I'll argue whether it's a bug in the other thread - after playing with it for a few hours more today, I'm squarely convinced that it is. But...
What I'm asking is,
"What is the most efficient way to create the holes in my plate such that if I have to move my rails (while I am prototyping), the holes move with the rail?
I found this: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/getting-started/caas/screencast/Main/Details/6225a...
What a ball ache. My rail has 22 holes. According to that tutorial, I have to do 22 hole features and line them up individually.
Other methods:
- Copy & translate the hole sketch from the rail into the plate component. To do this, I have to break the rail's link. Note: My rail is fully parameterized. You enter the length/width and it auto-calculates/cuts the holes based on the manufacturers specifications.
- Use the hole feature that I created in the rail; break the link, add the plate's body to "Objects to cut". I have demonstrated that this doesn't work. I'd be really interested to see someone show me that it does because I honestly can't
- Instead of moving the rail Component, I break the link to the rail and start moving the rail's base sketch around the design and treat this lovely 3D program like a 2D drafting program.... ugh.
- Project points from the bottom of the holes on the rail onto the top face of the plate.... individually. In an assembly with hundreds of holes, this will be... ungainly.
- Rigid Joint - this is the same as #4, above. I need to drill the holes into the plate explicitly using #3 or #4 above.
I'm in the prototyping stage so lots is going to change - including the position of my rails as I find out what fits where.
In every other program that I have ever used, I would achieve what I'm trying to do using the following workflow...
- Create plate geometry in one component/layer (named "plate")
- Import rail from another file into another component/layer (named "rail")
- Drag-select the edges from the holes in "rail", copy them to another component/layer and extrude them into cyliners (named "hole drills")
- Parent/Rigid Join the "hole drill" component to "rail" and then make "hole drill" invisible
- Move my "rail" around the other components until I have "finalized" where they should be
- Save copy of file named ("my design - before holes drilled")
- Make "hole drill" visible and then Boolean-cut "hole drill" into the other layers
- Find a problem with my layout that requires moving the rail
- Have a little cry and then "File / Open" - "my design - before holes drilled"
- Repeat steps #5-9 until I slit my wrists
When I first saw the hole tool, and that it could cut into bodies from other components, I nearly wee'd myself as - I thought - it would remove steps #3,4,6,7,8,9 and 10 from above. That would be, if I could get it to work, a significant improvement on workflow. But the fact that when I move the rail component it leaves holes in the first place where I dropped it... well.. that means it didn't work.
But I can't get it to work properly - whether I use free move or translate.
What is the most efficient way to cut these holes at scale and make them dynamic in the face of changes to the design (ie - if I move the rail, I don't have to do a bunch of rework to move the holes in the plate too).
And if you are saying that I should just be able to move the rail component and have the holes [that are drilled into the plate] move with the rail component, then you are contradicting everything that I've experienced with F3D so far.
Have you seen any tutorials that might help? The only ones I've found demonstrate the absolute-most-basic level for a single hole and the workflow is terribly inefficient.
