Equation curves

garritjacobson · ‎01-24-2014

Now that we have parametrics. Can we have 2D, and 3D equation driven curves like in Inventor?

I am thinking specifically of a helical gear for a small example. We could use a 2D equation curve to generate the involute, or cycloid curve of the gear tooth profile. Next we can us the 3D equation curve to generate a custom helical curve to sweep our custom 2D curve along it to cut the tooth profile. There are a great deal more applications for an equation curve of course. I just thought of the helical gear as something we could all get behind. Just think about how difficult it would be to model an accurate helical gear with an involute gear profile in Fusion as it stands. Now think of a cycloidal tooth profile. Possible...sure -difficult...YES! I haven't tried yet, but I'm guessing it would take 2 complex profiles, a loft, and a whole lot of trig.

anthony.a.douglas · ‎09-13-2019

Yeah it strikes me as basic functionality really. I bet they are working
on it but this is not new software any more, and they are clearly making a
lot of oyher changes they consider a priority that are really kind of
minor. They arent really working on it for some reason. Dont invest in
autodesk is all i can say.... I do like them really, I do. Its just
frustrating that these things happen, they way absurd decision making drags
on. We all just want to get stuff done and get on with life. There is a
theory going around that they do not want to infringe on the business from
inventor, so they hamstring fusion.

doug · ‎11-08-2019

Does anyone know if there has been any movement on this? This is the only think keeping me from using only Fusion right now. I need to make a wave washer with just parameters of OD, ID,Thickness and Wave height like i can do in my other programs. Seems so simple but appears to be not possible in Fusion.

MetalDawg · ‎11-08-2019

Does anyone know if there has been any movement on this? This is the only think keeping me from using only Fusion right now. I need to make a wave washer with just parameters of OD, ID,Thickness and Wave height like i can do in my other programs. Seems so simple but appears to be not possible in Fusion.

Doug, they do not care. While it would be rather easy to implement it is not as sexy as Generative Design, which most shops are not even using yet because they cannot afford the technology. I have been thinking about seeing if AutoCAD LT could do the curves, and then importing the curve into Fusion.

codereclaimers · ‎11-08-2019

I just made my equation curve app free, in case it's of use to anyone:
https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=52036486659592142&appLang=en&os=Win64

NOTE: The only future improvements that will be made to this app are features that I need for my own use, as I can't afford to do a lot of free work these days.

Anonymous · ‎11-08-2019

@MetalDawgJust opened the source of my curve plugin. It handles lots of curve equation types, uses parameters, uses Fusion's internal solver for math, and saves equations for later editing. I was having a good go at developing it, but I had to move the project this was meant to support to another CAD package... too many omissions/deficiencies in the Fusion API, nonsensical breakages after updates, and a general lack of interest in expanding/improving the API or responding to requests.

It's python, so works on any platform.

https://bitbucket.org/zarthrag/equationcurvetool/src/master/

MetalDawg · ‎11-09-2019

CodeReclaimers,

I have seen your app before, and the reason I did not use it was I am running a iMac Pro, as I do way more than just Fusion on the machine. It looks like an awesome app for the Windows crowd. The thing that gets me is that things like this are relatively easy for those that know how to program, or have the time to learn to program. It should just be part of the total Fusion package. One programer + two weeks at most and it would be a polished product. I do appreciate your efforts, and if I was a Windows user I would download it, and donate to you.

MetalDawg · ‎11-09-2019

Anthony.Clay thank you for the link. I will install it later tonight and check it out! What you said about the API makes sense. Fusion seems to break a lot after every update.

anthony.a.douglas · ‎11-09-2019

there appears to never be any progress on things brought up in this forum.
they spend a lot of time redoing the user interface, but never addressing
fundamental functionality issues. the silhouette split feature has been
totally nonfunctional for more than a year now, for example. The best
theory for this I have seen is that they don't want to infringe on their
inventor business.

codereclaimers · ‎11-11-2019

Kudos for open-sourcing your plugin, @Anonymous! If I ever get around to separating mine from some of my "internal use only" code I'll do the same.

It's frustrating watching folks here asking for common CAD functionality and Autodesk doing nothing about it.

codereclaimers · ‎11-11-2019

Thanks, @MetalDawg! You're probably right: Autodesk could add equation curves without a tremendous amount of effort. This feels like one of those "big company business decisions" that makes no sense to their engineering team or anyone who uses the product.

Omitting features from Fusion360, combined with the pricing/licensing model, makes it hard to justify building apps for it. Practically no one will pay for apps that do what the platform should provide in the first place, and if I spend the time building those apps, Autodesk can always just wipe out my product's demand with a tiny amount of work in a regular update.

Some complicated "high-end" apps can't be ported over because the API doesn't expose the necessary capabilities (B-spline surfaces, for example). But even if Autodesk did expose the entire Fusion360 feature set, there's the psychological barrier of paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for an app when the platform is ~$1000/year or even free, depending on the customer's business situation. It doesn't matter that the total cost is less than if you were using SolidWorks or Inventor, paying more for the app than the platform appears to be a real sticking point.

So yeah, as others have suggested, Fusion360 is probably always going to be in the shadow of Inventor, both in terms of features offered and the size of the app development community.

Thanks for coming to my ~~Ted Talk~~ grumpy old man rant. 🤣

Equation curves

Equation curves

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