Trouble with getting circles to extrude on a sketch

[kellyWT9NF]

I have a project for burning on a plasma table so only working with one plane. The project has a body and any circles or ovals or multi-lined objects I drew were able to extrude just fine. Problem Im having is I have under a sketches folder that appears to be the same level as the bodies folder is I have 4 sketches that lay over-top of the body with other circles and multi-lined opening that I cant seem to be able to extrude.. make as openings through the body. If I open a circle up in edit sketch for example and try to extrude I get an error saying something about not having a body or nothing to intersect with. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

[jhackney1972]

The Forum users will need to see your model to understand what is going on.  Please attach it.   If you do not know how to attach your Fusion 360 model follow these easy steps. Open the model in Fusion 360, select the File menu, then Export and save as a F3D or F3Z file to your hard drive. Then use the Attachments section of a forum post to attach it.

[kellyWT9NF]

Also says "no target body found"

[jhackney1972]

Please attach the model as requested.

[kellyWT9NF]

Thanks for any assistance!

[kellyWT9NF]

Just uploaded the file now. So the large oval in the center, the two vertical ovals, all four of the circles, and lastly the hood scoop need to be cut through.

The lines that accent the hood and lower windshield would just be narrow cuts.. not sure the correct way to do that yet.

Lastly, the tires I planned to cut as two separate pieces,, making a bit larger up under the body and weld into place. I understand I need to connect the top portion of those if making the tires two separate pieces.

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

First of all, I think you want to Scale up your sketch.  The supplied model is only approx. 9/16 inches wide at the fenders.  Second of all I am not sure what you desire to do with the tires.  I have attached your model with the majority of the details cut out so you can issue guidance.  If you need a Screencast on what I did up to this point let me know.

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

Here is an idea on how to handle the tire.  Add an offset to the edge of the body for a gap.  Of course, if you are going to cut this out with a plasma table, you will need to add tabs to how the tire section to the body but I am only giving ideas here.

[kellyWT9NF]

Yeah thats a good idea if I decide to do all in one piece! I think Im still gonna aim to do the tires seperately but we shall see.

Can you show me or explain how you were able to get the sketches (holes) to extrude through the body? Thanks so much!

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

I created a Screencast of the process of creating the extrusions.  The issue that is probably giving you problems is that you have sketch on top of sketch and you have trouble getting the right profile to select.  I outline this in the Screencast but the secret is to hover over the sketch you want and then hold down your left mouse button to bring up the list of entities under your cursor.  Here you will often see the multiple profiles giving you issue.

Again I mention that this model is very small so I do not believe it is much use to you unless you scale it up.  I would suggest that you create a new master sketch and merge all other the other sketches into it before trying to scale it.

[kellyWT9NF]

Well Im not sure what im doing differently now. I was able to make some adjustments to the tire on the left so its a completely seperate piece. I was able to extrude and form the tire with the tread. I then copied it and pasted and flipped 180 degrees. Now its making me do all the extrude over again. All I seem to accomplish over the last hour and half is make the tread extrude and become like the body.. Where I want the tire itself to extrude like the body and then select each treat and cut. 

[kellyWT9NF]

I appreciate the video and all seems straight forward but Im still missing something. Also listening to your instruction I took each word very literally and I clicked down on the extrude graphic/link in the tool bar and drag out over my work space and now that link is gone.. lol

[kellyWT9NF]

Also to note.. Im using the Personal-Not for Commercial Use version of Fusion 360. Not sure if this makes any difference as far as how my program works vs yours.. ??

[kellyWT9NF]

I just deleted the right tire and dulpicated the left one a second time and flipped it. So all is good there now. Extrusions are what I was after!!!

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

In this particular model operations, the Fusion 360 license type does not make any difference.  Glad you have what you need as far as extrusions.  Now you have to think about the size of your model, I cannot believe it is of any value at this small scale.

[kellyWT9NF · Accepted solution]

Thanks for all your help! I did not realize the detention's were as small as they were. I simply imported an image and was trying to get familiar with the program and all the tools and traced over the image. I wasn't really paying attention to the size figuring when the drawings are complete I would simply scale it to whatever size I needed. 

So I have figured out how to scale it up now. I believe its a bit over 2ft now. I have made the tires separate. I do like your idea about adding the tires right to the main body.. and I still may do that.

One thing I would point out to anyone reading this is when it comes to extrude each piece needs to be completely closed and two in to pay attention to which direction you extruded prior. I found that when laying out this piece which essentially is only 2 dimensional that when I extruded the body to give it the 1/2" depth I extruded upwards. I could still see my sketches through the body but being the sketches were on the bottom side now of the extrusion I just a bit ago found I had to flip the work upside down in order to get at those sketch lines and extrude through the main body. And then of course extrude the right direction. At least this is what I was seeing and my way to get to the point I'm at right now. File attached here.

One more question.. How would one cut the lines that accent the hood? Could/should I just duplicate the lines already there for the hood and then offset it from the original an 1/8 inch and close it in.. or is there a better way?

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

This depends on how wide a cut you want for the accent.  When you take this to Manufacturing, you can actually use the accent sketch lines to establish your toolpath.  When cut, the lines will be the width of your cutting tool.  Otherwise if this is not enough, your method of offsetting the sketch line and closing it is for another extrusion is probably the best.

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

I have come in late, I am surprised you can get anything to behave as expected, as John says, it is so small, - you are at the lower limit of Fusion size normal.  Therefore zoom and home buttons are not working as expected.

The file seems to start off badly.  I would not attempt to scale anything in Fusion at your level of experience.

I believe that you may have kept going - before asking questions.

In this model, 1st thing is Calibrate the picture. 

Set a known dimension / size to the graphic, and let Fusion come into the range of normal.  (Eg if you know the headlight span, set the headlight span, to the required distance.)

Next is decide on sketching, I prefer one sketch per feature, this model is symmetric, as soon as I see that I draw one side, let Fusion figure out the other side. I would have the plates with all holes in one sketch with the tyre all the tread holes (Imported? too many spline points) in the same sketch.  (Extrude the 2 plates with same Extrude (New Body), Modelling Mirror / Combine both of those bodies to finish the model.  I don't like the method John has mentioned, but it is no way wrong - he is likely not going to fuss with the file, but use what's there.  

Step up the time line - (its 10 times bigger than yours,) and the Zoom and Home was fixed automatically.

The accent splines did not scale well for me, so yes it will be another sketch profile to not extrude, before the body/s are created.

For plasma cutting, create a new sketch, select the faces of the 2 bodies to project them to a cutting sketch, edit for nesting in the cutter software, Save this one DXF. (Mirror tyre if cutting 2 of that one does not work)

Might help

[kellyWT9NF]

I was able to copy the hood accent lines and then paste just below the orginal and then close them in with some minor adjustments to keep the spacing about equal.

Back when I first stated this project a few months ago I attached the photo of the car and began tracing out around where I wanted the cut lines. However it didn't take long to find that the photo was not completely symmetrical so I ended up tracing out half of the car and then mirror it. So on the file if you bring the photo into view you can probably see where I deviated from the photo so I could try and keep things more symmetrical.

Is there a limit to how many sketches or bodies? Should there only be one working body or one sketch?

Last night I created a new sketch and copied each of the sketches into just one and then was able to scale it up to about 28" wide (fender to fender) and then had to extrude everything all over again. But in seemed to work! I feel like I got it ready to manufacture and created a tool path and it was all working best I could tell. I tried to create the G code but it said I needed a post processor. I went to Langmuir and downloaded the one they said to use but for some reason it wont open... I was going to look at it more tonight.

Thanks so much for all your guys help! Certainly fun when you see things coming together! 

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

I took the liberty to going to the Langmuir website and downloading the post processor that they recommend for Fusion 360 and ran it.  It seems to work fine.  The Screencast will so you the process that it worked on one of your old models I had.  I am attaching a zip file with the downloaded post processor (CPS extension) and my model with the tool paths and poste NC Program.  I will leave all the settings of the Plasma head, feed and speeds and other particular settings needed for your equipment up to you.  I only used a generic plasma head furnished by Autodesk.

Edit: As for as a limit of sketches and bodies, there is none, but I would suggest separate "simple" sketches and use more than one.  My rule is generally one sketch per feature but that is not everyone cup of tea.