topic Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane? in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

smithblazen — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 04:55:06 GMT

Not so fast. I thought I had this figured out but there has to be an easier way to do this.the "U: is on the XY. the two discs are out of this world. In Tinkercad you can select an object and then bump the thing in as little as .1mm... I just dont know how to do that here.

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

dsouzasujay — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 05:06:08 GMT

Hi @smithblazen ,

Why do you want to put all the bodies on a single plane?

If you are planning to assemble the design then convert bodies into components and use joints.

Convert bodies to components:

Create Joints:

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

smithblazen — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:08:05 GMT

WHY?

Because I am making something that requires everything to be on the same plane. You know, the bottoms all have to be on the same bottom plane.

Is there a way to make this happen. It is not an intuitive process.

I created the component and I created the joint but Manually aligning the components , when I do not know what I am doing, is highly inaccurate in a precision tools such as F360.

One component has a blue ring around it? There other doesnt. I cannot be sure that these are all on the same plane. I cannot leave this up to chance, then when you create a file and print, I dont want to say, " oh look they weren't even afterall"....

Any ideas?

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

dsouzasujay — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:06:32 GMT

Hi @smithblazen ,

Can you please attach the design that you have already created in Fusion 360? You can export by File>Export *.f3d/*.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply.

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

smithblazen — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:47:57 GMT

here she is. for hanging picture frames.

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

jhackney1972 — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 17:28:57 GMT

You need to resist using the Move command and create Components, put your sketches and bodies, in them and use Joints to position your components. If you want to align bodies to a feature, I choose the X-Y model origin plane, use the Align command.

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

dsouzasujay — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 17:35:25 GMT

Hi @smithblazen ,

There are few things that made the sketch not on the same plane

The sketch 2 is not on the XY plane, It's at the offset of '0.639 mm',
- Did you move the sketch after creating it?
- This is the reason some of the bodies are not aligned.
- If we edit sketch 2 and move back to the XY plane then all the bodies will be aligned.
The sketches are not constrained (Not added dimensions)
One of the sketch is created in the form/sculpt environment, then extruded in design.
When i open the design i saw you have moved the components, you need to capture the position after moving the components

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

smithblazen — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 18:05:46 GMT

The OP is what I started with.

I will sort through all these helpful instructions. I cannot thank you all for taking the time..... You have opened a whole new waay of approaching this.

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

smithblazen — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 18:09:07 GMT

Oh Lordy...it certainly helps....Now I know how to do that!!!! you made it look so easy. Nothing but trouble is all I have been in to since I began this road..... ...THANKS YOU

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

etfrench — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 22:49:35 GMT

You can also use a Planar joint.

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

smithblazen — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 03:46:18 GMT

That really helped me understand a lot and followed your example to understand how to do this accurately.....I am sure there are other ways to do the same thing...but the screencast is an amazing learning tool!

I was able to verify a needed dimension by drawing a line roughly where the INSIDE ARCs touch the round bodies and then a line perpendicular to the middle of the curved body to get a measurement....i could not figure out any other way to do this--what I want is a 14mm distance but it is less than that right now...

You said to avoid using the MOVE function, but I need move the curved body up a few mm.

I remember moving this around before and it would change shape. Is there a way to constrain the dimentions after it has already been built? I was lucky that it fell in to place as close as it did as I was looking for 2.5mm thick and 4.5mm wide.

The other thing I noticed was the curved body protrudes into the LEFT round body's hole ever so slightly....another reason I need to move this thing around.

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

wellperry_ — Wed, 22 May 2024 01:53:20 GMT

Came here looking for an answer to a similar problem. Used Ctrl+c > Ctrl+v to make several copies of the same body (for a 1/4" tool bit holder). Then used the move command to pre-position them all relatively close to how i wanted them oriented. Wasn't until i went to zoom out i realized 2 of them got all wonky and one moved vertically up the Z-axis and the other vertically down the Z-axis when i positioned them. I just used the align tool earlier in another model i created to hold 3 9V batteries close together for the power bank in a small electronics project but didn't realize you could use the align tool in that way. Thank you for this video response, it was very helpful!

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

crafty_dove — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 17:27:30 GMT

This video reply saved me! Thank you for the time you put into this, I'm sure many appreciate this.

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

nhammondMXGYC — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:23:14 GMT

Thank you this helped a lot

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

28afeng — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 02:22:02 GMT

i made a random sketch on the bottom plane and measured the distance from it to the bottom face of what i wanted to align with the bottom, then used Move to move that distance. (except for some reason the y was registering as x when i initially did it, it worked when i edited the feature.) <--- ignore if it worked without that

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

TheCADWhisperer — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 04:53:38 GMT

@28afeng

It probably would have been best to start a new discussion thread with a link back to this thread as reference.

Move is almost always the wrong move as used by beginners.

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

Re: Is there a way to easily put all bodies on the same plane?

etfrench — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:31:27 GMT

Measure tool isn't accurate unless you set the decimal places larger than your tolerances. It's better to use joints for positioning.