How to

Bringing in a Fusion design

Export your design from Autodesk Fusion as a STEP file, then import that into a Part.

MakerSketch can't open Fusion's own files (.f3d). Fusion keeps its designs in a format that is private to Autodesk, so there is no reliable way for another app to read them. The way in is a STEP file exported from Fusion. Its bodies come across as solids, with their names and colours; its timeline (the design history) doesn't.

If you open, pick or drop an .f3d file, MakerSketch shows the design's picture and these steps instead of an error.

#Before you export

• Show the bodies you want. Fusion users report that only visible bodies are exported. Turn on the eye of every body and component you want in MakerSketch, and hide anything you don't (old versions, construction bodies).
• Name your bodies and components. MakerSketch names each Body from the STEP file: the solid's own name, or its component's when the solid has none. "Hull" and "Nozzle" are easier to work with than "Body1" and "Body2".
• Colour them if you like. MakerSketch gives each Body the colour the STEP file gives its solid. Fusion users report that a body's appearance colour is exported but its material (density, finish) isn't.
• Use millimetres. In Fusion's Browser, open Document Settings, hover over Units and click Change Active Units, then choose millimetres. MakerSketch converts the units a STEP file uses, but checking sizes is easier when both apps say mm.
• Turn Form (T-Spline) bodies into solids first. Fusion users report that a STEP file of an unconverted Form body comes out empty.

#Export from Fusion on a computer

1. Open the design in Fusion.
2. Choose File › Export.
3. In the Export dialog, set Type to STEP Files (*.stp *.step).
4. Choose where to save it (the three-dot button next to the location), then click Export.

Some file types are translated in Autodesk's cloud, which can take a little longer. Fusion's help doesn't describe exporting a single component as STEP, so to bring in just one part, hide the others first, then check which Bodies arrive in MakerSketch.

#Export from Fusion in a web browser

Without Fusion installed, you can get a STEP file from the design's project on the web:

1. Sign in to your Fusion hub (Fusion Team) in a browser and open the project.
2. Select the design, click the Export icon in the upper right and choose the STEP file type.
3. Autodesk translates it and emails you a link. Click Download file.

#Which STEP?

STEP has several versions (AP203, AP214, AP242). Fusion's Export dialog has no setting for it, and Autodesk's help doesn't say which one it writes, so there's nothing to choose: export, then import.

#Import it into MakerSketch

1. Get the .step file onto your iPad (AirDrop, iCloud Drive, or the Files app).
2. Open a Part, tap Import STEP in the rail and pick the file. You can also drag it from Files onto the 3D view.
3. Each solid arrives as its own Body, with its name and colour, resting where Fusion placed it.

What doesn't come across: the timeline and its features (extrudes, fillets, sketches), so you can't edit Fusion's dimensions in MakerSketch. You can still add your own features to the imported Bodies.

#Sources

• Autodesk, How to export a design in Fusion (31 July 2026): File › Export, the Type list, cloud translation, and the web Export icon.
• Autodesk, Export designs: the Name, Type and Location fields; Download file from the email; "An exported design does not maintain associativity with the original Fusion design."
• Autodesk, How to change units in Autodesk Fusion (13 March 2026): Document Settings › Units › Change Active Units.
• Autodesk, Supported file formats: which exports a personal-use licence includes.
• Autodesk Community, hidden bodies and export and STEP export: appearances and schema: users' reports, not Autodesk's documentation.
• Shapr3D, Working with Fusion 360 and Shapr3D: "Features, steps, or design history recorded in Fusion 360 will not carry over".

Last updated 29 October 2026, for MakerSketch 1.0.