topic Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 14:30:17 GMT

Hi,

I just started with F360. I've been doing CAD for about 20 years. I've used SW, ProE, Catia, IronCad, and most recently Inventor. In the history of CAD, in my experience, there is a standard way to position one part with respect to another. For 2 blocks in space, you'd have three constraints, x y and z. I did this in inventor and it took 17 seconds. I can set the values to be zero as well as any number.

I spent the better part of an hour yesterday trying to get F360 to do this. Somehow, if I select two faces, it thinks there are x, y, and z to be set, from what reference point is a mystery. I finally got it to work with by selecting an edge on each, but even that was difficult, because orientation options are limited and not intuitive. This method doesn't work when one block has radii, like attached.

Can someone explain how to do this super basic positioning or point me to one?

Thanks

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

Beyondforce — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 15:51:09 GMT

Hey @Anonymous ,

You have 3 options, Joints, Align or Move command - Depends on the situation.

Play with them and find out which one works best for you.

Cheers / Ben
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you find this reply helpful? If so please use the Accept as Solution or Kudos button below.

Need a new computer? Fusion 360 Hardware Benchmark: TESREG.com
Check out my YouTube channel: Fusion 360: NewbiesPlus

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

TrippyLighting — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 17:10:22 GMT

The joint system in Fuison 360 works differently than the usual geometric mating in other CAD systems.

These are Autodesk University Class recordings and most of those are taught by Fusiosn 360 team members.

Master Class Assembly

Fusion 360 Assemblies Explained for the Traditional CAD Designer

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 18:12:36 GMT

I'm waiting for someone to tell me how easy it is. I guess not. I will check out the links, thanks. Seems like some B-list ideas from the 90's came back to life with this program. It's like the old remote control cars where you can only turn left by backing up...

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

davebYYPCU — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 20:23:21 GMT

Fusion is different.

I presume you are Assembling and want to use the Joint.

Joints only work with Components. It is simple for those who can think outside the square.

The Joint system relies on the Joint Disc and its position and orientation in each component,

they will become flush faced when implemented.

Select the the moving component first.

The Joint disc follows the mouse until you select its position

Only hard part is the operator has to decide what two common points from each component has to be utilised. The Joint disc will snap to the indicators as you hover, face, edges, points and sketch articles, if visible.

Might help.....

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

chrisplyler — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 14:12:02 GMT

@CosmosK wrote:

I'm waiting for someone to tell me how easy it is.

It's super easy. Just remember four things:

1. Before you start jointing Components together, Ground one of them to act as a "base."

2. When you're clicking to select the two Components, remember that Component 1 is the one that gets moved, and Component 2 is the one that it moves to.

3. When you click to select those two Components, pick the spot you click on carefully, as it will be the two spots that move together (assuming you haven't input any X, Y or Z offsets yet, which will adjust the relative positions of those two points). You'll notice that a "coin" is placed at the selection spot on each Component, and the Component 1 coin is moved into position coincident with the Component 2 coin.

4. If the two Components are already positioned properly, you can use the 'As-Built' joint instead of the regular joint, in which case the procedure is slightly different. You pick the two Components without regard to selecting a specific spot to place a coin, and then you pick only ONE specific spot to associate the joint to. For example, a Rigid As-Built joint doesn't really matter where you select it to be. But a Slider As-built needs to have its position selected as some edge that defines the direction of the slide. And a Revolve As-Built needs to have it's position selected as the center of rotation. Etc.

Once you shed the "mates" concept that is burned into your brain, and wrap your mind around these simple four ideas, The Fusion 360 Joint system is easy.

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 15:01:15 GMT

Thanks for the video. The problem with that method id you need to know the widths of each face and do math. So, if you want the top face to be 2mm from the top of the other, aligning the front faces like you have done leaving you to do a bunch of math to set the tops. Centroid to centroid distance is pretty useless for most applications. Align the ground the second seems to work if you just want to square them up at a corner, but to offset from corner in 3 amounts is a no-go. I tried three planar joints and adding offsets to each.. did not work. Then I tried adding x, y and z offsets to the last one. It previewed to work perfectly, then when I hit ok, it snapped to some random location. So, to align to a corner that has radii, so the imaginary intersection (very typical when real world parts have rads and chamfers) I guess you have to sketch a point. I can get this to work with sketched points and careful selection of vertices with one joint. It's annoying you can't do three planar offsets, but I guess it works. complaints about F360 so far: -doubling clicking on a feature doesn't bring up edit menu -hotkeys are not customizable -part features don't seem to exist in tree "It is simple for those who can think outside the square" Umm, if you think doing something slower and less intuitive makes you more creative, more power to you I guess. All my complaints here boil down to speed. If I need to create a sketch to create a point to create a joint, that all takes a lot longer than 17 seconds it currently takes me to create 3 offset constraints. Then you have a lingering sketch clogging up your viewing area. Thanks for the help all.

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 15:03:12 GMT

I can't seem to edit that post to get carriage returns Thanks

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

davebYYPCU — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 09:08:03 GMT

I can get this to work with sketched points and careful selection of vertices with one joint.

It works - Ok, thanks.

Re: How to align 2 blocks in 3 dimensions

chrisplyler — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 12:56:05 GMT

@CosmosK wrote:
Thanks for the video. The problem with that method id you need to know the widths of each face and do math. So, if you want the top face to be 2mm from the top of the other, aligning the front faces like you have done leaving you to do a bunch of math to set the tops. Centroid to centroid distance is pretty useless for most applications. Align the ground the second seems to work if you just want to square them up at a corner, but to offset from corner in 3 amounts is a no-go. I tried three planar joints and adding offsets to each.. did not work. Then I tried adding x, y and z offsets to the last one. It previewed to work perfectly, then when I hit ok, it snapped to some random location. So, to align to a corner that has radii, so the imaginary intersection (very typical when real world parts have rads and chamfers) I guess you have to sketch a point. I can get this to work with sketched points and careful selection of vertices with one joint. It's annoying you can't do three planar offsets, but I guess it works. complaints about F360 so far: -doubling clicking on a feature doesn't bring up edit menu -hotkeys are not customizable -part features don't seem to exist in tree "It is simple for those who can think outside the square" Umm, if you think doing something slower and less intuitive makes you more creative, more power to you I guess. All my complaints here boil down to speed. If I need to create a sketch to create a point to create a joint, that all takes a lot longer than 17 seconds it currently takes me to create 3 offset constraints. Then you have a lingering sketch clogging up your viewing area. Thanks for the help all.

Look man, I was just trying to help you. I'm not saying it's as fast or as good, or that it makes you more creative. I'm only saying it's pretty easy once you understand how it works. I was just trying to help you understand. At least that way you'll waste LESS time due to confusion. That's the best I can do to help, since I'm not a software developer for Autodesk.

PS - Re: Lingering Sketch... You can certainly turn off the visibility of the sketch at any time. Most of the time, I don't need an additional sketch anyway. Most of the time, I add fillets/chamfers to the body after the fact, so my existing sketch still has the corner.