Extrude sheet metal vent array; cannot select 'holes' and very faint appearance

[timothybdk]

I created a bunch of holes for air venting in sheet metal, the sketch was fully constrained and I clicked Finish Sketch. When I try to Extrude in Sheet Metal tab it seems like it wants to select the entire face, I have tried using Window Select from the bottom Right corner and Free Select (what is correct way to select only the 'holes'?) then Extrude>Cut>All> drag the arrow which makes the Panels disappear.  Also the sketch seems very faint in color, not easy to see...

 

[jhackney1972]

Please attach your model.  If you do not know how to attach your Fusion 360 model follow these easy steps. Open the model in Fusion 360, select the File menu, then Export and save as a F3D or F3Z file to your hard drive. Then use the Attachments section of a forum post to attach it.

[timothybdk]

I had considered that but was hoping not to 'debut' my product here in the forums.  hrmmm.  Is there any way I can copy my sketch from my project and paste into a simple sheet metal panel in another Design?   here's what I tried:  Edit Sketch that has the array (503) Sketch Points Selected using Window Select from bottom left to top right (looked different from previous attempt), then Ctrl+C, then in a new Design with a piece of sheet metal created I clicked New Sketch, Selected the face of the sheet metal then Ctrl+V but after some work (progress bar) all that appears is the Move-Copy menu and the same 503 Sketch Points Selected message at bottom right.  

[jhackney1972]

Any sketch can be copied between models.  Open the original sketch and left click drag a window around it to select it all.  Right click and select Copy.  Go into a new model and create a sketch.  Right click and choose paste.

Also, do not use Quick Reply, you are writing to yourself!

[timothybdk]

Same result, only the Move/Copy menu appears after green progress bar is gone in the new Sketch in the new Design... strange, could my computer be overloaded and unable to handle it?

Also: I used the Post Reply box at the bottom of the thread, maybe both times?, is that inefficient? thanks

[hamid.sh.]

Is the sketch you trying to select located in a different component than your sheet metal component? Because if it is, it will look like faint and cannot be used to cut the sheet metal.

Edit: Oops I made a mistake. Forget about what I said.

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

You use the Reply button, on the post from the person you are trying to address.  Notice how my post are directed to you.  Where is your sample model?  Here is a Screencast to show you how to copy a sketch from one model to another.

[timothybdk]

thanks so much for replying, I really want to solve this.  if this helps here is a close up of the sheet metal component from the edge, those points in my sketch seem to coincide with one side of the panel.  does this tell you anything at all?  I could not tell if the faint appearance was me viewing from the wrong side or something else, after trying for so long I am thoroughly lost.

 

[jhackney1972]

No really.  Create a dumb component and copy and paste your sketch from one model to the other and post it.

[timothybdk]

After opening the sketch to edit and selecting the entire array from bottom left to top right  and R-mouse click, select copy, I now have half of the vent holes blinking blue then back to red, it seems random and the other half of the holes do the same thing also randomly...  I will restart and get back to this in few minutes.  thanks.

[timothybdk]

One problem seems to be the computer, the software did lock up so I closed everything and rebooted and got back to it.  

The copy & paste worked after reboot.  I repeated my steps in the file attached ACCEPT my array has two constraints to the edges of the original sketch, I do not remember drawing those edges (a rectangle the same size as the panel face) so I just assumed they were created because I selected that face to create the sketch (notice I created a second sketch to add these vents, this is done on a unfolded 3-panel sheet metal part and the other panels have extensive extrusions so I was trying to keep the sketches separate from one another). 

So really this file was a success but I still cannot repeat the operation on my design.  Should I consider deleting those constraints from the original to see if they are preventing me from extruding or is there something else likely going on? 

Thanks for all the help.

[timothybdk]

My system does not seem able to complete the select of so much at once or the compute part of the extrude until I 'cleared the cache', on top of that I was selecting from right to left at the beginning of my trouble so I was getting the 'holes' and the 'face'.  Once I followed your tutorial I noticed what I was doing different and was able to reproduce the desired effect, albeit one vent at a time (the design has four).

thanks again all!

[laughingcreek]

Someone may have already said this, but it's usually a bad idea to do patterns in sketches.  they are computationally heavy, and sometimes cause other naughty behaviors in fusion.  (which seems to be the case for you).

patterning solids seems to work better.  even in your case, pattering all those faces for the vent can take awhile, so if your computer is having a hard time creating the extra vents you might try it like the attached-

[timothybdk]

thanks for that follow up, looks like some high-level extruding, I can't follow it yet but I am researching R-pattern command and it looks like something I should know.  I am also putting 'knockouts' in my design in multiples and this method may apply to these as well.