3D Printing Essentials

3D Printing Essentials

Win64, English

Autodesk, Inc.
Duplicate, label or cage parts and automate 3D Printing workflows.

General Usage Instructions

  • Run Fusion
  • Run this Add-In
  • Create a component in the Design workspace or open a Fusion design that contains a component. 

 

Duplicate Components (Design Workspace)

  • 3D Print Tab > Tools > Duplicate Components
  • Select one or more components
  • Specify the arrangement type: Same Location or Arrange in XYZ
  • If you selected Same Location as your arrangement type, enter the Number of copies.
  • If you selected Arrange in XYZ as your arrangement type, enter the quantity in X, Y or Z and Gap between components.
  • If necessary, select the “Flip” option for X, Y or Z axis to control the sign of the axis (+ or -)
  • Press OK

New components will be created.

Minimize Bounding Box (Design Workspace)

  • 3D Print Tab > Tools > Minimize Bounding Box
  • Select a component
    • if the design only has single component Fusion will auto-select it
    • this command is limited to components with solid bodies and does not work with components with mesh or surface bodies.
  • Press OK

The selected component will be rotated such that its bounding box occupies the least amount of volume, and the shortest side of its bounding box is aligned to the global Z axis. This function is a common pre-processing step for nesting parts within the build volume of an SLS/MJF 3D printer.

Sinterbox (Design Workspace)

  • 3D Print Tab > Tools > Sinterbox
  • Select one or more solid bodies as Input Bodies.
    • this command is limited to solid bodies and does not work with mesh bodies.
  • If necessary, customize the various inputs that control the size and shape of the Sinterbox such as; Cage thickness, Bar width , Bar spacing as well as positive and negative XYZ offsets.
  • Press OK

A new component named “Siterbox” will be created. While creating the Sinterbox, if the Move Bodies to New Component checkbox was active, Fusion will transfer the bodies you selected as input to the newly created component and remove all empty components. This will ensure that the new component can be translated and rotated as a group and be 3D nested within the build volume of your 3D printer when using the Arrange command in the Design workspace or the Additive Arrange command in the Manufacture workspace.

Label (Design Workspace)

  • 3D Print Tab > Tools > Label
  • Select a CSV file containing a list of Label text
  • Specify a planar face on a solid body.
    • this command is limited to solid bodies and does not work with mesh bodies.
  • Edit the Text position, Extrusion options, and Arrange options
  • Press OK

New components will be created with a label. All the components will be renamed to include the label text.

This command is limited to parametric modeling and does not work in direct modeling

Pins and Holes (Design Workspace) 

  • 3D Print Tab > Tools > Pins and Holes
  • Select a solid body as input to the Body to Spit.
    • this command is limited to solid bodies and does not work with mesh bodies.
  • Select a Construction plane or any of the default planes within the Origin folder (XY, XZ, YZ) as an input to the Splitting plane
  • Select your distribution type (Rectangular or Triangular) which controls the pattern for the pins and holes.
  • Enter the numerical inputs to control the shape, dimensions and placement of the pins and holes. 3 out of the 6 inputs (Hole Spacing, Pin height and Pin diameter) require a positive number and cannot be 0 mm. 
  • If necessary, activate the Flip Direction checkbox to control which body will have the holes and which one will have the pins. 
  • Press OK.

The input body will be split to 2 bodies. The opacity of the body with the holes will be 90% by default. You can edit the opacity as well as the suffix Fusion automatically adds to the body with the pins and the body with the holes in the pins and holes tab of the settings dialog which is located in the 3D Print Tab > Settings.

This command is limited to parametric modeling and does not work in direct modeling.

Commands

Installation/Uninstallation

Install

The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. Or, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin.

Uninstall

You can unload the add-in without uninstalling it by clicking the "Stop" button when the add-in is selected in the list box on the "Add-Ins" tab of the "Scripts and Add-Ins" dialog.

Unchecking "Run on Startup" causes the add-in not to be loaded in future sessions of Fusion.

To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button.

Or, you can uninstall it from 'Control Panel/Programs and Features, just as you would uninstall any other application from your system. 

Additional Information

Known Issues

Impact of the 6th feature: If Move bodies to new component checkbox is checked when generating a sinterbox for a subset of component instances in an assembly, unselected component instances will be removed when generating a sinterbox.

Contact

Company Name: Autodesk, Inc.

Author/Company Information

Autodesk, Inc.

Support Information

For support, please contact netfabb@autodesk.com

Version History

Version Number Version Description

1.0.0.64

Changes in this version : - Minimize bounding box command has been added to the Design workspace - Import STEP files command has been added to the Design workspace - The existing Post Configurator App functionality has been added to 3D Printing Essentials in the Manufacture workspace. - Improvements to pins and holes. - Improvements to Settings.
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