Export DXF for Laser Cutter from Fusion 360 DRAWING - Learn Fusion 360 for Laser Cutting 6 of 6

Learn how to export a DXF file from your Fusion 360 Drawing. DXF stands for Drawing Interchange Format and is a common 2D and 3D file type used by CAD packages. DXF files work well with laser cutters as each Laser or CNC machine can read the 2D path, which it then follows as it fires the laser.

Export a DXF from a Fusion 360 Sketch (learn how in our previous lesson) or a Fusion 360 Drawing. There are pros and cons to each method, which we discuss throughout this lesson. Note that exporting a DWG file for laser cutters is not recommended. DWG is proprietary and includes many different versions, making it prone to cause errors with different software packages.

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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - How to Export DXF file from Fusion 360 Drawing
00:26 - Enter Fusion 360's Drawing workspace
01:15 - Create Base View in Fusion 360
01:45 - Create a Projected View in Fusion 360
02:01 - Remove unwanted Drawing details from Fusion 360 drawing
02:33 - Change sheet size of Fusion 360 drawing
03:32 - Export Sheet as DXF in Fusion 360
04:37 - Summary of Exporting DXF from Fusion 360 Drawing

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[ChazzHack]

Thanks for the great video series!

Happy to report that contrary to this video, Fusion now includes in a saved DXF, ALL line-work in a drawing, even geometry that extends beyond the paper size of the sheet. Line-work extending beyond the page size will be omitted from a PDF as you would expect, but for a DXF, Fusion includes EVERYTHING. This is good because sometimes my parts are 12 feet (~4 meters) long.

For this reason my preferred workflow for complex assemblies (with many pages) is as follows:

1) Make a multi page drawing file as typical for the purposes of sharing and describing an assembly. This should include all the flat patterns for sheetmetal parts, bend tables, critical dimensions, and other parts for laser cutting, etc.
2) Make a COPY of that multi-page file and rename it something like “For DXF Export”. Note that this copy is still linked to the model file and can continue to be updated semi-automatically if the geometry is edited.
3) Open the new drawing file and remove all boarders and unneeded views.
4) Set all the scales to 1:1
5) Export each sheet as DXF


For my projects, every assembly has 2 drawing files: one for description and one for DXF export for laser work (cutting and etching). So far this is the best practice I have found for for getting my projects fabricated.

ProTip: If you give the sheet good names (like the part ID and part description) the file names will inherit the sheet names which is a big help.
Bummer: why Fusion does not give you a way to publish all sheets to DXF as a batch process, I have no idea. I would love that feature.

[geterdnboy]

Oh and by the way thank you for making these videos I find myself using fusion 360 more and more lately I couldn't have got there without your help

[peter_NED]

There is a plug-in for fusion laser dxf that jou can give kerf with an it compensates for it so jou can have accurate parts without hard manual compensation

[javierolave]

Hi! When I change the view to drawing mode, there are some continuous and discontinuous lines, why does this happen? Thanks!

[geterdnboy]

I noticed when I import the dxf into light burn several of the shapes that were closed in fusion 360 are now open.

Now I know I can close the shapes in lightburn fairly easy but if I was working on a larger project with many shapes it could be a problem.
Now I guess I could export it as an SVG and most of the shapes would be closed that way but I'm wondering if there is a different way starting in fusion 360 that guarantees closed shapes when I bring the dxf file into another program.

[humphet]

In 2022 all this exports not working with free Fusion360 version

[broderp]

Those of us on a personal license are locked out of this feature via a pay way. A very TALL pay wall.