Default Pivot Point

[changedsoul]

I dont know if this is a feature, a bug, or should be posted as an idea.

I have a 3D Connexion mouse. When I used to just a keyboard and mouse, I had no issues holding down the shift key and middle clicking the mouse to set the pivot point.

Now that I have the Space mouse, it seems the pivot point is always set in the last location. So when working on a new sketch in the same project, but in a different location, the pivot point is still set for where it was on a previous sketch. Needing to take my hand off the mouse to hold the shift key sort of sucks.

So my question really is....Is there a setting, when you go to edit a sketch, to have the pivot point auto reset to the current sketches origin? If not, perhaps this could be an easy idea implantation?

[paul.clauss · Accepted solution]

Hi @changedsoul

Thanks for posting! I can see how the extra reset of the orbit center could be unwieldy when working with a Spacemouse - I've logged an improvement request for the orbit center to automatically reset to the sketch origin when a sketch is activated. They will be discussing possible improvements around this behavior.

We appreciate you providing feedback on this!

[changedsoul]

Well it seems the pivot point changes automatically after each space mouse movement. So when you move or rotate around and stop, the pivot point resets itself to somewhere close to the middle of the screen....which seems great.

Perhaps what the initial issue is, when you click to edit a sketch, fusion seems to send the sketch origin way off screen center and the initial space mouse then uses this now way off center origin.

[paul.clauss]

Hi @changedsoul

Thanks for posting! Do you mean that the pivot point is actually reset (or moved) to the center of the screen after the Spacemouse is engaged for a navigational command? 

I did not receive this behavior on my end - after setting the pivot point, it was maintained at the selected position while I used my Spacemouse. I've shown this in the video below for clarity. Is this different than what you are experiencing?

If so, my first thought would be to check your Spacemouse drivers - out of date drivers can cause many issues and I am using the most recent drivers available for my SpaceNavigator. As Fusion 360 is not officially supported by 3D Connexion, we do see these inconsistencies from time to time.

For me, the pivot center was maintained through navigational movements with the Spacemouse and simply modeling commands. While the pivot center mark will not be shown while the Spacemouse is not in use, it will pop back up when navigation is resumed.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions.

[changedsoul]

Well I honestly never seen the Set and reset Orbit Center right clicks before. But to answer your question, no this is not what I was seeing. If you select "reset orbit center", you will notice when you move the space mouse around and then release for a second, then move space mouse again, you will see that the orbit center has re positioned itself to somewhere in the middle of the screen. I was not aware of this behavior when I first posted in this forum, ,and now that I know its doing this, I am very please with it.

What I was experiencing, and still am, now that I have more info as to what is actually going on, is that when you edit a sketch, fusion seems to orientate to look at it, but places it off screen instead of centered on the screen.

When it was doing this and I was trying to space mouse the canvas around so I could see the sketch, the origin was way away from the center of the sketch. This was because the orbit center was still set near the center of the screen, but the sketch itself was who knows where in space, but it was off screen.

Ill try and do a screen cast to show this if what I am explaining is not making any sense.

Edit: Seems I dont have screen cast installed at the moment. basically,  when you edit a sketch, the sketch should pan, zoom, and or rotate around to be in the center of the the screen, not somewhere off in space.

[paul.clauss · Accepted solution]

Hi @changedsoul

Thanks for the response - this clarifies things.

When the sketch is edited, Fusion will look for the sketch origin and sketch geometry and try to fit them on the screen without changing the current level of zoom too much. This can lead to situations in which the sketch is not shown in the canvas when the sketch is edited.

The trick here is knowing to use the Zoom>Fit function after starting a sketch. The Zoom>Fit will center the sketch geometry (rather than the origin) on the screen when the sketch is activated. When the sketch is not active, Zoom>Fit will look for a view that shows all solid and sketch geometry present in the design.

Zoom>Fit is accessed with a double click of the middle mouse button, the F6 shortcut key, or the shortcut at the bottom of Fusion 360:

I hope this helps! Please let me know if I am misunderstanding - we appreciate your input!

[changedsoul]

This works very well, thank you. Now I need to figure out how to just get the f6 button mapped to my space mouse. Seems the settings isnt taking effect, but thats a space mouse issue and not fusion.

Thanks for the help.