Unable to export to DXF or STEP format in Fusion 360

Hi Guys,

I have whipped up some very simple plates that I plan to get laser cut for some projects, but when I go to ewxport to .STEP or.DXF, all I get is an blank file. I'm not sure what is wrong with my drawings, but clearly something isn't right as Fusion 360 doesn't export anything.

I have attached one of the files for reference.

Cheers,

Matt

Strangely, the export has rotated the front face onto the top face… any ideas why Fusion is doing that?

Also my construction lines are appearing in the DXF as actual lines, which won’t work in the laser cutting process when I go to get the flanges manufactured.

Any ideas on what’s going wrong here?

Hey Matt, Sorry for the delay getting to this, been out of the country on annual leave.

How exactly are you exporting the DXF file? sounds like you might be just going File>Export>DXF and that will probably give you these issues.

You need to create a flat pattern under the sheetmetal tool bar, then you can hide the bend lines and extents from the browser.

Hope this helps?

Hi Connor,

Thanks for getting back to me and congrats on the wedding! (The power of social media...!)

I certainly did use the File>Export>DXF menu but I can't understand why that would cause so many problems - the resulting file had the right shape but no dimensions at all. To fix it, I right clicked on the sketch in the browser menu and selected Save as DXF, but even then my hidden constuction lines and other artefacts appeared in the DXF that had to be manually edited pretty heavily to get the right result.

I'll have a go with the sheetmetal flat pattern next time and see how it goes.

Can you expand on why the File>Menu>Export doesn't work the way I expected?

Cheers,

Matt

Haha thanks! it was an amazing day

If you're working with the paid version of F360 then the sheetmetal flat pattern way is the best. Otherwise the best workaround is to flattern the part using unfold, then make a new sketch on a surface and use the project tool to project all the details, then use the method of right clicking the sketch and "save as dxf".

I think the reason the file>menu>export doesn't work well is it doesn't give you any functionality to control what is and isn't include in the dxf, also if your model isn't perfect aligned with the default plane the dxf can be slightly skewed.