What Can I do with this Iges File?

[CLmoss]

I paid a person design 3 examples of chamfered edge meter slots for a rack mount front panel sometime ago.  He exported them and sent the export containing the 3 examples to me.  I have no contact with this person at this point.  The file format he sent to me was a .IGES format.  I have imported the file into 360 and can rotate it, highlight sections of it, move it as a total unit with all 3 examples in it, but I cannot seem to be able to copy the center example into my project, or delete the two other examples and then import the remaining into my project.  I want to create something that I will be able to have a CNC cut out for me.  Information on the internet is not helping.   I am new to this. What to do?  

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @CLmoss,

Welcome to the Fusion 360 Community!

With an IGES file, you should have full ability to edit/create/copy the model all you want. An Iges model is just a generic CAD file format similar to STEP. It should contain all of the 3d data you are looking for. Just to check - is the body you want to copy its own component or are all 3 bodies stored under the same Body folder in your browser tree? If you want feel free to share the .IGES file with me (if it is private, feel free to email it to me at james.youmatz@autodesk.com) with a brief description and screenshots of what you are trying to do and I can give you the steps on how to do it!

Thanks,

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @CLmoss,

Just got your email! Pretty much, you have one component that contains all three bodies. There are multiple ways to do this, but the easiest in my opinion is to right click Body 2 (or whichever body that you need to save individually) and then select New Component From Body. This will create an individual component that contains the one body. Once you have a component, you can then right-click the component and select Save Copy As to create an independent copy in your data panel.

Let me know if this is what you were looking for!

Thanks, 

[CLmoss]

Yeah, that looks good. Thanks!
However, now that we have the Body2 isolated, I want to use the
chamfer'ed slot in a larger sheet of .25" aluminum without changing the
slot dimensions. How would you go about that? I want the slot to be in
a 19" x 5.25" x .25" rack mount front panel. Also, will what I have
when I am done be able to produce CAM tool paths needed to CNC the slot
out of the panel?

Well, this is actually part of my original question. Can one edit the
IGES file like you can a Fusion file. Like I can in all other Windows
programs, I wish I could just highlight the chamfer and not the
surrounding aluminum plate CTRL-C, then just CTRL-V it into the full
size plate, a solid created in Fusion 360. ( I believe the origin of the
CTRL commands was Xerox Park ) The CAM part would need to follow in
this dream. What I read on a Solidworks user group site regarding all
IGES files, is that they will not allow this. Like I said it is all
about the IGES file usability in any program, but mostly within Fusion 360.

Again, thanks a lot for your help

[James.Youmatz · Accepted solution]

Hi @CLmoss,

I think I have a nice, quick solution that I can demonstrate that should be able to achieve what you are looking for. There might be a quicker way to do this in the CAM world, but as far as modeling goes, here is one way. What I use is a combination of the Boundary Fill tool (to create a mold of the chamfered area) and the Combine tool (which performs boolean operations on your stock sheet metal). Here is a link to download my model (it is in direct modeling at the moment). My steps are as follows (starting with the original iges that you provided):

• Open the file.
• Right-click the body that you want to isolate to its own file and select Create Components from Bodies.
• Right-click this newly created component and select Save Copy As
• Now you have a separate file for this body. 
• Open that file. 
• In the new file, we are now going to create the mold. To do this I use a tool called Boundary Fill in the Create menu from the Model workspace. What this does is "fills" an enclosed area. You can see in my screencast I first create two offset planes off of the top and bottom face of the body you provide. Those offset planes, I set to a zero distance so that they were flush with each face. This will close off the top and the bottom of the slot. Then, when I go to use the boundary fill, I select the two planes and the body as my tools, and for my cell I select the blank space that the slot takes up.
• What this does is create a separate body that filled the area inbetween the two planes and the empty space inbetween the slot. Now that I have this body I use the Move command to align the mold onto the piece of metal that you want to cut.
• I then go to the Modify menu (once the piece is in the correct position) and I use the Combine function and set the operation to Cut (remember to keep tool bodies so you don't lose the mold!) to cut away the exact shape you are looking for!

Edit: Screencast sent privately to user. 

[CLmoss]

I am being asked if I had my question answered.  I was being helped by James Youmatz, who is a very smart and helpful support person.  He spent a lot of time on this.  He did work out a process to solve my problem if it were not for the MOVE function.  The MOVE point to point function does not let me click on the second point.  It allows me to click on the first point, but forget about the second. It has problems.  James seemed to have problems with it too.  James suggested using Align, but that does not seem to work right for this application at least, either.    

The idea is the take a mold, then place that mold where you want to make a cut-out.  There are a few problems here.  

1) How do I get the mold face perfectly parallel to the plate face that I am making a cut-out in.  

There should be an simple automatic, click first side(on mold), click second side(on plate), push go. Done. 

2) How do I know where I am at when moving the mold over the plate?  In most other graphical interfaces you have coordinate readouts that change as you move an item over another item. This is a freebee in the Windows API.  We did this kind of thing in basic C++ classes.  Again, click on one Body side (not the middle), then click on the edge of the plate you are moving the mold over, then when the read-out says what you want, you go on from there with a cut-out.

 I could even use the rulers, like in Photoshop or Illustrator, if I could get the Fusion 360 ruler to read out correctly and physically near the work I am dealing with.  I have not seen a way to do that.  Plus!  Can somebody tell me who designed the rulers in 360?  I am a programmer and have been since 1989 and I have never seen such buggyness before.  It might just be that I don't know what I am doing.  (That is always possible.)  However, I am finding it impossible to get Inches with .5" per large scale, and 20 sub division happening here in FIXED mode. I mean, I get it into Inches, then select 20 division click OK and I am back in MM.   Plus, the Ruler is miles away from the work.   So, either I need a constant readout of the distance between edges of parts, or I need good working Rulers that are located nearby the work. I would then try to draw lines to create a cross-hair and move the mold to that point.  I mean, it works in Photoshop and Illustrator. 

So, I have made these points to James.  I am still waiting for a response.  He is a smart guy and very helpful.  I am sure he or someone will chime in here.  I want this program to work for me. 

Again, I was asked to respond on if my problem was solved.   Well, no.  Not really.  However, we have worked out a lot that approaches solving my problem....  It just has not yet. 

CLMoss

[CLmoss]

Oh, and one more thing.  

The Ruler numbers don't scale.  As the numbers get large, they overwrite the other numbers.  When Ruler runs out of space, the fonts need to get smaller. Again, not hard in Windows API.  

Rulers are important.  They give us constant reference to world.   I bet this is not a problem when you are making things that are less than a couple of inches long or high.  How often does that happen.  I am laying out a 19" x 5.25" x .25" rack mount panel.  Some people create really large items.  The Rulers are important. 

Jim