topic Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:53:56 GMT

Hello Smart People,

I'm new to design and recently mastered how to make print in place hinges. However, I have evolved in my head, just not in my design capabilities.

I'm attempting to design a travel Charger based on the images below. The hinge will fold back into a stand, and then, when pulled out, securely lock in at 93 degrees for the watch to be attached and charged, and when finished, fold back into the stand.Open

Watch Piece Folded inFolded

I have created (attached) a base stand component and a print-in-place hinge for the watch charging component. I am stuck on how I can make the hinge lock securely at the final angle and then be able to fold back into the base. In the design, I created multiple pieces of the watch component to demonstrate the final angle, resting and print positions.(See images below). I assume I need something that will "snap" in when the hinge reaches the desired position. I'm not sure how practical this will be for 3D printing, but I'm trying to test the theory and learn how to stop a hinge at a specific position. Any help, suggestions and theories on how I can achieve this would be fantastic.

Thank in advance to anyone who can offer to help me!

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 05:49:02 GMT

@bawd0043

Did you intend for these two circles to be concentric?

None of your sketches are fully defined.

I would have modeled with symmetry about the Origin.

I suspect that you will also want to learn about converting Bodies to Components and Assembly Joints.

You will also want to learn about Interference Detection (although I am going to suggest an interference detent for locking position).

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 07:42:29 GMT

Thank you for your response. I want to clarify that my design is still in a rough stage, and I understand that I haven't constrained everything properly. I've just learned how to convert bodies into components and use assembly joints. However, I struggled to figure out how to utilise them effectively, which led me to revert to a more basic approach of creating multiple bodies for visualisation, hoping that a solution would present itself. I realise that I need to spend some time learning about interference detection, as I believe it will significantly aid my design process. Thus, meaning I have no idea what an interference detent for locking position means.

Any assistance you can offer is much appreciated

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TrippyLighting — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 13:52:15 GMT

@bawd0043 wrote:

...I've just learned how to convert bodies into components ...

That isn't really a recommended workflow for most designs.

To answer your questions, in you current design, you'd use assembly joints and set joint limits.
However, for that to work you'll have to convert the bodies to components. Assembly joints only work with components.

Generally, I would recommend going through one of the free tutorial courses Autodesk has created to get you started on the right foot.

Looking a your design, you did not start on the right foot 😉

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:10:03 GMT

@bawd0043

Did you intend for these two circles to be offset or to be concentric?

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:56:47 GMT

@bawd0043 wrote:
I want to clarify that my design is still in a rough stage, and I understand that I haven't constrained everything properly.

Let's do that now.

Start a new file.

Sketch a Rectangle to the right of the Origin as shown...

Right click on the left Vertical line and toggle to Centerline.

Now add the two dimensions shown below...

Finally, add a Midpoint Constraint between the Origin and the Vertical Centerline.

What do you observe about the color of the sketch after adding the Midpoint Constraint?

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:22:00 GMT

@bawd0043

Now sketch and dimension the "zigzag".

Add an Equal (=) Constraint between the two short horizontal lines so that you do not have to dimension twice.

Note the red padlock symbol on the sketch glyph in the browser.

Offset the "zigzag" by 0.5mm what to do observe about the red padlock on the sketch glyph in the browser?

What do you observe about the endponts of the zigzag?

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 06:36:12 GMT

Thank you for taking time to walk me through the step by step. I followed you insruction to constraint everything and it was a lot quicker and more efficent than I was doing. When I did the mirror for the second zig zag I could just use the origin centre line.

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 06:38:13 GMT

@bawd0043

I did not give next set of correct steps.

Attach your progress file here for next set of steps.

(We don't generally mirror in sketches.)

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 07:31:10 GMT

I have gone back to the beginning and started again as suggested. I added the joint origin. I think it's in the right spot?I also corrected the circles so they were also constrained to each other in the correct position

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 20:51:33 GMT

Please see attached file

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 21:43:52 GMT

@bawd0043

(view in My Videos)

As I work my way through this - I cannot figure out the logic of these 3 dimensions?

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 21:54:20 GMT

@bawd0043

My original instruction set explicitly instructed to place the midpoint of the vertical centerline at the origin.

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 23:06:05 GMT

I am so grateful for the time and patience you have with me. I have definitely learnt so many different and more efficient ways to do things. I have pretty much used YouTube to learn Fusion. I originally did a lot of the online fusion tutorials, and then as I evolved, watched others achieve what I'm trying to. With the hinge to understand what I did, I followed the print in place hinges from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFSRkesRkU tutorial. With the 2 circles, the inner one is the size of an Apple Watch charger

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 06:30:34 GMT

@bawd0043

I am trying to determine what this little line is for?

I suspect it is left over rubbish, but if so, why is it dimensioned rather than deleted?

I see boundary edges of a planar face where I would expect to see only a cylindrical face.

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 22:57:16 GMT

I have used all your suggestions and redone sketches, and now the planar face has gone, which is good. I also got rid of the construction plane

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 22:20:19 GMT

@bawd0043

Start over at Message 7 and follow the instructions precisely.

If you want to learn Fusion (or Inventor, or SolidWorks, or Creo) DO NOT use auto constraints until you have a year or two of experience under your belt. AI stuff hallucinates and as a beginner you do not have the experience to recognize a hallucination.

You want to get a firm grasp on the logic of how the geometry constraints work before trusting AI to work for you.

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 20:22:00 GMT

Thats what I did with the new file started at the beginning

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 06:01:27 GMT

@bawd0043 wrote:
Thats what I did with the new file started at the beginning

Observe that there is no red padlock symbol on the glyph for the Top sketch.

Observe the colors of the circles.

Attempt to drag the center of the circles to the right.

What do you observe?

Click on the image above to enlarge the view.

Re: Hinges to Lock in Place at 93 Degrees and rest at 180 Degrees

bawd0043 — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 10:37:47 GMT

Thank you for your time and assistance. As I mentioned earlier, I’m new to design and was hoping for guidance on how to make hinges stop at a specific angle. The visuals beyond the hinges were only to illustrate the concept, nothing more. I’m concerned I may have frustrated you with my lack of experience, and I’m grateful for the help I received from the community. I did not mean to waste anyone’s time on the forum. Although I’m still unsure how to implement hinges, I understand this may be beyond my current skill level, so I will pause the idea for now until I’m better prepared. I truly appreciate the time and expertise you’ve shared.