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Making an STL useful

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Message 1 of 4
MichaelScholtz
655 Views, 3 Replies

Making an STL useful

I am a F360 novice and thought it might be useful for others if I posted solutions to things that seem easy after figuring them out as I figure them out,.

 

Working with STL files files are a mainstay for many CAD users as the internet is full of freely available STL designs.

However I found that working with them in F360 is a pain compared to what I know which is FreeCAD

 

1st - importing STL files.

There are 2 ways to import. you can upload to the web which adds the file as a new design. - this is a long way around.

it is easier to click on insert and then insert mesh which will import it into the working document.

 

2nd - STL size importing wrong

When i initially imported STL files (and this may be due to doing it the 1st way,) my STL files where ending up 10x bigger than they should have been. Turns out its a odd setting. click on your name on the top right. - then go to preferences. under preferences you have default units and under that there is Design. set then to mm and designs should import correctly.

 

3rd editing STL files.

Once you have the STL file in your work making it useful can be tricky. mush of the time I use it as a template to redraw the model.

To get the STL as it is to make anything other than a pretty useless you need to convert it to a BREP file.

If you're having trouble finding it its with good reason. its only available if you have design history turned off. ( you can turn it on again after the conversion)

To do this right click on the name of the design right under where it says browser.

The bottom option is do not capture design history.

then if you right click on the mesh body that you imported you now have an option to convert to brep.

This then allows you to create a new body from the mesh.

 

What is needed here is a way to simplify the model without loosing its shape which is now just triangles. . Under FreeCAD this is done by selecting refine shape, But I have not found how to easily do in Fusion360.

Having it as a body is great whoever for things like CAM selecting a profile to cut is nearly impossible.

 

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Message 2 of 4

Very true. I too have the same problem. Any STL imported, even with simple geometry, is converted into heaps of triangles and completely unusable. A simple app like Sketchup can easily do this with most STL files and once imported, is a completely NATIVE object and can be changed using tools/plugins etc.

 

Why this is not possible in Fusion 360 is beyond me.

Message 3 of 4

Sketchup is not a CAD application, or at least not a solid modeling CAD application and at it's core really only deals with meshes. That is also what it exports and unfortunately they are triangulated.

A .stl file is also not triangulated in Fusion 360. All .stl files are triangulated by nature.

 

A .stl file is really the very least common denominator for CAD data exchange and that was never it's intended purpose. It' intended purpose was as a one-way data export to be used in very first 3D printers. 

 

Fusion 360 is a solid modeling CAD application, not just a modeling application. You can work with surfaces (NURBS) and T-Splines, but the end result is a solid model. That is also the reason that you can do things with Fusion 360 that you cannot do with Sketchup.

Peter Doering
Message 4 of 4

It would seem to make more sense and more logical for new users if when working with stls/meshes the option to convert is assessable via right click. It can then give you the option to turn of design history and convert if you want to.

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