Struggling to convert an STL to a DXF

[darrene]

So I thought I'd embrace technology for the running boards and splashers on my Hall - prototyping them with a 3D print to get the fit right and using that as the basis for lasercutting the final design.

Ive used TinkerCAD to create the design so my output options are;

1) send direct to Fusion360

2) Export a .SVG, .OBJ or .STL

I've been experimenting with Fusion360 and Blender to try and product the .DXFs needed for lasercutting.

After 3 days of plugging away at it and watching tutorials, I am still struggling with the main running boards. Either the DXFs I convert to in Blender seem to crash Fusion, or I don't seem to be able to create a sketch in Fusion of the STL in order to generate the DXF.

I don't suppose anyone would be able to take a look at the STLs and try converting them?

My other option will be to try recreating them from scratch in Fusion, I suppose

[kipford]

Darrene
Can you save direct from TinkerCAD as a DXF? If not save your 3D model as an SVG file. This will create the 2D image. You can read this file into Fusion 360 to then be able to file it as dxf. If you have trouble send the svg file to me and I will try it in CATIA which also accepts SVG. Also if you send the stl file I can convert that to either step file for you to process on Fusion or I can just create the dxf and send it to you.
Dave

[darrene]

Cheers Dave, that's very kind of you. Sadly TinkerCAD is very lightweight when it comes to file formats. Users have requested an export to DXF function but AutoCAD are very much keeping it at the amature end of the spectrum I think. A shame because in terms of lightweight design it's pretty intuitive and fairly powerful.I did try the SVG export as that seemed to make most sense for the end result - a 2D file but Fusion wasn't showing that format as an import/load option

After several more hours battling it, I *think* I've got a workflow that works though
I hadn't able to combine faces in Fusion in order to get a single piece to create a sketch (something I needed to do in the non-subscription version in order to save a DXF) I realised that touching faces weren't sufficient - by changing them to have a small amount of overlap I can now use the send-to-Fusion option to get them in, combine the faces, create a sketch for the single face and then save a DXF.Importing the results into DXF viewers, the designs now look complete, are correctly dimensioned and oriented correctly.
If you'd be up for a sanity check, I could send some over to you? I'm still finding my feet with CAD - I don't normally have much call to use it and the learning curve seems pretty steep with the more capable products!

[kipford]

PM sent
Dave