Ever since I bought a 3D printer last year, I've been immersing myself in ways to create designs. I stuck with fusion 360 and now I'm teaching myself that. Last weekend I discovered your videos and I learned more in one weekend than I did last year. I look forward to the next video. Sincerely, Arjan Staal from The Netherlands
Thank you Vlad! I’ve been running into similar problems with taper angle, love the loft work around. Loft has been my recent favorite for building RC boat hulls😎
Great info, thanks. The challenge still exists (two years later) but I discovered at least part of the problem and a work-around. By using a negative draft angle, the text is getting smaller as it's projected. Depending on the letter and font, the opposite edges of a letter, which are getting closer and closer together with extrusion distance, may intersect before reaching the desired extrusion height. When this happens, the top of extruded letter breaks into pieces, which Fusion does not like. I encountered the problem with a lower case "h" in Segoe UI Semibold font, even though the lower case "a" seemed even more curved but extruded without issue. I noticed (by using the technique in the vid) that the curved section of the "h" gets particularly narrow near the stem and when the extruded width reached zero (so the letter was breaking apart), Fusion started to give errors. As soon as I extruded less or made the letters larger, the problem went away. Hope this helps! Edit: Now that I'm awake, the best approach is to enter the text on the top face, and then extrude in the opposite direction (towards the base of the letters) using a positive draft angle. Duh...
Sweet workaround! I was doing something similar (the logo in my pfp) and ran into the same issue. I was tapering the other direction (stamp, not mold) and I ended up using a sweep along the edges to add that draft. Still couldn't make it all the way around, but I separated the edges that worked and just kinda hacked together the parts that didn't fill in properly. This solution is much more elegant.
I’ve used loft many times this way. What you taught me was a better way to calculate the offset value. I’ve been pulling out a calculator and trigonometry, which is too much work. Many 🙏
Hey Desktop Makes! - Great video! Its interesting to me to ask why the "S" is not working. I've investigated a bit - but I can't figure out the reason. I can confirm, however, that its problematic. I'll ask the developers to see if they have any ideas. I would expect that text has a lot going on in the background to optimize it, and / or get something that was originally intended as a font to work in a 3D CAD software. On that point: I wanted to point out that not all fonts are created equal! Inside of F360 - we generally are working to keep things manufacturable, but not all fonts have this in mind. Many CAM tools would not cut the "S" - but rather would cut the outer edges of the shape. Even if they CAN cut the inside of the shape, it would require a very small tool, and the cutting might be a really long process. 3D print might be similar, with the gaps between letters too small, etc. For this reason - when you pick a font, you might wish to select some of the more manufacturing oriented fonts .... often, these are so-called "single line fonts" which assume that each letter is made of a single line. These will not usually be extruded, but the presence of the text will allow an etching tool or something similar to follow that line and created de-bossed text in one single, efficient operation. (I hope you know what I mean)
Thanks Mickey. I appreciate you asking the developers to look into this. It comes in handy when trying to engrave text for mold making and it needs a taper angle. I hear what you're saying with the single line font and these are great for laser engraving and cnc engraving. You just gave me the idea of trying thin extrude with the single line fonts and although it works with a simple extrude it introduces similar problems when trying to apply a taper angle.
At around 3:28, how are you moving the view around? It doesn't seem like you're using click and drag. I've seen others do similar where they pan or orbit without using the mouse and I can't figure out how.
Thanks Vlad! How does it work for letters with voids like OPQR// I tried all sorts but they are missing the center of the O or P etc. I look forward to your comments....
Just wondering if a simple radius on the "problematic" corners could prevent the unability to loft with draft angle Didn't work. Splitting the extrude with draftangle into two parts did the trick without need of creating extra sketching. Extrude first then add draft angle to all did it immediately ;-)
Good point Xiao Shi Zi 1. I tried your approach of filleting the corners but still got the same error. Splitting the process into two steps (Extrude then Draft) did work in this case but gives inconsistent results when tried with other letters.
Fusion 360 is free for hobbyists, students and startups. For commercial customers, its about 500 USD Per person, per year. Sorry you don't like it - but for applications like this, it is free.
You just saved my mental health! I have been fighting this for MONTHS! I guess I should have looked earlier... given that this video is 2 years old...
Ever since I bought a 3D printer last year, I've been immersing myself in ways to create designs. I stuck with fusion 360 and now I'm teaching myself that. Last weekend I discovered your videos and I learned more in one weekend than I did last year. I look forward to the next video.
Sincerely,
Arjan Staal
from The Netherlands
Great idea thank you ! Was thinking about trying to sweep a cutting edge around the shape but this is better.
Thank you Vlad!
I’ve been running into similar problems with taper angle, love the loft work around. Loft has been my recent favorite for building RC boat hulls😎
Yes, it's the perfect tool for boat hulls!
Great info, thanks. The challenge still exists (two years later) but I discovered at least part of the problem and a work-around. By using a negative draft angle, the text is getting smaller as it's projected. Depending on the letter and font, the opposite edges of a letter, which are getting closer and closer together with extrusion distance, may intersect before reaching the desired extrusion height. When this happens, the top of extruded letter breaks into pieces, which Fusion does not like. I encountered the problem with a lower case "h" in Segoe UI Semibold font, even though the lower case "a" seemed even more curved but extruded without issue. I noticed (by using the technique in the vid) that the curved section of the "h" gets particularly narrow near the stem and when the extruded width reached zero (so the letter was breaking apart), Fusion started to give errors. As soon as I extruded less or made the letters larger, the problem went away. Hope this helps!
Edit: Now that I'm awake, the best approach is to enter the text on the top face, and then extrude in the opposite direction (towards the base of the letters) using a positive draft angle. Duh...
Great solution!
Thanks!
Sweet workaround! I was doing something similar (the logo in my pfp) and ran into the same issue. I was tapering the other direction (stamp, not mold) and I ended up using a sweep along the edges to add that draft. Still couldn't make it all the way around, but I separated the edges that worked and just kinda hacked together the parts that didn't fill in properly. This solution is much more elegant.
Thanks James. Yeah, I've been there where sometimes you just have to brute force your way through a design.
Good stuff, as usual! You also proved there is an "S" in "TEAM". ;-)
Thanks Ed! Haha, Fusion doesn't seem to think so but it's what I've always believed 😆
I didn't knew about the exploding text option. now I know, thanks man.
I’ve used loft many times this way. What you taught me was a better way to calculate the offset value. I’ve been pulling out a calculator and trigonometry, which is too much work. Many 🙏
well done Sir👍👍thanks👍👍
Hey Desktop Makes! - Great video! Its interesting to me to ask why the "S" is not working. I've investigated a bit - but I can't figure out the reason. I can confirm, however, that its problematic. I'll ask the developers to see if they have any ideas. I would expect that text has a lot going on in the background to optimize it, and / or get something that was originally intended as a font to work in a 3D CAD software. On that point: I wanted to point out that not all fonts are created equal! Inside of F360 - we generally are working to keep things manufacturable, but not all fonts have this in mind. Many CAM tools would not cut the "S" - but rather would cut the outer edges of the shape. Even if they CAN cut the inside of the shape, it would require a very small tool, and the cutting might be a really long process. 3D print might be similar, with the gaps between letters too small, etc. For this reason - when you pick a font, you might wish to select some of the more manufacturing oriented fonts .... often, these are so-called "single line fonts" which assume that each letter is made of a single line. These will not usually be extruded, but the presence of the text will allow an etching tool or something similar to follow that line and created de-bossed text in one single, efficient operation. (I hope you know what I mean)
Thanks Mickey. I appreciate you asking the developers to look into this. It comes in handy when trying to engrave text for mold making and it needs a taper angle. I hear what you're saying with the single line font and these are great for laser engraving and cnc engraving. You just gave me the idea of trying thin extrude with the single line fonts and although it works with a simple extrude it introduces similar problems when trying to apply a taper angle.
Excellent
At around 3:28, how are you moving the view around? It doesn't seem like you're using click and drag. I've seen others do similar where they pan or orbit without using the mouse and I can't figure out how.
Cant we make a Chamfer instead? Would it work?
Thanks Vlad!
How does it work for letters with voids like OPQR// I tried all sorts but they are missing the center of the O or P etc. I look forward to your comments....
out of topic...but are you on macOS Monterey and M1 processor ?
Hi IceCreams62. I'm running Big Sur on a 2019 Intel mac. I also run Fusion on my Dell XPS 15 and it runs just fine.
@@DesktopMakes Hi. Thanks a lot for the info
Just wondering if a simple radius on the "problematic" corners could prevent the unability to loft with draft angle Didn't work. Splitting the extrude with draftangle into two parts did the trick without need of creating extra sketching. Extrude first then add draft angle to all did it immediately ;-)
Good point Xiao Shi Zi 1. I tried your approach of filleting the corners but still got the same error. Splitting the process into two steps (Extrude then Draft) did work in this case but gives inconsistent results when tried with other letters.
I just tried to reproduce this with all the same parameters and the S extruded just fine. Fusion 360 version 2.0.11415.
Larry, did you do a taper angle of -3?
Cool
Thanks!
looks like fusion 360 suks for this. :( and they want us to pay for this crap. just use a different/better software dor this.
Fusion 360 is free for hobbyists, students and startups. For commercial customers, its about 500 USD Per person, per year. Sorry you don't like it - but for applications like this, it is free.
@@modernDEsignwithFusion360 ya alot a crap is free. guess we stuck with it.