topic Re: Assembling 80/20 components in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:33:12 GMT

I have yet to figure out how join 80/20 structured rail components using the Fusion tools, without heroic efforts.

I pull components in to an assembly, and need to create a structure (and then BOM), but I need to have an accurate as built, with requires accurate joints.

Currently, I download components and then edit each one to locate a centered contact point. It's tedious.

Here is a picture of a joint, by way of example.

I can upload the file if requested.. I'm a newbie, hopefully this is a simple fix.

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:00:50 GMT

Hi,

no images yet 🙂

Bye

Marco

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:32:11 GMT

Let me know if this comes through..

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:34:13 GMT

I updated the original post, and the picture seems to be there, it's a pretty tight shot of a joint and bracket.

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:39:26 GMT

I'm also new to F360, but not so new in other cad system, so in my opinion it works like Solidedge and solidworks, for example: you have to add 3 constrains (or joins) for each object or linear component and 2 contrains for each cylindrical component.

If you know you have 2 o more components always fixed, you can fix one of them (you have to fix one component at least) and then make rigid the other with that.

I think this sould be the right workflow.

Bye

Marco

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 16:11:01 GMT

http://a360.co/2o65XLW

Should be a link to a simple assembly with three components.

How to place the corner bracket precisely? I really don't like to eyeball things.

thoughts welcome.

The rail pieces are not too hard to join, but the bracket is driving me nuts.

Cheers

Robert

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

davebYYPCU — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 19:06:43 GMT

Fusion uses joints, and is good at it.

Have you extruded the 80/20 rails, or imported them?, You can use sketch points to align with.

Joints and the Align, Move tools, all provide snap points, It's just a matter of how you like to do it,

There is a good video on the Joint Origin, in the Tips and Tricks, that will get you sorted.

For me, I would use Joint origins, and offsets.

Might help...

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

TrippyLighting — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 21:57:54 GMT

You need precisely one rigid joint join to join each piece! I'll provide a screencast in a few...

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

TrippyLighting — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 22:26:21 GMT

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 00:16:46 GMT

I guess I have been spoiled by SolidWorks where I can symmetrically place a part, without having make measurements and do math. Thanks for the Video. another tool I need to learn to use.

Thanks!

Robert

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

TrippyLighting — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 00:38:32 GMT

That might be true, but in SW you'll have to create more than one mate for each component.

I've not worked with SW for the last 5 years but I've worked with it the 14 years prior to that. On very rare occasions I miss the geometry mates but mostly the system in Fusion 360 works very nicely.

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

kb9ydn — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 18:54:47 GMT

@TrippyLighting wrote:

That might be true, but in SW you'll have to create more than one mate for each component.

I've not worked with SW for the last 5 years but I've worked with it the 14 years prior to that. On very rare occasions I miss the geometry mates but mostly the system in Fusion 360 works very nicely.

Warning: Personal opinions ahead!

While I like the idea of reducing the number of relationships between parts, I find that the joint system is less intuitive and in this case it obscures design intent. Joining the corner bracket to the first 8020 piece is a perfect example. When you think about assembling the bracket to the extrusion, you don't think to yourself "This face of the corner bracket needs to be offset from the center line of the extrusion by half of the thickness of the extrusion." You think "This face of the corner brackets needs to be in contact with this face of the extrusion." It's a simple geometric relationship that should be as simple as possible to add. And it obscures design intent because it forces you to do some math where a simple geometric relationship is what you really want.

It also breaks parametricity (probably not a real word) in that if you change the dimensions of the extrusion, the joint won't follow. Yes you can update the offset if needed, but if it were a fully geometric relationship to start with you wouldn't have to.

Joints are also weird when you want to constrain a single part to more than one other part. For example, you have a carriage the moves along a rail where it's travel is limited by a stop. It's more intuitive to have separate relationships for carriage to rail and carriage to stop than to have a single joint that defines both. You can accomplish the same effect in Fusion but it feels very awkward to me.

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Mon, 08 May 2017 21:45:24 GMT

Very helpful for the simpler brackets, thank you!

I am having a bear of a time (newbie) however with a more complex 80/20 panel block mount (part 2427) as the mounting block component is compromised of 3 distinct parts and the whole joint workflow seems very fiddly and inaccurate to get the nut/flange and bolt to join into the t-slot itself.

If I select join on the inner edge of the t-slot on the extrusion followed by the nut/flange on the mount, then only the nut moves and the rest of the block stays in place. Is that normal? After a lot of fiddling I can relocate the bolt onto the flange and then the mount onto the bolt. I am not sure if that is the correct way to do it...

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

TrippyLighting — Tue, 09 May 2017 00:26:36 GMT

Can you share your model ?

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Tue, 09 May 2017 02:23:18 GMT

http://a360.co/2pYCYhE

Is the shared link.

To make everything fit I modified each part with a circle, and then used the circle centers as painting points, and then slid the parts along the free axis. It's convoluted.

The design allows for certain assemblies to slide. The intention was to add the assembly to a larger setup, but the larger setup never got built.

Cheers

Robert

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

tomjulier — Tue, 09 May 2017 12:15:08 GMT

I would be interested to know your opinion of the method I have been using, which is to add a sketch to the ends of the extrusion components and using the sketch points for joints. Maybe this is bad practice.

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

TrippyLighting — Tue, 09 May 2017 14:12:14 GMT

This is not bat practice at all. I use that myself. Sketches are perfect little helpers!

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Tue, 09 May 2017 17:26:02 GMT

Your solution is more elegant than mine of randomly sticking circles on the parts. A little more tedious, perhaps, but that tedium may well pay off in the long run.

It's got me thinking that I might be able to make up a template and slap it on each extrusion. Will try on my next project.

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

tomjulier — Tue, 09 May 2017 18:09:14 GMT

You only have to create the end (and optionally, middle) sketches once when you create the first component for a particular profile. For each new length you'll Copy/Paste new, and retain the sketches.

Re: Assembling 80/20 components

Anonymous — Tue, 09 May 2017 18:19:45 GMT

Forgive the newbie question but what is the best way to share a model? (I like the in-browser preview link! this CAD stuff has come a long way since I last experimented with it).