How Do I Copy and Paste while Allowing for Individual Alignment

[mpulliam6CT22]

I seem to frequently run into the problem where I copy and paste "Component A", then I am unable to move or align "Component A2" without moving "Component A" out of place.  

It seems that when a design is in the simple stage, then I am able to select "Component A2" and move it without moving "Component A".

Then just when the design gets complicated, I am unable to move "Component A2" without moving "Component A1".  It's incredible frustrating.  

Is there a "Make Independent" button for a copy and pasted component?

[masa.minohara]

Hi @mpulliam6CT22,

Thank you for posting! Could you try "Paste New" command when you paste? I think this will solve the issue. Also, if you don't capture design history, there is "Make Independent" option in the right click menu in the browser. I hope this information helps!

[Coscor_NPL]

Hi... sorry to tell you, but...

Fusion360 is just really stupid regarding this... only way is to do listed above... and that brings a lot of bad things and stuff along the way...

also expect a lot of problems when you then later roll back before you 'paste new' and update the component A and component B then don't update...

expect a lot of problems with linked components and bad design choices regarding the whole 'assembly' workspace...

sitting here with my first real serious 'design assembly stamping tool project' and fusion gets more and more annoying or impossible by the hour...!

Love a lot of fusion360, especially the CAM part which I have used a quite lot this far... but a lot of very essential and simple things are broken.

Be catious if you're going to use this for 'real work'

Also expect the servers are down when you're in a hurry in the worst timings ever... because the servers are down or degraded 10% of the time (https://health.autodesk.com/)

(have a lot of experience with other cad/cam systems)

[Beyondforce]

Hi @Coscor_NPL

"(have a lot of experience with other cad/cam systems)" this is a very important statement. I talked about it in a video that I have made for new Fusion 360 users.

Check it out: Fusion 360: Before you start with Fusion 360

Cheers / Ben
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[jeff_strater]

I think that I maybe I have a theory about the problem you are having.  Are you using the Move command to move after the Paste?  If so, then I suspect that maybe you are using the Move command in "Move Bodies" mode.  In this mode, you are moving bodies inside of a command (relative to the component's origin).  This kind of a Move is similar to a geometry change to the component, such as adding a fillet:  Adding that fillet will add it in all instances of the component.  Similarly, moving a body within the component will move it in all instances of that component.

However, if you use Move in the "Move Components" mode, it will do what I think you want:  Move just one instance of the component, within the owning assembly.

Here is a short video showing the difference between these two modes in Move:

Also, I encourage you to take a look at this article from the Fusion help:  Bodies and Components

Jeff

[mpulliam6CT22]

Thanks Jeff,

Let me explain what I am trying to do.

For example, let say I am making a rectangular box that will be cut out of an 4'x8' piece of plywood on a ShopBot.

I need to have 4 sides and a top and a bottom.

The top/bottom will be identical, 2 sides (Sides A) will be identical, and the other 2 sides (Sides B) will be identical.

So top/bottom is a component

Sides A is a component

Sides B is a component

I want to be able to construct a 3D box so I can see the final assembly.

I also want to create copies of the components and assemble them as a "flat pack" so I can see that it all fits on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood.

I want to be able to add dado, mortises, grooves, etc to one component in the flat pack so that the change is reflected in the final assembly.

The problem that I keep running into is that the component_copy moves when I don't want it to.  This happens when I use the "Align" command on one component, or when I change a sketch.

I understand that I can "paste new" - but then I loose the ability to adjust my components all at once.

I also realize that I can copy a "body" of a component and paste it into a new component, so that as I adjust its features, the copy will change, but the components will have different origins and be able to move independently.  However I foresee that problem that additional sketches will not be updated to the copy.

Any thoughts? 

[Beyondforce]

Hi @mpulliam6CT22,

It is very simple. Use the Copy command, and every time you want to change something in the original component/Body, just use the Timeline to go back before the the Mirror and then change it back again 🙂

You can learn how to do it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30b9zDP2hV8

Cheers / Ben
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[TrippyLighting]

You should:

1. Share your design,

2. Make a screencast showing the problem, ben though that might already be apparent in the structure of your design.

My suspicion is that you might use a suboptimal workflow.

[jeff_strater]

Hi @mpulliam6CT22.  You are probably running into the same problem with Align that I showed with Move.  If you do an Align in Body mode, it will move the body within the component.  This will affect all instances of that component.  However, if you do an Align in Components mode, it will just affect one instance at a time.

For your other questions, I think you can use Capture Position to allow you to show the box in its assembled position, and also in its flattened position on the plywood sheet.  Even better, you could insert the assembled box into a new design, and reposition the components on the plywood sheet.

I'll make a quick, simple video illustrating this.

Jeff

[jeff_strater]

Here are a couple very primitive videos showing the workflow I had in mind.  The first is creating the box.  This one is very simple, and you'd probably want to do a better job - use parameters to specify the height, width, depth, thickness, etc, and use joints to  assemble it.  But, hopefully you get the idea:

The second is inserting the assembled box into another design, and positioning the pieces of the box onto a template body (in your case it will be your 4x8 plywood sheet).  My box is not dimensionally accurate to what you want to do, but hopefully again, you can get the idea:

Hope this helps,

Jeff

[mpulliam6CT22]

Thanks for the screencasts Jeff,

Basically that is what I'm trying to do, but in my ever-changing design plan and workflow I seem to run into trouble.  I must have a flaw or oversight in my workflow.  Maybe I'm forgetting to check the automatic object selection in the move command?  Maybe it has something to do with component origin?

When my design gets complicated and I start making changes back in the timeline, it seems that components that I thought were locked in place with a joint will move, and/or I will use the align command to to move them back, and other copied components move that I don't want to.  I can't to seem to replicate it outright, so it's probably just an improper selection I'm making at times.  If I come across it again I will screencast it.

Thanks,

Matt

[Beyondforce · Accepted solution]

Hi @mpulliam6CT22,

Watch this video, maybe it will clear out some misunderstandings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DiwbQMQXNQ

Cheers / Ben
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[jeff_strater]

yes, @mpulliam6CT22, please do try to capture a screencast if you run into problems.  There could be bugs there, certainly.  Also, this is an area that is admittedly not very discoverable in many ways.  I put my screencast together in kind of a hurry, so I omitted some important steps like creating joints.  In that workflow, I would have used as-built joints on the assembled box, since I created it in the proper orientation.  Also, if you noticed, in my screencast, The Align command remembers the last setting for object type, but Move does not.  This is not good, and we are fixing that.  So, it is easy to fall into the trap of moving bodies when you really want to move components, unfortunately.

Regarding editing back in the timeline:  Remember, a joint is just another timeline entry.  If you edit a component at a point in time before a joint has been added, that joint will not be active, so the component will be free to move in violation of that joint.  That's usually not a problem unless:  You are using as-built joints, and you insert a "capture position" feature before the joints.  This is admittedly complex (just writing out that last sentence made me realize just how complex these things are that I've just lived with for so long I usually don't think about them).  So, I apologize for the complexity.  

In the end, what you are trying to do is very achievable in Fusion.  You'll get lots of help and suggestions on this forum, so feel free to continue to ask.

Jeff

[g-andresen · Accepted solution]

Hi,

watch this Video. Perhaps it will help. You´ll find the script here.

hope it does what you´re looking for

guenther

[Coscor_NPL]

[edit] ohh sorry did not see there was an answer allready...

Actually, it may sound way to simpe: when copy/pasting and then afterwards moving component, to you remember to selct that it is a component you move and not the body? I know it sounds very simple, but has taken me a lot of time to figure out how fusion WANTS you to think about this

[TrippyLighting]

When you single-left-click on an object in the viewport it highlighs it. In the browser you can follow the bread crumbs leading you to the body in the componnet.

If you then invoke the move command, you will be moving the body within its component and away from the origin of the component.

If you have multiple instances (copy/paste) of a component in yuur design, the visual effect is that it looks like you are moving all the instances of the components.

Most of the time this is not what you want to do!

To select a component in the viewport you can double-left-click on the object. The highlighting in the viewport will be differnent and the highlighting in the brower will now indicate that you've selected a component, not a body. When you then move this with the move command you will really only be moving that particular instance of the component.

In general I don't really find it  very useful to use the move command on a component. To properly locate a component one better uses the joints in the Assemble menu.

Align can be used to pre-align a component that you then want to rigid group.

[Coscor_NPL]

wow... I did NOT know that if you double left clicked a body/component that it selected the component... that's sooo simple but usefull, really, really missed that feature, i've thought about it a lot during my latest work weeks with a lot of fusion!!! they should shout small tips like that in my face every time when opening fusion!! any other crazy simple but extremely good tips like that?