topic Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion in Fusion 360 Feedback Hub

[CLOSED] We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

helfenj — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 15:18:40 GMT

Hey F360 Community,

I'm the Product Manager overseeing the Fusion sketch environment. I want to hear your ideas! Please comment below and let me know what you'd like to see - new features, fixes, comments on functionality, etc.

Overtime this post will be a living place to share out sketch roadmaps and listen for new ideas from the community. As we take up new projects we will create new posts to share ideas and get feedback on each specific idea as required.

I look forward to hearing your input and working with the community to continue improving the Fusion experience.

Thanks,

John

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

davebYYPCU — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 20:56:29 GMT

Lets put this one back at the top of the list, but surely you have heard the plea,

certain environments, can show dimension lines, in an alternate colour to constrained lines,

In Photo Booth it is not the case.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

mrdezzz — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 22:50:45 GMT

Better control over Text in a sketch

- In the past (not sure if this problem still exists) whenever I tried to position a text by using dimensions (30mm from this edge) the measurements would not stay.. when i left the sketch, and went back in... the measurement disappeared.

- the box that surrounds the text seems to just be free floating on the right side, it doesn't attach to the text like the left side does... this makes centering the text harder.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

lure23 — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 10:18:23 GMT

I've got ca. 16 different, reproducible cases where sketch works against my expectations.

I value your request for feedback, but pouring those all in one discussion thread is likely not going to be a correct approach. Also, formally describing them will likely take a lot of time, on my side. I'm open for suggestions as to how to proceed.

As a sample:

Sketch annoyance: ”three point arc” is just another way to create a center point arc. Its mid point does not end up being a point that could be used for dimensioning

This is the level of detail I've done for them. It should be sufficient to discuss, whether you see the value in the feedback or not.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

rmkolaks — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 02:04:57 GMT

There are some PLANE options that would be convenient in SKETCH:

Mid-line/curve between two curves/lines
Perpendicular to a curve/line from a point
Create intersection of curves/lines
Bisect angle

..rmk

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

GRSnyder — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 20:44:16 GMT

This is probably more of a Parameters issue, but it comes up primarily while sketching and it's a longtime (though microscopic) gripe: I'd like to be able to name parameters as I define them in the same way that you can do it in Inventor. Specifically, you just prefix the value with "name = ".

So for example, when drawing a sketch rectangle, you could enter "width = 40mm" for one dimension and "height = 60mm" for the other. Then in other contexts, you could just use "width" and "height" as values as if they had been defined as User Parameters.

I'd speculate that a primary reason this isn't in Fusion 360 already is perhaps a desire to keep the intentional, user parameters separate from the morass of incidental dimensions that are created in complex models. If there's an important "width" or "height" parameter, it should be featured in the User Parameters list rather than buried in the parameter list of some random Extrude command.

If this is in fact the concern, why not automatically hoist named parameters to the User Parameters area? For example, if you enter "width = 40mm" in a sketch, Fusion 360 could create BOTH a User Parameter named "width" with value "40mm" and an incidental parameters such as d42 whose value is "width".

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

GRSnyder — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 20:50:01 GMT

I don't know if linking is fair play here, but Ability to Reference Driven Dimensions (aka The Thread That Wouldn't Die) from the IdeaStation is still near the top of my wish list. I know it opens a whole Pandora's Box of issues, but this kind of basic feature-completion is exactly the kind of thing I'd like to see the Fusion 360 team working on.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

lure23 — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 14:09:29 GMT

Was looking for a way to "like" @GRSnyder 's mention about referencing driven dimensions, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be possible in this forum system. Too bad. GitHub issues, Stackoverflow have those - and we easily start to take such meta-communication for granted, and as part of our "vocabulary".

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

colinNJB25 — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 23:32:26 GMT

1. Tangent to a spline and making tangents more robust would fix many of my sketch problems remaining.

2. Ability to find and repair lines that are within .0001" but somehow not touching. I have even found lines that do this when constrained as coincident.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

turtlecrawler — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 14:10:35 GMT

We need a better way to manage constraints. Finding a constraint that you want to delete shouldn't be so hard. Often times it is easier to just delete sketch entities rather than try to find the constraint that you want to remove.

Give me a keyboard shortcut to dimension to a tangent. Having to constantly right click and select tangent edge from the drop down feels clunky.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

carl.j.barker — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 14:23:59 GMT

I'd like to see access to the parent parameters when sketching on a flat pattern.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

kb9ydn — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 22:59:25 GMT

The full sketch and constraint menus should be available from the right click context menu. The "S" menu is not helpful when your left hand is always on a space mouse instead of the keyboard (no, I don't have any keys left to assign to "S"). Mousing to and from toolbars wastes a lot of time.

Let us COMPLETELY disable gesture commands. I despise them. It's usually not a problem but sometimes there is a delay when the right mouse button is pressed, before the context menu comes up, and then I move the mouse and it goes into gesture mode. I REALLY hate that.

Let us customize the right click menu, or at least have a single area that can be customized.

We need perpendicular and tangent constraints (at a point) to splines.

Why does the "Line" toolbar button show a line and an arc? This makes no sense.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

GRSnyder — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 23:07:52 GMT

@kb9ydn wrote: Why does the "Line" toolbar button show a line and an arc? This makes no sense.

Because it draws both lines and arcs. You can drag off the end of a line segment to initiate a tangent arc. Try it!

I agree with your points about context menus. I've never found the gesture commands helpful, and the long delay in bringing up the right-click menu ruins the value of the selection-sensitive constraints. It's faster to just pick a constraint tool and use it than to wait for the right-click menu to appear.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

colinNJB25 — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 23:37:00 GMT

For some odd reason my right click menu shows up on my second monitor in a
random placement each time. I have learned to do most things without it.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

kb9ydn — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 02:29:04 GMT

@GRSnyder

That's what I was thinking. I did try it in fact and it didn't work. Trying it now, it still doesn't work. There must be something I'm missing (or it's broken).

What's goofy is that you used to be able to get the full sketch menu from right clicking, but they removed it at some point. Why?

Just thought of another one with constraints:

When you add a constraint by pre-picking; like select first line, select second line, click perpendicular; it would be nice if the tool would automatically close itself instead of remaining active. Because the vast majority of the time I don't want to add another constraint of exactly the same type, I want to do something else. So every single time I have to escape from the command. Pre-picking is much more useful as a quick way to add a single constraint.

If I want to add multiple constraints of the same type, I'll click the constraint tool first and then select all the lines.

And the colors could also use some work. Constraints are hard to see in the "dark sky" environment, especially if the grid is turned on.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

maruska — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 20:31:54 GMT

1. Tangent/Perpendicular from splines and projections.

2. Reference driven dimensions - sometimes good 'ol geometric construction is the best way to derive a value.

3. Arc length dimensions.

4. Lock spline (and arc) lengths.

5. More intelligent selection of constraints that are stacked (could the fan out from beneath my cursor?)

6. Use sketch circles to define a construction axis.

7. In-situ variable definitions - don't make me go to the parameters window while I'm sketching.

8. Better text tools.

9. Better SVG import options (can I define a scale or units on import?)

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

rhdfmail — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 21:45:30 GMT

Maybe a "odd" one:
Sketch-possibilities in the manufacture area..

Often I have to create a sketch for a contour, a rectangle for boundary, or to machine on a contour that doesn't exist on the model.

It would be handy to be able to create that sketch directly instead of having to jump back into design, create sketch, jump back and create toolpath.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

Przemek_Potyra — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 23:48:26 GMT

I think trimming projected geometry would be nice to have, but most important - please improve dxf handling. I mean some nice "auto-repair" tool available while inserting dxf, mostly for closing gaps between line segments. I know sketch checker add-on can do that but it is still 3rd party, not f360 native tool. I noticed on the facebook group that many guys have problems with too complex imported svg/dxf stuff so another feature for simplifying paths would make it much easier to use for arts too. I agree with guy above. Using advanced CAM sometimes needs lots of additional geometry, sketches etc. Double clicking sketch inside manufacture should open it in design mode automatically in my opinion. Would save some clicks needed now for jumping back and forth.

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 02:47:47 GMT

Hi All; just one thing for my very simple needs!!!!!!!!!!!

Firstly; sketch a model, make dimensions available, push to make solid, all good and simple!

Just like you would in any CAD or drawing program.

"The difference is when you "MOVE" even something simple "the dimensions don't stay attached to the model/component.

If I'm wrong (I quite often am, just ask my wife) please enlighten me!

If you agree please rectify this, as I have only so much hair on my head:)

Regards John

Re: We want your feedback on sketching in Fusion

marshray — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 06:04:12 GMT

So many times I've wished for the ability to write simple little text notes in sketches.

Maybe it would be nice if the text box could have an arrow that I could point to a sketch point. Maybe I could choose whether the note would be shown or hidden (like a dimension) unless editing the sketch.

Inserting text objects requires adding multiple new constraints, at least if you want to keep your sketch fully-constrained, so they're more trouble than they're worth.