How to convert STL Mesh to a Solid Body in Fusion 360 (2022)

[@adamtjames]

Scrolling back up and hitting that like button would mean the world to me! Thanks again for all your support 🙌

[@B1KER]

Pro tip: If you want to clean up the body to not have all of those lines on the bottom. You can click on one of the triangles and push delete. Alot of times on a flat object it will take one or two deletes and the body surface will be smooth. If it's a part that has angles, curves, or fillets, it doesn't work. It will then change the shape. But for instance on this one if he clicked delete on that one triange he kept clicking on the whole bottom of that body would have been smooth like you just made it yourself.

[@derhunburhas]

You are a lifesaver, that was what im looking for thanks!!!

[@B1KER]

@@derhunburhas it doesn’t always work but when it does, it’s awesome. 🙌

[@TasosX]

What if in design is more than a 100.000 triangles?

[@avejst]

Selection of two triangle in the same plane and press delete remove many of the triangles, and makes it more like a normal body. Thanks for the walkthrou of the process

[@adamtjames]

Awesome tip! Thanks Asger

[@fernandocalderon48]

I like the way you describe which key you press to specify some moves or commands, no body does that, well done videos

[@adamtjames]

Appreciate the feedback!

[@thisusernamecrapre]

I’ve watched at least a dozen videos about how to do this and yours is the simplest and successful. And you don't go through the steps so fast we can't tell what you even clicked on, that's so frustrating with some videos. Good job.

[@robrimell9684]

Thanks so much for this (and for the other video on inserting a mesh)! I have spent so much time on this previously but this is the 1st tutorial that's enabled me to complete this process successfully. Resulting from your guidance I went on to discover the "reduce triangles" feature, to prevent that annoying message "this file has more than 10,000 triangles...." Thanks again.

[@adamtjames]

Glad to hear I could help!

[@brianconway9085]

Just what i needed Thanks

[@CaskStrength777]

I've dealt with complex 3D scans imported to fusion before and converted them to solid bodies, ending up with millions of facets on a body like this, but I've always wondered- is there a way to simplify the body and get it to convert to something like a modeled solid? Perhaps with a plugin?

[@obamaatemybanana1415]

ive got the same problem here. i need to cut a model of a mountainbike. its a model without a frame, and i need to adjust the fork etc. to fit a new modeled frame.. u have any idea? when i do the method shown in the video, the computing takes forever and doesnt even finish

[@micah2936]

You need to group faces. Mesh > prepare > group faces > accurate & 0.001 tolerance > ok Then you choose pristine when you convert to body. I think you need comercial license to do this though. I’m a mechanical designer and I have access to this from my works license

[@obamaatemybanana1415]

@@micah2936 thank you for the tip.. will try it as soon as I need it again :)

[@PaulSuquet]

This trick worked once. Just in a section of my piece. The second section would not extrude into the body without removing the outline of the font. The select each triangle method took me several hours, but it worked every time. Any ideas as to why this would only do it for the first part but not the second rectangle I attempted to extrude into joining the body? A trick like this is very useful, but consistency is even more useable imo.

[@gianmarcosfaria4051]

I never comment, but this video really helped me, thank you.

[@gianmarcosfaria4051]

For whoever this might help, if you are just trying to add text to a stl you can do it directly with Prusa slicer. Just go to add piece and then add text.

[@adamtjames]

Glad I could be of assistance!

[@deepsam7678]

*IMPORTANT* Is there any free software where we can solidify the mesh??? (EASILY)

[@karlranile4601]

Hi! Is there a way to remove the triangles and turn it into a single surface?

[@kubo527]

If triangles or faces (in solid environment) are coplanar, simply delete one of them ...

[@Luka1180]

And if I do not want to have triangular faces like that? Or if I want to join something that is already in a step file to something I converted from mesh to solid body?

[@watchme3962]

I get all the way to file and save, 3d print etc are not available.

[@Marama808]

Is this option not available on the free personal version of fusion 360?

[@GrieveIV]

It is available

[@celsiusswatt6021]

When I follow your method, the browser shows the original mesh plus few new bodies. And when they are exported to 3D print or STL, and then re-imported to Fusion 360 and converted from mesh, they still show up as several independent bodies. Is it possible to combine them into a single body? If I attempt it, the original body converted from mesh cannot be selected for combining. And does it hurt commercial 3D print house to have several bodies in STL?

[@dachluhr]

Need help getting imported STL files to create technical drawings (orthographic) in Fusion 360.

[@dachluhr]

The conversion from mesh reduces faces, but I cannot turn them into a solid body to create technical drawings.

[@2dehans1970]

I don’t have my pc right now, but watching your video… can’t you draw on the logo as you did but do a project include. Extract eg. 10mm down (cut) and then extract a new layer up which is a solid part then. It’s a solid line then and you should give it a round shape/ fillet I think 🤔 And I like your tutorials!!

[@partsdave8943]

Simply put, Yes you could do something like that. In this example, you could also choose to sketch the outer perimeter of the Oval shape, and then extrude down as a Join, or up to add additional height. Then you'd have a single "face" to work with, not multiple facets as he showed here. One of the great things about F360 is its versatility.

[@GrieveIV]

Is it a problem with the mesh that it crashes when I attempt to make it solid? I’m sure it’s also a computer problem, as it is very old Edit: nvm I got to the part about how there’s a limit to the amount of polygons it can handle. At which point tracing the object in a sketch and remaking it from scratch works better than reducing/remeshing

[@adamtjames]

Could be the number of triangles. You could always try reducing the mesh density 👍

[@GrieveIV]

@@adamtjames Definitely seems to be the case. This mesh I found had odd localized spikes of polygon density, making 7,000 into like 60,000,000 almost like magic. Ended up sketching and extruding the thing from scratch. And add some be other flair.

[@ghostofocspast8912]

Thanks for tutorial very easy to follow along with. Id give you two thumbs up if it would let me.

[@adamtjames]

Much appreciated!

[@Crazt]

Ok, I followed your instructions precisely and my STL, which printed perfectly when downloaded directly from Thingiverse, converted to a body at over 300% it's printed size (possibly more, I'm trying to exaggerate but what should be 1.5 inches comes out to over 13 on Fusion. SEND HELP

[@basargorgulu7775]

i want to print the shape of the surface of the stl type airplane on paper, but I couldn't do it, is it possible in this fusion 360ta ?

[@iankantian]

totally want one of these to dispense Dog Treats!

[@madorax251]

i imported stl on fuison 360 but it becomes 10 times bigger do you know what caused that

[@dvomang]

watch the other video he specifically mentions how to fix this

[@syahti]

why me error insert .stl when generatefacegroups1... error messange boundary tolerence is out of range. the valid rnag is form 1e-08 cm to 0.01cm

[@kurtlazarus5975]

thanks a lot mate you. thank you

[@adamtjames]

Sure thing!

[@wrxboy2003]

what if the mesh has a crap tonne of triangles.. like over 10000

[@miguelgarcia-vg1fh]

How do you get the dialog box to open? Mine does not open automatically

[@miguelgarcia-vg1fh]

nevermind. I had to go to file/view/reset dialog box layout.

[@rashawnbowen4684]

more than 10000 triangles is there a fix for this

[@adamtjames]

Reduce mesh density. Maybe I need to make a video haha

[@graphguy]

I have yet to see a video doing this that wasn't a pain in the butt (excessive time required) and get a fully editable solid body or mesh. Maybe the paid version works well, the free version does NOT.

[@markedtky]

I wouldn't call this a solid body, it's still hallow with wall width of ~0

[@IgrYou]

Waste of time.