Dimensions wrong in exported .dwg file

[riley_smith_333]

Noob here.

I have a 3d model of a simple plate with a few holes in it, and my sheet metal guy wants the data in 2d .dwg or .dxf format. So, after exporting to .dwg, I used the free windows AutoCAD app to open the file, and when I use it's measure feature, all the dimensions are way off. The only thing I can be totally sure of, is that it's not a miss-match of units, eg. mm to inches. The scale seems ok, but, I can't for the life of me figure out what's going wrong.

Thanks

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

If you model your part in inches and then use the Export command in Fusion 360 it converts your model dimensions to centimeters.  Take the dimensions from AutoCAD and divide by 2.54 and it will be measurement in inches.

[riley_smith_333]

I have accepted your solution, as it is correct. However, I don't see how anyone could possibly consider this to be functional. I switched to Fusion 360, because I thought it would make things easier. As far as I'm concerned, this feature is broken.

Thank you very much for your help

[onur]

not in my case. All measurements are in mm.

I created a simple conical design and flatten it.

When I use export to dwg (FILE > Export ... > DWG) it scales to 1/10 of the actual size.

However Export Flatten Pattern as DXF works.

Same design but "FILE > Export ... > DWG Files" has a bug.

[Anonymous]

This is a major issue still unresolved. I am very disappointed I have lost a number of commercial clients because the sharing of .dwg files is so inefficient and inaccurate. It takes too long to download, when it does It exports way too much extraneous info like sketches etc... it rotates the object 90deg, it exports to metric automatically with no option to tell it not to do that, It throws components to random locations probably due to joints getting broken etc...

This is a nightmare! I am a paying client and have gotten now a satisfying resolution as of yet!

[HughesTooling]

@Anonymous  Are you opening the DWGs in AutoCAD? Have you got a bad example you can share?

Mark

[rohit.bapat]

Hello @Anonymous 

Sorry to know that you are facing the issue.

Can you please share f3z dataset with us which contains the Fusion 360 drawing file? Along with the bad dwg files? That will help us taking a deeper look into the issue.

Also, seems like you are facing multiple issues. I would like to know that if there are any particular instances or workflows that cause the trouble? Any further information about this will also be very helpful. For example if you can share the f3z with drawing file and the resultant dwg file so that we can debug the issue better.

Thank you,

Best Regards

Rohit Bapat

[yuhong_pang]

Hi, I have the same issue, the exported file scales to 1/10 of the actual size, how do you solve the issue?

[onur]

After you converted to the sheet metal, On the Sheet Metal Menu, choose "Create Flat Pattern". Once you have a flat pattern just click Export DXF.

When you do this way the scale is exactly in 1/1.

This is the simple way but it only works in sheet metal. If you need to use a 3d model view, I create a drawing from the model, adjust the scale to 1:1 and and creatre an exact drawing. After that I export it to DWG. This method also works.

[PATELTEJASH13]

Its 2024 and they still haven't fixed it

[cbailiss]

Incredible how poor the export from Fusion 360 is still in 2025. 

I am using a free trial to evaluate the product and will not be purchasing it based on how bad it is to use the exports from Fusion 360:

- Export to DWG - resulting file has all items 1/10 of size (the width should be 190cm, not 190mm!) and DWG is full of cluttered sketches that are massive in size in comparison.  Perhaps Fusion 360 should be called Fusion 36 given it shrinks everything to 1/10 size when exported.

Tried two workarounds that I read...

- Export to IGES/STEP files, when loaded into Autodesk CAD viewer has the objects rotated by 90 degrees.  I am drawing a storage cabinet and it looks like the cabinet has fallen over!  Laughably bad.

And they want to charge 100 dollars a month!  At the moment, it's basically unusable... 

[cbailiss]

Have to laugh that this is the accepted solution.  At the risk of stating the obvious, you shouldn't have to divide/multiply all the dimensions by a number when moving designs from one Autodesk application to another. 

[vulterey]

It's an old topic, and I don't know whether it was fixed, but it's 2025, I am on the Fusion 2601.1.34 x86_64 version, and the problem still exists.

But I think I found where the bug probably is. It looks like there is something buried in the app code which converts mm into inches (I could bet it's somewhere hardcoded ;)). My model was designed purely in mm, but when I exported the sketch to DXF, it was oversized exactly by multiplication mm by the inch factor. So, instead of mm (as my project was set up), I exported the sketch in inches and then magically the sketch was perfectly accurate. I hope it will help someone in the future, and guys from Autodesk will get the hint.

[rohit.bapat]

Hello All,

Recently Fusion sketch released an enhancement, where users can select the units while exporting a Sketch to DXF. Also, there are other export options. 

Please check attached image

[vulterey]

Hi Rohit,

Thank you very much for your reply. It turns out that I had an old eDrawings version that did not read the DXF files properly. So, please accept my apologies for claiming it is a Fusion fault. Now, when I open that same file, it has proper measurements.

Regards

Adam

[vulterey]

It turns out that I had an old eDrawings version that did not read the DXF files properly. After I updated eDrawings app, when I open that same file, it has proper measurements. So it looks like the export to DXF in Fusion now works properly.

[rohit.bapat]

You're welcome! Please feel free to use other options if applicable and let us know if you stumble upon any concerns. 

[dlaubenthal4]

Rohit -

Where can I find this? It doesn't show up when I am exporting.

Thanks,

Dave

[vulterey]

Hi Dave,

Right-click on Sketch and choose Export DXF, and then you will see a pop-up window with export options.

I hope this will help.

Happy designing