topic Re: Joint Error Message in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Joint Error Message

underwood.michael.c — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 00:51:26 GMT

I am trying to join together some components to build a basic i-beam structure. I've used Solidworks and watched the Fusion 360 tutorial. Seems simple enough. When I click on my rigid joint and add it to the components they click together in an animation just like they should. But when I hit enter to finish they go haywire and I get an error message:

2 Reference Failures:

Face 1 Missing

Face 2 Missing

Any help with why this would be really appreciated.

Here's a public link to the file.

http://a360.co/2aHJKiF

The components main beam and 15ft s i beam version 6 are the two I'm trying to give joints so they are connected basically making a big t shape.

Thanks

Re: Joint Error Message

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 03:26:05 GMT

Hi @underwood.michael.c

Your just trying to add joints like in my screencast but it's not working for you?

For some reason your model slows down my computer a lot, but I seem to be able to add joints to it ok.

Re: Joint Error Message

TrippyLighting — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 10:49:14 GMT

Looking at your design, you've stepped right into the first trap.

You can only assemble components, not bodies. So review the difference between bodies and components here and/or here.

Then, when a design is a traditional mechanical design its advised to follow:

Fusion 360 R.U.L.E #1: Before doing anything, create a component and make sure it's activated.

All objects created after activating the component such as sketches, bodies, construction geometry, joint origins, etc. are created in that component.

This has several advantages:

On activation the timeline is filtered to show only those items in the timeline that pertain to that component. That will make the quickly growing timeline much easier to work with.
If a component is exported to the data panel with "save as" this will also export the complete parametric design history.
Drawings can only be created from components
The joints in the "Assemble menu only work with components.

When another component needs to be edited for example to add geometry, it should be activated before doing so.

In case of your assembly it also makes little sense to design with linked components. Fusion 360 does not have different file formats for Assembly and Component files. When following R.U.L.E #1 you can perfectly fine organize an assembly in a single file with components, subassemblies etc.

Make sure that at least one component is grounded, otherwise your whole assembly can float around.

It also is a bit of a hassle to download models with linked components 😉

Re: Joint Error Message

underwood.michael.c — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 11:44:07 GMT

Do linked components have to be set as components and not bodies in their original file? I was under the impression when I imported those parts into the file it automatically made them components.

Re: Joint Error Message

TrippyLighting — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 12:20:13 GMT

Correct, linked components don't have to be specifically set as componets in their own file.

So for example if you have sketch and body created form that sketch in a file and insert it into another design then it's imported as a component containing that sketch and body.

What I am saying is that this structure can be created within a single file without having to use external components following rule #1.

I doub't it's necessary in your desing and at the moment linked components have a few limitations that make tham somewhat cumbersome to work with if you've used a lot of the functionlaity in Solid Works.

E.g. they are static. to edit them you have to open them in their own file, preform the modification, save them and then you will be asked by the main desing to update out of date components.

If you contain all of that in a single file that's not necessary and provides a smoother design flow.

Your main beam is stiull a body. So create an empty component at the top level. The newly created component is automatically activated. hten take the sketch for that main beam and drag/drop it into the component. This will drag the body along with it and you'll have everything that belongs to that component neatly contained in that component.

then you can start assemblng stuff.

Here's another warning frm a past Solid Works user. In SW we're used to work a lot by slection and manipulating stuff in the viewport.

For example selection an object in the viwwport selects that component.

Fusion 360makes a very clear distinction between components and bodies. If you single-left-click on an object you are selecting the body within the component. If you then use hte move command you ar moving the body away fom it's origin in htat component. Most of the time that's not what you want to do.

To select a component you have to double-left-click on the object in the view port.

Re: Joint Error Message

underwood.michael.c — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:23:17 GMT

Thanks for all the info. I understand why you would want to model all this in one file now. I'm used to doing structures like this with weldments in SolidWorks and still very new to Fusion 360. I tried to start fresh and am still having the same problem. Maybe with a Snapshot video you'll be able to see what step I'm missing.

Re: Joint Error Message

TrippyLighting — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:44:47 GMT

I get that same error and don't see anything wrong with your components.

This looks like you might have discovered a bug, or a limitation with external components.

@jeff_strater can you check this out please ?

Re: Joint Error Message

jeff_strater — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 23:49:08 GMT

Sure, I can take a look. I tried to access the model, but do not seem to have access. It could be that the link timed out. @underwood.michael.c, can you please post a new link?

Thank you,

Jeff

Re: Joint Error Message

Feiqi.Zhang — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 06:42:03 GMT

I tried to take another look into this issue again (I tried couple of days ago and saw the same error but had no good idea) today and talked with one of my colleagues. It seemed we might have found the cause - the S I-beam exists as "referenced model". We tried to turn it into a real local model by using the command "Break Link" (you may see this with right click context menu). Your workflow seemed to work fine now. However, this looks a bug or limitation to me. I will report it to the corresponding team.

note, before doing above, I "create the component" from (the main beam) Body1 and operate on the component but not on Body1 for the Joint operation.

Hope it can help.

Feiqi Zhang - Fusion 360 development team

Re: Joint Error Message

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 06:55:55 GMT

That right there is a nugget I wasn't aware of. Thanks @TrippyLighting

To select a component you have to double-left-click on the object in the view port.

Re: Joint Error Message

underwood.michael.c — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 15:14:31 GMT

Jeff. I had deleted those files. Once again I am having the same issue though. When I first started my ArchBaseAssembly and imported the 1.5" square tubing component in and used the joints I had no issues what so ever. I basically opened up my ArchBaseRotational file and then did a save as...changed the file name to Assembly and then inserted the 9 pieces of tubing and joined them. After that I did another save as of my ArchBaseRotational and changed it into my ArchBaseElbow. Then I imported into my ArchBaseAssembly file and tried to join it to my tubing and bam...same issue as before. I don't understand why I had no problems with adding in the tubing but then when I add the elbow the joints act up.

http://a360.co/2b1uoag

http://a360.co/2b1uCyr

http://a360.co/2b1tWsC

Re: Joint Error Message

underwood.michael.c — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 15:16:38 GMT

Here's a screencast.

Re: Joint Error Message

TrippyLighting — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 15:18:14 GMT

The essence of this thread is clearly: Don't work with linked components when it is not necessary.

In this case it is not.

Re: Joint Error Message

jeff_strater — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 15:40:33 GMT

This really should not have anything to do with local vs linked components. While @TrippyLighting is right - personally I don't use linked components unless I have to, they do have their place, and creating a joint between linked components should not give this error. This is a very reasonable command to do in this situation, in my opinion.

I will pass this off to the right group to look at.

Jeff

Re: Joint Error Message

TrippyLighting — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 16:06:19 GMT

Sorry, I should have been more specific!

IIRC I had looked at the first assembly and when I broke the link the joint worked as expected.

My comment is aimed exclusively at this particular problem, and not generally at linked components assemblies.

If a problem can be fixed by removing the link in a particular case and the use of linked components is not necessary, remove the link and move on.

BUT still report the behavior, because as you say, and I concur, it should work.