How can I create a "hole" in a body that was imported from a .stp file?

[Anonymous]

I have an .stp file that was part of a design I purchased. I want to remove chunks of the model to reduce the amount of resin that will be required to print it. I am new to F360 and haven't played with CAD much since the initial versions of TurboCAD, back before trees were invented.

The model has some flat surfaces and a large curved surface for holding a CO2 laser tube. I want to, essentially, punch holes through the surfaces to reduce the mass.

I have designed some basic objects with F360, from scratch, and I could figure this out, I think, if there were associated sketches in the file, but I don't know how to manipulate the body. Do I create a sketch and then extrude it through the body, to create a hole?

Once I re-design the piece, I'll need to get it into an .stl to print it.

Thanks.

[vandyckaj]

If you could attach a file of what you are looking at that would be a tremendous help. 

If you imported it correctly... See link below for information on that. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-t... 

As long as you have. BRep solid, you should be able to make a sketch on any plane of the solid and then use the extrude tool to punch through it remembering to select "cut" in the extrude menu. 

Hope that helps, if you have further questions please provide the file if possible. 

If this solved your issue, kindly accept as the solution! 🙂 

[Anonymous]

I think it's a body... I don't know what a BRep is. But I just opened the .stp file, directly, didn't import. It's listed as Body1. I played with the sketches and it looks like I was able to extrude through the piece, so I'm guessing it's a solid. I was even able to fillet the edges of my holes. There is one curved surface that is tricky, as it doesn't seem you can sketch on a curved face. So I'm looking at construction planes, to get a surface close to the curve that I can sketch on and then extrude through the curved surface. Once I start a sketch, is there a way to sort of make the body transparent so I can see the actual surface I am trying to work on?

I attached an image. The red arrows are holes I was able to make through the piece. The green arrow is where the next one needs to be. (Lower image just shows the selected curved face. How would you suggest I set this up so I  can punch through that bit? I was able to punch through the front of the curved surface by using the flat plane at the top of the image as my sketching surface. I don't really have a plane to use for the green arrow step...

[davebYYPCU]

Set a construction plane across the mouth of the bracket, 

sketch the shape of the cutout on that plane

select the shape to Extrude Cut, and set how far, (drop down selection)

“To Object”

Select the rear face of the curved part, (your blue selection).

Might help....

[vandyckaj · Accepted solution]

So to answer your first part. I would go to the construction menu and create a plane. I would recommend using the tangent plane. Should be able to create one tangent to that curved surface. Otherwise if you are after a specific angle. Then I would try some of the others. They all are pretty self explanatory. 

Then just sketch your holes, and you can either choose to just extrude cut them far enough you remove the material or in the distance tab just select through all and it will cut through everything in the way of that profile to infinity!

Per your question on viewing what is going on. Great question! Fusion has a super handy feature for this. If you click on the inspect tab, drop it down you can use the section view feature to cut away everything above that area you want to work on. You can then toggle the visibility of that on and off in the left hand tree under analysis tab. 

You can mess with the opacity of the bodies, but I would not recommend that. You can also at the bottom of the screen on the mini bar hit the computer screen (display settings) and you can turn on wire view or hidden lines etc... Sometimes that is helpful. Other-times its way worse. I find section views to be the most useful. 

Then I don't know if i mentioned this, but to export as an STL file you can just right click on the body in the tree on the left and click export at STL. If you are using a popular print utility, it can actually just chuck the model directly into that software for you. Pretty slick. I use PrusaSlicer with that all the time. 

[Anonymous]

That section analysis is a beautiful thing. Thanks.