trying to make a number of "shelves" in one project.

[mavonte.J]

ok

so i made Shelf A in fusion 360. it has about 7 bodies so i compiled all of those into one component for easy moving and "copying".

I used a rectangular pattern on this shelf  (A) and was able to make shelves B C and D. however i want to make the front of shelf E line up with the sides of Shelf A (the side closest to the top of the page) and the front of shelf F line up with the side of shelf D (the side closest to the bottom of the picture).

each time i try to align stuff the shelves fall apart, only a part of the shelf lines up to the side, or something random happens. I want to do this so i can make the "dresser" that surrounds all of these shelves and have raised groves to accommodate for specific spacing in relation to each other.

thanks for

[sachlene.singh]

Hi @mavonte.J

Do you mind sharing the file you are working with? It will help us out if we're looking at how the model was build.

Thanks!

[punking315]

Each shelf should be its own component.

Then you can position them with joints.

[Brady_Fulton]

Should have read your post twice, bad prior advice 🙂

Make sure you have a component grounded, this is a good habit

When you do your pattern, go ahead and make two columns, you'll have (8) shelves, but your can "un-check" two of them and then you'll have your 6, but two will be the wrong direction.

You can use the align feature, but you need to do a move after this to put separation between the shelves.

After this, make sure you do a "capture position" so you don't loose the location of your components

Make the parts (which I'm guessing are bodies at this time) into components, then make a "rigid group" under assemble, then they should all move together.

Let me know if I misunderstood or was incorrect in my guessing.

[mavonte.J]

http://a360.co/2AR9RAn

should hopefully be the latest version of my file.

I thought grounding would make it so that they couldn't move from the spot? or is that just trying it to where it is on the flat plane?

and as i'm trying to make the enclosing box shenanigans are starting to happen because of the way i have moved them without using "align" or joints".

Because i free moved them to the roundabouts where they belong when i am designing the enclosing "dresser" I ended up with spacial conflicts where the dresser's innards would be. So i would move the shelves down or to the right but because they aren't moved in their sketches( or something) it's not reflected when i am working on the drawer's sketch. I am slowly going back and forth seeing where i can move stuff to be used as a final reference but it would be awesome to say "this shelf is X from this other shelf and X from this other shelf in this plane" without having to go back and forth in time every time to establish that."

Hopefully that was clear enough lol

[Brady_Fulton]

I always ground a component, just to be sure there is something anchored down in my assembly. It does "lock" that component in space.

I feel cruel when I say this, but it might be a good time to go back to shelf A and start over from there if things are getting wonky. Are all the sketches for Shelf A inside the component or are they in the top level assembly sketch folder?

When you do move and capture position commands, they are recorded in the timeline, so moving back/forth in the timeline will push around your components. 

Your desire to set offsets from shelf to shelf on each plane is possible. You just need to setup user parameters and then utilize them when you create your joints.

[sachlene.singh]

@mavonte.J,

This is a fabulous problem to solve with parametric design and you are on the right track!

A few simple rules of housekeeping for CAD modeling in general.

1. While assembling components, always start with grounding the component that will not move. It fixes the ground component in space and that makes it very easy to establish how the other components will work around it. In this case, the book bottom would be grounded, and all the shelves would move with respect to it.

Once you have grounded one component, you can specify other stationary components with a rigid joint or as a rigid group, or other joint types to represent the motion.

2. When creating new parts (components - the shelves in this case), make it a best practice to start a New Component before you start sketching to create that component. This ensures that related sketches etc live within that new component. This does not happen when you convert a body to a component.

3. For parametric design driven from the top down (which this is a great example of), it is sometimes a good idea to have a sketch that drives the placement of components. So within the Book Bottom component, you could draw a sketch which would define the placement of the shelves. This sketch is also where you would define the placement of the shelves precisely with dimensions and constraints so that they line up perfectly.

Then with each component, you can project that sketch and use it as a reference to create the shelves as components.

What this enables is that one parent sketch drives most of the design. So if you were to change a dimension in the parent sketch, your entire model would update.

4. User parameters - are cool to use for an application like this where you can specify a parameter for the thickness of the shelves and then have that parameter drive the extrusions for the shelves.

Hurrah for parametric design!! 🙂

I hope that most of this makes sense and is helpful.

[mavonte.J]

@Brady_Fulton
i had to figure out how to exactly get the shelf model made so when i edited one side other sides would adjust. So i built one shelf (the first) by 1.making a front panel, 2. Make one side, 3. Reflect side via rectangle pattern so changes could reflect. 4. Reflect front panel to make the back panel so changes would be reflected here too. 5. Make bottom panel. 6. Lock in place all features then work on making the mini handle with "logo" square.

After the first shelf was made i made 4 more with rectangular pattern then copy paste for the 5 n 6th shelf. Then using free move (unreliable way) i rotated and moved the shelves to where they are. After that i made a sketch on a new component for what they all sit on in. However i have to now move them so they line up on this bottom plate and that's causing issues. Where in this process could i assign them to have different spacing between each other at different points? The point of this model is that the shelf and enclosing box are based on the dice you plan on having within it, and all measurements adjust on that single setting.

@Sachlene
1. With this concept the size of the shelves may change so would that cause an issue with the grounded bottom plate at the end of the day? Having a joint means that you have to already have that object where you "want it to be" and i thought it would cause issues in the long run.

2. One shelf was created , then was consolidated into one component then that component was patterned and copied to make the other shelves.

3. I think i need an example of this and this might be the fix i need. I dont know how to do this in having 6 shelves line up how i have them without doing ninja free move work. The shelves can change their size and i dont know how to make it so that distance between then and the enclosing structure change as well.

4. Most of the dimensions currently are ran based on the size of the contents involved so I'm fully using parameters =D

[mavonte.J]

@sachlene.singh sorry didn't have full name typed out

[sachlene.singh]

@mavonte.J

Do you mind making your file downloadable in the link that you shared?

that will it will be easier for me to show you what I mean.

[mavonte.J]

http://a360.co/2AR9RAn

should be downloadable now! @sachlene.singh

[mavonte.J]

guh. I just tried to alter an element of a shelf and it was a NIGHTMARE once it rendered. lol looks like i gotta start all over in making these shelves but i'm sure starting back at the beginning might be the option here. is there anyway to carry over user parameters to a new project?

[sachlene.singh]

hey @mavonte.J

My apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I have been out of the office for the holidays. Back now and ready to roll. Happy new Year to you 🙂

You can export/import parameters using the Parameter I/O app. You can find it here: https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/HelpDoc?appId=1801418194626000805&appLang=en&os=Win64

Here's a model and video I created a while ago which uses the app and a similar design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EiluC7ayOs&t=1s

Please let me know what other questions I might be able to answer about your design.