Best way to use sketches when building assemblies
If you have a feature on a body, say a slot created by a sketch if you right click a face of the slot there are options to edit the feature or the sketch that created it. If the going back in time is the problem because something you want to reference disappears then yes you'll need another sketch. One thing to consider though is can you add say a bolt pattern to your main body before you create the next component then create the next component and project the fixing.
Following Rule one above will also help as activating a component will reduce the timeline to only show the features used to create it. If you can share more info preferably a Fusion f3d file it will be easier to advise.
Mark
Mark Hughes
Owner, Hughes Tooling
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R.U.L.E #1 is perfectly fine related to the last sentence in the OP's post because it helps finding things.
@CuttingEdgeManufacturing wroteI just want to have neater work environment where I can quickly just find what I need to change.
@CuttingEdgeManufacturing, this is a very good question. Unfortunately, there is not a very good answer. There is no "best way" to use sketches, I believe. Each person will develop their own style and preferences for using Fusion, and especially sketches. Some people prefer the "one big sketch at the beginning" approach, as @chrisplyler suggests. Though, be a little careful of that approach, because Fusion's sketcher is a bit anemic when dealing with large sketches, so if you try to cram too much into one sketch, it will eventually turn on you, and start causing performance problems. Also, remember that if you edit a sketch at the beginning of your design, each time you do that, it causes a recompute of everything afterwards, so take that into account.
I believe in @TrippyLighting's Rule #1. Unless you are doing pure skeletal design (one sketch that is not owned by a component, and which drives all component geometry), I much prefer to create a component, and stuff sketches for that component into it. My main reason is that when the component moves, the sketches will move with it. Then, you can use sketch geometry to define joint origins, work geometry, etc.
Though it is not what you asked about, I'll throw in an unsolicited comment about sketches as well. Minimize what you project into a sketch. Turn off at least the "Auto project edges on reference" setting. That one is evil. And, if you must project stuff into your sketch, make it things that are stable, and not likely to go away. The reason is that every one of those projections creates a relationship to geometry, which can break later on. If you base your measurements off origin geometry, and you project the origin planes or axes into your sketch, those projections are solid. They will never break. But, if you project some random edge from another component, and you've forgotten that you have even done that, then you go back and edit the referenced component, you can cause failures. Even projecting geometry from one sketch into another is pretty stable. Those won't break unless you go in and delete the source sketch geometry.
And, finally: Stay away from sketch patterns as much as possible. Stay WAY away from large sketch patterns. These can cause really bad performance. If you can do the same thing using a feature or body pattern, you will be much happier. Although, to share a bit of insider news, just last night I heard of some changes to sketch that improve the performance of some patterns dramatically. It's good news, but I'd still recommend patterning at the solid level when you can.
Jeff
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director
