So trying to find the best way to design stuff either from text or from images online. Im finding when I try and import anything into fusion it looks great but when you stroll across the part all the outline lines seem to be a bunch of broken up lines and arcs not one connected outline. Is there any easy way to connect them all so the cam part of fusion will make it all one cut?
Try watching some videos on how this works. You’re making a simple (easy to make, hard to detect) mistake when drawing that means your shape is not linking together properly. If you are in a single sketch with an image imported as a background, you should be able to trace any shape you want and have it turn “solid” which is when Fusion 360 changes the color and now shows a solid shape because all of the points are linked together.
What you describe sounds to me like a drawing mistake where you are not continuing your shape from the previous line. There are tricks for making sure that all your lines connect. You can use the constraints to some degree and you can zoom way in to the joints and see where two lines aren’t quite touching. (The scroll wheel is best for this)
I hope you can take some time to watch some videos on how to sketch in Fusion 360 because you’ll pick up a lot of techniques and tricks on how to make the program do more of the work for you as you are drawing so you have little or no cleanup to do after you’re done drawing. When I found a good video, I would literlaly pause or rewind it as many times as necessary so I could follow along and do the same thing the person showing the video did. While you may not need the 3D portion of Fusion 360, the sketching portion of those videos could still be helpful if you understand that each sketch is just a 2D flat sketch on different surfaces or different locations. It’s the 2d sketch portions that are the most interesting to watch how they draw.
There are so many people showing how to do things in Fusion 360 on Youtube, I don’t want to just recommend any single one at this point. Look around, find some you like. Also, the videos I watched on how to do it are a year old or more and the steps might be a little different. You might be better off watching the videos that come up in the search results you get when looking for Fusion 360 Import Image Sketch or variations on that.
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Hi! Depending on the source of import, you nearly have to junk some files and either draw it yourself in fusion, or find a different source, OR painstakingly fix all the broken segments. To add another element, some of those documents are made with splines, then converted to a dxf.
That is not good in my experience as splines create many many more plots for the G-code. If you can, do not design with splines when you are using CNC machines, particularly plasma. I am no subject matter expert but I do know the files can get laughably long when you try and create G code from splines… and if you can get it to post out, the machine often has a seizure and does not work. I am talking CNC in general, not specific to the crossfire or mach 3, both of which I am new to.
Generally speaking I use arc’s instead and create tangency constraints between them to smooth it.
Hope that helps a little…
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I’ve had this issue when bringing drawings from Inkscape over to Fusion. Just as the OP described, a curved path will come in as many separate segments. After a little Googling, I found a method to get rid of it in Inkscape. I know it works for the problems I create in inkscape. Maybe it would work for vector art he (or she?) is downloading. It’s a combo of Trace Bitmap, and saving to a PLAIN SVG (instead of the default type of .svg). If this sounds like it might help, PM me and I’ll send you a link to the video that solved it for me.
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I already had Draftsight. I’ve used it for years and you can save as dxf, dwg and export as a few different files you can use. Best of all it is free.
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Lar Christian on youtube has some good videos on Fusion 360 stuff
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I just ordered my Crossfire and have been trying to learn Fusion the last few days. I was having the same problems with my dxf’s and in searching I came across a add-on script called connect the dots. I added into fusion and while it isn’t working in a single pass like in his video, if I do it 3-4 times it is taking care of all the issues with my dxf’s. It’s a lot faster than trying to manually fix all the issues.
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I also use connect the dots. I posted about this a few months ago. Figured it would help othersdry
I couldn’t remember where I read about connectthedots but it was probably your post…Thank You!