Trying to learn meshmixer by cutting and combining files.

[jpmxrider489]

I am working on a air duct my drag car. The file titled "air rework is the base shape that cant be changed other than the hole. The file titled air duct, I just need that 3in flange to be a part of the base. So I'm wanting to cut that hole out of the base and attach the flange. Then the grill needs to be put on the base preferably or on the flange. I don't know anything about mesh mixer but looking for some insight.  If I need to be more clear about what im shooting for please ask some specific questions. 

[jpmxrider489]

Here are some pictures of what im going for. I also need to put locking tabs on my base but unsure how im doing that. Still need to solve that either in meshmixer or fusion. 

@hfcandrew

[hfcandrew]

This is much more than just chopping an .stl up, more of an advanced user task to do this, but still doable.

In Fusion360 you parametrical model things from scratch, in Meshmixer for this you use existing pieces to cut out sections you want to keep and roughly model things together.

Is this what you are looking for?

[jpmxrider489]

Yes, that is what Im going for. Is this task best done in fusion or meshmixer?

[hfcandrew]

'Best done' is a vague term. Guess it depends on how good you are at fusion vs MM, or how accurate you need a design to be. A skilled user could model this in fusion in 10 mins. Or took me about 20 mins in MM with a little awkward quirks I had to work out.

To 'cut up and combine' something in MM takes 10 seconds. So if you have a very complex .stl, it may take hours and hours to reverse engineer them in fusion, which is overkill if you just plan on doing something simple with it. Fusion also gets bogged down with high triangle counts.

I just posted that gif to make sure that is what you wanted. Anyways I'll post a video tutorial of how I made that later, I'm away for a week rn. But see attached for the .mix if you want to see. I suggest making a post in the fusion forum too actually, see what workflow is best. There is always more than one way to do something.

[jpmxrider489]

Sounds good. I'm slowly getting the hang of fusion.  I'm definitely thankful for people taking the time to teach these things. Look forward to the video.