Copying 2D geometry to make more than one part

[Anonymous]

First I'l described what I'm trying to do:

I have created a general 2D outline that I want to use to create several parts

Different parts will use different portions of the 2D outline

My plan was to create several components and copy this outline to component1, 2, 3 etc and then edit the general outline for each part

The set of parts would then be created starting with an extrusion of each modified outline

Where I'm getting stuck:

The geometry wouldn't copy. I tried several approahes to highlightling, copying and pasting but couldn't work out how to do it. The geometry kept unhighlighting or copy was greyed out or it wouldn't paste.

In the end I copied the 2D geometry into a base feature.

The outline of the copied geometry appears on the screen but is blued out (I would say greyed out, but it is actually blue)

Any attempt to perform an operation on this outline results in the outline vanishing

Depending on how I try to approach this sometimes the sketch environment opens but moves to the origin and blanks out my outline.

I have looked for a guide/tutorial on this issue but I can't find one that deals with the problem I have.

So how do I create several different parts starting with one master 2D sketch and then modifing it for each part?

[HughesTooling]

Take a look at this thread, in it I show how to copy sketches between documents but it works copying between sketches in the same document as well.

Mark

[jeff_strater]

Hi @Anonymous, and welcome to Fusion!  There are probably several ways to approach this problem.  You can copy/paste geometry from one sketch to another, as @HughesTooling says, and that thread he referred to is a big help.

Depending on what you are trying to create, there are other approaches, especially if you want to keep all the components in a single design.  For instance, you can start with a single sketch that has all of  your components outlined.  You can create multiple components from a single sketch this way (although the sketch, then, does not live inside the new components).

Then, if you want to modify the components, you can just edit the base sketch. If you want to make variations of those components, you can create a new component and copy/paste the body into the new component, then just make modifications on that new component.  Everything is associative (including the body copy/paste), so that changes to the original component will be reflected in the new component, but the features added later to the copy will still apply only to that copy.

Here is a screencast of a very simple example that hopefully illustrates the concept:

If you want to post some images of what you are trying to do, we can answer more specific questions.

Jeff Strater (Fusion development)

[Anonymous]

Thankyou for the responses, I didn't expect to get any over the Christmas period which is why I've been slow to say thankyou.

I have managed to copy the basic outline several times but having edited one of the views I now have another issue.

The sketches now display differently and I can't work out how to get back to sketch mode for all the views.

As you can see in the attchment the left view has changed to a blue line image which I can't edit, the middle image appears to be editable and the right image is masked/greyed out.

What I am trying to do is create a basic outline and copy it several times so that I can use it to create a front piece solid, a middle piece solid and a rear piece solid, etc all laid out in a row. In total my design has 8 major parts each of which I was going to start drawing by copying my basic outline and then edit and extrude etc to make the solids. Fusion seems to be set up to think I want to do something else. Is there something I need to switch on / tick / set up to tell Fusion that I want to keep drawing untill all the sketches are ready? What is making Fusion behave the way it is? I assume it's something to do with the way I've approached this task.

[jeff_strater]

Hi @Anonymous,

Could you possibly share the model you are working with?  I admit I am puzzled by the picture you posted.  I'm not sure exactly what is going on there.  If I could look at the model, it might help.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Jeff,

If you provide an email address I'll send an invite to the project.

As i'm inviting you it seems right that I introduce the project.

Clock25 is a clock case and is more of an art project.

It began as an idea for a replacement mantlepeice clock, we were given a clock 25 years ago and now even its replacement looks rather shabby and no longer works. Clock25 is intended to look dramatic, emphasise strength in its design, and be beautiful. The first two requierements will be met by the metal case (this project) and the last will be met by placing fused glass inserts in the lattice work of the front panel.

Thanks for the help so far, I've not used a CAD package for 20 years having being involved in FEA and test rigs so I'm having to learn again from scratch.

Chris Greatrix

[jeff_strater]

Certainly:  my email address is jeff.strater@autodesk.com.  If you invite me to the project I can take a look.

Thanks,

Jeff

[jeff_strater]

Thanks for adding me to your design.  It really looks like a nice project.  Hope to see how it turns out!

If I understand the question correctly, I think the basic problem here is just one of visibility.  All your sketches are there and look fine, they are just not currently visible.  Fusion has what we call a "valve" model of visibility.  The light bulb icons in the browser control the visibility of everything below it.  So, if you turn off the visibility of a component, then no sketches, bodies, etc inside that component can be seen.  Think water valves.  For water to come out of your kitchen faucet, the valve to the whole house must be on, the valve to the kitchen must be on, and the faucet itself must be on.

In your case all but one of those sketches were invisible.  turning on the right set of visibility flags will let you see the sketches.  That funny display in your screen shot is just a graphics highlighting effect.  When you put the cursor over the root component, Fusion highlights the whole model, even invisible parts of it.  So, what you are seeing are these "ghost highlights" of invisible sketches.

Here's a screencast showing how to get everything visible:

And, if I didn't answer the right question here, please feel free to ask more.

Jeff