Changing Grid Size

[Anonymous]

I just started using A360 a few months ago. I use it to design odjects on my 3d printer. Is there a way to set the grid size? I want to set the gris size to be the same as the size as my printer bed. The gris size now is showing 500mm x 500mm I would like to make it 220mm x 148mm. Is there a way to do that? I did a search in the fourms but did not find anything.

Thanks.

[Bud_Schroeder_ADESK]

Hello,

Thanks for sending in your question. Are you maybe using Fusion 360? If that is the case, let us know and we can move you to the Fusion forums. If you are using something else, let us know and we can try to get you pointed in the right direction for help.

Thanks and looking forward to hearing back from you with more details.

[Anonymous]

Yes Fusion 360. Sorry I thought I was in that forum. 

[Bud_Schroeder_ADESK]

No problem and all, and I'll go ahead and move this to the Fusion forum.

Thanks for letting us know and have a great day.

[brianrepp]

@Anonymous yes, what you're looking for is fixed grid (at which point you can adjust the grid size).  This article should help:  http://fusion360.autodesk.com/learning/learning.html?guid=GUID-8FD1FCFC-D04E-46E8-9925-C81428C1FDA2

[Anonymous]

OP was asking how to adjust the grid to match his 3d printer print volume, or bed dimensions - this did not answer that question - I also want to know how to adjust the grid to match my 3d printers print volume - this is helpful to keep designs within the actual print volume of the printer.

[Anonymous]

@brianrepp I do not believe the reply posted addresses the actual question (as pointed out in @Anonymous's post). I will attempt to clarify, as I am also having this issue right now:

• What is desired is the ability to constrain the dimensions of the workspace to a specific value (not adjust the resolution of the grid for the existing workspace size).
• From what I have found, the workspace have a size is 500 mm x 500 mm, but for creators using 3D printers, a common desire is to constrain workspace to be the same size as their print bed.
  • For a random example: force the limits to 160 mm x 200 mm.

Assuming this feature does not exist:

• A follow up comment on this thread from AUTODESK stating such would be appreciated (to save your users some search time).
• Add this to your feature request list.

[chrisplyler]

I understand the request, and I'm not knocking it. I'm just curious how it's actually useful.

I mean, if you know you're designing for a specific machine...and you know that machine's bed size, or travel limits or whatever...can't you just design with those limits in mind REGARDLESS of what Fusion's grid size is? I don't even have the grids visible because they annoy me. I just know that if I have a practical limit of 200mm or whatever, I don't model a part that's 201mm.

Is this actually a problem?

[Anonymous]

@chrisplyler Good question. In all actuality, it isn't a "problem" per se, as you point out you can "get around" this feature request by a variety of methods (one of which is just "pretend the workspace is a different size in your head"). However, one might then use that same logic to argue "why have options for mm and inches? Just convert everything to inches before you start drafting, no need for a feature request...".

The main reason for the request is the same reason for any feature request: improve the user experience. Although one user might not see the value in something, a ton of other users might love it (and might have already been asking for it for several years now, as made evident by this unresolved thread...).

To perhaps more directly answer your question with some examples: 

• A user may want to scale one or several models in the same workspace to maximize their size to fit the print volume, requiring adjustment of position on the workspace not only within the bounds but in relation to one another:
• A user may want maximize the print by placing as many models in the print area (again, considering placement, rotation, etc. with respect to each other). 
• A user may want to consider printing a model in parts (rather than a whole) after seeing how it fit within the print bounds. 

Basically, the idea hinges around users for 3D printers not always designing models to exact specifications. At times they need to visually see how they can play around with the print area to maximize their designs when printing multiple jobs at once.

Overall, I agree that this is a minor request (but at the same time usually means "low hanging fruit" to please the user demand). The main thing I would like to see is Autodesk reply to these threads with either "will not implement" or "will implement soon", rather than misinterpret the question, link to an answer for a question that wasn't asked, and not follow-up on the thread when another user correctly points this out (@Anonymous) . Otherwise, users will keep searching around, keep asking if this exists and keep asking for this feature request.

[etfrench]

1. Simply make a cube the size of  your print volume (or a truncated Reuleaux triangle if you have a delta printer).
2. Use Combine/Cut to remove that from a larger cube. 
3. Save it.
4. Insert it into your working file. Use the Inspect/Intersection tool to verify your model.

[amechikie]

Years later and this feature is still not implemented. 
For anyone else who has found this thread and is looking for a viable solution, similar to what @etfrench has said, create a cube/shape with the dimensions of your print area (in my case 350mm x 350mm x 350mm) then either right clicking the shape (or it's name in the list) and selecting "Opacity Control" and setting it to something like 10%/20% (I use 20%), this makes it very easy to see any objects that are within it while even keeping a sort of "bounding box" visible so you're easily able to tell if something will fit using the orthographic camera angles. 

You can even right click this shape in the list and click "Selectable/Unselectable" and this will prevent you from interacting with this object while selecting or modifying your other models.
This allows you to visualize your print bed area very easily and arrange/scale objects within it.

While this works, it would be nice to not have to do this every single time you start a new project, either implementing some form of scalable fixed grid or the ability to add this bounding area shape to the simple shapes so it can be easily added and referenced quickly between multiple projects would be super sick and probably really easy to implement by the dev team. 
Unfortunately the majority of users for Fusion360 do not use it to design solely for 3D printing so I'm not holding my breath on these features, or anything else like them, being implemented anytime soon, but this works very well for me and I hope it stays a viable method for anyone else who might come looking for a similar answer years after I did.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@amechikie wrote:

Unfortunately the majority of users for Fusion360 do not use it to design solely for 3D printing ...

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You could either

1. Create a file that you want as a Template and save with new project name each time

or, better yet...

2. Simply drag and drop as a component in each new design (I would use Surface rather than Solid for the Cube so as not to effect Mass but might not be a concern).

My impression is that the majority of users of Fusion are amateur 3D Print users designing solely for 3D printing, but I have no data to back up that impression.