topic Re: Pretty close to giving up on this program... in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Pretty close to giving up on this program...

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 22:49:40 GMT

Sketch mode is good by my God is it frustrating. How do you turn off the default constraints that appear on item creation?

Why does the MOVE/COPY command say "Copy" when no such function exists in sketch mode? Better question, how do you copy one circle, 6 times without drawing 6 different circles?

Re: Pretty close to giving up on this program...

davebYYPCU — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 23:13:56 GMT

1. Hold the Shift key, whilst sketching, design dependent.

2. Select circle, right click menu for Copy, or Cntrl C

Unselect the circle, right click menu for Paste, or Cntrl V, triad allows you to move the copy,

Repeat Paste method.

Might help...

Re: Pretty close to giving up on this program...

FrankCao — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 01:57:56 GMT

Hi livin.free,

I think you sometimes feel the sketch is full of constraint icons that make you feel uncomfortable, right?

You can try turn off constraints display in sketch by uncheck the option of "Show Constraints" on sketch palette. Sketch palette is the UI widget shown on the right side of sketch environment, which helps you quickly add sketch constraints and change some sketch options easily.

Thanks,

Frank

Re: Pretty close to giving up on this program...

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 21:34:30 GMT

Thanks for the feedback...

Firstly, I feel that copy in sketch mode is primitive and needs a re-think. My usual 3d program is far simpler and only requires depressing the Ctrl key while moving (optional direction and or distance etc) to produce a copy(s) of one or many selected geometries or objects. Guess I'll have to live with Fusions "Windows copy method" for the moment.

With regard to constraints, I think in general they are good and very useful but what I cannot seem to grasp is the logic order. In both my 3d and 2d cad applications, the logic behind everything is the same. It is the way we speak in English - that is, command first then action (optional parameters). "Draw a line From this point To that point"; "Move or Copy geometry From this point To that point"; "Tangent This object to That object"; "Align This object (select face,line,vertex, centre) to That object (selected face, line, vertex, centre)" and so on...

In a new Fusion file in sketch mode, draw a circle away from the origin. Draw a horizontal line spaced above it, no dimensions or constraints. Tangent top line to circle - the top line moves to the circle. This is Positive logic. Undo. Tangent the circle to the top line - the top line moves to the circle. This is REVERSE logic.

Is there any article that explains the rules of logic behind all this?

David.

Re: Pretty close to giving up on this program...

FrankCao — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 02:00:34 GMT

Hi livin.free,

Thanks for bringing your concern about command order. I agree with most of what you said. Yes, here if we add tangent constraint, and then select sketch geometry A first, then sketch geometry B. The results should ideally be geometry A moves to be tangent to geometry B (If both can be moved). Only if geometry A cannot move and geometry B can move, shall we move geometry B to geometry A.

I think we can do some improvements here in solver side to make the sketch solve results more predictable. Similar problems could exist like if you add equal constraints, who should remain unchanged, and who should change length, etc. I think there are still many things to check and review for better constraint solving behaviors.

Thanks for the good feedback, we will try make sketch constraint solver more smart and produce more predictable results.

Thanks,

Frank

Re: Pretty close to giving up on this program...

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 03:10:44 GMT

Thanks Frank. Yes, there are other constraints that work or break in other situations also but I will not go into them here until I fully understand which "second" constraint breaks or reverses the first in terms of predictable logic.