Faceted surfaces from Fusion 360
I have made and printed multiple things from Fusion but when I compare these models to something like Benchy, the surfaces are always constructed of facets. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but sometimes I would like a smoother surface. Is there a setting I am missing? I'm guessing this is because of some parameter in the STL export from Fusion, but I haven't seen anything that seems a possibility in the settings and I haven't found anything on the web that discusses this. Any help would be appreciated.
RE: Faceted surfaces from Fusion 360
You will always have triangulation in your STLs because it's a format defined by triangular faces.
You should not use "Export -> STL" but right-click on the body name "Save as STL" or "Design -> Tools -> Make -> 3D print". Then you will have access to refinement options for the STL.
PS: Maybe ArcWelder will be something for you:
RE: Faceted surfaces from Fusion 360
I was also bothered by this and found the ideal solution for me, which is to fix the model at the source, using the Fusion 360 STL export settings in the body's "Save as STL" menu item that @Lichtjaeger mentioned. In the panel, expand "Refinement Options" and reduce the surface deviation to the smallest value the slider accepts (around ~0.002). If you check the "Preview" checkbox, you'll see that the STL will be generated with many more polygons, which makes the facets disappear in the printed object. I didn't see any downside from outputting models with very high polygon count except maybe slightly slower slicing and somewhat bigger STL files (still pretty acceptable to me, a few MB at most).
BTW I tried ArcWelder and it output incorrect / garbled gcode in my case in addition to requiring some setup. I discarded that option, but I'd definitely be interested in PrusaSlicer / the Prusa firmware to support it natively for efficiency's sake! There is an issue about that on GitHub.
RE: Faceted surfaces from Fusion 360
I would think arc welder would be an improvement, although I have not tried it. I used to write CNC programs (hand coded) for machining operations and know there are G codes for continuous moves of different types. I'm guessing the files are more linear moves based on the facets I see.
I'll try these suggestions and see what happens. sometime... around my other tasks...