Fusion 360 crashing when trying to thicken a surface

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

I'm consistently having issues trying to perform basic functions with Fusion 360. 

I've attache a screenshot showing what happens when the software freezes even on a simple thicken command. 

This routinely happens, particularly when I am trying to push the boundaries of the thicken tool. 

The scope of work I'm trying to achieve is to analyse certain geometries of the shape below and to what extent they can be thickened before throwing an error. On other software packages on similar spec computers, this seems to work with ease, but fusion regularly crashes on me. 

Any advice you could offer me to help increase the performance would be greatly appreciated, I'm using a Dell XPS 15 9570 with Windows 10. 

Thanks!

[TheCADWhisperer]

File >Export and then Attach your *.f3d file here.

[robin.loebl]

Hello, I got the same issue with my model.

Using the thicken feature seems to cause a memory leak. On my computer it increases from let say 700 Mb to 11 000 Mb RAM usage and it won't eventually stops.

Precision: my model is pretty easy, just some flat surfaces to thicken.

Did you get any tipps or workaround ?

[TheCADWhisperer]

@robin.loebl 

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

[jeff_strater]

that design is not "simple".  Yes, the geometry of each face is simple, but there are dozens, maybe hundreds of faces here which have to be thickened, and the intersections between each face have to be trimmed off against every other face.  This is a very complex operation.  Yes, it will take a lot of memory, and a lot of time to complete this operation.  My guess is that Fusion is not crashing, but if you left it for a long time, it will eventually complete.  I don't know what the inputs to this were, but my guess is that there are ways to achieve this that will be more efficient - perhaps creating each surface separately, thickening it as you go might work.

[TrippyLighting]

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@robin.loebl wrote:

Did you get any tipps or workaround ?

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A step by step approach seems sensible. Don't just thicken everything at the same time 😉

Experimentation is a good idea.

[robin.loebl]

Hello guys,

Thanks for your replies. I tried to thicken just a part of the model (selecting between 2 and 16 faces instead of the whole 37 faces) many times and it worked without problem. After 7 thicken operations the entire job was done.

But still, I don't understand why it's been such a problem. I mean, if the whole model has a high complexity in regard to this feature, why splitting it in 7 pieces solves the issue? I was expecting that, as long as I walk through the whole model, each thicken operation would take more and more time, to a point that it's becomes pointless to continue.

Moreover, I tried to reduce the model complexity to one ring and like 7 edges (so 7 intersections). Doing so, and trying to thicken the whole model on the same operation leads also to a crash. But deleting like 4 more edges (reducing to 3 intersections) makes it able to do the operation properly.

Seems weird to me.

[TrippyLighting]

The first thing I'd like to note is that your sketch is not fully defined, which should not be the case for such a simple thing. I'd also not pattern or use symmetry in the sketch and pattern the surfaces instead of sketch objects.

The second thing I noticed is that the outer ring surface is present twice. There are 8 ring surfaces but only 7 rings in the sketch.

If you thicken all the rings first and then thicken the "slices" second then this works just fine.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@robin.loebl wrote:

Seems weird to me.

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Does my example "seem weird"?  (See Attached file.)

[robin.loebl]

@TrippyLighting 

Indeed, but I can't understand where this double outer ring come from. In the sketch there's only one circle drawn. But Fusion 360 crashes even if I delete it.

@TheCADWhisperer 

There's actually a lot of process that lead to the same outcome. What's weird to me, is why when I try to thicken all the faces at once, the software crashes, and why it won't when I do it in 7 steps? I mean, the whole complexity hasn't decreased along the steps, there's the same amount of intersection. Don't get me wrong, I'm a beginner in Fusion 360 (I have more experience with Solidworks or Catia) and I need to learn a bit more about this software, but it feels a bit arbitrary having to split the operation in multiple steps (even like @TrippyLighting did) in order to achieve it without crashing the software.

But nevermind, I did what I wanted to do. Thanks for your help.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@robin.loebl wrote:

I'm a beginner in Fusion 360 (I have more experience with Solidworks ...

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I would do this design exactly the same in Fusion and SolidWorks.

[robin.loebl]

@TheCADWhisperer 

I think you're missing the point: sure the way of designing something shouldn't depend on the software (except maybe when you're complete beginner and don't find some features you had on another software).

And the thing is, I'm not looking for an alternate way to design what I want (in fact I printed my design for days and I'm done with it), but I want to understand why it's crashing.

If no one has the answer, then it's fine, I'm just being curious.

[TrippyLighting]

In theory, I would agree with that. However 30 years experience with all sorts of CAD and 3D modeling software (40 years in case of @TheCADWhisperer ) have thought us that this isn't the case!

[spamme.post]

Aaaaaand waiting (for my memory to run out?)

Trying to thicken the lines for Living Hinges to 0.1 mm then cut them out.

The model is small, 5x30 cm, but there is quite a lot lines to cut.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@spamme.post 

No evidence Attached = operator error.

[spamme.post]

Ohh. Is my screenshot not showing?

[TheCADWhisperer]

Typical beginner mistake.

Blue lines and white dots.

Sketch pattern.

Missing dimensions/repeated dimensions.

Fillets in sketch.

Pattern Features, not sketch elements.

Can you continue with your design showing where you are going with only one of the lines.

Then I can demonstrate correct technique.

[TheCADWhisperer]

@spamme.post 

Are you still there?

Are you interested in seeing the solution to your issue?