fusion 360 convert 3 view drawing into 3d model

How to convert an STL mesh to a Solid in Fusion 360

Fusion 360 is very popular amidst hobbyist and students who enjoy 3D press. If you lot're wondering how to turn an STL file into a solid body, so you lot're in the correct place.

Before we get started with actually converting the mesh model I desire to embrace some of the terminologies to ensure nosotros're on the aforementioned page, and and so you lot actually sympathize why we're converting the model.

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The Mesh (STL) File

If y'all're familiar with 3D printing and you employ .STL files or .OBJ files then yous work with mesh files all the fourth dimension. A mesh file is a drove of vertices, edges, and faces that define a 3D dimensional shape. This great paradigm from Wikipedia breaks downward how a mesh is congenital. You'll see that it shows that mesh files are created with vertices, edges, and faces, which all create the polygon sides or surfaces of the object.

Origami can be seen as a existent-world example of a polygon mesh file.

One of the near of import things to know near meshes is that they are surface models. Now to help you lot grasp this concept we tin compare it to real-life Origami. If we look at Re-arranges screen to look at selected object. More than this object made out of paper nosotros see all of the different surfaces that brand up this overall shape. Nonetheless, the object is still hollow on the within, as its solely made upwards of surface geometry.

STL vs OBJ Files

Now real quick allow'due south accept a look at the departure between the two well-nigh common types of meshes, which are .STL and an .OBJ files.

An STL file is the native file format for stereolithography and information technology's oft referred to as the acronym that represents "Standard Triangle Linguistic communication" OR "Standard Tessellation Language." Put merely, an STL file is a type of mesh file created with unstructured triangular surfaces. Once again, it's just making up the outer surface of the model and its NOT a completely solid object.

On the other paw, we have .OBJ files. The just divergence between an .STL file and a .OBJ file is that the .OBJ file displays some extra data on the surface. So you lot'll see that .STL files are always gray, whereas .OBJ files can contain color and texture information, which are displayed on the surface. The color and texture map are most commonly captured by 3D scanners, which is why most 3D scanners are going to output your .OBJ file.

Now the last term that you'll need to sympathise here earlier I walk through the steps to convert an STL to a solid body is the term "BREP." Now, BREP stands for boundary representation and can be seen as the reverse of our mesh files, as it's a completely solid and watertight model. A BREP file is made up of topological and geometric information.

Alrighty, then now that you're familiar with some of the common terminology permit's take a look at how to employ Fusion 360 to convert an .STL mesh file to a BREP solid trunk.

Mesh Workspace

The first thing we'll want to do is make sure that the mesh workspace is enabled. To do this select The selection manner controls how objects are select when you drag in the canvas. More the preferences menu from the profile dropdown list and then select "preview" and you'll meet that you tin can toggle the mesh workspace on and off by clicking the checkbox. Now afterward clicking the checkbox, you'll have to hit the apply push button and and then the okay button.

1. Insert Mesh (.STL) File into Fusion 360

At present a lot of Fusion 360 users get .stl files from Thingiverse.com and they want to modify them to fit (keyboard shortcut "f6") Makes the current file fill the screen. More than their own needs or they just want to customize them with their name or logo. For this demo, I'm going to apply this downloaded phone stand Thingiverse file. The first thing you'll have to do is import it into Fusion 360. There are 2 ways that y'all can import a mesh file into Fusion 360. The commencement way would be to open up the data panel Opening The Data Panel gives you access to your Project Files and Folders. Click the Evidence Data Panel button in the upper left of the Fusion window. The Console will expand on the left side and brandish the projection folders. You can likewise add members to projects and Import information from other sources. More and click the blue upload button. Then, If y'all select the file you can upload it. Once the file has been successfully uploaded, double-click on the file to open it.

Note: Click here for the phone stand STL file used in this demo.

The second manner to insert a mesh file is to simply become to the insert menu. Select " insert mesh Inserts the selected OBJ or STL mesh file into the agile pattern. Cull an OBJ or STL file to insert, so employ the options and manipulators to orient and position the mesh. More " from the dropdown list. And so go ahead and select the file. You'll come across that before y'all can work on the file it allows yous to change the orientation.

2. Changing Orientation of a Mesh File in Fusion 360

If I wanted the top of the phone stand to exist the acme of my orientation in the viewcube Use the ViewCube to orbit your blueprint or view the pattern from standard view positions. More I could either drag the sliders effectually or I could select the "flip-up direction" in the insert mesh dialogue box Creates a solid box. Select a airplane, describe a rectangle and then specify the height of the box. More than . Y'all can also hitting "center" to movement it to the center origin. If your file is floating in infinite for some reason, you tin hit "move to ground" to move it to the XZ or XY plane, depending on how your orientation is fix. Lastly, exist sure to click "okay" to confirm any orientation changes that yous've fabricated.

If you lot go to the workspaces card and still tin't come across the Mesh Workspace, it'south likely considering of the design history. You'll have to plow off the design history by right-clicking on the file in the browser The browser lists objects in your blueprint (everything from planes and sketches to parts and assemblies). Use the browser to make changes to objects and control visibility of objects. More and select "Practise Non Capture Design History" and click the continue push button to confirm. Now if you go back to the workspace selection menu you'll see that you can change to the Mesh Workspace.

At this signal Creates a sketch point. More , I also recommend irresolute the visual style then it's a bit easier to see all the triangles that brand up the mesh. Nether the display settings Alter brandish settings including the visual manner, mesh display, environs, furnishings, object visibility, camera perspective, and ground planes. More select "visual style," and and so select "shaded with visible edges merely." Y'all'll come across that if y'all zoom Zooms in and out as the mouse is moved from left to right. More in you tin now encounter all of the vertices, edges, and faces that make up the mesh model (like I discussed above).

three. Converting the Mesh to Brep

What confuses A LOT of Fusion 360 users is that yous'll actually need to be back in the Model Workspace Creates mechanical designs that contain mostly prismatic geometry. Access commands to create solid bodies. More in club to catechumen a model. Select the Model Workspace and then to catechumen the mesh to a solid body all you'll take to do is correct click on the mesh and select "Mesh to BRep." You'll then see in the dialogue box that you can have it create a new body or a new component Creates a new empty component or converts existing bodies to components. When creating an empty component, enter a name and select the parent. When converting bodies, select the bodies to convert. More .

four. Also Many Facets (Triangles) Mistake

If yous imported a adequately complex model so it'southward likely you lot'll get an error message at this signal stating that at that place are too many facets or the number of faces for Fusion 360 to convert the model. In this pictured example here it looks like information technology has a niggling over 1.5 million faces… and Fusion 360 can really only compute approximately l,000 facets. So earlier converting y'all'll first have to reduce the number of facets.

To reduce the number of faces you'll have to switch to the mesh workspace and then you tin select "reduce" from the modify dropdown list. Now we'll first have to select the mesh faces or a trunk. So in some scenarios, yous'll want to select only a certain area of faces and in others, we'll want to become ahead and only select the entire body from the Fusion 360 browser. The side by side pick you'll run into is the reduced blazon. Adaptive means that Fusion will adjust the surface triangles how information technology best fits the shapes or compatible will strength them to all be uniform in shape and size. So for this complex object, I'll leave it set to adaptive so it doesn't totally skew the overall shape.

At present yous'll want to reduce the number of faces so y'all'll have to select "face count" for the "reduce target." Then, for the number of faces, you'll have to accept this under 50,000.

Note: It's a adept idea to aim much lower than 50k faces equally the more faces your model has, the more data Fusion 360 has to process. So your file will be much slower if you lot're close to 50k faces.

After your model has re-processed and reduced the number of faces, yous'll meet that if you switch dorsum to the model workspace you tin can right click on the mesh and select "Mesh to BRep." Your model should catechumen at this point, but you lot may get another warning if at that place are still a lot of faces which may boring downwardly the file quite a bit. Personally, I always recommend reducing the confront count equally much every bit you lot can without destroying your overall shape.

v. Cleaning Up Faces of an STL File in Fusion 360

Now Fusion 360 did a pretty good job of processing this file and turning it into a solid body, merely you lot'll see here in the picture that there are still A LOT of triangular surface faces that make upwards the solid body. Sometimes these faces tin can get in the way of altering the design to your specific needs. One affair y'all can do is reduce the number of faces by merging them together.

At this point, you could zoom in and select all of the faces one by 1, but an easier manner would be to use the paint pick (keyboard shortcut "three") Selection by mouse downward drag over targets. More tool. The pigment choice tool is going to permit you to click with your mouse and drag over all these faces to select them much faster. Before using the paint pick you'll want to set the pick priority to " select confront priority Sets choice priority to faces. Click to select only faces in the model. Click again to remove priority and allow selection of all objects. More " which will help ensure that y'all don't select the entire component. If yous get back up to the carte du jour and look at the option filters yous'll see that you can see that activating the "select face priority" feature turned all these other options off and but left the "body faces" turned on (which will assist you select just the faces).

Now with the paint selection activated yous can click and elevate across a number of faces. If you miss any faces y'all'll just concord down the shift key and select them.

And so, switch to the patch workspace and select "merge" from the alter dropdown list. And yous'll see that you lot can go along to select and merge faces to actually clean upwards this solid body model so it doesn't have so many faces.

Having fewer faces will really let you to focus on the tools in the model workspace and won't restrict you as much as you attempt to alter your new solid body.

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Source: https://productdesignonline.com/tips-and-tricks/how-to-convert-an-stl-mesh-to-a-solid-in-fusion-360/

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