered changing the default value to millimeters but of course this will cause problem as well.  Do you regularly work in millimeters?  In the long run we will provide the proper options for the cloud converter.  Sorry for this inconvenience.

[vilts]

Well, not at least I know how to get it working, so that is good 🙂

As about cm vs mm, I always work in mm. That is the default unit for metric world and all engineering drawings and specs should be in mm. Of course ideal would be to have unit choosing option just as locally, but if not, then I would choose mm as the default. But I have no idea how that integrates with imperial units and what is the experience for others.

[dunderhead]

Hi deyop, direct, non-cloud, STL import in mm (base feature -> insert mesh) still doesn't work either! (Scaling is not the issue here, but translation is wrong.)

I just checked using the little example I provided in

  http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation-request-a/bug-fix-stl-import-scaling-and-transl...

You mentioned that it was to be fixed in the current release? And it says "Solution provided" in a green banner, but I don't think that's true.

Would you be kind to look into this? My current work around is to work in cm, then scale the design by factor 0.1 before producing a drawing or IGES output for FEA. STL output of course is unaffected by the cheat.

thx

[mccoym]

Hello,

The translation bug fix is not out in the current release. It will be available in the next release. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Manjiri McCoy

Fusion Development

[vilts]

Another question.

Is CAM supposed to work with the imported meshes? For now it looks like CAM part doesn't even "see" the part correctly. During setup creation the stock must be manually made around the part and none of the machining strategies don't know what or where to cut. Facing cut went right though the part.

Is there some specific process needed to get this working with CAM?

[deyop]

No.  Unfortunatly mesh is not a valid input for CAM yet.  It is something we expect to support in the future, especially since we are already working on a mesh workspace.  You may want to add comments to this forum posting where I was sharing our direction for mesh workflows.

Thanks