3D print a design
You can bring your model into the Manufacture workspace to complete the
additive manufacturing processing within Fusion, or prepare a solid or
mesh body to be 3D printed directly from an external application.
Switch to the Manufacture workspace
On the Design workspace toolbar, click Utilities > Make > 3D Print 3d print
icon.
The 3D Print dialog displays.
In the 3D Print dialog, choose the Preparation Type of Manufacturing.
In the confirmation message, click Switch.
Fusion switches from the Design workspace to the Manufacture
workspace, with the Additive tab active. The Setup dialog and the Machine
Library are automatically displayed.
In the Machine Library, select the 3D printer you want to use, or choose a
generic Autodesk placeholder machine associated with a selected
technology, then click Select.
Note: When you select a machine from the library, you are also choosing
the specific additive manufacturing technology that the machine supports.
From this point on, all further options available in the current setup are
narrowed down by the technology you have opted for.
Print Setting Library opens.
In the Print Setting Library, select the print setting you want to use, then
click Select.
Additive Arrange dialog opens.
In the Additive Arrange dialog, select the components you want to arrange
in the print build, choose one of the available 2D or 3D Arrangement Types
and adjust the Spacing settings, then click OK.
Note: The additive manufacturing workflow within the Manufacture tab in
Fusion allows you to perform all the necessary steps from positioning the
components in the volume of the build, through generating supports to
outputting the post configuration file. For a detailed explanation on how to
configure the model within each of the additive manufacturing
technologies, follow our additive manufacturing workflow guide.
Export to a 3MF, STL, or OBJ file
On the Design workspace toolbar, click Utilities > Make > 3D Print 3d print
icon.
The 3D Print dialog displays.
In the 3D Print dialog, choose the Preparation Type of Export.
With Object active, in the canvas or the Browser, click the component or
body to export.
Select a file Format:
3MF: Exports a 3D Manufacturing Format file (3MF), which is an XML-based
file specifically designed for additive manufacturing. It describes the
properties of a 3D surface, including its vertices, triangular faces, units,
colors, and textures.
STL (Binary): Exports a binary format stereolithography file (STL), which is
a unitless description of a triangulated 3D surface. Often used in scanning,
reverse engineering, and rapid prototyping workflows.
STL (ASCII): Exports an ASCII format stereolithography file (STL), which is
a unitless description of a triangulated 3D surface. Often used in scanning,
reverse engineering, and rapid prototyping workflows.
OBJ: Exports an OBJ file, which is a unitless file that describes a 3D
surface, similar to STL, except it can also reference color and texture
information.
(Optional) Select a Unit Type.
(Optional) To display a preview of the converted mesh on the canvas,
select the Preview checkbox.
Expand the Refinement Settings and select the level of Refinement.
Optionally, adjust the individual settings:
Surface Deviation: Specify maximum distance between the surface of the
original body and the surface of the mesh body.
Normal Deviation: Specify maximum angle between the normal vectors of
each face on the mesh body.
Maximum Edge Length: Specify maximum length of any face edge on the
mesh body.
Aspect Ratio: Specify ratio between the height and width of each face on
the mesh body.
Click OK. The Save As dialog displays where you can specify a location to
save to.
Export and send to an installed 3D printing application
On the Design workspace toolbar, click Utilities > Make > 3D Print 3d print
icon.
The 3D Print dialog displays.
In the 3D Print dialog, choose the Preparation Type of Print Utility.
With Object active, in the canvas or the Browser, click the component or
body to export.
Select the Application to which the model should be exported:
From the dropdown list of 3d print utilities that Fusion has found, select
the application that you want to use.
If your preferred application is not listed, select Custom. Then, click open
and specify the location of the custom print utility on your computer.
Select a file Format:
3MF: Exports a 3D Manufacturing Format file (3MF), which is an XML-based
file specifically designed for additive manufacturing. It describes the
properties of a 3D surface, including its vertices, triangular faces, units,
colors, and textures.
STL (Binary): Exports a binary format stereolithography file (STL), which is
a unitless description of a triangulated 3D surface. Often used in scanning,
reverse engineering, and rapid prototyping workflows.
STL (ASCII): Exports an ASCII format stereolithography file (STL), which is
a unitless description of a triangulated 3D surface. Often used in scanning,
reverse engineering, and rapid prototyping workflows.
OBJ: Exports an OBJ file, which is a unitless file that describes a 3D
surface, similar to STL, except it can also reference color and texture
information.
(Optional) Select a Unit Type.
(Optional) To display a preview of the converted mesh on the canvas,
select the Preview checkbox.
Expand the Refinement Settings and select the level of Refinement.
Optionally, adjust the individual settings:
Surface Deviation: Specify maximum distance between the surface of the
original body and the surface of the mesh body.
Normal Deviation: Specify maximum angle between the normal vectors of
each face on the mesh body.
Maximum Edge Length: Specify maximum length of any face edge on the
mesh body.
Aspect Ratio: Specify ratio between the height and width of each face on
the mesh body.
Click OK. The file opens in the Application you selected.
Laser cutter
Laser Cutting or 3D Printing?
When the time comes to choose the right technology for a project, many
elements are involved: application, material, production time and cost.
3D printing has a main advantage over traditional manufacturing
techniques: the cost is not driven by the amount of unit you produce
which means you can produce a single part or small to medium batches at
a lower price than with the injection molding technique for example.
Box LC Fusion360
With laser cutting, production time is very short and price is low. The raw
material is easy to access and available in many material types (metals,
plastics, acrylics, cardboard). Moreover, you can add different types of
engraving on your material.
From 3D to 2D with Fusion 360
Normally when using a CAD modeling software, design is made from 2D
sketches to 3D objects by extruding. In this tutorial, you will learn how we
create 3D objects with laser cutting thanks to assembly.
To create our laser cutting files, we will use the sketches of our CAD file
and a plugin in Fusion 360 to obtain DXF files of a box that you will be able
to upload on Sculpteo’s platform.
To obtain the plugin, go in the Fusion360 Appstore and download DXF for
Laser Cutting. Once you’ve installed it, you’ll find the plugin under the
Sketch menu. It allows you to export your sketches into DXF and to take
the kerf into account at the same time.
Modeling the box with sketches
Let’s start by creating a sketch for the base of the box.
If you are going to design an object with multiple drawings, it is important
to rename each sketch carefully.
Create a square shape of 100 mm of width and extrude it of the thickness
of your material. Then, create one of the sides of the box by creating a
sketch directly on the side of the base of the box. If you want to create
joint features, use the line tool to sketch on your face. Then, use the
intersect boolean operation to obtain the cut side of the box with your
joints.
Base Box LC Fusion
With the rectangular pattern, create the 3 other sides of the box and
you’re done!
Modeling the box with parameters
The main advantage of Fusion 360 is the ability to drive your design
thanks to parameters. In our case, we use it to define the material
thickness (MDF 6 mm) and the kerf (0,145) of our material. You can add as
many parameters as you want (width, length, height, angle radius…).
When you add the kerf parameter, remember that you have to divide it in
half. Indeed, as the laser hits the center of the cut line, the kerf is divided
between each side of this line.
Kerf LC Fusion360
The kerf is defined by the thickness of the material
Now we can create our box thanks to our parameters as we did previously.
The difference appears when you enter a value. For example, you have to
enter the expression width + kerf to obtain the correct value.
As previously, use a rectangular pattern to create the other sides of the
box.
The main interest of this method is the ability to modify in seconds the
design of your box thanks to the parameters. To learn more about the
parametrical design, read this article on our blog.
Export to DXF and start laser cutting
Once your design is done, click on the DXF4Laser plugin in the Sketch
menu and follow the instructions to obtain proper DXF files for laser
cutting. The plugin allows to nest each element in the workshop and to
add the value of the kerf. Be careful, if you already included the kerf
during the modeling process, you don’t need it at this step.
Then, your DXF files can be uploaded on Sculpteo and laser cut in your
favorite material.
Slicer Fusion360
Recently, Autodesk released a plugin that turns 3D models from fusion
360 into 2D files. The process is, however quite different because it slices
the models for assembly thanks to built-in patterns. You can download it
on the Autodesk Appstore under the name Slicer.
