topic Re: A Timeline For Sketches? in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

A Timeline For Sketches?

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 23:10:50 GMT

So the timeline at the bottom is an awesome feature and is the main reason I've switched to using Fusion 360. I'm just wondering if there is a similar timeline for each sketch somewhere that I'm not seeing? I've come across a couple of situations where I've done a sketch action like mirrored some lines but then need to add to the mirrored part. Would be super useful to just be able to edit that mirror action to include the new curves. Am I missing something obvious?

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

jeff_strater — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 23:48:17 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

I understand the request here. However, under the hood, sketch is an un-ordered collection of sketch lines, arcs, curves, points, dimensions, and constraints. There is no linear history there. That's why we don't show any "timeline" for what is inside a sketch.

I think that's consistent with other parametric CAD systems.

However, it would be possible, and a good idea, to list some things under a sketch in the component browser, such as patterns, so they can be easily edited. If this is something that you think is a good idea, feel free to add it to the Fusion Idea Station. I did not see this request in the current list.

Jeff

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

TrippyLighting — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 01:22:57 GMT

That request already is in the idea station and I cannot help seeing he merit of it 😉

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

kb9ydn — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 17:49:46 GMT

@TrippyLighting wrote:

That request already is in the idea station and I cannot help seeing he merit of it 😉

It is quite a fascinating concept, though I wonder if it wouldn't end up being a huge pain to manage.

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

maquineroscnc — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 10:10:12 GMT

I use TimeLine for the sketches ALL THE TIME on Catia V5 And is very annoying because many times the sketches becomes really complicated and if you want to change one patern or complex function you cannot to edit this, you have tu erase the lines, can you imagine to erase 340 lines of a patern to edit it and do other patern of 341 lines? have no sense. Also i allways use the Equidistant points on a arc to create really cool parametric geometry and fusion 360 do not have this function right? is extremly usefull to distribute points along a line, the you modify the lenght of the line and the point automatically redistribute equidistant.

Please Autodesk, believe me this is very important, I use to work on aeronautic industry and use it all the time.

thanks!

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

TrippyLighting — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 11:04:07 GMT

Here is a suggestion when working with Fusion 360:

1. Create simple sketches with max 50 entities.

2. Avoid mirroring entire sketches.

3. Don't create large patterns in a sketch

4 Decorative fillets and chamfers don't belong in the sketch, They should be solid modeled and belong at the end of the timeline

3. Everything that can be modeled with solid features, or surfaces should be modeled with them and does not be long into a sketch.

If you honor those guidelines you'll find that a timeline for sketch is simply not so important.

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

chrisplyler — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 15:05:09 GMT

The sketch pattern icon is sometimes visible, and the pattern can be edited if you click on it.

But it isn't always visible, and sometimes very hard to find. Solving that problem would serve the same purpose as listing patterns in the Browser or whatever.

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

GRSnyder — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 20:25:05 GMT

One other thing that hasn't been mentioned and is possibly useful: you can drag timeline elements around as long as you don't violate any dependencies. So if you want to project more recently created geometry into a sketch, you can often just move the sketch forward in time so that it's created after the new geometry. Or move the new geometry back in time to before the sketch.

Of course, this assumes that the sketch and geometry aren't intimately interconnected. But if they are, it's probably advisable to create an additional sketch anyway just to keep things clear.

I'm surprised at the number of people who want sketches to have timelines. I can see some value in this, but it has always seemed to me like a good design decision that sketches are atomic entities which come into being fully formed at a single point in time. Sketch timelines seem like they'd be enormously complex from a technical perspective, and they'd primarily serve to confuse people and encourage bad design practices.

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

jeff_strater — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 02:11:42 GMT

I don't know CATIA V5 at all. But, I'd like to see how this "sketch timeline" works in a practical sense. But, an important point here is that in every other sketcher that I am aware of, and in Fusion, Sketch is, by definition, a completely unordered set of geometry, constraints and dimensions (with one exception: Offset). Ignoring Offset, there is no order what so ever to the curves, constraints and dimensions are evaluated. Creating line1 and then line2 and then a parallel constraint between the two, and then a distance dimension between the lines is exactly the same as if you create line2 before line1, and the dimension before the parallel constraint. At solve time, all the geometry and constraints are thrown into the sketch solver, and it is solved. So, I'm not sure how a sketch timeline would even work. How could you tell if reordering a line before another line would have any effect?

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

john_tackett_iii — Sun, 25 May 2025 19:23:25 GMT

I am not sure how the underlying programming for fusion 360 compares to other 3d CAD software as I am very new to any form of drafting (about two months, entirely learning as I go in my spare time from work), but I do know that a competitor of fusion 360 is able to allow editing of patterns and some other functions, such as mirroring. I feel like this is possible in fusion, since I have been able to edit such patterns when editing a previous sketch left errors in a sketch with a pattern. It would be really nice to see this implemented.

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

GRSnyder — Sun, 25 May 2025 20:34:11 GMT

Patterns and mirrors have constraint-style icons. Double click to edit a pattern. Mirrors are pushed down to the level of individual sketch elements when you create them, so there’s nothing to edit per se. But you can freely delete them or add additional mirrored elements.

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

TheCADWhisperer — Sun, 25 May 2025 20:57:00 GMT

@john_tackett_iii wrote:
... when editing a previous sketch left errors in a sketch with a pattern.

@john_tackett_iii

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

As far as most used sketch pattern functions - the same in any MCAD product.

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

alexG68E2 — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 15:38:21 GMT

I just need the option to create a time-lined sketch for use in particular circumstances, for example when using a sketch to extrude/cut a radial spline pattern for a torqued coupling. The sketch would include a circular pattern a time line would allow this pattern to edited

Re: A Timeline For Sketches?

jeff_strater — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 23:24:11 GMT

You can edit sketch patterns today: