Joining line segments in sketches

[Helmi74]

Hey all,

especially when projecting complex geometry to a sketch you often get loads of single segments. You can edit these sketches of course and add lines to get a closed loop. This helps to push/pull but the problem is the single line segments still stay disconnected. For example if you want to offset this line you can't really do as the single segments all get offseted by there own, even if you click loop select.

Is there any chance to connect these lines to a single line? To better demonstrate i thought i'd give a small video example:

http://screencast.com/t/TkjfkBqnIKkW

Thanks for helping!

[Helmi74]

no one?

[jeff_strater]

Sorry for the lack of a response. I believe that this is a bug in the offset tool. As you have noticed, other tools (Extrude and Press/Pull). I believe that offset tool should be able to offset a chain of projected geometries without them having to be a single line.

Jeff Strater (Fusion development)

[Helmi74]

Hey jeff,

thanks for jumping in. Well the offset tool is only one of the problems. What if you want to delete this line? You could of course always select multiple with the lasso or similar but this isn't always possible if other stuff is in the way.

I think there shoujld be a way to join segments to one closed line. What do you think?

Apart from that - the other tools working are face-oriented, the offset tool is line oriented, that may be the difference. But you're right, regarding the offset tools it's possibly just a bug with "loop select".

[jeff_strater]

oh, yeah, that makes sense. Seems like a valid requirement. Do you envision this only for lines? Or, have some kind of a composite curve object that could combine the entire loop into one object? Also, in this particular case, the curves are projected geometry. Should the result also be projected (i.e. associative) geometry, or just new curves?

Jeff

[Helmi74]

To be honest, i'm unsure about the differences of the line types.

Regarding the other point i'd say best would really be to have a similar feature to AutoCADs join. This joins selected lines based on tolerance (AFAIK) to a closed loop. And you could always use break (we have that one already) to break lines later on.

So a join for any line (no matter if a classical line or a curve, spline, arc, whatever) would be great for me. Let me quote some document i just found regarding AutoCADs JOIN-Feature:

<--- snip --->

Use JOIN to combine lines, arcs, elliptical arcs, polylines, 3D polylines, helixes,
and splines by their endpoints into a single object.

The result of the join operation varies depending on the objects selected.
Typical applications include

■ Replacing two collinear lines with a single line.
■ Closing the gap in a line that resulted from a BREAK.
■ Completing an arc into a circle or an elliptical arc into an ellipse. To access
the Close option, select a single arc or elliptical arc.
■ Combining several long polylines in a topographic map.
■ Joining two splines, leaving a kink between them.

In general cases, joining objects that touch end-to-end, but that are not in
the same plane result in 3D polylines and splines.

<--- /snip --->

EDIT: no clue how to do a blockquote here... :S

[Oceanconcepts]

I think what Frank suggests would make life in the sketch universe- particularly when you are modeling complex interconnected forms- much easier. 

[cncfan]

Add me to the list of people that would love to see a easy way to join line segments when in sketch mode.  

I'm comming from the 2D world so still use profiles a lot.

[fritter63]

One more vote for this feature.

Not only would it be very usefull, but it exists in every other cad program I've used.

Use case: 2D contouring a complex shape made out of multiple curved segments. I should be able to join them into a single entity and then select that as the tool path.

As it is, I must put in a 2D countour step for each one individually. If I select them all for a single contour, I get path errors and it only cuts a portion of the entire shape.

[SGoldthwaite]

I just ran into this problem with the offset tool  I hope Autodesk add the join feature.  Does anyone know if it's been added into IdeaStation?

[jjurban55]

One approach I sometimes take, although not the most elegant, is trace curves with a spline, utilizing the fact each new spline point will snap to the curve I'm tracing. 

Jesse

[jjurban55]

There's a vid on the following thread showing exactly that with splines around times 1:20 and 4:00

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-and-documentation/foot-insole-modelling/m-p/5715929

Jesse

[fritter63]

Will it be as accurate as the original though? Don't splines take an "average" path through the points that may not match the original (say an arc or a curve or even the transition between a curve and a straight line) ?

[jjurban55]

Just depends what you're trying to do.  In that vid I was doing it to convert an intersect curve into more usable form.  When use enough control points, can see spline is very close to original curve.  Also is often good to have as few control points as possible, such as to then do subtle adjustments to get good nonwacky curvature (which can be seen by turning on curvature comb of the spline).  For existing arcs and lines, no real reason to trace, since say for example can just put everything of importance in a separate sketch via Project or Intersect, then right click and Break link, and have exact editable duplicate of original arcs and lines.  It's just the uneditable/unusable curves that sometimes arise that need to be sketched via spline. 

Jesse

[sbphil64]

Any updates on a joining line segment function w/in Fusion. I am having a similar issue with imported >dwg files. Seems no matter how i join them in another cad program (Draftsight) they still show up as segments when imported to Fusion which makes creating toolpaths a pain. Using Cambam for instance, I can import a dwg, file of a gear, convert to polylines, join and and the easily pick the profile of the whole gear to create toolpaths. Unfortunately, it is not a free program but at the same time is not as powerful and feature rich as Fusion. I have a lot of legacy drawings that i would like to upload , modify, and create toolpaths for but this lack of feature is making it difficult.

[jeff_strater]

Just saw the recent comment here.

I think that there are a couple of different, but related topics here.

1. specific to the original request by @Helmi74, the Project command in sketch does not always merge the endpoints of projected curves.  Normally, when you sketch curves in a sketch, if you select an existing endpoint of a curve as the start or end point of another, Fusion will share the existing point.  But, Project doesn't always do this.  So, some operations that require this connectivity to succeed (sketch offset, sweep path, etc) won't work correctly. But others, such as Extrude, are more forgiving.
2. This problem appears in other areas as well.  For instance DXF import doesn't correctly merge points sometimes.
3. There is a separate request here for some kind of "composite curve" in sketch.  A way to merge a lot of smaller curves into one.  One reason for this is Delete.  Even if we fixed #1, that would not let you delete them all at once.

On the first topic, we are in the middle of fixing Project, and hope to have a fix soon.  There is also some discussion (but only discussion so far) of modifying commands to be more tolerant of non-merged points.

On the other two, unfortunately, the truthful answer is no, there really hasn't been any progress on these.

Jeff

[daniel_lyall]

just haveing a join function would be nice. I have it in other programs what work very well and what is impoted into fusion is not that bad with that one but please give me join for xmas.

[sbphil64]

I second that request

[bustedchain]

Still no easy way to join two curves with overlapping end-points?  I'm struggling with this right now, and come to find that Fusion 360 can't join two curves that are touching eachother?  Really?

[szac]

Hello,

Checking in on any progress around joining end-points.  I've split the face on body that that I want a clearance hole in using the body protruding as the tool. I manually offset each sketch line, but I can not get a closed loop out of it.  

What is the recommended way to close the loop for an operation like this? Trace the path? 

Thanks