3d numbers on circular path; each number rotated and centered within that 24deg

[twitos]

Hi,

I'd like to recreate in Fusion 360 the following that I made in sketchup, and that will be 3D Printed:

Specifically, the part with the 3d text *although I wouldn't mind a few pointers on doing the notches around the wheel!). Here is how I did it in Sketchup:

1- Add 3d text "0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14" with a height of 4mm (not the depth of the extrusion, the vertical length of the font)

2- Rotate 90 degrees so it is vertical

3- Explode the text and then make each number a "group" (14, 11, 9, ...). At this point, the text is vertical so perfectly aligned to be "attached" to where the 3 o'clock would be on a clock (or where the 0 is on my image), but the numbers are facing outward, unlike a clock.

4- Move the 0 where I want to have it (centered on the X axis, and at 0.5mm from the edge using a construction line for position)

5- This is where it gets tricky: Rotate the "0" 24 degrees (360/15 numbers to place) along the origin

6- Place the "1" similarly. Group the 0 and 1. Rotate them another 24 degrees

7- Repeat the process, adding each letter one by one, adding it to the group and then rotating.

Note mentioning:

1- The size of the numbers vary: The 0, the 11 or the 14 do not have the same width. For this reason, I don't think I can simply take the text "0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14" and wrap it around a circular path (although I don't even know how to do that) because I need each individual number to be centered within that 24 degrees arc.

I'm new to Fusion but was told it was much better for designing 3d objects (and I see the advantages of parametric design and the possibility to use variables and then easily modify the values to adjust) so I am trying to learn the ropes.

Thanks for your help.

[etfrench]

This thread shows one way of doing it.

[twitos]

Merci etfrench.

Indeed, your link shows a way to do it. A bit cumbersome, but not that much more than in Sketchup. However, it doesn't address the fact that each number has a different width. In their example, each letter is aligned to the left, but I would need it to be centered.

One way I see could be to draw 2 lines from the center to the left and right extremity of EACH number, to compute how many degrees or arc each number take, and then divide by 2 to find the middle for each number, but that seems awfully manual. There must be a better way to center the middle of each number with each 24 degree line?

Thanks.

[etfrench]

Use the text bounding box to center each segment.  It would be more parametric to use User dimensions to set the angle for each text segment.

@jeff.strater: Text is resized when it's moved using the midpoint constraint.  This looks like a bug.

p.s. Where does the 24 degree line come from? It should be 25.7142857

[twitos]

Thanks for making that video. I'll have to watch a few times to make sure I fully understand how to grab the middle of the numbers.

But to answer your question, from 0 to 14, there are 15 numbers, so it is indeed 24 degrees per number.

Thanks again. 

[twitos]

Hi,

After spending more time on this and wondering why it wasn't working, I realized that your "mid point" constraint works indeed with the number one, but once you get to numbers like "14", the constraint will only be applied to either the 1 or the 4, but not the middle of the points "14". 

I managed to draw my 15 construction lines at the right angle, and if I most create each number individually it is not the end of the world (although, for each number I must specify the size and change the font - seems he doesn't automatically suggest the last settings.

But getting to perfectly align the middle bottom of the bottom of the number with my construction point doesn't seem to work.

Worst, I noticed that if I rotated each number before moving them the right place (at creation time, for example), then the box around the number was completely out-of-wack and the mid-point thing didn't work at all (even for just one number). 

Other bugs:

- When applying the constraint, the size of the text was modified

- Also, when the number got moved, the angle was also modified (although slightly - 18deg vs 16.9deg..).

- If I use a variable (parameter) for the text size, it correctly inserted the value, but lost the "link" to the variable. If I later change the number of that variable, the text's height will not follow

- When inserting new text, I can "tab" through the "Text", "Height" and "Angle", but apparently not the "Font". I MUST click there to change the font (add to the fact that it doesn't remember the last font used.. not convenient).

Any other suggestions to center a text on a point?

Thanks

[etfrench · Accepted solution]

I believe you need to enter the full number for each text box, for example: "14" instead of "1" and  "4".   In this screencast, I show entering the text on the line end point, entering the angle, trimming the line to the circle, then applying the midpoint constraint.  I think it would be better to just enter the text in a random spot with the correct angle, then apply the midpoint constraint.  As you noted, the angle and size have to be reset to the original.  These are definitely bugs.  Having to re-apply the user parameter to the text size when changing the parameter is a known issue.

[jeff_strater]

@etfrench,  technically, the text height changing when the midpoint is applied is not really a bug.  The text height can be set two different ways: either by editing the text, and setting the height, or by dimensioning the bounding box of the bounding rectangle.  But, that rectangle is just sketch geometry, and reacts just as other sketch geometry would when constrained.  So, when you apply that midpoint, the bounding rectangle moves only what is constrained, leaving the rest as unperturbed as possible.  This can increase the size of the bounding box, which will increase the text size.  If you add dimensions, you can fix the box height, and then preserve the text height.

BTW, we are working on rationalizing all this.  So, if you set a text height, Fusion will add a dimension to the bounding box, and create a parameter for it, etc.  We realize that today, it's a bit of a mess...

[twitos]

Thank you for taking the time to do this screencast. I was correctly entering both numbers (e.g.:"14"), but the automatic resize (bug if you ask me, but "feature" according to jeff ) got me confused because the lines do not look to be in the middle, but indeed once you RESIZE and RESET the angle, they are in the middle. Still, at times I have to REDO once more the middle constraint and again the resize; as if each operation affected the other.

It is still a pain that I cannot use variable for text height, as I need to change EACH number if I want to heighten or shorten the text. Furthermore, it seems I was unable to add the middle constraint + the coincidence constraint (to the end of each construction line) so that if I decide to change the overall diameter of my object, I would expect all the numbers to follow (and stay in the middle, at the correct angle, in the middle).

I really look forward to the planned revamp of the handling of the numbers.

Furthermore, @jeff.strater, I'd like to reiterate the bug that I cannot "tab" to the font selection. The tab key will only cycle through text, height and angle, but not the font. At the very least, defaulting to the previously used font could be appreciated.

I also noticed that if I used a FORMULA in the angle, it would be REPLACED by the value of the formula. So, again, if I was to change the number of numbers of my dial (15 --> 20), I would need to set all my angles again, individually, although I already have a variable/parameter for that. Furthermore, I noticed that I was unable to use a reference to ANOTHER variable in the angle formula when using the modulo operator in my angle formula (I know... kinda a complicated way to set the angle.. yet clean and neat).

Thanks again for your help with this. I allowed me to achieve what I was looking for, although I don't consider that portion of the project to be parametric.

[jmc5378ZWDV9]

I may be a bit late on this and hope you have figured out the parameter, but below is a good way to use the modulo calculation (haven't looked at the model just an example):

Angle_rough       unitless     (d1/1 deg)     #removes the units of the angle

Angle_calc          unitless      angle_rough - (angle_rough%1)   #removes the floating point from the angle

Angle_final         deg              angle_calc*1deg  #make the final calculation in degrees again