Quick! Modify an STL file - Fusion 360 Tutorial -
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Live Stream - Confused? Frustrated? Not on my watch :-)...Check out a couple cool tricks to modify an STL fil. This is Fusion 360 AND we will chat about your comments and questions.
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Time: About 15-30 minutes (We all have other things to do :-)
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Hi Lars!
To get rid of triangles on plain faces I usually just choose one of them and hit delete (And If that doesn't fix it, I'll delete another triangle, until it becames one face) . Fusion repairs it to one face without triangles in 95% of the cases :) Keep up the good work!
thanks .. works like a charm!
start at 3:00
Another easy way to take flat faces (non-radius faces) and get rid of the triangles is to:
You can do this after you have converted your mesh file into a BREP. While the design history is turned off, go into the PATCH workspace. Click on MODIFY, MERGE. Click on the SELECT CHAIN option in the pop-up window and then click on a face.
Once you hit OK give Fusion a little bit and it will take all those triangles that make up a flat side and combine them together. This won't work on any radius or curved areas but you can do what Lars did to help with those problems.
Thanks for putting in the effort to make very informative content Lars. I find it odd so many comments are upset by the run-time and apparently offended by the "dismissal" of thingiverse... Any time a man with your level of expertise is willing to share some of it, only a fool would complain! Learning a lot and looking forward to more great direction.
Thank you so much 👍😊 appreciate you taking the time to comment and watch
Thank you for this video! I have been struggling with resizing some holes in an STL file and I think you have just solved my problem. I can't understand why someone would complain about your videos. You have taken your time and experience to help others, if they don't like it then go away or make your own videos.
Life saver Lars! Thanks so much. Your videos are always CRYSTAL clear. I had this exact problem and your solution saved me about a day!
Thanks a lot for this tutorial Lars :D
If like me you don't have "Convert to Brep" by right clicking the model, just go to "Modify > Mesh > Mesh to Brep".
Also make sure like Lars said to disable "Capture history" by rightclicking the top tree, at the bottom (Catpure Design History)
You are so very welcome :-) Thank you for watching!
thank you !
Once again, another great video. I'm learning fusion 360 to model my own stuff to 3d print. I'm going through a few of your videos a week. Really appreciate your efforts.
With your videos my learning curve will shrink drastically. Thank you.
You know Lars, yours is hands down the best channel for Fusion360 I am spending my entire weekend with your uploads :-) playing catch up and working on my very first designs. We are all richer for knowing you and all your good works buddy!
P.s. the remark about the mesh circle being a wantabe was very humorous indeed. . A close up of the STL mesh is very cool at first blush. I first was aware of it years ago but not receptive yet
Thank you Chris! Really happy that the content is useful!
Have an awesome day!
Another way of getting a STL file into Fusion is to go to insert mesh and import it there. Of course you have to turn off design history before you can select convert mesh to brep. If the facets (faces, triangles) is too much you can switch to the mesh environment and use the reduce faces function and get it to less than 10,000 which is the preferred limit. Usually you can get away with the reduction depending on the model. Flat surfaces with triangles breaking them up sometimes can be automatically repaired just by deleting a triangle or two.
Hi John Bickford Thank you for watching! ANd thank yuou for the great comment!
I really appreciate all your videos. With your help I make career at work and can use my 3D printer in full capacity. Thanks for the great videos!
Best video EVER on modifying and editing STL files! Thank you!
That is awesome to hear tizwicky .Thank you for watching the videos
Thanks a lot for this video. I think a video series on how to repair a variety of different STL files to customize them before getting them ready for 3d printing would be very helpful. It seems like there are a variety of tips and tricks that are google-able but not really consolidated into one series very well, and it is for sure a commonly searched problem. I suspect a series focused on that would get a lot of traffic, but I could be wrong.
Anyways, thanks again for teaching, it was a very informative video.
Every time I watched your video's, Lars, I learn something. Thanks!! Keep 'em coming!
That is awesome to hear John Waclawski .Thank you for watching the videos
A 3D modeler who never heard of thingiverse? Lol!
Hilarious that people assume CAD was birthed for 3D printing. Folks who do this stuff for a living couldn't care less about Thingiverse since they can design exactly what they need instead of having to fix someone else's half finished broken file...
oldsjunkie1 lol exactly. 3D printing has just brought CAD to a larger audience.
Late to the party here but Lars is a legend...
I’m learning fusion for 3d printing and I’m finding your videos very interesting and helpful! Thank you for your hard work!
You are so very welcome :-) Thank you for watching!
Well, this is not that easy or ‘quick’ but I really appreciate the video. I have been 3D printing for years and have gotten by using tinkercad to knock up my own designs or crudely modify imported STLs. I am trying to move to fusion360 so that I can create more complex objects but it’s a really tough transition - even aligning two objects (super easy in tinkercad) is proving difficult.. This video is really helpful and introduces tools I had no idea existed. I’ll probably have to watch this 3-4 times before the technique becomes second nature. Thanks for taking the time. Ignore the negative comments I don’t think those people are the intended target for this.
When you performed the Replace Face @ 20:58 it seemed to reduce the # number of facets throughout the model... not just on the faces you were working on
Hi Lake Iosco Bloomingdale, NJ Thank you for watching!
Good eye :-). Yes, I think it is in the Fusion code that when it recalculates the water tightness of the solid, it somehow repairs face geometry...Not sure how this exactly works, probaply some cool code from a developer.
Hi Lars, (And everyone else)! Fusion actually has a really neat built-in feature. After converting stl's to solid bodies. Instead of having to select and extrude the whole face simply select one triangular face and then delete, Fusion then figures out all of the separate faces of on plane and turns then in one single face you can work with.
This seems to only work for me if I use File-Open and delete the faces. However, importing it using this method results in the dimensions to be completely wrong. If you import it using the Insert mesh option, then the dimensions are correct but it absolutely will not let me delete any faces.
@@dennislokken7003 the scale often comes through 10x if you use the scale command with a factor of 0.1 you should be fine. I don't know why it comes in so big.
@@connor1st :Thanks. I had actually tried that yesterday and scaling seems to work. And it is really hard to tell for certain but the 0.1 scale ratio seems to be correct. It definitely makes working with the stl files easier. I just found it interesting that there are two different ways (inserting or opening teh stl file) and they don't work the same.
Cheers Lars for this video.
You just picked the right time to make this video. I was up to that „problem“ a day ago and postponed it due to the complexity.
So, you made may day....
I do appreciate your vids
That is awesome to hear Frank von Thienen .Thank you for watching the videos
Lars Christensen Yes Lars, when ever it comes up to F360 on the 3D printer groups on FB, I do recommend your videos, since they are the best as far as I can judge...
Thanks Lars! I've watched a number of your vids and they have helped me get into Fusion 360 (from some university Solidworks training many years ago). Very useful techniques for when creating the model from scratch is too painful :)
When you use the paint 'select face' option, is there a way to stop it from selecting the faces behind the object (that aren't visible)? I keep inadvertantly selecting faces I can't see (and don't want). Thanks
Excellent and informative. I'm on a steep learning curve and your tutorials are great. Keep up the great work Lars.
That is awesome to hear simon cole .Thank you for watching the videos
Hey Lars. Wasn't getting the Mesh to BRep option. Had to make sure the timeline/capture history was turned off. Don't know if you mentioned that or not in the video. Thanks for the help!
Hi James Campbell Thank you for watching!
Yes, that is an important detail! Thank you for pointing it out
You've probably figured it out by now, but just in case, make sure you are in the "Model" workspace and it should show up.
Is there a merge face command? It would be amazing if you could have fusion merge all connecting and coplanar faces into the same face.
Thank you for this video, it definitely helped me to get started! Successfully modified a bunch of STLs like this that printed perfectly afterwards.
Very good explanation how to tread STL models!
Thank you 👍😊
Very handy video. I had to make a small modification to a model I pulled down from Thingiverse and this helped a lot. The only thing I struggled with was the scale. I File|Opened the model and it came in at 10x the size. But I was able to do the BRep thing. If I imported the model, there was no BRep menu item, so I was stuck. In the end, I just used File|Open and scaled to 0.1, which was sufficient for what I needed.
Just found out that turning off Capture Design History makes the BRep menu option appear!
@@anthonyroby296 I read somewhere that to insert a mesh file (stl) into Fusion 360 with the original dimensions, you got to use the insert feature. And also, I did what you suggest, turning off Capture Design History and I was able to convert to BRep with the original size. Cheers!
Very Helpful! I watch all your videos. Thank you Lars!
You are so very welcome :-) Thank you for watching!
Great teacher! I've learned a lot from your videos. Really clear! Thanks from Italy.
Thank you for watching👍😊 Glad you found them useful
thanks Lars, your videos help a lot... in this case i had to find a solution to a minor yet important step, before inserting the .stl file, you need to select the "Do not capture design history." first :) if not, the B-Rep feature doesn't show (sorry if this was mentioned already)
Hi gasPhase Thank you for watching!
Yes, very good point!
Best,
Lars
Excellent video! Very practical and straight to the point. Thank you!
Apparently this technique no longer works?
Thank you for your videos, Lars. This was pretty cool. As a beginner to this software I'm excited to see what it can do.
This is a great channel and such a big help for me being new to fusion 360, thanks for the detailed videos :)
I forget which of these I commented on before about shrinking the mesh. I figured it out. I was trying to use a - like I would for extrusions and such, but I realized that anything less than 1 would work to shrink the mesh. 0.01 for example. Now to figure out how to merge it into my part....
Glad you figured out the problem :-)
12:10 Click on the driven dimension and add +10. That way, it's perfect. Fusion rounds sketch dimensions.
This is one of the things in still do in Freecad it's simply much better at it. It's actually something I've done a video on.
Great video. Unfortunately the stl that I have falls into too many triangles category. So I thought I would recreate it using it as a template but it came in as 15000mm by 9000mm instead of 150mm by 90mm is there any way to change this.
Hi i have a stl file of a part and want to add 2mm in the middle of it as the overall part is short,how do i do that with out affecting the overall shape of the part ?
Lars is a good guy.Thank you for posting this
Lar's I am so sorry for missing today's stream internet during bad weather well just doesn't work. I am so glad for posting afterward of the stream.
Again you have shown tricks to working with meshes. Have you ever considered doing videos that last 90 minutes and selling them? I would be one that would support you in doing so lol.
Thanks again my friend 👍
Bob, I appreciate you taking the time to watch them!
That could be interesting to do longer sessions, like the once on Facebook on Wednesday evenings. Could not charge for them though :-)
Fantastic tutorial as always. Thanks Lars
Thank you Spike Kent
STL is trash for design work! I hate it when people say their design is open source because they released an STL, its not! People should use STEP files instead of STL to share model data.
I am with you :-)
Btw if it helps anyone, *_mesh to brep option_* does *_NOT_* appear if history is turned on. Why? I don't know and I don't care lol. Saving the hair on fellow newbies heads one day at a time! XD
I believe it is not an option because Fusion 360 would try to "log" each individual calculation to convert the mesh into a body. This would probably be in the hundreds to thousands of operations, so it would be too expensive to do with history enabled unless the model was very small/low resolution.
@@aspenmallery which means, that they are idiots, but that fits a lot of other things... Just log the ONE operation, grouping them together. AND leave the stupid option there, just tell me what I need to do to enable/use it. This dig through the room for the hair under the carpet approach to UI is SO 1980's... Where you have a book next to your computer to tell you all the things they couldn't document and hid... Hideous UI design is Auto-desk's mantra since the DOS days...
@@traderhutgames Then make something better and stop complaining. Fusions UI is actually rather good for a CAD program. It probably has one of the easiest learning curves out of them all, but I understand when you get stuck that it is frustrating.
I am frustrated and confused.......I have the July 2021 version of 360 so it doesn't translate. None of the "buttons" match your instructions.
You're a very good teacher, thanks for uploading this. Unfortunately, what I am trying to do is too advanced for me sadly.
Nicely done video. I have one STL which has thousands of these. Feel like dumping that project.
Thank you Lars, another great video.
Is there any app on Fusion store that will do all the cleaning of .STL model?
Hi Auday Sami Thank you for watching!
Not what I am aware of. If there is, it would be messing with the tolerances of the model. I hate to say it, but STL is a "you get what you get" file type.
I manage to do some things thakns to you . Thank you sir.
Lars, your videos are amazing, but I am having a problem following along due to the version differences? I cannot get the Mesh workspace to appear using Fusion 360 student ver 2.0.9512.
In the Preferences screen, there isn't a Preview option but a Preview Features which has TON more options and I selected the Mesh Workspace option and then apply and save, but I didn't get the Mesh Workspace option in the dropdown in the upper left hand section and I didn't have the Model Workspace either so I wasn't able to follow along because I didn't have the option I need. I closed and re-opened Fusion just in case and still the workspaces were not available. Any suggestions or other video to watch? (I will eventually watch all of your videos! LOL)
PS, I do have the history disabled
Hi Rick, I just had the same problem. In the newer version of Fusion360 it is no longer in the Design dropdown. It is now in the menu above the ribbon. You'll see SOLID, SURFACE, .. and also MESH. Hope that helps. br Paul
Had the same issue. My problem was that Fusion 360 didn't download the mesh-update or installed it properly. Deactivate the mesh function and apply. Then activate and apply it again. That solved it for me.
Hello Lars and thank you for all the fantastic and informative videos. Do you know what the limit is on the number of "facets" an STL file can have for Fusion to handle for a Mesh to BRep conversion?
Hi Farshad Bagheri Thank you for watching!
I think it is 30,000 but I am not totally sure.
I have done a few videos on how you can reduce it if need be:
th-cam.com/video/cKXvIWpLoeU/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/OX1T_bg493A/w-d-xo.html
BEst,
Lars
For some reason I am still unable to use this stl that has been converted to a body using Mesh to BRep. I needed to use the shape of the STL as a tool to cut something. I am unable to select the converted shape in the combine menu, I cant figure out why.
OK now I have to comment again. I gave up on this video and went looking for something else and I found Lars Live #75. Yes I am a subscriber and follow you but I still think you gloss over some points. BUT, in Lars Live #75 you make it clear you know what Thingiverse is and who uses it. You also show how to down load a sty file etc etc. So I am headed back there and let you teach me what I need to know. But do remember we 3d printer guys use Fusion 360.
Hi George Scott Thank you for watching!
Sorry for any pain and frustration I have caused...Have you seen any of these videos:
th-cam.com/play/PL40d7srwyc_NopbOnJ4IARIvSrTT1pp5m.html
Hope you have an awesome day!
Best,
Lars
All BREP surfaces are getting converted into triangles during transfer to most 3d printers anyway. In fact, I believe ALL 3d printers convert the objects to triangles at some point in the translation process, because triangles are the most basic shape and easiest for the software to deal with. Only certain CNC or Lazer cutting machines read B Spline curve information directly as machine language. All other software work under the hood with triangles. All Fusion is doing here is hiding the triangulation of the surface so you don't have to deal with them directly. That's all.
Another handy way to fix these, is ask the author nicely to supply the original :-)
I 3D print mostly figures that are circular, and since STL files are comprised of all triangles, is there a better format to export for 3D printing?
Really awesome class here! Well done
Thank you 👍😊
12:20 Is what I'm here for. Just need to make the shaft hole on this lathe chuck I found on cults3d smaller (who the hell thought that was a good name for a site?meh... shrugs lol). Anyway thank you so much! Ultra newbie here lol. This alone was like a needle and a haystack to find. So much easier to edit in Sketchup but I want to run with the big boys one day so fusion it is. (no disrespect to sketchup) What a sigh of relief!!!
Thanks for another awesome tutorial
Thank you Vaughan Lundin
Its been a while since i watched thanks for the video love watching gotta catch up. Thanks lars
You are so very welcome :-) Thank you for watching!
Excellent tutorial!
Hello, such a Lars, when I load the STL to Fusion 360, with dimensions that come by default in the STL of 100 mm x 100 mm x 5 mm, Adobe Fusion 360 resizes the model, or scales it automatically. When I'm going to print the piece in 3D, the measurements are resized 100%, if I reduce its size the circles where the screw threads change a bit.
If the STL part passes through Fusion without affecting its size, it would be easier and faster to print parts.
Thank you for all the help.....
Really appreciate Ur vids mate helping me learn alot of new tips.1 question my laptop keeps saying my graphics card might not be optimal to run fusion.anything I can do to improve performance apart from setting graphics to simple.as soon as my design has multiple parts fusion keeps freezing and when I try to sketch new parts or select a function keep getting error msg.cant upgrade graphics card as its built into board.cheers mate
Thanks for your videos. Very helpful.
If text was to added to a STL imported file would the surface triangles have to be changed to a proper model generated surface? I suppose for machining the answer would be yes, but if only 3D printing maybe not?
Thanks for this.. great stuff very useful
Thank you Mike Hjorleifsson
Very nice vídeo
You got super lucky with that model. Most models I've seen (even fairly simple ones) are hundreds of thousands of triangles. -- And if you try to reduce them, they loose detail very quickly. :-(
I cant only select front faces, it always selects both, back and front faces.
fantastic! can the faces be merged before press/pull, or simply to clean things up? thank you!
Hi kevCarrico Thank you for watching! You could reduce the faces in the mesh work space, or just try to select a few on a face and hit the delete key.
Best,
Lars
Thanks - super useful. One question for you - when I import an STL file intended for 3D printing, make some modifications, then re-export it, the size is all wrong. Also while working in Fusion 360 if I measure the model, the dimensions are incorrect. Why is this and how to I fix it please?
I just experienced this, too. What I did was bring in the original unedited .STL into my slicer and adjust the scale on the edited version to match it.
I love this man!
really useful Thank you again
You are so very welcome :-) Thank you for watching!
Wow this was a fantastic vid!! Thanks :D
That is awesome to hear cschmitz .Thank you for watching the videos
Thank you so much. I knew you'd make that look easy. For some reason I was having a hard time with it. Wish I could give more than one "Like"!
You are so very welcome :-) Thank you for watching!
So too much yacking? I'm just working through this exact problem. Thank you! These videos are very helpful.
At 15:15 you say that having these triangles is going to show up in 3D printing.
That got me wondering which workflow you use to 3D print. For example Cura will only accept mesh based fileformats and thus will always suffer from this inaccuracy.
Even Simplify3D removed the option to use g2 and g3 commands.
Am I missing something?
All 3d printers will convert the model to triangles in the end. Every single one of them. So Fusion 360 isn't getting rid of triangles. It's just hiding them and changing vertex order. However, the triangles are still there behind the scenes and under the hood. Every model gets translated to triangles when they export to a 3d printer. There are no real exceptions. Only CNC machines and lazer cutters truly work with B splines all the way through the process.
@@DigiFootageFX Yeah that was my point. I was hoping the creator would have a real magic trick to support his claim.
Marlin theoretically supports real curves, but then again internally splits them to smaller linear travel moves at a customizable resolution.
I believe Fusion 360 internally is indeed getting rid of triangles in this process. But then again at no real advantage after exporting to an STL file, though the resolution and thus the deviation could still differ when compared to the original file.
@@TheBrassn I'm skeptical that Fusion 360 actually gets rid of any triangles under the hood. I'd have to investigate the actual topology process of the software, but if you notice there are still vertices and edges which make up that hole, so unless the new surface was detached to a completely separate object, It has to be interpolating the new surface with underlying triangulated geometry to correspond with the edges on the rest of the model. I use triangulated topology from 3dsmax and Blender for 3d printing all the time, and as long as they are planar, there's no surface issues in the print.
Is there a way to simply change the dimensions of a downloaded stl object to specific measurements?
10:52 please tell me why my line points won't snap to the edge corners (ends where those 2 lines meet). it only wants to snap to grid points.
Go into your preferences. On the design tab, enable "Auto-Project edges on reference". I had to google this myself too, as it wasn't explained in the video. At the beginning of this tutorial series, I think he tells everyone to do this but it's never mentioned in the follow-ups.
really useful lars
Thank you diego Garcia
Where did my (save to stl ) command go in my drop down menu go, now I have ( save to mesh)
You need to export to stl.
thank you... this video is awesome
I need to move two threaded holes, the same way. Is that done with mesh as well?
So you dont go into what to do if the count is too high for "Mesh to BRep" Im still trying to edit my file
Hi boneyard101 Thank you for watching!
Did that in another video:
th-cam.com/video/cKXvIWpLoeU/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/OX1T_bg493A/w-d-xo.html
Is that possible to automatize the smooth solid conversion into other clean model without triangles? Thanks so much I appreciate the tutorial, very helpful
Hi Rubén Romero Vivancos Thank you for watching!
Check out this video:
th-cam.com/video/3vPhcaYl_no/w-d-xo.html
Hope this is useful
I caught your tutorial #118. It seems like you said you don’t like working with STL files because the geometry is not accurate. So please tell us what other file structure should we be using to do 3D printing?
Hi Tom Ferguson Thank you for watching! Sadly you can't really use anything else. The printer companies back in the day decided that STL was the simplest to use, they were right, but in my opinion STL files are too risky because of the accuracy if you have no control. If you work in Fusion you at least have a chance to save them out in a higher resolution, but if you receive an STL file from someone, or in the worst case, has to modify it....well, then I have not been a fan. At least until Fusion came along :-)
Thanks! Informative as always. :)
You are so very welcome :-) Thank you for watching!
So i made a drawing didnt save it but turned it to an stl but now want to modify it and i can load the stl into fusion set dont capture design history but cant convert to brep ?does not come up as a feature
Just wondering if you do commission work?
There is a STL file Id like to gey professionally modded.
So if I modify an still file and it has a hole if I do not convert it like you did here it will not be a smooth round hole when printed? Any contour if not smoothed will be a bunch of facets when printed?
Hi gvet47 Thank you for watching!
You will get what you see on the screen. So in this case the hole will be as round as the triangular shapes are.
Best,
Lars
This is OK but I'm trying to do the same with a .obj file... The file is quads not triangles but I can't use the geometry to set sketch planes or pick points...it's just there as a body
Trying this on a thingiverse stl as you do commands & options in the vid. Mine always also selects faces behind the plane I'm working on.
I ended up just using Inspect to get the dims (STL imported at 10x) and rebuilt the part.
Hi Lars,
Great video! Very helpful, I have a question regarding my issue. I need to modify one STL file because one part of it is too narrow. Do you have any suggestion how to do that, or maybe you have a video on where I will find the guide. Thanks a lot!
If you turn it into a solid you could possibly use the extrude command to add more volume
what do you do to save it? do you have to turn it back into something?
Gotta say that now I hate STLs too. THX Lars ;) :P
Thanks for the tutorial, but nothing you've shown works for me. As an example when I set selection filters to Body Faces only, Fusion won't let me select anything. When I enable everything in selection filters and am able to select the triangles I want to modify and then press Q, everything that was selected becomes unselected and I'm not able to do anything. Fusion is frustrating...
Hi Waltkat Thank you for watching!
I am sorry! Totally frustrating! I would recommend that you contact support:
forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-support/bd-p/962
Hey Lars. I'm a novice using the Fusion 360 version 2.0.10813, Active Plan: Fusion 360, Personal, macOS 10.15.7 and have no problem importing an STL file as a mesh and turning off history; but after that I never get an menu item "Convert to BREF" or similar option; even after hours of trying. Any ideas?
Hello Tim! i have the same problem, i found the solution in the 2:50 minute in this video th-cam.com/video/tVGtG-UjlYg/w-d-xo.html "Mesh Tab" --> "Convert Mesh" i think they make more simple in the 2021 updates.
@@charliebrownn6622 thank you!!!
You can press “s” on your keyboard and search mesh to brep (or any other tool if you having trouble finding it)
Lars, you are a VERY knowledgable person and I think that's a problem. You tend to overlook those of us who are hobbyists, and there are a lot of us. I can't imagine that you didn't know about ThingiVerse. It is the #1 repository for STL files used in 3d printing. There is a large community of 3d printers who use Fusion 360. When I say overlook, you tend to skip over small things like how did you import the STL file you are using. I am a newby wanna be 360 user and I am already frustrated. I want to modify a simple STL file of an iPhone stand so it will hold an iPhone with a case on it and make it more rigid (thicker material)...OK done complaining I will go back to the video and see if you get me where I need to go.