I’m looking forward to being able to use this!
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I’ve had work commitments this week, so I’m a bit behind on getting this out to @dehne1 , but the update is almost ready for folks to start testing.
Here is the plugin cutting automatically sized fingers in two faces, one face where the fingers start with a tab, and another face, where the fingers start with a cut.
And here’s another where the user-defined width is used for the fingers, and the offset from the margins is calculated automatically.
And fingers can be resized after the fact.
10 Likes
Hopefully I have not missed the boat for this but id really like to try this out if you are looking for people still. I’m relatively experienced with Fusion. This weekend I have been making a knife box in fusion. I used the dimension from the basic box in fusion in makercase.com to do the tabs but I would much rather do it all in fusion.
I see you say the Kerf is not in the plug in yet as there are other ways to do it. What way would that be ?
Cheers
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Ummm can I get in on this action? I’m sick of making them manually in 360.
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This is a very alpha version of the plugin, and may be prone to strange bugs. This version has been tested on a total of 1 machine, so the usual caveats of using this on backup copies of your projects applies. Please let me know if you run into any issues–especially error messages–either here or as an Issue on @dehne1’s Github page.
Fair warning: this is a pet project, please be reasonable in support expectations.
Also, keep in mind that if using the parametric features: You can define the parametric features more efficiently by doing things by hand. This plugin has to create parameters for each face–at the moment–so you will see more parameters defined using it. If you have other user-defined parameters that you want to use, you may have to manually update multiple plugin-defined parameters to get everything in sync. I leave this as an exercise to the reader right now.
You can download the latest at: latest post
EDIT: If you downloaded this earlier today, I botched the version release, so it will not run. The currently linked version should work.
EDIT 2: There is a current bug when using the plug-in on a design that has not been saved. Please save first, before trying to use it. If you experience a problem, save the design and restart the plugin.
- Download the ZIP file from github and extract it to a known location. I put it in the Fusion360 Add-ins folder which is located at “~/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/Autodesk Fusion 360/API/AddIns” on a Mac; I don’t know where it’s located on Windows.
- Click on the Add-Ins menu from Fusion 360.
- Select the Add-Ins tab from the Scripts and Add-ins dialog.
- Click on the green + next to the My Add-ins folder.
- Find the location where you uncompressed the ZIP file above and select that directory.
- If everything works, you can now select TabGen from the Add-Ins list and click on Run to start it.
- Now you should see a Generate Tabs option underneath the Add-Ins menu.
The options available so far are (see image below):
Fingers Type: Can be user-defined or automatic.
- User-defined will use the tab width to calculate the number of fingers on the face, and offset the first and last finger from the edges to make sure that all fingers are the same size.
- Automatic will use the tab width to calculate the number of fingers on the face, but size the fingers up or down to make sure that they are all the same size; including the offsets from the edge.
Placement: Will allow you to place fingers on one face, or on two faces
Face: The face where fingers should be placed. If an edge has already been selected in the next box, then you should only be able to select parallel faces to that edge.
Duplicate Face: The edge where the second set of fingers should be placed. This should only allow you to select edges that are parallel to the primary face.
Tab Width: The width of the fingers for user-defined tabs, or the target width for automatic tabs. This can be a numeric value, or the name of a user-defined parameter that has already been setup in F360.
Material Thickness: The depth of the tabs cut into the face. This can be a numeric value, or the name of a user-defined parameter that has already been setup in F360.
Start with tab: If enabled, the the edges of the face will have a tab, if disabled, the will start with a cut.
Make parametric: If enabled, will define a number of formulas that will be used to automatically change the finger settings when the corresponding length, distance or tab width parameters are changed.
Length parameter: The length of the face along which the tabs/cuts will be placed. This value will be initially calculated based on the face selected. This can be a numeric value, or the name of a user-defined parameter that has already been setup in F360.
Distance parameter: The distance from the primary face to the secondary face. This value will be initially calculated based on the face and edge selected. This can be a numeric value, or the name of a user-defined parameter that has already been setup in F360.
7 Likes
Kerf adjustments can be made when exporting profiles using plugins like DXF for Laser, or even the CAM module native to F360. I did a YouTube video last year to describe the CAM option.
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Here’s an example of using the plugin to create a fully-parametric simple finger-jointed box in a few minutes:
Create some parameters that will be referenced later
Draw a sketch for the bottom panel of the box
You’ll be prompted to save if the document is new.
Create tabs along one axis
Create tabs along the second axis
Draw the back panel
Draw the left side panel
Add fingers to the back panel
Use the F360 Combine option to cut the bottom fingers of the back panel
Copy the back panel to the front
Use the F360 Combine option to cut the opposing fingers on the left panel
Copy the left panel to the right side
Change the width of the box
Change the length of the box
7 Likes
Sketches created by TabGen will be named based on the name of the bodies being cut, and it will attempt to align the names to the axis the fingers are being cut on–this will not be accurate if used on bodies that are at angles to the X,Y,Z planes.
Operations will be grouped on the F360 timeline, to make it easy to see which operations belong together, and if necessary, F360 will remove the operations together when the undo operation is performed.
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Oh, this is gonna be handy! 
In case anyone needs it…location of the F360 Add-Ins folder for Windows:
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Outstanding! Wish I’d had this a couple weeks ago when I was setting up all those organizers! (Would have been a lot quicker!) 
I’m running into one small issue when trying to duplicate the notches across two faces…it’s not quite removing all of the material at the second edge. Do you think it might be a rounding error? (I’m using 3 decimal places. To thousandths of a mm.)
Problem happens when the DXF is exported for that face to AI (using DXF export for Fusion plugin) …it doesn’t actually close the shape. It’s going to cut the same way, but it might make adjustments tricky.
BUT…Even if we only use this to make the first row of cuts and then mirror the feature around the center plane, it’s still a fantastic time saver!
I’m impressed! 
3 Likes
I just found this problem myself. I’m not quite sure what’s going on; it doesn’t happen consistently. I found another issue with cutting small tabs that I also need to adjust. I’ll probably have an update out tomorrow.
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Okay, what I got from above is cool but I think I have an older version as it does not show all the new options?! the zip says 0.31-alpha but the dialog looks like this:
That’s a weird one. Of course you—of the plugin challenged—would find something like this 
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You definitely have an old version somehow. I’m working on a couple of fixes, in between conference calls, today. I’ll post another version later this afternoon.
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I have OpenSCAD code to create matching finger joints and sometimes similar things happen in 2D export. Changing the dimensions will make it appear and disappear. I’ve always blamed rounding error in the underlying libraries, but have never confirmed.
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Just an update for the curious: I was resolving issues that both @jules and @markevans36301 identified and realized that I had made the parameter portion unnecessarily complex. I’m resolving that before I post an update; and my wife has me sidetracked at a burlesque parody of The Empire Strikes Back tonight, so it will most likely be tomorrow.
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Sometimes a parenthetical statement will pop right off the screen. This is one of those times. 
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I was going to post a picture, but thought better of it.
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I successfully used it here:
Some notes:
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I kept running into “plane not vertical” errors. No idea why as seemingly doing the same operation a second time would work.
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I frequently saw error dialog boxes but the operation worked anyway
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When doing the “left” vs. “right” tabs on the walls where they connect to the backpiece, the tabs are at different positions on the two. I.e. the left and right pieces are different and, if you look really close, the tabs aren’t symmetrical! I believe this is because it started the tab calculation from the “bottom” of one piece and the “top” of the other. More of a surprise than a bug and, frankly, if I knew how to actually use F360 properly, it’d never be an issue.
Super cool plugin. Saved me a ton of time. Actually, it didn’t just save me time, it enabled me to make tabbed stuff in F360 whereas I wouldn’t bother prior because it was such a pain.
THANK YOU!!
4 Likes