Use measurement as dimension

[Anonymous]

I use fusion 360 to create folded/shaped parts with paper (see screenshot, the white is paper and the brown is wood). I cut the paper and wood to correct size on a lasercutter, using the CAM workbench to export the files for the machine. Obviously, when unfolded, the paper is just a rectangle. However, I have to make the paper rectangle the correct size in Illustrator since the CAM workbench can't "unfold" the paper to a flat part.

The paper design is based on the sketch as shown below, which is fully parametric. The measure tool can measure its length, and the short side of the rectangle that I need to cut out from paper is equal to this length. It would thus be useful to be able to create an unfolded version of the same sketch, using the measurement as dimension in that sketch. I think it cannot be made with the sheet metal workbench.

So to sum it up: using a measurement as a dimension in another sketch (or save it as some sort of derived parameter?) would make life a lot easier!

[HughesTooling]

If you have some thickness to this you might be able to use the sheet metal workspace. If you can have a very small flat extrusion on one end to select it will unfold.

Here I created a flange from a spline in a sketch the extruded a small flat section 0.1mm to use as the fixed surface for the unfold. You could make it smaller but selection might get difficult, a workaround for that would be to unfold then go back and change the extrude to 0.01mm.

If you need some help with this start a thread in the design forum.

Mark

[and.ranch]

Saving measurements as parameters is a feature in PTC Creo Parametric, and it is surprisingly useful. Would love to have the same feature in Fusion 360.