Vexed by basics

[Anonymous]

There are a number of basic things I can't seem to find in Fusion - either I've learned the wrong terminology when I studied design or I've picked up the wrong terms while exploring 3D printing the last couple years.

The first is the most embarrassing: I cannot get fusion to let me fluidly draw a contiguous set of lines without drawing a spline. The extra click required to draw a second line also means pausing and re-starting mouse travel, more than tripling the time it takes to, say, draw a simple triangle.

I suffer this most when I am trying to realize a set of construction lines. Is there a way to select a set of construction lines and push them from the sketch to the surface/solid workspace other than just drawing lines over the top of them?

Third problem is point-placement: Imagine I have a 10mm vertical line and I want to place a point 1.34mm right of the top of the line and .701mm left of the bottom. I can't sketch dimensions for this, because I have to place the point first. If I was using less precise numbers, I could just zoom in and find the right guide lines to place my point, but the only other solution is to draw a guide line and clutter up my sketch.

Sketchup and others solve this through measuring - the measuring instrument snaps to points/edges/faces by default but you can also just anchor it anywhere in space and then repeat for the endpoint, and use a modifier to ask it to place a point.

In fusion terms: this would be like being able to draw a line but on completion, instead of placing the line, just placing a point at the 2nd point of the line.

Is there a way to do something like this?

Finally: Is there a way to denote an entire sketch or object as being self-mirroring? I'm trying to design a rail, so I sketch and implement the T of one side, mirror it to form the full rail, but then when adjustments to one side get replicated for me, e.g moving the left face of the vertical bar, the same action (instead of it's reverse) is applied to the mirror causing the vertical bar to shrink.

It would also just be really nice to see the mirror of a sketch as you design it: the part my rail has to fit is not symmetrical, but the rail has to be 🙂 For now I've just copied the travel's sketch and reversed it over itself, but that makes it hard to understand at some points.

Edit: Lastly, I'm trying to find a way to draw a line centered on a point - e.g draw a 20mm line centered on a point, it seemed like I've seen people do this in Fusion videos?

[davebYYPCU]

Fusion is different, and powerful, might help to leave your prior experience at the door.

The first is the most embarrassing: I cannot get fusion to let me fluidly draw a contiguous set of lines without drawing a spline.

Have you tried, click drag click drag click, works for me.

Is there a way to select a set of construction lines and push them from the sketch to the surface/solid workspace other than just drawing lines over the top of them?  Yes and no,

No - all sketch curves have to be in a sketch,

Yes -you can Project curves to Surface, they will reside in a 3d sketch that you created for that purpose.

Third problem is point-placement: …. Place the point, then dimension it from your reference, no need for the clutter....

Sketchup and others solve this through measuring - the measuring instrument snaps to points/edges/faces by default but you can also just anchor it anywhere in space and then repeat for the endpoint, and use a modifier to ask it to place a point. 

that's harder to do, than what I said,

Finally: Is there a way to denote an entire sketch or object as being self-mirroring?

No.

It would also just be really nice to see the mirror of a sketch as you design it:  

Maybe, Only section of Fusion with live mirror is in the Sculpt environment.

Might help...

[Anonymous]

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@davebYYPCU wrote:

Fusion is different, and powerful, might help to leave your prior experience at the door.

Noted, but much of this is just expectations based on my the technical drawing/draughting training back in school 🙂

@davebYYPCU wrote:

The first is the most embarrassing: I cannot get fusion to let me fluidly draw a contiguous set of lines without drawing a spline.

Have you tried, click drag click drag click, works for me.

I hadn't, when I did just now, it didn't work, but the original method suddenly did. Confused, I went to another project and click-drag worked, but the original method didn't. I'm increasingly feeling there's a bunch of state information I'm somehow not picking up or is just missing. I haven't untrained myself from the habit of "Create New ..." (eg component) and immediately typing the name, which in Fusion sometimes results in a whole bunch of unanticipated state changes...

@davebYYPCU wrote:

Is there a way to select a set of construction lines and push them from the sketch to the surface/solid workspace other than just drawing lines over the top of them?  Yes and no,

No - all sketch curves have to be in a sketch,

Yes -you can Project curves to Surface, they will reside in a 3d sketch that you created for that purpose.

I mean the face they produce: the obvious solution would be to remove the construction flag from the lines, but I want to keep the lines.

Demo-only example: draw a construction triangle, then create a face using those lines without losing the original lines.

@davebYYPCU wrote:

Third problem is point-placement: ….

Place the point, then dimension it from your reference, no need for the clutter....

Sketchup and others solve this through measuring - the measuring instrument snaps to points/edges/faces by default but you can also just anchor it anywhere in space and then repeat for the endpoint, and use a modifier to ask it to place a point. 

that's harder to do, than what I said,

Ok, example:

I have 3 important reference points (x,y relative to origin): (2.5mm, 11mm, 3.25mm, 37mm, 21mm, -7mm)

Method 1:

Select construction>line, click origin, move mouse along x or y to get a positional reading, and place a mark, then draw a second line along the opposite axis to get a reading, e.g. zoom in and move the cursor to 2.5mm along x, then draw a line 11mm up along y.

Method 2:

Select a construction>rectangle, similar to above,

Method 3:

Place a point, switch to dimension, dimension the line, adjust.

Method 4: (most other apps)

As Method 2 but instead of placing the lines it *just* places the point. As you move the mouse cursor, you get a live reference from the origin point you selected, but the result is just a point, not lines.

The "get" here is that as I move the cursor, either a tooltip or a status indicator tells me the current offset/position of the mouse cursor.

In each of the 3 on the left, I can tell where my cursor is relative to some reference point on the fly. Vs on the right, in fusion, there are no reference numbers visible anywhere in sketch mode while moving the cursor while placing points.

Even MS 3D Builder has a ruler to give you some reference.

Without such a display, its easy to lose context of scale. In a complex series of sketches I might be looking at something macro or meta, and I don't see quick way to tell whether I'm moving micrometers or feet.

Maybe this would be a good use case for click-drag: select point, click, hold, drag, you get a tool tip while you're dragging tell you how far you are from the original point?

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

And maybe close the door, 

I remember those days too, called connect the dots. (For me Tech drawing was 50 years ago.)

I have taken the numbers you supplied, and found that there are two outcomes available, you didn't mention whether all the dimensions are absolute, (likely) or relative, (could be).

So it looks like this, 

And when finishing the sketch, it looks like this, on the proviso that two of the dots would not be there.

In fusion, we can't make anything so far....

Sketching lines - you said, I hadn't, when I did just now, it didn't work, but the original method suddenly did. Confused,

I am too, but lets move on, 

I see that we were not talking about 3d sketches, so you then said, 

I mean the face they produce: the obvious solution would be to remove the construction flag from the lines, but I want to keep the lines.  Now we are on the same page, you can have both, Fusion is smart, even if a little different.

The Construction lines you need, 

Demo-only example: draw a construction triangle, then create a face using those lines without losing the original lines.

Fusion cant do that, as written,

Change them to normal lines, you can make the face, and keep the lines, Fusion just turns the lights off, if your preferences ask it to.

Comment that is not meant to be critical, your way works just fine, is understandable, 

I found myself repeating myself to do it your way for this demo.

In fusion, a line has three articles, two points and a connector, in your demo there are now 11 points and 3 lines.

Fusion's house keeping is showing just the 5 we started with, and has automatically hidden (but they are still there if needed,) the 6 associated directly to the 3 lines.

Why points?  You can do the same with rubber banding the 2 point rectangle, set the dimensions with the tool active, then confirm.

The 2 point Rectangle is Click, Drag, enter the value, Tab, Enter the value, Enter.  This is the way to go.

(the Experts will see I added them to the original points for demo purposes.)

Feet - yards or millimetres, Document settings can be set for the file you are in, if you are not using the Defaults,

make something, Fusion will zoom fit to the screen.

Let me know if stuck....

[Anonymous]

Great to have someone on the same page -- those were 40 years ago for me 🙂

Using construction boxes is the way I'm moving forward.

Lines: It was back to working in contiguous line mode, with click-drag drawing arcs. Until I wanted to make images for this reply, at which point it was back to needing click-palooza. This is usually some piece of state that is not well surfaced in software, and probably the result of my trying to type the component name after creating a new one without first slow-clicking the text box...

The part about feet/inches, meters/mm, is more about ordinality than whether it's imperial or metric. Go ahead and tell me what the red-highlighted square represents: I know I can discover it by taking an action, but that's my point - the only action I should need to take is to look at the screen to know this particular information. Maybe this is something I should post as a suggestion instead?

[TheCADWhisperer]

Tell me what you want to model.

This can all be solved in a 10 minute video.

[davebYYPCU]

Did you see my PM? click on the envelope to the left of your account name in this Forum.

Your unknown dimension is 5 x grid division.  Your pic is zoomed in enough to hide the Guide dimension on the axis, so only you will know that answer.  

All the articles are construction, I am unaware if they can be dimensioned, it is not a workflow I use.

Sketches in the Browser list can have the dimensions, visible when not being edited.

Are you aware that sketches are to model with, 

you need a Model to obtain a 2d (Tech) Drawing as output from Fusion.

Renaming a Component is a long stretch to effect how the sketch environment works, 

we would need a screencast to see how you do it.