Design changing colour when touched by mouse and will not convert to STL

[beemergb]

I am having a problem with my Fusion 360 program .Im trying to convert my design into SATL but it does not seem to be there anymore in the menu ! And also I move the design with my cursor and it is changing to all very as not seen colours ! Pinks and oranges etc etc . Any idea what happening please . https://youtu.be/qxrx8SLqnkM

[davebYYPCU]

Save as Mesh, 

update recently changed the title, but still there, in Dialogue Box, Select mesh type from dropdown.

Might help.....

[beemergb]

I have done that but it appears its not meshed at all , hence the flickering ! Very strange Ive never had this before , its all the strange never seen before pinks and yellows etc colours that is also new . Oh well thank you ,and i will go back to the start and see what Ive forgotten , 

[jeff_strater]

expand the Bodies folder - you may have two bodies there - the original and the mesh version.  If you share the design, it will be easier to explain.

[HughesTooling]

Can you  export and share the design as a f3d here? It looks like you might have a mesh body in the design as well as the body. I you can't share can you use screencast so we can see better what's going on, if you expand the body folder is there more than one body?

If nothing looks wrong have you tried closing and restarting Fusion?

Mark

[beemergb]

I normally import a design , click on convert to b rep and then mesh but it seems all to have changed ! Where the hell is the STL button ? Has it been moved and why ? 

[beemergb]

Ive just watched You Tube and seen that they have made with the update , an easy task more complicated ! My view only ! Love the program but has this improved it ? 

[jeff_strater]

not sure I understand your process here:  "I normally import a design , click on convert to b rep and then mesh".  What file type are you importing?  Are you importing a mesh, converting it to BRep, then converting back to mesh again?

[davebYYPCU]

I expect your funny colours are Face Groups.  There are some colour changes to the default pink with this upgrade, and a whole new expanded environment, with new functions.

Might help....

[beemergb]

when I download a file from Thingyverse its not solid . So I had up till now uploaded  in Fusion 360 converted to b rep then mesh and then I have a solid . Thats all changed now .And Ive piled throught he new (improved ?  ) Way to do things , next time I will bring food ! Now I cant get my choice of slicer Simplify 3D , but its not stated , Mesh etc is there but no Simplify , any one out there can give me a clue what as always Im not seeing , doing or whar ever ! And as Im on it is it just me or is Fusion 360 slower than nomal , I mean really slow . I live in hope  

[jeff_strater]

here is the recommended workflow for a "faceted" mesh import to BRep workflow.  I'm not sure what you mean by "Simplify", but the Reduce command is supported in the Mesh workspace, which can be used to reduce the number of facets in a mesh.

[beemergb]

It looks like other people just glide through this problem and its obvious .Well I am not a glider ! Through trial and error , and using ,yes I have one ! , My brain , I am now able to convert the my design /object  to mesh.Call it up with Mesh insertion,, then Prepare  click on one of three   , Prepare Mesh object ,it changes then from whatever colour ,to lovely black line shape just like the old days , just that the new update takes 10 times longer to get there !and then FILE ! then you can use that little new Tool at the left hand top EXPORT , its there automatically when you dial up in Mesh . Then for me the fun starts ! Open Export you have two options Export Mesh Body , or Two  3D print ,and then choose , STL for instance ,MM, then and this took me ages to suss out , click on the "Send To 3D Print Utility" , and you think here we go !! Wrong ! Once you have clicked on your oject and its meshed ,click on it reacts and then click on the 3D Print Utility so that the tick has gone , then the OK button light up print it and the program uses your 3D slicer automatically .Well that was a learning curve , and I hope there are not to many head shakers out there tutting and well well well people saying why did he not do it like this ! Ive done it Im printing ,my wife is almost talking to me ,and I have to buy a new window in my  office ! Oh and a new monitor ! Have fun stay safe 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@beemergb wrote:

 I hope there are not too many head shakers out there tutting and well well well people saying why did he not do it like this ! 

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Are you editing the geometry at all, you know, adding holes, changing sizes?

It sounds to me like you are going mesh/solid/mesh without making any changes. 
If so, you can omit those last two steps.

Can you Attach original file (I assume *.stl or *.obj)?

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

[jeff_strater]

@beemergb - I'm with @TheCADWhisperer here.  I don't understand this workflow.  There is no reason to go to a faceted solid representation to go from mesh -> brep -> mesh here.  Even if you were planning on making changes to the model, depending on the type of changes, you may be able to make them in the Mesh tools.

Also, in all honesty, I don't think I believe this statement:  " just that the new update takes 10 times longer to get there".  Are you talking about the "faceted mesh to BRep conversion" here?  The code and algorithm involved here are exactly the same, so I would be very surprised if it took "10 times longer" to do that conversion.  Can you add more details around this statement?

[beemergb]

It used to be sketch finished , convert to stl, send ,  finished or not ? The new way is easier ? How did you find out how to use the new update ? Did I miss something ? Dont get me wrong I love Fusion360 , it has helped me get into design , also thanks to the excellent You Tube videos and Fusion tutorials as well  , but this new update , but  until  now I havent seen a tutorial , including for instance Export etc . 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@beemergb wrote:

How did you find out how to use the new update ? Did I miss something?

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July 2021 Product Update - What's New - Fusion 360 Blog (autodesk.com)

Upper right corner of  your Fusion screen.

[davebYYPCU]

I’m with @beemergb on the time delay, @jeff_strater you tried it?

Convert Mesh to B-rep - parametric, with or without face grouping, 

I am 2 from 6 so far, takes excess of 15 minutes to fail.

I have no idea why, the first couple worked, brilliant,

now I just Mesh section sketch. If can’t be done would rather an instant message, over the current waiting.... fail that I experienced.

could be the Stl files (grabCad) can send a file if you wish for a tutorial.

[jeff_strater]

@davebYYPCU - you seem to be talking about the "Prismatic" conversion, I suspect:

This is new functionality, and in theory, results in a better conversion (recognizing cylinders, cones, etc as BRep faces).  Yes, this could take some time, and does require some Face Group skill to make it succeed.  I do not have that skill.  I never said that this was fast.

What should be unchanged is the "Faceted" conversion, which was the only type available before the July update:

I believe that this is unchanged from the previous versions of mesh->BRep conversion, in terms of time, and success rate.  If you have reason to believe otherwise, let me know.

So, yeah, the new, more powerful conversion can be slower and has more failures, but the allegation here is that the old method is somehow slower, and I don't believe that is the case.

[davebYYPCU]

Ok, prismatic is what I meant, 

Brilliant when it works, but not pleased with the wait then fail when it doesn't.

I do get a warning of +5000 when doing the face group extraction.

[HughesTooling]

@davebYYPCU  What's the mesh look like, is it something that can be converted to plane faces and cylinders? Without face groups you'll probably get junk.

Here's a part I used for a test.

The first set of face groups didn't work well at detecting fillets so needed to run those surfaces again with a 2° threshold.

17° threshold.

2° threshold.

But now you need to combine each set of surface groups for each fillet.

The final conversion was quite quick and the solid is very accurate and matches the original body the mesh was created from. The prismatic option is really only going to be any good for parts that started of as pretty simple prismatic parts, might be useful for converting meshes from Grab CAD.

Mark