Fusion 360 help please.

[Erie Fred]

Isn't parametric modelling fun ?
Management wonders why "drafting" takes so much longer from the old board days.....

 

[ajlelectronics]

A finished article. I printed it on a raft which made it far easier to remove the supports. They came off in one piece, unlike the first iteration which was a pain to clean up.

 

[ajlelectronics]

I seem to have got into a mess again. The first issue is that the grid has switched to a different plane and I can't get it back. That and the grid being wide spaced. It started doing some very strange things earlier, I was altering the size of some holes, one worked and then the others would only allow me to offset the face. Then I got duplicate panels sandwiched together!

Edit, the other interesting "feature" is that home button on the cube will not allow you to select it. Putting the mouse near it makes it hop away.

I had been attempting to construct a backplate to fit onto pillars behind, slightly smaller than the front panel but that seems to be where everything went mammaries up. The front panel is not yet laid out right and needs some more tweaking, this is just a quick prototype for checking fits etc. I need to enlarge the rectangular LED holes a smidge and correctly align the four control holes under the LCD as well as build the six pillars. I think that the file shows them somewhere near, but as the grid vanished, I had no reference.

Teddy has now gone out of the window.

 

[ajlelectronics]

The mock up of what I have so far. You can see why I need to move those controls to the left, I hadn't taken account of the knob diameter!

 

[Misterg]

I think that the file shows them somewhere near, but as the grid vanished, I had no reference.

The file shows that you've broken something during your changes (not an uncommon thing in F360):

The yellow items have problems.


If you right click on the item you can check what the error is ('Review Warning') and/or edit the item to sort it out.

Always start with the earliest one in the timeline (the one nearest the left) - in this case the extrude. Quite often fixing the first one will fix everything after it.

In this case, the warning says that the Extrude has lost its profile. You would need to re-select the profile you intended to extrude and see if that fixes it. This often happens if you delete something in a sketch and then re-draw it. Always modify existing geometry to change things if possible. If it isn't possible, you'll probably need to correct a few subsequent operations. It can sometimes help to reduce the confusion if you drag the marker on the timeline to just after the operation you're changing, get that right and then move the marker forward one operation at a time, checking that it works as expected, until everything works again.

I've experienced a bug with F360 where the 'House' button & view orientation stop working, but not for a few months now (is your installation up to date?). The cure was to re-start F360.

As a general point, *****DON'T***** rely on visual cues for alignment. It absolutely will come back and bite you on the backside. The longer you get away with it, the harder it will bite.

Almost everything in your first sketch is free floating - everything in blue here:

You need to add enough dimensions or constraints to the sketch so that all the lines turn black. If you don't, somewhere down the line, you'll make some seemingly innocuous change and the whole damn thing will spontaneously turn itself upside down and inside out (ask me how I know!).

 

[Misterg]

I had been attempting to construct a backplate to fit onto pillars behind, slightly smaller than the front panel

I would:

Create a new construction plane, parallel to the panel and offset by the distance you want the backplate to stand-off. (If you ever want to change that distance, come back and edit the creation of that plane.)

Create a new sketch on that plane and use the 'Project' command to transfer the panel geometry to the backplate.

You can then reference that geometry to lay out your backplate. That way, if anything on the panel is moved, the backplate will be updated.

You can also have your stand-offs extrude from one surface to the other so that they automatically change length if you change the backplate spacing.

 

[ajlelectronics]

The file shows that you've broken something during your changes (not an uncommon thing in F360):

OK, I was getting a flag about "Hole one" but couldn't see what the issue was.

The yellow items have problems.

Useful info, thank you.

If you right click on the item you can check what the error is ('Review Warning') and/or edit the item to sort it out.

I have deleted everything forward so have gone back to a known good positio

In this case, the warning says that the Extrude has lost its profile. You would need to re-select the profile you intended to extrude and see if that fixes it. This often happens if you delete something in a sketch and then re-draw it. Always modify existing geometry to change things if possible. If it isn't possible, you'll probably need to correct a few subsequent operations. It can sometimes help to reduce the confusion if you drag the marker on the timeline to just after the operation you're changing, get that right and then move the marker forward one operation at a time, checking that it works as expected, until everything works again.

I couldn't see a way to sort it, so it was easier to go back in time.

I've experienced a bug with F360 where the 'House' button & view orientation stop working, but not for a few months now (is your installation up to date?). The cure was to re-start F360.

It is working normally this morning, but the grid is still playing up.

As a general point, *****DON'T***** rely on visual cues for alignment. It absolutely will come back and bite you on the backside. The longer you get away with it, the harder it will bite.

I'm not sure what you mean? I have been aligning to the grid, which is why the loss of it stumped me.

Almost everything in your first sketch is free floating - everything in blue here:

I didn't realise that was an issue!

You need to add enough dimensions or constraints to the sketch so that all the lines turn black.

Could you elucidate please. Constraints is not a term I have come across (in this context anyway ).

If you don't, somewhere down the line, you'll make some seemingly innocuous change and the whole damn thing will spontaneously turn itself upside down and inside out (ask me how I know!).

I have to admit that I am not enjoying the Fusion experience. Nothing seems intuitive nor logical. However I am enormously grateful for your assistance, I would be stuck otherwise. Web searches come up with Autodesk results which might as well be written in Swahili.

 

[ajlelectronics]

 

[ukracer]

OK, I was getting a flag about "Hole one" but couldn't see what the issue was.



Useful info, thank you.


I have deleted everything forward so have gone back to a known good positio



I couldn't see a way to sort it, so it was easier to go back in time.



It is working normally this morning, but the grid is still playing up.



I'm not sure what you mean? I have been aligning to the grid, which is why the loss of it stumped me.



I didn't realise that was an issue!



Could you elucidate please. Constraints is not a term I have come across (in this context anyway ).



I have to admit that I am not enjoying the Fusion experience. Nothing seems intuitive nor logical. However I am enormously grateful for your assistance, I would be stuck otherwise. Web searches come up with Autodesk results which might as well be written in Swahili.

I am so glad it's not just me lol.

I am trying to get my head round Breakdance and just upgraded to the Ai version so fusion has taken a back seat for me currently..

 

[Misterg]

I have deleted everything forward so have gone back to a known good position
...
I couldn't see a way to sort it, so it was easier to go back in time.

For future reference, to go 'back in time' you just need to drag the marker on the timeline back to where the problem is and F360 puts everything after that into abeyance until you drag the marker forwards again.

the grid is still playing up.

Have you got the grid ticked in the sketch panel?

I'm not sure what you mean? I have been aligning to the grid, which is why the loss of it stumped me.

Could you elucidate please. Constraints is not a term I have come across (in this context anyway ).

The sketch grid is purely a visual reference to assist with preparing sketches. It doesn't tie anything down in any way (remember: This Isn't Sketchup ). The only thing you can trust from the sketch is the origin point /axes.

To tie things down, you need to specify dimensions and/or tell F360 what other things you want to happen using the 'Constraints' which are all the things at top centre in the default screen layout:

You can absolutely add every dimension to every feature, but that is a bit clunky and gets messy and difficult to follow. To simplify things, you can use construction lines - change the linetype in the sketch panel and draw whatever guidelines you need:

For example - you could use a construction line to make sure that your rotary controls lined up:

I drew the horizontal construction line (which appears dotted) and dimensioned it at 23mm from the bottom edge of the panel.
I then added a 'Coincident' constraint between each hole and the construction line (select 'Coincident' then click the line, then click the hole or vice-versa. Repeat for each one). You can see that the coincident constraint has been applied because you get the little icon you can see on the 4th hole when you select it.
Finally I added the dimensions that define the spacing of the holes. (There are ways to make this a bit neater, but one step at a time!).

The other thing that's really useful is the 'Equal' constraint. For example for the row of buttons, rather than dimensioning each button, you can dimension the sides of one and then set each of the sides of the others to be equal to the first. (Again, I've used a construction line to align the bottoms of the buttons - you can use 'Coincident' between the corner points of the buttons and the construction line or 'Collinear' between the edge of the button and the construction line. I only mention this as it used to confuse me that Coincident wouldn't work with two lines.)

Hopefully you can see that as things become fully constrained, the lines turn black. F360 won't let you add any more than the minimum necessary constraints / dimensions required to fully define something. An example of what can happen if you don't do this is that you almost finish the design, then add (say) a legend that you want to align around the centre of a pot, or something. You try to do this, and F360 decides to move the hole to match the legend (because the hole is free to move) - if you're lucky, you will notice. Golden rule is to make sure that everything in a sketch is black before moving on.

Where you've got many regularly spaced features, you can draw one and then add a pattern (you can also make one dimension reference another), but they're refinements, so let's stop here for now!

 

[daedalusminos]

....just to reaffirm what @MysterG has said....why use constraints? Take this simple example..

Sketch a 10mm line in space (not near the origin)
Now change the length to 8mm...what does Fusion do, does it move one or the other end in by 2mm or does it move both ends in by 1mm. It could do either because the ends are not constrained, now if you imagine a far more complex sketch, changing un-constrained features can really mess things up

Why not near the origin? Because the origin is a point and clicking that will automatically add a coincidence constraints...which would effectively anchor that point.

Constraints can be deleted easily by selecting the constraints glyph.

 

[ajlelectronics]

so let's stop here for now!

That is extremely helpful and I really appreciate the time and trouble you have taken to explain all that. I will have a play a bit later!

 

[Erie Fred]

When you make a custom plane, you can re-name it, I try to name it for what it does.

 

[ajlelectronics]

A bit further on and some of it is starting to make sense. However the issues with the new mod's that I now have are as follows:

I want to extend the pillars by 20mm and I want 10mm of thread in the top, the base of the pillars can be solid ideally. I have tried moving the offset plane which does only that; I thought that it would extend the pillars with it. I then extended the pillars manually by 20mm but the thread doesn't come to the top as I was expecting. The same happens with the keypad pillars which I have extended by 3mm. You can see that the backplane is now stuck in its original position with the pillars coming through it. (All threads should be M3.)

I had to modify the centre display dimensions due to blowing up the display and the replacement being slightly different in size. I have also moved various things about and made it blue to pacify 'indoors.

 

[ajlelectronics]

I think I may have achieved it, although probably not via the documented / approved route!

 

[Misterg]

I have tried moving the offset plane which does only that; I thought that it would extend the pillars with it.

Glad it's starting to make sense

The reason the pillars didn't change is that you have created them at a specific length ('Distance') in the extrude command. To get them to adjust automatically, you need to tell F360 that you want them to reach a specific object. To do this, specify the end point of the extrude as 'To Object' and then select the part that you want them to reach:

They will then automatically re-size if the object moves.

(You probably want to change 'Join' to 'New Body' too, so that the pillar doesn't become part of the front panel.)

The reason the pillar thread disappeared is that you created a new, longer pillar coincident with the first.

This is the original pillar with 10mm depth of thread from the RH end face. When you highlight it, a little mark appears above the feature that generated it in the timeline. If you want to change the height of the pillar, edit **THAT** feature (right click -> Edit Feature).

Instead, you created a second extrude for a longer pillar. I've moved the timeline slider forwards one operation from the view above to show this - you can see the little mark above the operation that created this highlighted, longer pillar:

This has 'filled in' the threads in the first pillar (since the extrusion was set to 'Join' - i.e. combine with - existing bodies), and you haven't created any thread in the second pillar.

The right answer it to edit the original feature. The thread will still be 10mm into the new end face as required.

Hope that makes sense, and I think you're making progress.

(I haven't looked at the second file yet.)

 

[Misterg]

think I may have achieved it, although probably not via the documented / approved route!

I realise that you had created that file before I posted the reply above - you're still creating overlapping bodies instead of adjusting the original feature. Here's a step-by-step of the way to do this:

You want to increase the height of this pillar. Select it and a mark will appear on the timeline that identifies it:

Right click on the marked feature in the timeline:

Click on 'Edit Feature' and it takes you back to the settings for it (note that everything after it in the timeline is now dimmed):

Change the 4mm to 5mm

Click OK. Everything following the original operation (dimmed in the timelines above) now gets re-calculated to suit the change, including the threaded hole, etc.

Oh, and deduct 10 points because you're still not creating fully constrained sketches (i.e. all lines black) . It *will* bite you.

Oh, and another 'gotcha':

If you've moved the marker in the timeline, make sure it is dragged to the very end of the timeline when you're done:

Here:

Not here:

Can cause endless confusion (especially when editing components, but we're not there yet )

 

[ukracer]

Not taking anything from the excellent tutorials for real life issues/models, I find these invaluable.

But I just wanted to highlight for anyone unaware that the snipping tool in windows 11 now does video recording not just still snaps.

I find it so useful to highlight issues I am having in breakdance as those helping can see what I am doing wrong.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Brilliant explanation, thank you.

I have found that the board I am using has run out of space, likely due to the OLED driver, but whatever. Upshot is that I now need to make space for a larger one and the obvious way is to print a chassis and backplate, so will have a go bearing the above information in mind.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Coming on. I ran out of blue so had to resort to titty pink for the chassis and back panel. I have ordered some more blue to reprint at some point.