Importing from SketchUp issues

[mouse51180]

I have created an item in Sketchup that I would like to have laser cut in acrylic. I found someone with a laser cutter and he stated he uses Fusion360 and when I sent him my files they do not come out correctly. I downloaded Fusion and am trying to figure it out, but this is like a Windows guy using a Mac for the first time.

Can anyone give me any advise on how to get these files imported correctly or how to clean these up once they are in Fusion.

-I have export my file as .stl, .dxf, .fbx, .obj.

-I have exported the files with my design set as just a design, as Sketchup saving the item as a component, and as Sketchup saving the file as a Group item in all above formats.

-I exported the Sketchup file as a 2D and dxf file.

I have included screenshots of what I see in both Sketchup and Fusion.  I do not think that the guy I am speaking with to get these cut is the most technically savvy as his solution was to redesign everything in Fusion.  I have asked what the issue with the file is as I dont know what it "should" look like to cut correctly, but have not gotten a straight answer.  Im guessing he has an issue with all the extra lines running through the project.  

As redesigning everything in Fusion would probably work... the time it would take me to learn Fusion I dont think falls within my time frame of this project. Thanks for any advise.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried using Rhino as a go between? https://www.rhino3d.com/ Rhino will import and export more file formats than most CAD programs so you might find a format that works well for Fusion. You can download a free 30 day trial to see if it will work for you. Unfortunately, SketchUp exports curved geometry as faceted lines so you might need to clean up the export results in Rhino before importing into Fusion. There's a new way to export from SketchUp through the LayOut plugin that's supposed to create cleaner curved geometry but I'm not familiar with it. Google it!

[innovatenate]

Sketch-up produces triangular mesh bodies, not BREP geometry which is what Fusion excels at. This is the reason you're seeing the triangle "soup" when you import it into Fusion 360. Stl, .fbx, .obj. are also all mesh file types. If STEP, IGES, or SAT files were an option from sketch-up then you would have smooth BREP geometry in Fusion. 

You can produce milling operations in the CAM workspace from a mesh body, but cutting operations require a you to be able to select the "profiles" that need to be cut out. For this reason, I would think a DXF file would work, but I'm not sure what the results are when opening a DXF file in Fusion. Can you clarify what you're seeing or share a sample DXF file from sketch-up? I would be happy to take a closer look.

I hope that helps! 

Thanks,

[mouse51180]

Attached is a .zip file containing my .dxf file.

Thank you for your assistance.

[mouse51180]

I found a forum posting on export from Sketchup to FreeCAD and then using its "covert shape from mesh" feature to export to the recommended .iges and .step files.

When these files were imported they were also full of the geometric lines as seen in the previous export examples above.

Just FYI.

[Anonymous]

Here's the SketchUp export to DWG/DXF export through LayOut info I mentioned earlier:

https://blog.sketchup.com/article/get-phenomenal-dwg-files-layout-2017

http://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-pro/new-in-2017#high-fidelity-section

https://help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000235#export-dwg

And this screen capture mentions (highlighted in yellow) the improvements to curved geometry exports.

[mouse51180]

Luckily I still had 8 days left on my Layout trial.  So I sent the file from Sketchup to Sketchup Layout and followed the export tutorial Mark mentioned in his links.  I exported a .dwg and a .dxf file and when both items were imported into Fusion...it showed no object.  

I think this might be due to the fact that when you go to export from Layout it asks what version of AutoCAD you will import it into.  The most recent version you can select from the list is AutoCAD 2013...

I dont know if this isnt working because Fusion is not listed...just my educated guess.

[Anonymous]

Most laser cutters will accept DXF as input so I'd focus on DXF exports, not DWG. Try an older version of DXF, not the latest version available as sometimes the receiving software hasn't kept up with the latest versions. Whenever this same thing happens in Rhino, no objects visible upon importing the file, an older version will usually resolve the problem.

[mouse51180]

So I exported the file into all available DXF versions.  Unfortunately, after importing each of the files... all of them showed up blank in Fusion.

I have also downloaded Rhino3D.  Trying to get the mesh to a solid, I downloaded a plugin RhinoResurf, but I cant seem to get a working surface to export a STEP file out of Rhino to try.

[Anonymous]

Try MeshToNurb: https://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/meshtonurb

Then clean it up using MergeAllFaces: http://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/5/help/en-us/commands/mergeallfaces.htm

This should produce a clean planar nurbs surface that you can then export as a STEP file.

[Anonymous]

Looks like MergeAllFaces works with polysurfaces so you might need to join the individual surfaces into a polysurface using the JOIN command before using it.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised Fusion apparently doesn't support DXF import. Probably a wish list item!

[mouse51180]

So I ran the mesh command you mentioned above.  When I tried to run the Join it said it could not do that as it was unable to join curves.  I am running the MeargeAllFaces command now and it has been running for a while...I dont know how long I should expect it to take, but I think I will probably end up leaving it running over night and see how it looks tomorrow morning.

Thank you for all the assistance.

[HughesTooling]

@mouse51180 Can you attach one of the DXF files you exported using the layout add on I like to see if other programs will read them. 

Thanks Mark

[HughesTooling]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm surprised Fusion apparently doesn't support DXF import. Probably a wish list item!

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Fusion will import DXF files with curves, surfaces and meshes. You need to upload through Fusions' data panel if you're importing more than curves.

Alos in Rhino be careful will merge planer surfaces on a mesh, it's quite slow and will not work well on a mesh to brep polysurface.

Mark

[mouse51180]

Attached is the requested .dxf file exported from Sketchup Layout

[HughesTooling]

@mouse51180 Thanks for uploading the file, tried to open with Rhino and QCad and the file seems empty. There are some unused blocks but nothing visible so it's not just Fusion that's unable to read the file.

Mark

[Anonymous]

I tried opening the Gear5_Layout_DXF.dxf file in AutoCAD using the DXFIN command and received this error at the command line:

[Anonymous]

I opened the Gear5_DXF.dxf file in AutoCAD using the DXFIN command and it opened fine. The DXF file size was huge: 264.896 MB! It also contained a lot of objects:

[Anonymous]

I cleaned up the DXF in AutoCAD by deleting the polyface mesh and converting the lines and arcs to polylines, joining them as much as possible to where only polylines and circles remain. The 3D polylines were limited to the geometry in red and were converted to 2D polylines with a LISP routine: