topic Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum in Fusion Support Forum

Difficulty searching for answers on forum

garmitage — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 19:41:21 GMT

Can anyone tell me what's going on here?

I'm trying to figure out what these red circles are about.

(See image #1)

I found this post about projection points, which didn't explain much.

(See image #2)

So I did the search below, and it came up with no results. It should at lease have come up with the one above, right?

(see image #3)

What's going on? How can I find out what these circles are about and how to get rid of them? I am often coming up empty when searching for seemingly basic stuff.

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

kate.raskauskas — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 20:11:24 GMT

Hi @garmitage,

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble finding resources!

The red/purple circles are, as James said, projection points. Projection geometry (points, lines, etc) is created when you project 3D geometry onto a sketch with the "Project" or "Intersect" operations. Essentially, they're fully constrained sketch geometry that reference the 3D object they're projected from-- if you project a box onto a sketch and then move the box, the projected lines will move to match the box's new position.

There are several ways to get rid of them. The first is to click on the point and hit "delete" or "backspace" on your keyboard. If you want to keep the geometry but delete the reference linking the sketch geometry to the 3D object (in the example above, so the lines no longer move with the box), click on the point to highlight it and then select the projection glyph and delete that.

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

garmitage — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 18:59:38 GMT

Please view this screencast. I am still unable to delete these elements.

http://autode.sk/2kswkfa

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

garmitage — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 18:13:48 GMT

Also, can anyone explain my failure to find anything about this when I did a search for it even though there is at least one posting (see screen-shots above)?

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

innovatenate — Sat, 16 Dec 2017 00:34:45 GMT

I think you need to be explicit about your selections. From your screencast, I can't tell if you're selecting and edge or a sketch entity. Please see the below screencast for more detail on what I mean.

http://autode.sk/2kxkFM6

Another tip is to use the visibility toggles in the browser to reduce the workspace clutter.

Note that I'm using the select other tool to validate my selections when I have so many things stacked on top of one another.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?caas=caas%2Fvideo%2Fyoutube%2Fwatch-v-hCVi1hrjgdM.html

I hope this helps. Please let us know either.

Thanks,

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

garmitage — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 18:35:58 GMT

"I think you need to be explicit about your selections. From your
screencast, I can't tell if you're selecting and edge or a sketch
entity. Please see the below screencast for more detail on what I mean."

How do I even know if I'm selecting an edge or a sketch entity? In the
screencast that line and its endpoints become highlighted along with the
other entities in the sketch as I'm opening the sketch. Doesn't that
show that it's a line in the sketch?

I don't know if there is supposed to be audio in the screencast I was
sent, but without some audio I'm sorry to say that it's entirely unclear
what is being communicated

I appreciate being introduced to the select other function, but I don't
understand how I would use it in this situation.

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

innovatenate — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 19:26:01 GMT

I'm happy to elaborate, thanks for letting me know what was unclear. I apologize for vague language. In the screencast, I'm showing how using the select other tool and how decluttering the workspace can make it easier to select geometry, and delete or modify it.

The select other tool provides a list of things that are under the cursor. By using this tool, you can actively choose what you are selecting. Whereas if you are clicking in the workspace, it may not be as clear what is actually be selected.

Toggling the visibility of things is a good way to de-clutter the workspace and removed stacked geometry.

I note you may also use the selection filters to prevent inadvertent selections.

There's a nice handout from a two years ago (page 59-60), highlight what some of the geometry colors and shapes mean.

http://aucache.autodesk.com/au2016/sessionsFiles/20709/11618/handout_20709_PD20709-Doering-AU2016.pdf

You should be aware that if you are sketching on a face, there are some preferences that can generate sketch geometry you may not be aware of.

I hope this makes more sense. Let me know if it helps.

Thanks,

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

garmitage — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 17:48:36 GMT

Can you tell me some advantages and disadvantages of having the auto project options on or off in the Design preferences?

BTW- I was able to delete the projected elements by using the other selection tool.

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

jeff_strater — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 03:46:55 GMT

Hi @garmitage,

This is a very subjective question. I can only speak from my own preferences and biases. I have my settings set to:

"autoproject geometry on active sketch plane" is set to on
"autoproject edges on reference" is set to off

The reason I like this combination is because I often will dimension on constrain to edges of the planar face I sketch on, so I like to have that available. But, the "autoproject edges on reference", in my opinion, is a bit dangerous. You can very easily, and without being aware of it, project lots of geometry into the sketch, even in cases where it is not really needed, but just happens to be underneath the cursor at the time you are creating geometry.

I consider having too many projections to be a potential for problems. Most of the sketch errors or warnings that I see are from Projection failures. So, in my opinion, each projection is a chance for a future failure. My approach, then, is to limit the number of projections as much as possible. Further, what you project is as important as whether you project at all. Some objects are more stable than others, so when you can, you should use those.

@Phil.E and I did a class at Autodesk University a month ago on Fusion sketching, and we discussed this topic. Here is the handout we used for this class: Sketch compute stability tips.

Jeff

Re: Difficulty searching for answers on forum

garmitage — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 19:39:58 GMT

Great information. Thanks.