New add-inn: Finger Joints

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

In case anyone is interested: I published an add-in on github that can create joints like these:

 

 

 

The full documentation is on github. If you have any feedback or comments, please post them here. 

One caveat is that the plugin currently is not parametric. If you have an idea how to make it parametric, please respond in the post dedicated to this question.

[gorriesNTC5W]

Dear Florian, thanks a lot for this great tool. I am applying it to a box with parametric wall thickness. Is there any way to automatically recompute the finger joints, when the wall thickness changed?

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

Unfortunately, the Fusion API doesn't allow recomputation of features like this at the moment. There is an extension of the API planned to support this (https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-api-and-scripts/custom-feature-api-preview-feedback-thread... but it is still in preview mode and subject to change. Once this API is stable, adding the functionality you are asking about is high on my to-do list but I have to wait for the Fusion developers to get around to this.

[gorriesNTC5W]

Hi Florian, thanks for the quick reply! Indeed I also started to look into the Fusion API a bit and the custome features looks like a really great addition to it. I hope they will release it in a final version soon. I also started to play around with your code a bit and found a solution that works for me. I increased the slack of the tool bodies you create to make them sufficiently large, when increasing the thickness of the plates to be "jointed" afterwards. I then added features for what you call "boundary box" I think. So the intersection volume of the two plates to be jointed and also for the intersection of the tool bodies with this boundary box. So in the end, everything as you do it in your code, just with additional features. Does not necessarily make the timeline nicer, but works for me. If I now change the plate thickness afterwards, the finger joints are updated automatically. 🙂

I attached my code for this, if you are interested. I am not an expert. So the code is probably rather poor quality...

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

Looks good, happy you got it working for your case. Unfortunately this will only work for changing the thickness of the material, not the length of the cut. I hope all of this will be possible with custom features. I'm looking forward to them 🙂

[dcsDHNS6]

Hello Florian,

great Add-in, it's extremely easy to use.

The part with the Parametric modification is a pity...

Any way you could add TBones?

Benjamin

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

Is a TBone something similar as a dogbone? There is a plugin for that here: http://tapnair.github.io/Dogbone/

I have no plans of integrating functionality like this in my plugin. The fact that the joined parts can have any form or relative position makes this too tricky.

[sean.hollowood]

Looks like the latest update has broken the tool, any plans to fix it? Just asking so I know whether to just wait a bit, or look for other options

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

I will have a look at what broke on the weekend. If it is what I think it is (the API changing from Python 2 to Python 3), it should be easy enough to fix.

[sean.hollowood]

Thank you! They really could not have chosen a worse time to update, im in the middle of fitting out a new tool box with dividers in anticipation of a move to a new space.

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

I updated my installation to 2.0.12888 and had no problem with the add-in. @sean.hollowood could you add more detail about the error you are seeing? Are you also on version 2.0.12888 of Fusion and version 1.3 of the addin?

[sean.hollowood]

So far as I know I am on the latest update of Fusion, I will delete the plug in and re-install and see if that helps, but this was the error I was getting.

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

The error message suggests that you are in "direct modeling mode". Can you try switching to parametric mode (https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How...) and see if that fixes the issue?

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

I published a new release (v1.4) that switches to parametric modeling mode temporarily to add the joints. When working in direct modeling mode, this should prevent the error you saw.

[sean.hollowood]

Turns out that was the solution. I have no idea why parametric history was turn off, and I doubt I was the one to turn it off as I had to google how to turn it back on. Ah well thank you very much for the help in any case

[miklideer]

I use Floran's add-in for creating lasercut plywood boxes, and your mod saving me hours of work, when plywood thickness changes with different suppliers depending on a batch. Thank you!

[kascJN5AG]

Thanks for the amazing work Florian. 

I am new to Fusion and I cannot seem to get the addin to work. I have created two bodies, moved them so they overlap, use the addin and select the two bodies and a direction. However, I get an error saying "Finger joints could not be completed. Try selecting overlapping bodies and double-check dimensions".

I have attached a screenshot of my canvas and the error.

What am I doing wrong?

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

Hmm, it all looks good from the image. Maybe the piece is not long enough? In your settings, you are asking for fingers and notches to have equal size and be at least 20mm long. If the piece is shorter than 40mm, this would be an issue. If that is not it, I'm not sure what the problem could be. Are you on the latest version of the plugin and fusion?

[landcrush]

Hi Florian,

I can't get this to run at all. Fusion 360 running on Mac OSX Mojave - file attached. I created two overlapping stock pieces, selected both pieces, invoked the add-in, and no dialog box to define the parameters ever appears.

[florian.pommereningDGUYA]

Hi @landcrush,
I cannot reproduce the error. Your file works for me and the dialog opens. Are you on the latest version of the plugin (1.4) and fusion? You could try deleting the file defaults.json in the plugin folder in case this is caused by the cached values. Alternatively just remove the plugin and re-install it. It might also have something to do with things being different on a Mac. I have no Mac to test this on, so cannot really help there. Maybe someone else in this thread is using a Mac.

[landcrush]

Okay, I apologize for this. This was all me. The add-ins installed correctly the first time, I just did not understand that after clicked on "Run" there were additional menus that I had to invoke to actually get it to work. I've only just started using add-ins, and I thought that the only thing you needed to do was make a selection, open the add-in menu, and click "Run". I was unaware that is is a running process and adds a menu item and that is where you can enable it.