Having trouble with Fusion in general
Hi Jeff
Something I find hard to do with DM is changing something to an exact size. I tried a few programs with direct editing and they sort of work if you can just drag things around and use the grid. It gets a bit more difficult if you have something modeled and you need to make it to an exact size. From what I can tell you end up having to measure the part do some math to figure out how far to move a face. Here's a screen cast using Rhino to resize something from unknown sizes to exact dimensions just picking 2 point the entering a length. Can this be done as easily with Fusion, if not I'll put something on the Idea station.
https://screencast.autodesk.com/Main/Details/a056dbe9-e5bd-4adb-a11b-fd945d9ebf90
Thanks Mark.
Mark Hughes
Owner, Hughes Tooling
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This is, indeed, a great thread. I find discussions like this to be helpful both ways - we (ADSK) get a chance to explain some of our philosophy, and sometimes help customers who have questions. But, even more, it gives us a chance to hear direct feedback.
I wanted to comment on Luke's comments about external references, and give a preview of coming attractions. Yes, we will support all flavors of references:
- DM -> History
- DM -> DM
- History -> DM
- History -> History
One point that might help the overall understanding is that the fundamental nature of the design is determined by the type of the design itself, at each level of reference hierarchy. If it is a history-based design, it will have a timeline, and features created in that design will be parametric. If that design references a DM design, you will just see one item in the timeline that represents this reference. What you won't see is any of the features inside of the referenced design. If you want to edit that design, you would open it in a new tab, and that tab would be either DM or history-based, depending on the design itself. So, you deal with each design in its native form.
Here is a preview image from our internal build:
Jeff
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director
@Anonymous wrote:Here's an example of having worked on sketches and then needing them inside a component. Unless I back-track and interrogate the document this geometry will never be inside a component at this point. I shouldn't be punished for forgetting to create (and activate!) a component!
https://screencast.autodesk.com/main/details/1b11b895-7ca5-4acd-9c18-430af59adf19
And I would say this is the price we pay for having the ability to create sketches and bodies outside of components. 
Well, sort of. With a more forced separation between components and assemblies this problem wouldn't exist, but then it wouldn't be Fusion either. I think I read somewhere that moving sketches in and out of components is still a work in progress, so I expect this will get better. I also think that Fusion could do a better job at indicating what the current editing context is (main assembly vs sub assembly/component). If it's more obvious where you are at, you are less likely to make a mistake. I know this has been discussed beforeand it might even be in the idea station already.
C|
@jeff_strater wrote:This is, indeed, a great thread. I find discussions like this to be helpful both ways - we (ADSK) get a chance to explain some of our philosophy, and sometimes help customers who have questions. But, even more, it gives us a chance to hear direct feedback.
I wanted to comment on Luke's comments about external references, and give a preview of coming attractions. Yes, we will support all flavors of references:
- DM -> History
- DM -> DM
- History -> DM
- History -> History
One point that might help the overall understanding is that the fundamental nature of the design is determined by the type of the design itself, at each level of reference hierarchy. If it is a history-based design, it will have a timeline, and features created in that design will be parametric. If that design references a DM design, you will just see one item in the timeline that represents this reference. What you won't see is any of the features inside of the referenced design. If you want to edit that design, you would open it in a new tab, and that tab would be either DM or history-based, depending on the design itself. So, you deal with each design in its native form.
Here is a preview image from our internal build:
Jeff
Ok, so does mean that we won't be able to edit referenced external files in context with the referencing file? That would certainly be easier from an implementation standpoint (and also easier for users to understand) but it also limits the flexibility of the design process. I think ideally you would want to give the user the option to have external files be read only or editable in context. It should also be possible to break the link to a read/write external file and pull in the design history so that it becomes a fully internal component (as well as push a component out to an external file and maintain any links).
Easy peasy right?
I'm also finding this discussion quite helpful in understanding why Fusion does the things it does. And oddly enough I find I'm more interested in DM now than before.
C|
For the first release, we won't support in-context editing. Yes, this limits the workflow in some cases, but as you correctly guessed, it was just a question of priority, and wanting to get something out sooner rather than later. This is an important requirement, we realize.
Yes, we will support Break Link, which will do exactly as you describe: Copy the contents of the referenced design locally (like Insert today does). We will also support "Save As", which will create a new copy of the referenced design in your project, and change the link to point to the new copied design. This will let you make a copy that you can edit, to be kind of a one-off variation of the design.
Jeff
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director
Hi Mark (@HughesTooling),
Fusion can do this as well, although not quite as elegantly. When you select your face and the Push/Pull command
- in the input value field, expand the drop down and select re-anchor
- select the face you want to re-anchor from
In your example I made the 50mm box
- reanchored from the bottom face, got the 50mm dim for the "extrusion"
- drag with the new full extrusion value
- keyed in the exact dimension.
https://screencast.autodesk.com/main/details/97d027a9-134b-4444-b5c1-6271861653ae
hope this helps
hope this helps,
Jamie Gilchrist
Senior Principal Experience Designer
Jamie Gilchrist
Senior Principal Experience Designer
Thanks, I thought it was worth asking. I see this is available with move as well.
Mark
Mark Hughes
Owner, Hughes Tooling
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Something a bit annoying trying to use move, the data entry box always appears in the same place, no where near the mouse. Any idea why, is it the same for you?
Thanks Mark
Mark Hughes
Owner, Hughes Tooling
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Hi burnandreturn,
DM is Direct Modelling (no History) versus PM Parametric Modelling (with Timeline or History).
All those abbreviations are absolutely confusing.
Hope it helps.
Best regards,
Ludo
If you want to post the model, either before or after the change, we can take a look. Ideal would be the model before the change, and an idea of what you changed. It's probably not as bad as it looks, often there is just one error early that triggers a cascade of downstream errors.
Jeff
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director