topic Re: Set visibility for a group of features? in Fusion Support Forum

Set visibility for a group of features?

Torquindsl — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 18:11:18 GMT

I am creating a drawing of a drill index. The sketch has about 71 different size holes in it (circles on it). I would like to be able to hide rows of holes when I generate my drawing as there will be so many dimensions on the drawing. I have four rows of holes. If I could create four drawings with one row of holes each, and the applicable dimensions for the visible holes it would make the drawing easier to read. I looked at Selection Sets, but that does not seem to be able to allow toggling of visibility.

Is there a way to do what I want here?

I am not concerned about the 3D aspect as I am just drilling hole in a piece of aluminum for this project.

Thanks,

Chris

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

jeff_strater — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 18:47:26 GMT

Features do not have "visibility". You can, however, Suppress and Unsuppress them. This is something that I do in designs with detailed features like etchings that are expensive to compute. I create a Selection Set of the features, select them, and Suppress them. Later I can re-select that Selection Set and Unsuppress them.

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

Torquindsl — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 19:05:06 GMT

I am a beginner, so can you tell me how this is done?

Thanks,

Chris

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

jeff_strater — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 21:14:52 GMT

sure, happy to help. The video below just shows using the selection set - if you need info on creating one, I can show that, as well, but this model had the selection set already created. The basic idea, though, is to select the features in the timeline, then right click and choose "create selection set". Once the selection set is there, then clicking on "select" by that selection set in the browser will just select those features. Then, right click, and choose "suppress" (if they are not suppressed already), or "unsupress" if they are suppressed currently. This can be quite useful, IMO, especially for these kinds of cosmetic features which are expensive to compute

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

Torquindsl — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 22:39:58 GMT

I don't get a menu item to suppress anything. While I can create selection sets, and have created four of them, one for each row of circles, I'm beginning to suspect that I can't separate these things because it is all one sketch.

Here is my file: https://a360.co/2yvjabX

I wonder if I should create the plate then create a separate sketch on the plate for each row of holes. Would that allow me to group them so I could show and hide the rows for when I generate a drawing?

Thanks,

Chris

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

jeff_strater — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 22:59:53 GMT

OK, thanks for the model. Saves a ton of time. So, there is an underlying terminology mixup. I apologize for that. I never know how much to assume about anyone's level of familiarity. When I said "feature", I mean items in the timeline:

Your design has only one feature - a sketch. You cannot suppress a sketch circle (nor can you make it invisible). In order to do what I was suggesting, you'll need to make the solid features - then those can be suppressed. In the video below I do that. However, selection sets are a bit of overkill here, because each feature controls a row on its own, so you can just select and suppress the features individually. But, the selection set method does work, and extends to include other features (say you put a Fillet around the top of each hole). Anyway, hope this screencast helps:

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

Torquindsl — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 14:04:00 GMT

Thanks for the screencast. It helped. I found that I could not select the circles viewing it the same way you did. I had to turn off the body so it looked like a sketch again to select what I wanted to extrude then turn the body back on so I could select the face to extrude to (in case I change the thickness of the plate). For whatever reason I could not select the circles through the body as it appears you did in the screencast.

Now, as I am modeling this to figure out where I want the holes in each row, what happens if I decide I want to move one hole from row 2 to row 3? Will I be able to change the selection set that hole is in or will I have to recreate the circle, extrude it into a hole, then add it to the different selection set?

Thanks,

Chris

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

jeff_strater — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 16:37:16 GMT

Sorry, I did kinda just breeze past that. The tool I used for that was "Select Other". If you click and hold the left mouse button for 1/2 second, you will get the Select Other menu:

There are two tabs to this widget. The default is the "Depth" tab. It allows you to navigate along the selection ray (between your eye and the selection point on the model) all the way through the model.

Everything that is selectable will show up in this list, and you can choose what you want to select. In my case, I chose the Profile object of the circle. There plenty of other ways to select the profile in this case - rotating the model, or, as you did, temporarily turning off the body.

The "Parents" tab allows you to navigate the component hierarchy, so if you want to select a body, component, or parent component, you can do that:

regarding: "Now, as I am modeling this to figure out where I want the holes in each row, what happens if I decide I want to move one hole from row 2 to row 3? Will I be able to change the selection set that hole is in or will I have to recreate the circle, extrude it into a hole, then add it to the different selection set?"

the answer is yes: you can edit either the feature (in this case one of the Extrudes) or the selection set to change the composition of what is in each "row" in your design. The UI on editing selection sets is kinda funky, so if you want to know that, let me know, and I can provide another screencast for that.

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

Torquindsl — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 01:09:19 GMT

OK, previously I extruded all holes in a row, per your example, as one extrude. Since I did that, Fusion views that as a set, right? It is unclear as to how I would move a hole from one row to another, and from one set to another, since all of the holes in a given row are currently part of a single extrude step.

I get the feeling that in order to be able to move holes between selection sets I would need to extrude them all individually, which would allow me to select any group of them and add them to a selection set. I'm happy to be wrong here if there is another way to do it.

I was hoping Fusion would be smart enough to recognize each circle (in this case) as a separate entity and allow me to group them together within the sketch, and the same for the holes in the 3D model, even though I extruded them in groups. Perhaps I just don't know enough about it yet.

Thanks,

Chris

Re: Set visibility for a group of features?

jeff_strater — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 01:52:06 GMT

you are correct. The only way to have full flexibility would be to extrude each hole as a separate feature, then use selection sets of those features and suppress together to turn on and off each hole, or row of holes. There is no magic here, sorry.