Autodesk Fusion 360 Users

I don’t but I am really interested to hear what others do. You mention the Revopop. Their second version (Pop 2) will have a 0,1mm resolution, which will make it even better for scanning detailed parts.

I’m thinking of acquiring this version so it would be great to hear experiences from those who use F360 for processing.

Hello,

F360 is basically not a mesh tool. you will need at least Mesmixer for basic operations. Or Meshlab, Blender, Zbrush... The strength of F360 is in T-spline modeling and mesh conversion.

I occasionaly use Fusion 360 for digitalization of 3d scans, and also other meshes. It's possible, though you might want to use more specialized tools, depending on your needs. See my digital banana to get a basic idea. The orange helmet is also built around mesh in F360 (not a scan though)

BTW, I have revopoint POP, good entry to 3d scanning, but still more a toy than a tool IMO. I tested also Einscan SE - better accuracy and level of detail captured, less flexibility, but for me too expensive for a toy, and still not good enough for anything professional.

Jan

Hi Jeff,

Like Jan said, it is better to use a program designed specifically to handle mesh. Take this with a grain of salt as my experience is limited. I was approached by a local wildlife shelter to see about 3D printing a prosthetic beak for a goose whose beak was torn out by a fishing hook.

For scanning we used photogrammetry. All it took was some good lighting, a decent camera, and a way to move the object as needed while keeping a fixed distance. We then compiled it in a program like 3DF Zephyr. The result was actually better than expected and required minimal cleanup in MeshMixer.

We were able to take the mesh and then create a tool with it in fusion to make a cut in the beak we sculpted. This was then printed. Ended up fitting perfectly.

great project Adam! I assume that you used direct conversion "mesh to solid" surface facets of triangular mesh are replaced by planar surfaces and stitched to solid. This is often OK for basic solid operations (hole, split, boolean). This functionality offers also FreeCAD - for free;-)

Hello Jan,

It was a fun and challenging project. There were a lot of things I did not know how to do going in, to me this is the best part.

You are correct that I used the "convert mesh to solid". I also learned that I needed to drastically reduce the quantity of triangles I had in my mesh to make it workable. This turned out to be needed for the printing as well. A print that was too exact would fit less easily and cause oddities in the print.

Thank you for letting me know about FreeCAD. I have heard of it but have never looked. Is it that different from Fusion? Easy to learn?

Best,

Adam

Although it has some interesting functionality, Freecad is really no competition for F360 or Solidworks. I'd even say that as a bridge tool between subD, T-spline and nurbs modeling, F360 is rather unique!

But, Freecad is free, F360 not. F360 is almost-free, certainly in comparison to Catia v5, my primary tool for professional work.

get the stl or 3mf file nd go to mesh section of Fusion 360 there you can edit.

A scan is just millions of points.

F360 is just not made to handle this and create a mesh.

As mentoined. Meshmixer is a good tool. Also from Autodesk 3DS Max might work.

"Blender" a free program might be able to mesh a point cloud (scan).

maybe an additional notes to the workflow. Both hobby 3d scanners I have tested (Enscan SE, Pop) are supplied with pretty usable software, that will create mesh frome those millions of points, and can close it into volume (clumsily) and also merge scans from various angles. For metrology purposes it's all you may want ("metrology" is really silly word in conjunction with POP..). Smoothing surfaces, removing blobs, planar cuts etc - Meshmixer (or similar). Then you can 3d print. If you need good quality surfaces or solids, this is where the fun really starts;-) It's Fusion 360 time, but still, it's functionality is rather basic comparing to Quicksurface or Geomagic products (it means proper reverse engineering tools). stay tuned, I'll share more scans soon.

https://grabcad.com/library/wooden-cow-1

This is a slightly older topic, but I do have some experience with this. All of the model I post in GrabCAD are converted mesh models, that's my "niche" hobby. Fusion 360 is vital to my mesh to NURBS conversions, but when working with scanned data, other tools are necessary. I find ZBrush (and/or 3D Coat) indispensable in doing this type of work.

I received several 3D scanned projects.

Most are large Point cloud files with little or no reference point or origin.

Fusion 360 is a bit better than others, but the one who scans must be more diligent with the scanning process.

I prefer to receive a orientated scan with a smaller point cloud and several pictures of the component.

3D scanning can be a bit of a dark hole for the user as you purchase a scanning package thinking you have a solution. after the expenditure of thousands you then need to purchase additional software to convert the point cloud into a usable surface for manufacture ie. STL, step.

In many cases the scan can be a beginning without an end.

Hi Robert,

yes, proper orientation of the point cloud is essential for serious work. Unfortunatelly, F360 tools are still rather basic here, offering just common transformations. You may want to check some reverse engineering tools like Quicksurface or Geomagic, which offer "Primitive volume best fit". This would allow you to extract an e.g. axis of a cylinder or cone from your geometry or robust plane best fit. You can even set perpendicular constrains to these! I tried Qucksurface, very nice, but costs money:-(

i have several very high quality scans. i have spent alot of time trying to make acceptable solid models from the mesh scans using the new fusion mesh tools. i have not been able to complete any of them. Seems very hard to remove all the triangle faces from the solid. Much of the model will have to be drawn by hand. It makes the value of a scanned model to solid in my case not practical. If the object were simple it would probably work well, except if its simple you could just model it..........