Fusion R.U.L.E #1 and #2

[TrippyLighting]

[Post modified to remove "360"]

Fusion R.U.L.E #1
When in doubt, before doing anything, create a component and make sure it's activated.

All objects created after activating the component such as sketches, bodies, construction geometry, joint origins, etc.  are created in that component.

This has several advantages:

1. On activation the timeline is filtered to show only those items in the timeline that pertain to that component. That will make the quickly growing timeline much easier to work with.
2. If a component is exported to the data panel with "save as" this will also export the complete parametric design history.
3. The joints in the "Assemble menu only work with components.
   Drawings can only be created from components
4. Only components show on the BOM.
5. Only components can be added to selection sets.
6. Only components can be isolated.

When another component needs to be edited for example to add geometry, it should be activated before doing so.

the above points apply to assemblies as well.

Exceptions to R.U.L.E #1

There are a number of other workflows that are  perfectly valid but the first step would not be creating a component. For the most part these are top-down design workflows:

1. When you create a skeleton sketch that carries features of several parts of the design and is used to extrude or otherwise create several bodies that then are turned into components. That conversion into a component, however, should happen as soon as possible because features added to a body contained in a component are all added to that components design history.
2. When the design starts with a T-Spline for example the exterior shell of a product that is then split int one or more bodies. Here also conversion into a component should happen as soon as the bodies are created.
3. A design for a single part to be used as an external, linked component (X-REF) in other designs. No component creation is necessary in this case as that design when inserted into another design is inserted as as a component.

 This is also well explained in this 6 minute video tutorial.

Fusion R.U.L.E #2
Name Your Stuff!

No explanation necessary...hopefully 😉

[TrippyLighting]

Please create a new thread. Your question has no relevance to the topic discussed in this thread.

[cekuhnen]

@TrippyLighting 

Rule No 2 : name your stuff

Hahahah could I invite you to class to explain this to my students? I will offer free pizzas!

Driving me crazy how often the ignore this.

[GRSnyder]

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Rule No 2 : name your stuff

From scrutinizing someone else's design, I just realized the other day that you can name features (e.g., "Raise dog" rather than "OffsetFaces3"). Is there any way to do this more conveniently than right-clicking on the tiny little feature in the timeline, picking Rename, and entering text in the pop-up box?

I'd actually kind of like this to be a field in the params box for every feature.

[Anonymous]

As a newbie, i am absorbing every little scrap i can get my hands on. i am however having issue with the screen casts.

i don't get any audio and the go a bit fast with out it. plus it seams there is a lot of keystroke commands happening i cant see.

it is hard to be a newbie, is there some more basic videos with audio available.

all help and advice is appreciated.

Michael Harvey

[chrisplyler]

Screencast videos can be recorded with or without audio. Sometimes I don't turn my mic on, because I'm at work and I don't want everybody to know I'm goofing off making a screencast video. When this is the cast, I try to go a little bit slower, and I hover my mouse over things for a second before I click, in hopes that the viewer can follow along a bit easier.

The screencast viewer has playback speed control.

Maybe you can't see that he pressed the D key, or whatever. But if you see him draw a dimensions, you can just assume he pressed it. Get yourself familiar with the tools Fusion has, and their keyboard shortcuts, and you'll have an easier time following along with the screencast videos.

[gamelife4dns]

What about parameters ?

Can we have local parameters to components and common parameters one level up ?

For example, a gear with two wheels. Each wheel would have its own set of parameters like "number_of_teeth", "pitch_diameter" or "profile_shift_coeff". And a component set one level up, containing each wheel, would have common parameters like "modulus", "pressure_angle", etc.

Thank you.

Steve

[TrippyLighting]

Your questions have no relevance to this thread.

Please create your own thread.

When done, please send me a PM. I'll wait a couple of days and then ask the moderator to delete your post!

[MattWynn]

Components are also necessary for nesting and arrange feature.

[troyostrander]

Try the add-in "DirectName" from https://apps.autodesk.com/. It prompts you to name your features after making them. I use it all the time. 👍👍👍👍👍

[sibejanSJ]

Regarding R.U.L.E #2 - there is a LOT of stuff possibly being named. Components, Bodies in components, sketches, parameters, all the features in the timeline, and probably a lot more. It takes a lot of time to rename every single action or object, what is best practice in renaming? I usually rename Components, and (in case of more than one) Sketches.
I actually see benefits of explanation (sorry @TrippyLighting ;), but as a novice, I thinks it's not yet up to me. 😉

[randy]

RULE #1 is an artifact of Fusion not coming up in a mode where it can be immediately useful.

There is no reason that a new design should not also define a component by default.  There is also no need to put the document controls inside what should be the default component.  

If Autodesk would simply reverse their hierarchy and put document controls prior to the first header the difference would be obvious.  Set the defaults and file conditions for that session or document.  Sure, go ahead and require the first component in the document, but treat it as a component, not the bastardized file/pseudo-component it is now.  Thus we would never need RULE #1, which is wrong-think anyway.

One would think that this would be obvious for a program that is highly orthogonal already.  And it would fix the unnatural act of needing to remember to define a component upon initiation.  That this is required is simply unexplainable.

[Christoph_360]

Hello

Thank you for this important information

I was able to create a component from the body, but when I push the sketch into component, Fusion gets the error message "Invalid restructuring". What am I doing wrong?

Mfg

Christoph

[jhackney1972]

Create a new Component.  Then left click/drag on the sketch into the component and it will go just fine taking the body along with it.

[randy]

I contend that Rule #1 is a workaround for improper structuring of the tool itself.  

The most logical organization of a file in Fusion is to put all document-related variables in the top level (measurement units, etc.) with a default component following that.  This would make Rule #1 automatic as a component is already created.  I can't tell you how much I hate moving sketches and bodies to a component (which sometimes doesn't play nice with the timeline) if I forget Rule #1 in my haste to capture an idea. 

What we get now is a pseudo-component which has extraneous information for that file and is not easily made into a separate component as is needed in 99% of all cases.  

If there's a good reason for this weird initial structure I'd really like to hear it from the tool designers.

[Christoph_360]

Hallo

Ja super, hat beim ersten Versuch schon geklappt, vielen Dank   😀 💪

MfG

Christoph

[Fully_Defined]

There's a Rule #2 now? Oh jeez.

In Solidworks, there is a handy macro that renames everything sequentially in the feature tree to hide your crimes. Design is hard, and it's common to delete and start over, backpedal and whatever else to get to Rev. 1. Going into it with preconceived notions of what you're going to call your sketches is not realistic.

Rather than Rule #2, there should be a built-in "Rename Features Sequentially" feature so that it looks like you knew what you were doing when you made that thing that one time.

[lichtzeichenanlage]

Rule number 2 exists for at least 5 years. That's how long I use Fusion 360
and how long I use it. IMO Naming things sequentially isn't what Rule #2 is
about...

[tookemtoni]

That’s great for SW.  For Rule #2  I use this add-on for fusion called DirectName. 😄 Just google it.

[TrippyLighting]

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@Fully_Defined wrote:

There's a Rule #2 now? Oh jeez.

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The first post and thread title are from September 2016.  Before I was asked to start this thread by the Fusion 360 team, I had posted similar messages in response to over 100 user posts that all had similar problems. For example "how can I keep my sketches with my bodies".

So "the R.U.L.E" is even older than that..

The thread title and post include that second rule right from the beginning 😉

The post was entirely aimed at Fusion 360 beginners, many of which never touched a CAD or any other 3D modeling software.  Although, appropriately organizing ones digital work by naming (and perhaps numbering) things appropriately ,not just CAD data , should be a common practice, the number of designs here on the forum that don't have anything named indicates that clearly isn't the case.

I personally only give unique names to those things that I find myself going back to for "adjustments" or if the design intent is not clear.

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[kgrunawalt]

As a adsk dev whose worked on assemblies, this rule really bothers me. Every design has a component from the start and if you are modeling something to insert into an assembly, creating a component under the root component just adds DOF and assembly where you don't want it.

I see the exception for designing something to insert. But it seems like you should almost always design something for inserting.