Centre Align

[stevie.d]

Hi, Please see attched image, all I want to do is align  these (Box->Model->Extrudes) centred along the X axis , the process I am used to for achieving this is, Select group of objects-> Align command, Select object to be aligned to -> Done, How is this achieved within Fusion. Thanks

[stevie.d]

Ok, so here's is where I'm at with this now, converted my bodies to components (although I didn't want to do this as I wanted to align the objects as described earlier because I wanted to do cut outs of the wooden objects to later insert the glass boxes same size) . In trying to figure out how to align I set up a simple drawing with two model->boxes converted to components, So i arrived at a place that I kind of expected now both components having their own origins so looked for Align command and found it, selecting both components and right clicking (Hooray!)

Ok so this command actually aligns the origins to each other but not the components?Is there a way to align the origins to the component? So if I centre each origin to its body I can then align each component centre to centre.??

Because....

going back to my original drawing with most of the boxes hidden, I have these boxes converted to components but both their origins are in the same place defaulting to 0,0 on the grid. For the moment I don't know how this happened(not important at this juncture) so when I align the two components (actually their origins) the origins align perfectly but the objects as you can see are misaligned, how do I get this origin back to a useful position Aligned with its body??

So to achieve my original goal was to Model-> Boxes/Bodys ->Component use Joints  and thus, Align another Origin to my Component that already has it own Origins and no clear way to align it with its body so one could just not need to use Joints,  and is the need to covert to a component really necessary??

[stevie.d]

Anyone any direction on this please? I'm really at a loss.

[haughec]

The short answer is that Fusion 360 provides better component alignment tools than body alignment tools.

The best way to align bodies currently is by using the planar snapping functionality in Move command:

1) Right-click on the body you wish to move in the browser and select Move from the context menu

2) Drag one of the directional manipulators (white arrows) just to make the manipulator active

3) Select a planar parallel face on the other body to snap to.

This should allow you to accomplish simple snapping of prismatic bodies.

To shed a bit of light on the Align Components command, selecting an object from each component (face, edge, etc) will align those objects by moving the first component to the second.  Selecting two faces will align the faces, selecting two edges will align the edges, etc.

We recognize that body alignment tools are important, and would like to make this experience better.  A few questions to help guide related enhancements:

• Did you initially select faces or bodies to align?
• Did you ever try to use the Move command to accomplish this task?
• Would it make sense to provide better alignment tools in the Move command, or would you prefer an explicit Align command?

Thanks,

[stevie.d]

hi Charles, Thank you for your response,

This should allow you to accomplish simple snapping of prismatic bodies.

 I'm not seeing how this aligns bottom centre of, or,  even centre,centre. of one box to another , i went down the route of re-orienting the manipulator to the centre  bottom of the box but not aligning centre of box A t ocentre of Box B, so at present the only solution is to convert to  Components. 

Components alignment functionality is exactly what I was looking for. Without the need to add Joints too. Got it,Great

The confusion I was having was, as  I mentioned one of the Origins in the component is actually misaligned from the body, how I was Aligning the components was selecting both in the browser which was resulting in just the Origins aligning which because of the misalignment was/still is confusing.

Thank you I really appreciate you for asking my opinion regarding the align command.

To give you an idea of my design intent,

the image is of a design I'm working on mostly sketching on paper at the moment,the stage I was at in the image, was, I just needed a quick aligned visual to gauge proportional relationships without the hassle of having to draw exact dimensions by hand so the need to have to convert to components before having done any editing of the bodies is a real bug-bear. Bottom line I need a quick and dirty visual with no editing yet.

I do  think the align command has to be easily discoverable within the Application,

I personally prefer right click command control ,so that could work for me in the right click context while the move command is active.

From a new users perspective maybe not exclusively  so.. From my experience of teaching some new users ,they like the security of the an easily identifiable and navigible menu item that is always accessible as they gain confidence within the UI.

As well as that,

Personally the Align workflow I'm used to from using 3ds Max, the Move command doesn't even need to be activated to align numerous entities precisely whether it be on XYZ axis from any where within the viewport.

So to answer your question I think definitely within the Modify drop down under Move and perhaps if the option in preferences to add to right click contextual within the move, if not contained there by default. Hope this helps

[stevie.d]

here's the bits I left out

Did you initially select faces or bodies to align? Clicked on faces first before discovering confusion i.e. if it was an extruded body and clicking directly on a face caused unexpected results s now nearly always select from the Browser.

Did you ever try to use the Move command to accomplish this task? Yes tried re-orienting the manipulator to a point that I was tryiing to align from, tried measure renchor, 

[haughec]

Thanks for the detailed feedback - it really helps.  I'll look into improving body & component alignment.

[elias]

I found this thread while searching for center align.

The only way I can think to center align two stacks (e.g. rigid groups) of components is by aligning their end faces and then move one by half their length difference. This works ok, but can get messy in case of dimension changes (i.e. every single dimension needs to be parametric).

I thought to find the midplanes of both stacks, but the construction planes are independent of the components, they do not move along with them.

Is there a simpler solution to this?

In a 2D vector editor it's just a matter of a couple clicks:

- select both groups

- hit align center

[etfrench]

Aligning components center to center is straight forward.  Just select the center alignment markers.  What's hard is to align along an X, Y, Z, or other plane.  As far as I know, it can't be done with just the align tool. You have to create other geometry to do this: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/align-components-constrained-along-an-axis/t...

[elias]

Thanks for the feedback.

In my case, I do not want two center align two components, but to groups of components. To make it simpler, imagine two piles of blocks: the first one has a 10mm on top of a 20mm block, the second one has a 10mm on top of a 70mm block.

The only way I can center align the two piles is by aligning their end faces and then shift the short pile by ((70+10)-(20+10))/2=25mm

So I was wondering if there is a simpler way.

Sketching/projecting/joining could be an alternative, but that is definitely not simpler 🙂

EDIT:

Here's the example described above.