New Sweep Path Tool for Sketch Mode and Orientating Planes.

[Anonymous]

Call this idea "Free Flow Sketching and Planes"

I was working with a modeling design program called DesignSpark Mechanical 2.0

While working with this program I was learning about doing Sweeps or whatever they call them in DesignSpark. I had to make about Thirty specially arranged hydraulic lines that turned and twisted many different ways.

With this program, DesignSpark, I was able to simply sketch a line and then when I needed to change the dimension of orientation (direction) all I had to do was enable the command to rotate the currently used sketch plane to the designated plane or angle I wanted. So I could change directions of the sweep path sketch line on the fly in one continuous process of creating the full extent of the sweep path line. You could just switch from X plane to Y plan to Z plane with a simple action of rotating the plane while your were in sketch mode. I'll include a picture of the design project I am referring to, so you can see the many semi-complicated sweeps for creating what is supposed to be modeled hydraulic lines. You'll find those images at the bottom of this idea submission as attachments.

So as it should be becoming clear, my idea is for Autodesk to put this style of sketching into Fusion 360 if not as a overlaying new function, then just as a special sweep path function in the sketch mode menu of tools where you can for example, draw a line on the X plane and then rotate the sketch plane 90 degrees to the Y plane and create a curved arc sketch path or something of your preference which turns into a different dimensional plane. The way fusion 360 is right now, the best way I could figure to accomplish this kind of function to my knowledge is to create a sketch and draw a line on the existing plane, then exit the sketch and create a construction plane as "plane along path" and then move it to the end of the sketch line and rotate the construction plane to the desired dimensions and angles using the move function and then create a new sketch using this newly created construction plane as the sketch plane for your next section of the sweep pathway that is intended to go into a new 3D direction along new a plane(s). However, I've ran into problems with this method for creating a consistent link along the multi sketch plane sweep path line(s) where the lines would not properly link together and when I tried to fillet the sketch lines that were at right angles the first sketch and the second sketch lines would not bond as one and the fillet couldn't select both lines of a right angle. On top of this when actually performing the sweep function process the sweep would not always go along the entire multi-dimension plane sketch line (sweep pathway). It would stop at certain points of connection of different sketch planes which resulted in the need to create a new sweep profile for the next section of the intended sweep pathway.

As you can see, this type of sketching of a sweep pathway is much more complicated and problematic in Fusion 360 compared to the mentioned modeling design program called DesignSpark Mechanical 2.0. If I had to make all those hydraulic lines as seen in the attachments with Fusion 360 I would have had a bad time because of the slightly buggy and glitchy methodology that the program uses. However, with DesignSpark Mechanical making all those hydraulic lines took no more than two hours. I started out slow, figured it out, then got moving along much faster as I progressed along.

With that said, DesignSpark Mechanical does not have the same ability to create customized profiles for the shape and style of the actual sweep object. D.S.M. just gives you the option to create a solid pipe of various thickness. So D.S.M. has its own issues and limitations along side with Fusion 360, but the ability to rotate an active sketch plane on the fly in 3D space is a big power function for the user experience in situations like I had with creating several twisting and turning hydraulic lines.

I don't expect that Fusion 360 should re-design the entire function and coding of the sketch mode and plane, but what would probably be better is to create a special sweep function tool for the sketch menu of tools so that a person can enable the ability to manipulate the orientation of the sketch plane when creating a sweep pathway in the sketch mode.

I know there are other ways to sketch a line in 3D space such as using the 3D sketch option but I think you need to have other modeled features surrounding the sketch line to enable the ability to direct the sketch line into a new plane or direction and this is not always useful. In fact it has rarely showed itself as a reasonable method of changing the dimension of a sketch line during my 2 months of experience with Fusion 360.

So I think that about covers it. Just add a tool feature in the sketch menu of sketching tools that enables sweep pathway creation and enables the ability to change the orientation and angle of the active sketch plane and you'll have a lot of happy customers creating free flow sweep paths going in multiple directions.

[Anonymous]

Is there a reason Fusion 360 won't let you rotate the angle and orientation of a sketch plane?