[Cura Interaction with Autodesk Fusion 360]

Thanks @ghostkeeper  I'm a bit confused though about where the system command is. When I use Cura 15.04 as the 3DP Utility it opens a single instance, but when I use 3.2.1 it doesn't.  

 

As I write this though I have maybe realised the difference.  When I use Cura 15.04,  that's already available as  pre-installed option in the default dropdown list, whereas I have to link Cura 3.2.1 as a "Custom" 3DP Utility.  There must be a different system command being used when it's installed from the pre-installed link compared to the custom generated link.

 

My apologies - it doesn't sound like Cura is the issue here. Once I understand it better I may need to post this request to the Fusion 360 IdeaStation instead.

[Cura Interaction with Autodesk Fusion 360]

Would it be possible to change the Cura software in the way it interacts with Autodesk's Fusion 360 to the same way it did with 15.04?

 

What I mean specifically is that with 15.04 once I'd chosen to 3D print a part from Fusion 360 and automatically sent it to Cura it would open a new session if Cura wasn't already open.  After that if Cura was left open and further transfers were made it inserted the model into the same session.  With latest Cura each time I send a model to 3D print it opens up a brand new session even if there's one already open.  This adds time to the process because you have to wait for Cura to open up again.

 

When is this a problem?  When I'm optimising a design for 3D printing I check the layer stack in Cura, then go back into Fusion 360 and make modifications to make difficult areas easier to print, and then repeat the layer stack check.  It's not unusual for me to do three or four repeats of this to get to a final design for 3D printing, and opening a new Cura session each time makes this less efficient.

 

This is part of a Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) workflow that I teach as part of my Fusion 360 training activities.  I mentioned this to @ghostkeeper at the recent Community event when we had the software discussions on the Friday afternoon.  

[Printing with PP?]

I think most brands of packing tape should work.  They tend to be made from polypropylene or polyester, and you want the polypropylene type.  So if you buy some see if it specifies which material it is.  It worked for me with the tape I already had which didn't have any material info on it - maybe I got lucky and it was PP. 

[always rotating model by 90degrees in the same axis after open]

I don't use Solidworks but I can see that it has the same issue where Y-up is the default setting.

Take a look at the two YouTube videos and the webpage link below to see if these help (it looks like you have to maybe create a new template for your designs to correct this problem in SW) :

 

 

https://ongaacam.com/reset-solidworks-planes-z-axis-call-top/

 

[Round parts not coming out round]

This is due to the resolution that the file was saved at. It's very similar to saving a photograph at low resolution when it looks very "blocky", you are seeing the 3D equivalent.

When the cylinder file is saved and turned into an .stl it recreates the model using flat triangles, the smaller the triangles the more round the cylinder will be, using fewer and larger triangles will result in the cylinder having noticeable sides.

 

When you save the cylinder as an .stl you need to be looking for an option that allows you to pick the quality (resolution) level of the file it creates.

[Formatting capsule parametric file - AutoDesk Fusion 360]

Hi there, I could do that for you.  If you could let me know what parameters you want to be able to adjust then I could see how much work would be involved.  Just so I fully understand your request, are you looking for a file in Fusion 360 (.f3d) format with a parameter table associated to it that would allow you to change certain feature sizes without having to do any remodelling work?

I notice that this post is over one month old, maybe you already have sorted this, if so no problem.

[colorFabb bronzeFill]

I'm fairly new to the forum but have been 3D printing for 4 years on Ultimaker printers.  Yesterday I visited colorFabb and it was great to hear them say that they still see bronzeFill as one of their flagship materials even though it was launched some time ago. I love this material, and my best 3D print to date was made using it (colorFabb described me as one of the experts in using bronzeFill, which was really nice of them).

 

There are pictures of it shown here. It combined a lot of my 3D printing skills to be able to successfully print this model using no infill, and using only 1 gramme of support material by splitting it into sections that were then joined together.  It also took a lot of my post-processing experience with this material to achieve this finish.  

 

I did not create the model, I would love to be able to digitally sculpt to this level of detail, but it does show when you combine an exceptional model with and exceptional material you get an exceptional result!!

[Printing with PP?]

One straightforward solution if you don't have printafix is to use the wide (normally brown) packing tape used for sealing up boxes for shipping.  I think this tape is actually PP, and PP really only likes to stick to itself, but the adhesive on the other side allows the tape itself to stick to the glass plate.

 

I've found this to be very effective, the only downside is that when removing the print sometimes it doesn't come away cleanly and some small parts of the tape come away stuck to it that you need to clean off.  I've produced PP prints that are as large as the buildplate of the UM2 using this technique with no problems of loss of adhesion.   

[Fusion360 stl file problem]

I've checked the file in Cura, and looked at the mesh in Fusion 360, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with either that would explain why you would get a problem at one end.  The mesh is very consistent across the whole of the top surface, adding the fillets would have introduced more polygons but I wouldn't expect that to have made the improvement that you saw.

If you got that level of accuracy on your final print then you have a very good machine, usually to get a press fit you need to add a compensation of around 0.2mm to the true size, and a float fit usually needs around a 0.3mm - 0.4mm compensation.

If you experience the problem again be sure to re-post so we can see why this is happening.   

[always rotating model by 90degrees in the same axis after open]

On 2/16/2018 at 2:45 PM, Andreasw said:

Steve this is perfect! It works great. Thank you. It seems that the preference change affects only designs during their creation. Going forward I'll save one step.Which is awesome. And I hope to remain thankful for your awesome explanation and documentation for a while. 

Glad that's sorted for you Andreas and that it will eliminate one step in the process of going from 3D model to 3D print

[always rotating model by 90degrees in the same axis after open]

The solution for dealing with this issue with Fusion 360 is fairly simple. 

 

For whatever reason Autodesk have chosen "Y-Up" as the default modelling orientation in Fusion 360.  That's despite all of the industries that I know using "Z-Up" (Z is the vertical axis in 3D space), and that includes Cura. So when you import your Fusion 360 model it positions the vertical axis in your model, which is the Y-axis, onto the horizontal Y-axis in Cura - and hence your model imports on it's side.

 

You can see what your current setting is if you look at the view cube in the top right hand corner where the axes are labelled.

 

There's an easy fix for this, and one that you do once and never have to re-orientate a model again.

 

Go to where your name is in the top right hand corner of the screen, click on the drop-down arrow to bring up the menu and select "Preferences".  On the Preferences window that opens up part way down there is a "Default modelling orientation" option where you can change from Y-Up to Z-Up (see the image attached), then click "Apply" and then "OK".  From then on every new model you create won't have this orientation issue - though the change will not change any old models you have created, or the one that you may be working on when you apply this change.

 

I hope that helps - I keep meaning to ask Autodesk why they use the Y-Up as default when everyone I know uses Z as the vertical 3D axis.  Making this change is something I get everyone to do at the start of all of the Fusion 360 training courses that I run. 

[Verbatim BVOH & UM3?]

I ran product testing on Verbatim's BVOH and created a product review video which can be found below. All the testing was completed on an Ultimaker 3 using the same print core as used for PVA. It prints well and it's dissolve performance is much better than PVA as is demonstrated in the video. It's also a support material that is compatible with a wide range of filaments