topic Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch? in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

markusbarnes — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 06:15:03 GMT

I am trying to center a rectangle inside another non centerpoint rectangle in sketch mode. Here are the methods I've tried:

1. Diagonal construction lines works but cumbersome and outdated.

2. The offset sketch tool works, but only in only one axis which is useless.

3. The midpoint constraint pins the midpoint of one edge to the midpoint of the other edge which is not only useless but frustrating.

4. Hovering over the edges of an enclosing rectangle to find midpoints while drawing a center rectangle doesn't constrain the rectangle to the center which is not only useless. and not only frustrating. but completely opposite with the way method 2 is frustrating and useless.

Please advise on what I am doing wrong. Is method 1 the only option? Why is it so hard to create a simple command to do a very common operation? Is there a mathematical reason why two rectangles can't be centered, but circles can? I find it hard to believe that fusion has algorithms to determine whether a set of lines is a profile, but can't find the center point?

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

etfrench — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 08:35:44 GMT

Seems pretty straight forward:

Is there some reason you can't use Center Rectangles?

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

FrankCao — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 08:40:04 GMT

Hi milesbarros,

Thanks for posting this question. I had a look at the 4 points and I am a little confused with your point 2. What do you mean by " offset only in only one axis which is useless."?

Do you mean sketch offset solve has direction that you can only change parent curves to drive child curve, but you cannot change child curve to change parent? If you mean this, I agree with you that Sketch offset is one-directional constraint and you cannot make changes(add dimension/constraints) on child curves to back change the parent curves.

However I suggest you can try following method to quickly center the rectangle inside another rectangle:

1. Draw two rectangles with one inside another.

2. Go to "Sketch Palette" and click "Horizontal/Vertical constraint".

3. Press "SHIFT" key and then move mouse to select the midpoint of one vertical edge of one rectangle. (You should be able to find the midpoint of the edge with SHIFT key pressed)

4. Press "SHIFT" key and then move mouse to select the midpoint of one vertical edge of another rectangle.

5. Now you have applied horizontal constraint between two midpoints of vertical edges of the 2 rectangles.

6. Do the similar things above to apply vertical constraint between two midpoints of horizontal edges of two rectangles.

7. Now you make two rectangles center at the same center.

Another quick method is to use the "center point rectangle" command. By use "Center point rectangle" command, you can directly draw the center point rectangle on another center point rectangle's center.

If you have any problems with above methods, please let me know.

Thanks,

Frank

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

mroek — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 10:52:33 GMT

@FrankCao

That trick with the shift key to select the midpoint was something I didn't know about, so thanks for pointing it out. What is the descriptive name for this functionality? Is there some list for what modifier keys kan be used (and under which operations) in Fusion?

It appears that sketch points are placed when using this method, so what really happens is that the sketch point is placed at the midpoint of the line (both lines), and then the constraint is applied between these sketch points. I've bee using this method manually, but this saves a few operations.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

TrippyLighting — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 11:25:28 GMT

Have you tried to make a center rectangle ?

Works like a charm 😉

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

markusbarnes — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 19:13:55 GMT

Thanks for the tip. This is what I"be been looking for. I will try it. I will say that mystery keystrokes are even worse that mystery meat. At least mystery meat is discoverable. I bet this isn't documented as I discovered abot a lot of features, It would help greatly if this optiom was availabek through the constraint palette.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

FrankCao — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 02:15:22 GMT

@mroek @markusbarnes

Thanks for pointing out this problem. Yes, you can press "SHIFT" to select the midpoint of a curve during normal sketch command like Line command, constraint command and dimension command. Then a midpoint will be created after the sketch command is finished.

It seems we missed some documentation for this tip in sketch modeling. I will try contact related people to help add them in the help document.

Thanks,

Frank

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

Anonymous — Fri, 15 May 2020 01:37:42 GMT

This was exactly what I was looking for!

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

kenTML5C — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 00:11:54 GMT

This is very cool. For future visitors to this page, there's a quick video of this "Shift" tip in action here. It shows 2 ways to use it. The video helped me understand it.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/quick-tip-midpoint-constraint-shortcut/

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

skamykowski — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 00:06:56 GMT

This only works if you have the center of the first rectangle to work from. If the first rectangle is not a full number the decimal places for tolerance put the second rectangle off center. Trying to manually center the second rectangle over defines the sketch.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

etfrench — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 00:30:28 GMT

What, you don't have dimensions on the rectangles??? It's trivial to center rectangles when you have the dimensions.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

g-andresen — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 10:28:41 GMT

Hi,

@skamykowski schrieb:

This only works if you have the center of the first rectangle to work from. If the first rectangle is not a full number the decimal places for tolerance put the second rectangle off center. Trying to manually center the second rectangle over defines the sketch.

Try

(view in My Videos)

günther

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

skamykowski — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:51:58 GMT

Obviously I don't. The references are hidden after they are made, and when I attempt to recheck the sketch will be overdefined. I mentioned this originally.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

etfrench — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:57:15 GMT

Dimensions are always available in 'User Parameters' and you can also turn visibility of dimensions on by right clicking on the sketch in the Browser and selecting 'Show Dimension'.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 21:37:38 GMT

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

This is a very basic sketching technique.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

nick.somethingunique — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 18:27:45 GMT

How would explicit dimensions help exactly? They may or may not be known initially and could be driven, but in any case, aren't relevant as this is about entity relationships. Center point rectangles or using the Shift shortcut to identify midpoints are the obvious ways to go.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

etfrench — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 18:57:53 GMT

Simple arithmetic to get the center of a rectangle when the sides are dimensioned.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

nick.somethingunique — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 14:31:02 GMT

Yes, it would work and I cheat sometimes doing that, but the result is an incorrectly described/documented design that could fail if there are changes.

A square of side 2mm inside one of side 4mm with 1mm distances between the edges will center the inner square, but that's different to those squares having coincident centers and either driven dimensions for the wall distances or none at all. Visually they are the same, but the design is different as one has squares with 1mm between the walls that happen to have coincident centers, while the other has squares with coincident centers where the distance between the walls happens to be 1mm. Different design, and if the outer square needs to change, what happens to the inner one would be different.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

etfrench — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 17:59:57 GMT

That's why you use a formula in the dimensions.

Re: How do you center a rectangle within another rectangle in a sketch?

nick.somethingunique — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 18:43:37 GMT

Yes you'd have to do that, or not bother if the dimensions shouldn't change. For a throwaway project it's fine, but constraints are definitely preferable for the OP's scenario as they capture and express the design intent correctly. You can also see them easily if enabled, whereas you have to hover over formulas to see what they are, and that's still not very enlightening. It would be nice if fusion would highlight referenced values on a sketch when doing that, similar to how referenced cells are colour coded and identified when editing an expression in Google Sheets, and how related constraints are highlighted when hovering over one of a pair, such as for symmetry and parallel ones. I think the takeaway is that there's often multiple ways to get to the same end, with advantages and disadvantages along the way.