Align Movement Leaves behind Sketch

[fsonnichsen]

I still am stuck at ground zero with a lot of fusion because the basics of moving, centering, aligning etc seem to yield different results every time. If I could find the tutorial pertinent to ALL of this it would help--I've run the "self paced" tutorials in the ? section and with a lot of fast talking I do not recall seeing much  detail on this most basic and important topic.

Here is just one issue-I simply want to align two solid bodies as shown in the cast. After doing so I am left with a "hanging sketch" which does not seem to make sense.  Could someone point me to the "doc" for this issue -

    I have read something (https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How... but it did not show this.

Thanks

Fritz

[jeff_strater]

that link does not resolve for me.  But, I can pretty much guess your problem.  In Align, there is a choice about what objects to align.  You are likely selecting Bodies.  That will only move the body, nothing else.  If you choose Components, and if the component contains both the body and the sketch, then the sketch will move with it.  But, that component ownership of the sketch is critical.  Do you have components in your design?  Is the body and the sketch that it is bound to both owned by that Component?

[jeff_strater]

forgot one picture.  This is the Align dialog:

[jeff_strater]

here is a video that may help:  BODIES AND COMPONENTS 

[fsonnichsen]

Thanks Jeff. 

  sorry about the last screencast-apparently pasting the URL does not work so you have to select it from the dropdown. On to the problem:

  I indeed was not using components. I thought that "components" was a more advanced feature and would not be required for aligning bodies. I watched the video and I think I duplicated what they suggest--putting the sketch and its 2 bodies under a component (2cubes here). This time I added the screencast to this post.

  I attempted to align by selecting "component" his time as you suggested- but now I cannot select the 2nd body. Probably will play with this a bit more tomorrow but seems rather complex for simply aligning two objects.

Thanks!

Fritz

[g-andresen]

Hi Fritz,

There are 2 bodies in your screencast but they are both in one component (2 cubes).
So you have to align the two bodies.

If you select the Components option, both bodies will be displayed simultaneously in the Align menu.

günther

[fsonnichsen]

Guenther

   I had originally done the Align without components, using bodies instead. The problem is that after the move the sketch gets left behind and does not move with the body!--something that I assume would lead to problems later.

    In your example you do not have the "eye" selected for "sketches" in the browser. I am guessing if you do select it you will see the sketch which is left behind.

  So the question is-"how do I cause the whole cube and sketch to move".  Apparently one needs to combine them into a component as Jeff said, and I will look some more at this. 

    But this also brings up a bigger more important question regarding the meaning and use of sketches vs solid bodies---I thought that the former was a precursor to the latter and they always co-existed as a pair. Now I am not so sure. The lack of documentation for this product makes it difficult to try to learn these basic things-I will look over the books that I bought later today

thanks for your continued help on these things!

Fritz

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Both components and bodies can be aligned.
If a component contains both sketches and bodies, they will be completely aligned with a second component with all their contents.
In deinem Beispiel gab es jedoch nur eine Komponente (2cubes).

When a body is aligned, the sketch remains in its original place (which is not a problem).

günther

[fsonnichsen]

Hmmm-this gets worse as I go

 I tried to build 2 components and 2 sketches, one sketch under each component. This does not work. It seems like any added components always are forced to be a subsidiary of the first one.(see the screencast).  I played a bit with this now-trying to guess how Fusion appropriates bodies, sketches and components. Nothing seems to work in at least a logical fashion (I would have thought that major groups are brought together in separate components each having 1 or more sketches).

It is becoming clear that I don't have a background on how Fusion handles components. I don't see anything in the sparse documentation on this but then, the doc is not indexed.

  Probably it will just be simpler to avoid the align command. I will look about for other ways to achieve my goals--maybe just go back to old-fashion dimensioning.

Thanks

Fritz

[g-andresen]

Hi,

If you would show your way in a screencast there would be a basis for clues.

You should first make sure that you create both components on the first level.

If the second component is created in the first, it is a "child" (subcomponent) of the first and will follow the "parents".

günther

[fsonnichsen]

Guenther

  I have not been getting my screencasts to you guys---I select the screencast from the dropdown and press "insert" but when I send the post I get "Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body."

Briefly, I went thru the exact procedure that you described for getting two components at the same level. Each  level has its own sketch of the cube. I extrude each of this and "align" but I still get the "ghost" image of on of the sketches--it does not move with the solid and of course can create problems later.

I will try to send the screen cast separately this time.

THanks

Fritz

[fsonnichsen]

I continue to get an HTML error when trying to send screencasts. (wonder if it is a security thing?) Here is an attempt to sent the URL link generated and emailed by the system:

https://autode.sk/2JcfkKo

thanks

Fritz

[g-andresen · Accepted solution]

Hi,

---

@fsonnichsen wrote:

...  extrude each of this and "align" but I still get the "ghost" image of on of the sketches--it does not move with the solid 

---

If you align bodies instead of components (Align menu), the sketches stay where they are.

günther

[jeff_strater]

I put together this video to look at some of the differences between bodies and components, Align, Move and Joints.  Hope you find it helpful.  Unfortunately, Screencast is not cooperating with the Mac microphone for me, so I had to add it as an MP4, and because the forum limits you to only 72MB per attachment, had to split it into two...  Here is part 1

[jeff_strater]

and here is part 2

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

to illustrate what @g-andresen says pictorially, here is the problem in your screencast:

I think my videos might help.  Let me know if they do.  Nice to see that we are using the same examples!

[fsonnichsen · Accepted solution]

Aha

   that was where all this started with Jeff---but the post got so long I forgot to check "components"! I did that and finally got align to work.

It is apparent that a sketch and its associated bodies are intertwined through the component level. I don't recall ever reading this but I would expect that it is very important to how one designs. I will have to look around a bit more to make sure I have all the nuances of this-I am sure it goes beyond use of the align command.

   Fusion seems to start with a sketch and it is extended from there--I notice throughout Fusion there is sort of a dichotomy between separate sketches or one sketch with multiple pieces on the same sketch. I would think it needs a little clarification in their documents. Things seem to act differently. 

Thanks!

Fritz

[fsonnichsen]

Thank you Jeff. ..I see a lot of work went into your video and it clarifies the use of joints and assemblies. These are fundamental things that precede playing with more advanced topics and I guess I missed the point in the rather fast online documentation. The beginning of my two books here are rather mute on this.

    I thought that sketches were indigenously associated with bodies that can be generated from them, but apparently this is not entirely true. When I proceed to execute a design I assume a lot of issues revolve around which component or group a sketch is allocated to and I will give this a lot more attention.

Thanks again

Fritz