Arranging components equal distance from one another

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'll preface this by saying I'm new to Fusion 360, but quite experienced with solidworks.

I'm trying to arrange 5 drawer fronts in a unit, so that they are all an equal distance from one another, but the catch is that I don't know what that distance is, and there are 2 different sizes of drawer units. (It's an IKEA Alex that I happen to have nearby)

I could work this out and place each one manually, but this really isn't the point of what I'm doing. I want to have F360 solve it, ideally just within the tools themselves, but if it has to be done with parameters so be it.

https://a360.co/3Faxi7C

Joints and assemblies seem alien to me at the moment. I'm having to 'unlearn' many years of working with traditional mates/constraints and it's not quite clear to me yet what the benefits are with this newer system. I'm sure I'll get it eventually, but for now it's a major issue for me.

Any help/suggestions you guys can offer is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Alex

[jhackney1972]

The Screencast will show you what you need to do to get the cases, first, locking one to the top level assembly origin, and the place them relative to each other by any distance you desire.  The distance I typed in, 100mm, could be a parameter or you could right click on the Joint in the timeline and enter a new value.  Model is attached.

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

Many thanks for your response,

The components that I was having trouble mating were the drawer fronts, which you noted that I have incorrectly used a planar mate to hold them in place. I want to position them with an equal gap between each other and the outside of the back box. Thinking in the 'old ways' I wanted to restrict the drawer units to being centred within the outer box, then I want to restrict their vertical position to being evenly spaced, resulting in 1 degree of freedom, the ability to slide forwards and backwards.

I have been using the align tool a lot, why would someone not like it?

I am still tinkering with the top level- I had just collected the 5 drawer fronts and the back box into one component so that I could duplicate them easier. I hadn't spotted that the back box was registered as a body rather than a component though. I think I might have dragged the drawer fronts into the box component, creating a subassembly with a body in it. Fusion seems to be a lot more flexible regarding tree structure, which is good, but I need to learn some of the best practices.

Cheers,

Alex

[TrippyLighting]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have been using the align tool a lot, why would someone not like it?

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Because in a parametric assembly in Fusion 360 the align tool simply should no be used.

[jhackney1972]

Since you have two different drawer front heights and different counts for each my best solutions is to drive the vertical placement using a parametric sketch.  This is not an ideal solution but because of your configuration, you cannot use a Pattern.  The Vertical Spacing Sketch is under DrawerBody 1.  I only did one cabinet but you will get the idea.  The vertical spacing sketch is driven by various parameters.  You can break it very easily say by increasing the drawer front width without adding to the overall cabinet height parameter.  You really made this a lot harder by the small radius on all edges.  I used Rigid Joint to position the drawer fronts which are connect to Vertical Spacing Sketch and Joint Origins on the drawer fronts.  By the way, the Vertical Spacing Sketch contains the parametric horizontal spacing dimension also.  Model is attached.

[TrippyLighting]

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1. Not fully constraining sketches is not a recommended practice in any parametric CAD software including Fusion 360.
2. Mirroring an entire sketch (halve) also is not a recommended practice. So I'd start by fixing with that first 😉
3. Decorative fillets should be applied a the end of the timeline.
4. The sketch and body for the DrawerBody should be located in the DrawerBody component. As such I'll provide a link here to Fusion 360's R.U.L.E #1
5. The DrawerBody component should be grounded (Fixed in SW). Important detail: Grounding is local to that design only. If you insert such design into another one, grounding is nil in that assembly and the previously grounded components float. That is so by design and has advantages and disadvantages. Grounding only freezes the origin of the component in space. As such you can ground a component with only an origin in it. Or, I often use an as-built origin joint with the top level origin.

I've attached a model that fixes most of this.

Edit: LOL, I did take a mistake and I'll let you try to figure this out 😉

[Anonymous]

Hi John and Peter,

Thanks for your advice!

I started again, modelling with a bit more foresight into what is going to be needed later down the line, and being more careful with the behaviour of the tree.

https://a360.co/3FvnqFR

I set up a parametric sketch for the drawer locations and set up slider joints individually, but I have found that the sketch moves when I try to move the drawer units, despite there being a geometry projection in the sketch. I tried moving the sketch to the grounded component too, but the issue is still there.

I can see in @TrippyLighting 's file that you calculated the spacing during the initial sketch, which works nicely. Having that set up as a parameter makes it nice and easy to build a function to drive the joints. How would I achieve a similar thing with imported geometry?

Is the 'mistake' that you mentioned jointing the drawer fronts to the lower drawer front, not the drawer body itself? When I opened the model you made, if I move the bottom drawer all others move with it.

Cheers,

Alex

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

I show you in the Screencast to get your drawer fronts to remain with the Drawer Case.  I also showed you how to add some limits and and home position to the lower drawer front.  I questioned your logic in doing a Copy Component as marked in the timeline.  It serves no purpose except to complicate your Browser.

[Anonymous]

I think I've solved the drawers moving. I put a joint for the Outer box body origin and the assembly origin. What I think was happening, was when I was trying to move a drawer front, I was dragging the origin of the drawer subassembly, and the drawers, away from the box body, which was the one that was grounded in the overall assembly. I think this ties in with what Peter said in point 5.