S3D Imports Design on Its Side

[CCRN]

I notice that STl files I import into S3D are placed on their side. These are simple designs that were created in Fusion 360. Is that normal? After a few minutes of fiddling, I found I can chose place surface on bed/Command L then click on the bottom to get it to turn.

Thanks,
Jerold

[thunderbt3]

I think its normal. Things get flipped around when I import in from Solidworks. Just double click on the object name in S3D and rotate about the axis' as needed. Click reposition and center to reset it to the center and oriented it flat to the build surface. Sorry, don't know the name of the buttons off the top of my head.

[zemlin]

You can assign an import action in S3D to always perform a particular rotation upon import. I have might to automatically report -90 on the x axis. It isn't always the right answer, but it's usually correct for parts I design.

[Josh]

S3D imports models relative to the STL coordinate system; the STL coordinate system is generated in your CAD program when you export the model. In SolidWorks, I know that the "front" plane is essentially the bed on the printer - if you design with that as the bed, and export the .stl without any other coordinate system changes, that .stl will import into S3D laying on the bed correctly. Look at your CAD program to see which axis/plane it says is Z, and that will be the direction you need to design in for the exported model to be arranged properly on the bed.

Other options for rotating a model on the bed - double-click the model (or single click and then click the gear icon on the right panel), and type/click angle rotations for X, Y and Z; this is especially useful if you're just 90° off in one direction. You can also Alt-Click and Drag to rotate the model, but that seems to only rotate about Z (so still laying flat on the bed - nice for nesting parts quickly).

[jsc]

Oh yes, this. I just saw a preference in Fusion 360 that I had not noticed before (or it was recently added) under General, Default modeling orientation.

Flip that to Z Up from Y Up and it will do what you expect.

After a long time of always drawing against the front face, I can now work in a sane orientation.