Modify mesh bodies

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Modify mesh bodies.

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After completing this video, you'll be able to

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demonstrate how to insert a mesh, modify a mesh body with smooth reduce and re mesh

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and use erase and fill on a mesh body

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in fusion. 3 60 we want to get started with a couple of supply data sets,

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generative bracket design dot F 3d,

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generative bracket mesh dot F 3d

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and the gene

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bracket mesh 600.0.0.0 B J,

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we're gonna be taking a look at the difference

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between an exported generative design and a generative mesh

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and also how we can insert and work with mesh bodies.

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So the first thing to note is that when we have a generative outcome,

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we can determine whether or not we want a design,

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which typically is going to be a free form body that we can manipulate

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or if we determine that we want a mesh.

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Now,

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some of the reasons why we might choose a design over a mesh

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is based on how we want to manipulate and work with the design.

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After the fact,

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if we're working on something that needs to

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be manufactured with potentially C N C machining,

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for example,

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then we might need more tolerance controlled features at those preserved regions.

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However, if our direct goal is to go to 3D printing,

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sometimes it might be easier to export the mesh.

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So let's take a look at a few areas where a mesh

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might be a better option than working with a generative design outcome.

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When we take a look at the intersection between a

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preserve region and the free form body that gets created,

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oftentimes we have some overlap.

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For example, we've got this preserve region that has sharp corners on the bottom.

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And we can see the free form body coming up and close to that edge.

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But we've got a lot of overlap and waviness between these sides.

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When we take a look at a similar bracket that was done using the mesh export,

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what we see is that the interface between the generative

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smooth body and these preserve regions is much different.

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Now, the reason for that is because when generative design is solving,

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it's going to create a mesh version of all of those preserve regions

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and those mesh versions get combined together with the rest of the free form body.

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When we export the design as a design with a free form body,

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we oftentimes have to spend a little bit

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of extra work smoothing out those intersections.

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So once again, if you determine that you're going directly to 3D printing,

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you might want to consider exporting a mesh and manipulating that mesh body as

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opposed to working with the free form model and converting it to a mesh.

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There are a couple of extra things that we should consider.

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But let's take a look at opening up a new mesh body by inserting it into a design.

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When you're in a new entitled document,

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you want to navigate to your mesh panel and select insert mesh.

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We're gonna be taking a look at the supplied O B J file,

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but you can also use a three M F or an S T L.

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Once we begin the insertion process,

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we can determine whether or not we want to flip the up direction,

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we can center our model or move it to ground.

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And in order to see that better, let's go ahead and show the origin.

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And once we show the origin and we flip the up direction

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and we begin to move it around, you can see that the origin is displayed

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and it's going to be moved relative to that position in the design.

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We also have numerical inputs which allow us to

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manually move and rotate the design as needed.

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For example, if we wanted that X to be exactly 90 degrees from the import.

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And again,

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this option will take the center of the mesh design

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and push it to the origin in the new document.

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For this one, we're gonna say, OK.

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And I'm gonna hide the origin and talk about two other distinctions

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that we need to make before we get started with mesh editing

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whenever you have an imported design,

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by default fusion 3 60 will have captured design history off.

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This means that the form tools are directly available and

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the mesh tools are all directly available as well.

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As soon as you toggle on design history,

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you'll have to use what's called direct editing mode for your mesh bodies.

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For example, if we take a look at this modify panel,

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you can see here we have erase and fill and also

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note there's no timeline at the bottom of this design.

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As soon as we toggle on the timeline to capture design history,

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we no longer see erase and fill.

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And now we need to use the direct editing mode for

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our mesh bodies to make some of those additional manipulations.

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Let's take a look at our imported bracket

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because this one was inserted into an untitled document.

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It already had capture design history on. By default,

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the bodies are going to be identical mesh bodies, but in this case,

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we already had history on.

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So in order to make some of these changes, we're gonna be using direct edit.

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Let's take a quick look at all the tools that we have available in the mesh workspace.

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We've already taken a look at inserting a mesh,

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but we also have the option to convert a solid or surface body.

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We can create mesh section sketches which can

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be handy if you're trying to replicate a design

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this will allow us to create a section through a mesh body.

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And then we can apply sketch tools to automatically map sketch lines,

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arcs and splines to those curves.

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In the prepare section.

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We can generate face groups which are going to be helpful

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when trying to convert a mesh body to a prismatic design.

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We also have a repair option which we'll take a look at that

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allows us to quickly and easily repair things like holes in a mesh.

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Then we have our modified panel,

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a handful of these modified tools can be

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used without going into direct editing mode.

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But you see that we don't have erase and fill.

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So to get started, we're gonna enter direct editing mode.

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And once we're in direct editing mode, we now have access to erase and fill

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some of these tools will work better and produce better

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results if your mesh resolution is a bit higher.

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So in order to see that let's take a look at erase and fill first,

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you'll notice that the mesh selection palette is automatically

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available and I'm gonna reduce the brush size.

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Noting that select back faces is toggled off.

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I want to select the mesh faces in this area,

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gonna rotate it around

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and then we're going to use the erase and fill with the uniform option and say, OK,

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whenever we use the uniform option,

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note that it didn't create a smooth intersection with the rest of the body,

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I'm gonna use control Z to undo that.

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And we're going to repeat that process one more time.

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Once again, I want to make a selection in those areas

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this time instead of uniform, I'm gonna use the smooth option.

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The smooth option will allow it to change the density of those mesh

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elements as it moves through and needs it for different curvature purposes.

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So you can see with a relatively similar selection,

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we're actually getting a different result.

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The intersection between these mesh elements and the

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original body is a little bit better.

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Next, let's take a look at the smooth tool.

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The smooth tool will allow us to make selections

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and then it's going to average the mesh elements

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based on the face angles in those areas.

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I'm gonna say, OK, and allow it to smooth out that area.

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We can also do this for the area where our erase

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and fill intersected with the rest of the mesh body.

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We can use smooth and say, OK, and allow it to try to average those out.

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This tool is extremely handy if you have areas such as this where we've got these

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undulations or these high and low spots in the mesh,

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we can select the areas that we're interested in.

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Go to our modify panel and select smooth.

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The smoothness scale can be increased or decreased.

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And this is helpful when you're looking at a preview

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and then we can say, OK,

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now let's talk about another way in which we can fill holes in a design.

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So

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using the race and fill works great if there's a single area.

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But if we tried to remove, say this stem in the center section

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and we try to do it using a race and fill, we would get an error.

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And that's because not only is it patching a single side of the mesh body,

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it's actually patching two sides.

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So a better way to do this is for us to manually

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delete these features by selecting and using delete on the keyboard.

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I'm gonna do the same thing down here as well.

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And then we can use the repair bodies option with the repair type of close holes.

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Notice that we also have options to do stitch and remove wrap and rebuild.

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We're gonna select the mesh body,

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we're gonna say OK,

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and allow it to fix those holes.

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Now,

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you can see that it was able to patch that hole and likely we

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need to do a little bit more work to smooth out those areas.

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These are all going to come down to the settings that

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you use any time you use any of these manipulation tools.

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Let's select, finish, direct editing

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and notice that.

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Now we've got this overall mesh body with some changes,

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but we want to reduce the mesh count.

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This can be done using the re mesh or the reduced tools,

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re mesh will typically work better when you have a prismatic shape that has large

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mesh elements in flat areas and smaller mesh elements in areas of high curvature.

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It will allow you to re mesh the entire design and create a more unified mesh.

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We're gonna take a look at the reduced mesh option.

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I'm gonna toggle on preview

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and see what the result looks like.

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This is a much lower resolution than I would want for a design like this.

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So I'm going to slowly increase this value

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and allow it to update the preview on the screen.

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It is important to note that this goes a little bit quicker.

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If you turn off the preview and toggle it back on

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each time you move the slider, it will need to recalculate

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these results aren't looking great. So I'm gonna take a look at the type option.

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We have proportion

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using an adaptive re mesh. And once again, I'm gonna toggle off preview

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and I'm gonna increase the proportion and toggle it back on

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this gives me a much better result, but I'm still not really happy with it.

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I'm gonna select cancel

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and instead of using the reduce option, I'm gonna re mesh the entire design first.

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I'm gonna use preserve boundaries, but I'm not gonna leave sharp edges.

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I want to preview the results.

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What this will do is it'll go through the entire design and

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it's going to do a re mesh of all the mesh elements.

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So if you've made a lot of adjustments, if you've patched certain areas using era

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and fill or the repair options.

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It can be helpful to allow it to do this adaptive re mesh to get a more unified result

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we're going to select. OK. And you can see that we still have a really good result

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and it was able to clean up areas like the erase and fill.

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It looks more like an original mesh. Should,

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you can spend a lot of time working and manipulating mesh bodies.

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So you need to make a good decision about whether or not you want to work with a

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free form model design or if you want to

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export a mesh design and continue to manipulate it.

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It is important to take a look at your outcomes and iterations in

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generative design as some outcomes will look much better as mesh bodies,

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while other outcomes will be much easier to manipulate as free form bodies.

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It is also important to keep in mind that in fusion 3 60 generative design currently,

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there is no cost associated with creating those outcomes as a design or a mesh.

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So once you solve your generative design,

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you can always export both versions and figure out which one works best

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at this point.

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If you want to continue to manipulate your design,

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just make sure that you save any changes before moving on.