Can't select anything on body while using Modify tools in the Form section

[b_glascoe15]

Hi, I'm not super savvy to Fusion360 just yet but I've run into quite the pickle working on this project. This project is going to be a stencil basically so I need the inside edges to be crisp, not necessarily worried about the outside. I attached the file if anyone would like to take a gander.

I have an object that I first drew, then photoshopped and finally turned into a model to import into Fusion 360 to fine tune the edges on. I have about 200 faces on this object, most from a circular design in the middle. I'm trying to enter the "Modify" tab and use the "Smooth" tool to blend 2 faces into one seamless face, however when I click on the "Smooth" tool, I'm no longer able to make selections on the body I'm working on. If I exit out of the tool and/or simply click the "selection" tool, I'm able to select anything I want, however, not under the parameters/effects of the "Smooth" tool. I'm well aware of the definition of insanity and this is driving me INSANE.

My software is up to date, selection filters are theoretically in order and many restarts of the software have occurred. Cutting my losses to hope someone can help me figure this out. I've asked ChatGPT, read multiple forums and watched multiple YouTube videos at this point and nothing seems to work for me. Thank you.

[jeff_strater]

The design you have shared here is an STL file.  This is a mesh format.  So, if you insert this into Fusion, it will come in as a mesh body.  Fusion supports 3 main different body types, with different toolsets for each body type:

• BRep (surface or solid) - the tools in the Solid or Surface toolset will operate on this type of body
• T-Spline/Form - the tools in the Form workspace (including Smooth) will only operate on a Form body
• Mesh - the tools in the Mesh workspace will only operate on a Mesh body

Your design, being a mesh, can only be used with Mesh tools.

There is some capability of converting a Mesh to a BRep, but that is limited somewhat.  There is no way to convert a Mesh to a T-Spline, unless it is a quad mesh, which this is not.  Also, converting to T-Splines would tend to smooth out all sharp corners.

This design is simple enough that I would:

1. use the mesh as a reference
2. use Create Mesh Section and Fit Curves to Mesh Section to reverse-engineer the outlines (or just create them by hand - this is a 20 minute job at best)
3. use Extrude to create a Solid BRep body
4. then, whatever else you have planned for this design (3D printing, CNC machining, etc)

[jeff_strater]

here are a couple quick attempts.  Ver 1 is using Fit Curves to Mesh Section.  It tries to mimic the mesh quite closely, so a lot of the unevenness gets mimicked:

for Ver 2, I deleted all the generated splines and re-created them, resulting in a much smoother model:

Both models are attached, FYI

[jeff_strater]

just realized my ver 2 was messed up. Here is ver 3