[CLOSED] Parting Line Generation Discussion

[TimeraAutodesk]

Parting lines and parting line draft has been one of the highest requested features by our

community over the past few years and now with a renewed focus on manufacturing workflows

and plastic part creation we want to start the discussion about how we can deliver these

manufacturing critical features to our customers.

There are a few things the community can help us get a better grasp on so that we can deliver

the best possible experience. We want to start by understanding more about how you would like parting lines and draft to work within Fusion?

Some things to consider here would be;

- How automated would you like these features to be?

- Would you like to control how the draft is applied from the parting line?

- Do you think there are better ways to achieve this than your current

processes?

We are also looking for partners to be involved in the early phases of these feature sets, so if

you would like to share more information on how you achieve this now and want to be involved

in the early phases feel free to reach out directly to [email protected] 

[SolubleSpork]

I am interested in following the discussion on this topic because although in my professional career I have had a decent amount of experience designing and working with plastic components and ultimately parts with drafts, I do not consider myself an expert in this field.  One particularly annoying situation I have ran into is when a parting line runs across a larger flat surface such that part of the surface is molded from a top mold and part from a side slide.  The nominally "flat surface" now has different drafted faces that can soak up a bunch of my time tring to make sure the tiny faces "along" the parting line are correct when those aren't critical.  I don't know the best solution for making these parts easier, but you better believe I'm interested in the ideas that come up here.

[dxtrstltz]

I was one of those who created IdeaStation tickets for Parting Line Draft ( https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/parting-line-draft/idi-p/7458967 ).
At its most basic, it should work so that you:
1. Pick a draft angle,

2. Pick a plane/face/line/axis to define a direction

3. Pick edges that should follow that direction. Tangent faces should follow automatically, but some might need a way to turn that off. Helpers to choose loops of edges would be welcome.
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I design foundry tooling and everything that is perpendicular to the parting line needs draft. I agree with dexter on the initial suggestions. We typically will add material when applying draft and one thing that may even take it a step farther is having the option to add draft from the top of the part to the parting line, without having the cut the part in half and stitch it back together. However, to start if we could get a draft from edge feature added it would help immensely when working on casting with offset parting. Feel free to reach out with any questions as I would be willing to help get this feature added. This single item is the main reason we do not have more seats of Fusion.   

[JulianGroeli]

Parting line draft is a fundamental tool for plastics design and I'd love to help with this. I have years of experience working with plastic part design other CAD software and am currently "making it work" in Fusion...

- A must have is the ability to specify a hold line when drafting a face. Without this the options are basically to put a plane "close enough" to the draft edge and accept some geometric deviation, or build a loft and patch things back together. These workarounds are slow and imprecise.

- Pull direction, face selection and edge to hold need to be independently selectable.

- Adding or removing material should remember your preference between uses of the draft tool.

- A reference to mold tech texture standards and how much draft is required for each would be handy, so I don't have to go look it up. ie how much draft do I need for MT11010?

- Options like using a surface to split a face and draft up and down from it would great.

Other than that, a more powerful draft check tool would also be great.

- Just being able to change the colors would be great. The dark blue is much too dark, and makes feature details hard to see.

- Entering numbers into the draft dialog box is really cumbersome. ie numbers run out of the text box. Maybe just use some simple +/- stepper buttons to increase/decrease draft measurement by 0.5 deg would be a lot faster than typing it in. 

- Faces that are perpendicular to the draft direction are not colored correctly, and make things more confusing.

- Option to turn off draft tolerance zone by default.

Thank you!

[stiller.design]

being able to make a draft not only based from a plane , but a surface would be super helpful and I really miss that feature. 

[jeff_strater]

parting line draft (including from a surface) is coming soon, in an update later this year.  I don't remember exactly which update will contain this, but I think it is sooner rather than later.

[dxtrstltz]

This is pretty exciting news!!!

[rishabh.bisht]

Glad to share that Parting Line Draft is now available with June 2020 release.

[JulianGroeli]

Great to hear, thank you!

[Anonymous]

I'm very glad to see that this is now implemented. However, I have another request as a refinement. In trying to add draft to the "E" in the screenshot, the new parting line draft tool gave me an error when I try to select the top edge of the "E" to so I can add draft/material from the top edge (see "top edge_fail" screenshot).

It works as expected when I select the bottom edge (see "bottom edge_worked" screenshot).

I typically add draft from the top of the part so having this option would be another good enhancement.

Also, there were more characters that needed draft added, but it only lets you select one complete "parting line". Would it be possible to select multiple chains at one time rather than doing each one individually? For example, if there were five of the E's showing in my screenshot or spelling an entire word like "FUSION" I would need to draft out each letter individually.

Thanks,

Jason

[rishabh.bisht]

Hey @Anonymous ,

Can you try switching the Direction to Symmetric/Two Side and see if it works?

Regarding selection of multiple selection of chains - Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with us. 
Note: With current implementation, IF you can create a parting line (sketch curve) that intersects all the faces you want to draft, it should be doable to draft all letters in one go.

PS: Sorry for the late reply. The message notification got somehow buried in my inbox.

[Anonymous]

Good Morning.

I did try your suggestion on the draft direction and it worked. Thanks as that will be a huge help. I tried a couple of different parts and I was not able to get all the geometry I wanted on the same parting line. Will there be an option to select multiple "parting lines" down the road?

Thanks,

Jason

[rishabh.bisht]

Hi @Anonymous , I am glad to know that it worked. We have also added a better error message for such cases that should point the user towards switching the "Draft Sides".

Regarding the support to select multiple "parting lines": We would like to add more features to the Draft command as well but there are higher priority projects in the works at the moment and I don’t have a good estimate on when we can tackle this. I will get back to you know when I know more. 

[rishabh.bisht]

We have also added support for Move Parting Line Draft with our August 2020 Release.