Extrude - Control Scope of Join

[paul]

I have two bodies.  I create a new extrude that happens to be coincident with both bodies but I only want to join with one of the two bodies.  How do I control this?   Currently join merges everything to one body.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

Hi Paul,

Excellent question.  The answer is to use visibility to control this.  That is, turn off the visibility of the body that you don't want to participate.

I suspect we will revisit this UI in the future, since it is admittedly not all that obvious.  But, that's what we have for today...

Jeff Strater (Fusion development)

[paul]

@jeff_strater, Perfect, thank you so much.

[paul]

@jeff_strater, Marked this answered too fast.  Made sense, and I see that generally your solution is true, but what if the body I do NOT want to participate in the join contains the profile I am extruding?  Picture this:

Create an extruded cylinder.  On a flat end of the cylinder, extrude a new much larger rectangular body whose corner covers part of the cylinder face.  You should now have two bodies resting on each other.  Now, we want to extrude the face of the cylinder to join the rectangle but the cylinder itself should not be joined, just the rectangle.  Here is my example though the cylinder is actually a more complex shape.

[jeff_strater]

Good point @paul.  The only way to do this today is to put a sketch on the cylinder end.  Then, you can turn off the visibility of the cylinder and still join to the rectangle.  It is, I admit, an unnecessary step (I much prefer to Extrude directly from a face if I can - one less dependency in the model), but it does get you there.

Jeff

[Ndenekamp]

Wouldn't it be an option to extrude from the cylinder as a new body, then combine the extrude with the retangle?

[jeff_strater]

Yes, @Ndenekamp, this is another valid approach.  It's actually easier, I think, than creating a new sketch

Jeff

[paul]

@Ndenekamp, @jeff_strater, Thanks for the tips.  Clearly there are a few ways to do it.  It would be nice to have options from within the exrtude operation to control the scope (affected bodies), but that appears to be an enhancement under consideration.

[cgimark]

This is something that irks me over and over when extruding. Especially if I use distance to object as part of the extrude.  I just want the distance not join the object too.

A simple suggestion for Autodesk, put the option to pick what objects are joined like you do for cut when  extruding. Instead of objects to cut, put objects to join drop down in the join feature.