Outline Sketch

[castleworksmotorsports]

I have a part I would like to get a sketch of the outer perimeter (essentially I want to trace the outer edge of the part)

Once I have a sketch of the part, I would like to export that sketch to DXF or DWG file.

Can this be done? I appreciate any help in pointing me in the right direction.

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @castleworksmotorsports,

I've created a quick video below that demonstrates this workflow. Realistically all I am doing is creating a sketch on the face of the part that I am trying to create the outline for. Then, using the Project command from the Sketch menu, I can pull in geometry edges as sketch outlines. Once my sketch is done, I can right-click my sketch to export it as a DXF.

[castleworksmotorsports]

Hi James,

Thanks for the video, is there a link to this video where I can view it full screen, I am having difficulty following it and seeing what commands you are selecting.

Thanks

Kevin

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @castleworksmotorsports,

Yep! Check it out here. Let me know if you need any clarification.

Thanks,

[castleworksmotorsports]

Hate to be a pain, I've tried to recreate the steps, but I cannot make out the commands you are selecting in the video, the resolution is not good enough.

Can you outline the steps to take for this?

Thanks

Kevin

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @castleworksmotorsports,

Not a pain at all, good to know about the resolution! I will tweak my screencast settings in the future.

Regarding my steps:

• Create a sketch on the face that you are trying to outline
  • By your default preferences, the sketch will auto-project an outline of the face you are sketching on (assuming you chose a face and not a plane)
  • I denote this in my video when I originally turn off the visibility of the body to show the sketch only right after I create the sketch. You can see the orange profile.
• Then, I go to the Sketch menu and select Project (hitting P will bring up the project menu as well).
  • There are two selection options here, the body projection and the entity projection. Body projection allows you to select the entire body (which I demonstrate first) and pulls all the geometry in. The other selection option for entity allows you to manually choose what you want, a line, a point, a face, etc. I demonstrate this second in the video.
• Then, once done and your sketch contains all the outlines that you want, you right-click the sketch from the browser menu and select Save as DXF

Hope that helps,

[castleworksmotorsports]

Hi James,

It's the first part of creating the sketch that I am getting hung up on. Here's a screen shot of the item.

I am able to turn the body off and it shows just an outline of the part, but I can't seem to select it. I'm missing a key step somewhere.

Screen shots showing menus to select would be helpful.

Thanks

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @castleworksmotorsports,

Ahhh I see now. So couple things, first off you are in the Sculpt menu. You can see this in the top-left of your ribbon. I was in the modeling environment. Sculpt is for organic shape modeling also known as T-Splines. More info on T-Splines here.

Secondly, the issue here is that is a mesh file (I'm assuming you brought in an STL or OBJ file). Mesh files cannot be edited like solid geometry can. To be completely honest, this is going to be much tougher with a mesh file. You will need to create a sketch based off of mesh sections. 

Can you share the file with me so I can create a video based off your file.

Thanks,

[castleworksmotorsports]

Hi James,

Attached is the STL file. Thanks so much for the help!

[James.Youmatz · Accepted solution]

Hi @castleworksmotorsports,

Done and created a screencast below for you to follow! These steps can be a bit confusing as a mesh is not the easiest to work with. Pretty much what I am doing is creating a mesh section from the mesh (which is just cutting a section of the mesh and using a plan to get an outline of that mesh). This mesh section isn't usable however so I then need to trace the outline using the Fit Curves To Mesh Section command. Both of these commands  can be found in the Sketch menu under Mesh.

At one point in my video the audio cuts out... sorry about that! I am just tracing the mesh section using lines and splines and snapping to points. It can be hard to see what you are tracing however so you may want to toggle the visibility of the mesh section as you go along. 

Attached is my exported DXF from your file.

[castleworksmotorsports]

Thanks for the help James! I appreciate it!

[castleworksmotorsports]

Hi James,

I am still struggling with these STL files and how to get a DXF file from the sketch.

I go into create a sketch and select Project, but I cannot seem to select the face from the Project command.

I would like to have a DXF file of the right side of the attached body (the outline and the two holes)

If you could walk me thru the steps again, I'd appreciate it. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

Thanks

Kevin

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @castleworksmotorsports,

Did you go step by step via that screencast I embedded? Before you can project, you first need to create a mesh section from the sketch and then fit curves to the mesh section. This will create a useable sketch that you can then export as a DXF.

Thanks,

[castleworksmotorsports]

I have tried to follow your steps but I don't see where I have the Mesh Section option in the Sketch drop down menu. See attached screen shot

[castleworksmotorsports]

I have tried to follow your steps but I don't see where I have the Mesh Section option in the Sketch drop down menu. See attached screen shot

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @castleworksmotorsports,

Ah I think I know why that is. Can you click your name in the top-right corner of Fusion and select Preferences. Under the Preview tab, you will need to enable the Mesh preview. Then, these two options should appear.

[castleworksmotorsports]

Hi James,

That got me closer...making progress, but having issues when tracing the outline. When I jump between line and spline to select points it starts doing strange things.

Any suggestions on what I need to change? See screen shot attached.

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @castleworksmotorsports,

To be honest, this tool is still in preview and is a bit crude. My suggestion would be to hit undo a few times and redo the spline. Even in my screencast I had to do this as I messed up a few times. My suggestion would be to expand that Sketch1 with the dropdown arrow and toggle the visibility of the mesh section on and off to ensure you are clicking where you want it to. I found this very helpful when I was going along.

Thanks,

[castleworksmotorsports]

Sounds good....I will give that a try.

Thanks

Kevin

[amartyaanand.thigale2018]

Thanks James! The outline project/outline function was exactly what I was looking for and I think most people are, who just don't know what it is called.