Broken Line Help

[ksquar]

Hello!

I created the wind spinner I want to cut out in illustrator. The single lines created to create the windspinner are one solid line in illustrator and then I exported to a DXF. ( I do this all the time and rarely have this issue)

When I import the dxf into Fusion 360 it will not let me select the full line to be able to cut the line as one line and only allows me to select the segments (5 in total)

How can I fix this? What am I missing?

Dragonfly Wind Spinner_kk.dxf (186.1 KB)

[ChelanJim]

It looks like a good, solid design from the standpoint of the line segments. All you need to do is double click on a line segment and it will select/highlight all 5 segments of each line.

Was that your concern? Let me know if that was not the answer.

Now you don’t really need to select any of the lines if you just use the “sketch” in manufacturing.
Here is a quick post I did that shows how to use the sketch vs using a body or selecting all of the contours individually.

New Issues Creating Toolpath on F360

Obviously, if there is some contours already selected, you might want to clear the slate: [CAMwithSketchGeometry] [CAMwithSketchGeometryDropDown] Now in the next image, I am turning on the sketch visibility but that is really not necessary. If you find your sketch in the file tree and click on it, Fusion knows what to do. It took about 60 seconds to fully select the sketch to add to the tool path profile. [CAMwithSketchGeometryPickSketch] BTW: I tried to make a new body and create a tool …

In your example here is what it looks like with the selection:

Once you click “Sketch Profiles” in the drop down menu, a new menu box opens. Don’t do anything with it but make sure the sketch is visible in the file tree on the left:

As soon as you click on the actual sketch, everything is selected:

Now you simply click [OK] in the SKETCH PROFILES menu box. Don’t change any of the other settings. Now continue with the other tabs such as setting center compensation and remove lead-ins and lead-outs.

[ksquar]

Thabks for this… it helped alot and this will come in very handy for me in the future as well. I appreciate the time you took to make the screenshots and such!

I do have a question though… usually when I set windspinners up, I use no lead in/out for the outer lines but I try to use lead in/out on other areas so I don’t see entry points (curves) in the lines of the cut.

Is there a way to separate it? Would it be better if I set up my Illustrator file into 2 layers before I create the DXF and import it?

[ChelanJim]

@ksquar

Is there a way to separate it?

If you use the “sketch profile” for your selection, you could separate it by moving the different parts to a different sketch and then run a separate toolpath for each sketch. That way you can differentiate.

I didn’t take a lot of time on this so not sure how you want to spare the center but hopefully this makes sense.
Move the part of your drawing that is going to be treated differently to a different sketch. First I copy it.

Then paste it in a new sketch

Delete that part from your original sketch. Now go to Manufacturing and select first the one drawing and CAM it:

Now make another toolpath to cut the second sketch. (Right click on the set-up, left click on New Operation>Cutting>2D Profile)

Select the second sketch and set for center compensation and no lead-in, lead-out:

(Note: Now you might pick up that I did these out of order if you look at the file tree on the left. I realized that I had to cut the center part first. In real life, I would simply move that center cut toolpath into the first position. In this case I just showed the order that I would be cutting when I showed the images. Now I have probably confused everyone…sorry. )

Edit: I also see that for the center portion (first tool path) I needed to cut on the other side of the line. Currently, it is leaving all the lead-ins on the good part of the metal.