any tricks for selecting joints?

[maker9876]

In situations like the above (an axle joint comprised of a base, a bearing, an axle, top end of axle pressed into another arm, then the hole in the axle contains slip ring, rotary encoder and other bits...) I have difficulty figuring out which joint I should select and then selecting it in order to edit. Usually the purpose is to manipulate the some angle the distance. In the end I go back to the timeline and work through every available joint until I get to the right one. Laborious.

In the above situation things are complicated by the fact that some of the joints are in the model file and others belong to components that have been imported from other files.

Are there any handy shortcut keys or tricks for selecting joints quickly without having to turn off (the display of) lots of components or working through an entire timeline?

[jeff_strater]

My favorite technique is to use Select Other.  Just hold down the left mouse button for a second or so, and a list comes up showing all the valid selections under the cursor:

Here is a screencast:

Jeff

[maker9876]

Thanks. The left-click hold certainly helps with selection.

The problem is that with lots of joints on the same axis (many of which are cylindrical and some of which are concentric) I don't know which one I want to select. End up having to open them all.

Am sort of half hoping their might be a feature which enables one to select a joint icon and see immediately which components / surfaces are involved.

For example in the section below of the same axle in the central cluster of joints I think their are two cylindrical (which is which I don't know!) and one rigid.

And then there are other joints above and below to what I'm not sure exactly what they refer.

And then in this same CAD file there is a second axle just like this one.

And then a few other joints for good luck. Plus a bunch of bolts that have joints too.

And some of the visible joints are in fact within components that were imported from other files and so are not available for editing but are just there to confuse!

[TrippyLighting]

Please post your model. I find it hard to believe that you need that many slider and revolute joints on such a relatively simple assembly.

I've seen other users that come from other CAD systems struggle with the joints in Fusion 360 and I assume it might be the same here.

[maker9876]

It's actually not easy to post since spread across different files. But I can list the joints (from memory):

Arm to axle - rigid
axle to washer - cylindrical
axle to bearing - cylindrical
bearing to base structure - rigid

Then inside the axle (it's drilled out)

PCB (with magnetic encoder) to inner plastic tube - rigid
Inner plastic tube to inside of axle - rigid
slipring to inner plastic tube - rigid
slipring to coupler cylinder - rigid
coupler cylinder to inner plastic tube - cylindrical
coupler cylinder to magnet - rigid

Gosh, that's more than I thought!

And that's just one joint... 😉

[maker9876]

ps forgot

circlip to axle - cylindrical

[TrippyLighting]

You can export an .f3z file that contains all the linked components...which you are likely over using anyway..

[maker9876]

In current F360 OSX you can't export .f3z when there are linked components.

Here's a public link: http://a360.co/2dzHcFX

[TrippyLighting]

You can export as .f3z from A360 or the public link to the design wors as well, because f you download the design it will come in as a .f3z. Thanks for that!

In general I believe to a large degree at least here on the Forum I see users using linked in situations where this is not necessary.

Aside from them being a pain for those of us that  provde help here on the forum 😉

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

There is one other trick.  Once you have selected a joint, you can use the Select Components command to select the components that are joined by this joint.

Here is a screencast:

And, by the way, the best way to make your design easier to edit is to name your joints as soon as you create them.  If you have a joint that is named "axle bearing revolute", then it's obvious what that joint does.

Jeff

[maker9876]

Naming joints: what a great idea. I'm onto it!

ps it seems odd that when editing joints from the list you can't just double click on them but must right click and select "edit joint". Doesn't fit the pattern of other sorts of object in the left of screen list.

[TrippyLighting]

Here's a link to Fusion 360's R.U.L.E #1 & #2. For good measure.

#2 is very easy to apply: Name your Stuff! 😉

Fusion allows you to name almost anything. For joints as Jeff has posted I find that particularly useful, even necessary.

[TrippyLighting]

Here is a little screencast. With my observations and thoughts.

[maker9876]

This is useful and will do my best to better choose joints for this model (and others!).

Many thanks.