Hoping for help understanding constraints

[rhetths]

Hi.  Some of my lines are black, which i think means they are constrained, and some are blue, which i think means they are not fully constrained.  My impression is that i need to fully constrain them?  When i hover the pointer inside the sketched area all lines go black, i don't know why.  Please refer screenshot.

[davebYYPCU]

The cursor hovering over the shaded area highlights the "Profile"

It is the profile that you need for solid modelling tools, and the outlines for surface modelling tools.

You are correct black, green and purple lines are fully constrained

blue and (orange dashed) lines are not.

Your sketch should have no unconstrained lines in it, at the time you finish it, for the highest stability.

It is recommend to use as many constraints, before dimension as you can.

or in other words one constraint may eliminate many dimensions.

Might help....

[GRSnyder]

In addition to what @davebYYPCU said, keep in mind that we're really talking about "degrees of freedom" here. A fully constrained sketch has no degrees of freedom left. Blue lines are an indication that you haven't gotten there yet, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to pile constraints onto those specific lines. Add the constraints that make logical sense to define the sketch's design intent.

[rhetths]

Okay, thanks.  I tried every way i could imagine to add constraints to turn those blue lines black, but i could not find a way.  Can you see a way?  In terms of the design intent, i am still evolving how i marry my design parameters with the constraints options.

[rhetths]

Are annotations regarded by fusion as constraints?

Does the presence or absence of annotations affect whether a line is blue or black?

[jeff_strater]

@rhetths - you did not share your design.  In general, you will find here that you get better help if you share your design.  I re-created one that I think is close, but may not be 100% the same.  I was able to fully constrain this with 5 new dimensions:

[rhetths]

Oh thats great, now i see.  I didn't realise annotations are regarded as constraints.

I am happy to share the file, but i don't know how?  Since its a cloud thing its not saving to my computer so i cant just browse on my computer for the file?

[davebYYPCU]

It's File > Export, will save local, 

you attach them in the attachments box, below this window.

I don't know Annotation in this context, 

Constraint and their Icon, restrain sketch articles,

Dimensions specify size.

Might help....

[rhetths]

Thats easy, thanks, its attached.  I don't know if there are bad setups in it or if it is good?

[rhetths]

Here is an updated version.  I seem to have constrained it all !

[davebYYPCU]

Both your files are reporting that they are corrupted at my end, 

When saved you didn't have a command still running, or sketch open did you?

[rhetths]

I possibly or probably did have a sketch open?  I hope this might work.........

[davebYYPCU]

No - no problem now, I just wasn't updated to your version, older versions of Fusion cant open newer version files,

a new update arrived just now and I can open all 3 files now.  

Some rookie mistakes, - likely you don't know about

Sketch 1, (both of them) are not fully constrained, the pencil icon is the indicator,

one is in a component, the body created from it, is not in that Component.

After saving and reopening files, don't forget to re-activate the component you want to work in.

There are two more fully constrained sketches, but only because they are empty. 

Padlocked icon - meaning there is no movement left for articles in it.

The white dots in sketches are clues to look for, the one I circled is attached to the dimensions, but not the arc, can be moved vertically.  To fix it add a coincident constraint between the arc and the white dot, the sketch is still not indicating but behaves as fully constrained, cant click drag anything that I checked.

Finally we don't recommend sketch fillets, if solid fillets can be utilised.  Makes for simpler sketching too.

Might help....

[rhetths]

Its confusing for me right now, having folders on the far left, folders on the left, and tabs up the top.  Attached is a screenshot.  I did make some mistakes and play around with my files a fair bit, now i have a 'folder'(?) titled "chassis bracket passenger side:1", which i think is superfluous (and has sketching faults).  So i think i can delete it, but i don't want to accidentally lose the good file with that name or a name like that?

What i did at one point was, once i had finished the sketch, i finished that, then extruded it into a solid.  I tried to do a taper extrusion but couldnt see a way to do that given my constraints, so i extruded and then filleted the extrusion.  So have i ended up with a good result from that, or does it contain issues or potential issues?

When i wanted to go back to sketching, i would start a new sketch, but maybe i should have selected my original sketch?

I tried to create one of the brackets by mirroring the original bracket, which worked fine, but then i couldn't delete the original from that screen without it doing strange things.  I ended up giving up, and going back to the original sketch and then worked the second piece from that. 

So, if i turn all of the dots black, by using constraints, does that make it all good, or do i have potential problems lurking?

[davebYYPCU]

We are here to help with that, 

Find your own workflows for the files as you develop the skills, 

The Folder with the long name is actually a Component.  (Has the activate button on the end, not all folders will have them, just components).

Sketches and construction for that part should be organised in that Component.  

I have highlighted for the future, that the extruded part would normally be created when that component and sketch is active.

That you wanted a duplicate, at spacing or mirror, brings with it, more Components, and joints, etc.

The sketch was mostly constrained and even I didn't get the fully constrained status, fully constrained is to prevent inadvertent, click drag mistakes or oversights.  There would be very little chance of that sketch causing problems.

However the second sketch line, being blue line, can have a click drag movement - intentional or not.

Continue in the model, ask questions when stuck..

Might help....

[jeff_strater]

that's great that you were able to fully constrain the sketch.  Looks great.  And yes, those are not "annotations", they are driving dimensions (a type of sketch constraint, yes).

If this helped, please feel free to mark my post as a solution!

[rhetths]

I was wondering how to check the constraints on my solids.  I didn't seem to be able to do that until i went into sketch mode.  There was still one blue line on both, a line i had created in order to do the tapered solid part.  So i constrained it for both components.  When back in solid mode, the line and dot i had worked on remained extra visible in one of the drawings, and not the other.  Please refer screenshots.

[davebYYPCU]

That just means the sketch eyeball is still turned on, hide with the folder eyeball, it went away, or you can use the sketch eyeball.

Might help....

[rhetths]

Things are falling into place!  I had a lot of problems with Autocad, and even more problems trying to learn Inventor, but things are now going great with Fusion360.  Still a long way to go but i am feeling really positive.