How to merge flange operations?

[jwatte]

I have a sheet metal part that used three separate "flange" operations early on, where it could have used a single one. The problem with the separate ones is that they do not create bend relief to the other neighbor flanges, whereas bending them all at the same time will create the relief.

So, it would be great if relief could take previous bends into account, BUT that's not what this post is about. Instead, I now want to undo this problem, by creating a single blend of three flanges.

Unfortunately, these flanges are quite important base features for further features -- when I suppress them, a whole slew of other work also becomes suppressed.

So, what I would want to do, is to re-parent the dependent suppressed features to the new flanges created by inserting a unified flange to replace the three separate flanges.

Is there any way to do this? I can't find any.

Also, when working on this, if it was possible to color certain features in a contrasting color, it would be easier to at least figure out which features need re-creation when doing this resolution. In general, some better way of diffing and exploring the feature timeline would be quite helpful. I know I can rename individual operations, but those names aren't very visible...

Is there some feature here that I'm missing, or is Fusion just not particularly good at this workflow?

[jhackney1972]

You need to attach your model so the forum users can address it directly.

[rushabhthakkar_910]

See this Screencast Video... https://autode.sk/3gXm1Nl 

In the end answer's your question on Coloring Different Components... 

For the Flange part, see if the Begining helps you... And also Attach the File... 

*Sorry, Video has no sound. Because there was some Disturbance near me.. 

[jwatte]

@jhackney1972  thanks for the suggestion, but I don't understand why the file is at all interesting here.

I'm not asking to "fix my file."

I'm asking to "find some feature that either I can't find, or it doesn't exist."

How do I re-link a feature to some new feature introduced earlier in the timeline?

It seems like my file doesn't matter at all to that question.

If the answer is "sorry, but you can't re-link features to other base features, you have to re-create them all from scratch," then that's a fine answer (although of course disappointing.)

[jwatte]

@rushabhthakkar_910 Thanks for the suggestion!

The "creating three flanges" in the beginning doesn't help me, because that's what I'm already wanting to do.

The question I have is how I re-parent existing features further to the right in the timeline to new (replacement) features I create on the left in the timeline, so I don't have to re-create those features.

"Component Color Swatch" doesn't help me, because all the features are part of the same component, and get the same color swatch. I want "feature color swatch" (as an aid when re-creating all the derived features, because I can't re-parent them.)

It appears, from both answers here, that there exists no way to re-parent features to newly-inserted earlier feature edits (similar to how you'd re-base a change in git, or replace a wood beam that has dry rot and have all the structure that rests on the old beam, rest on the new beam.)

[jhackney1972]

Do it dawn on you that to answer your question the forum users may need your model to find out what process you used or did not use causing you to ask the question in the first place.  Sometimes the answer is not simple and is related to your model and modeling technique, or lack of it,  and to look at it directly will give a clue to your answer.  It only take a second to share it and if it helps to get you a "good" answer, it seems to me to be a logical request.  But if you want to have someone guess at the answer, that is fine.

[jeff_strater]

I'm not completely sure what you mean by "re-parenting" a set of flanges, or exactly what you mean by "re-link features", but the generic answer is:  If a feature is in an error or warning state (yellow or red), the usual method by which you repair that is Edit Feature.  An example is shown in the screencast:  A fillet feature has failed, in a warning state, and I use Edit Feature to repair it.

[jwatte]

Thank you for trying to help!

It feels to me like I'm still not making myself clear, because people focus on the wrong thing in the question.

Here's my question, cut down to the bare essentials, no f3z file needed:

---

when I suppress [some features,] a whole slew of other [dependent features] also become suppressed.

So, what I would want to do, is to re-parent the dependent suppressed features to [a new parent feature] [so I can delete the first features without deleting the dependent features]

Is there any way to do this? I can't find any.

Also, when working on this, if it was possible to color certain features in a contrasting color

It may be that I'm not using specific Fusion language, because I work in a number of 3D and other tools. When I say "parent feature" I mean a feature that, if I delete it, the downstream feature will also be deleted. When I say "downstream" I mean the subsequent features that get deleted when I delete the parent feature. I want to change the "parent" of those "downstream" features.

It seems likely that the people who try to help here have not worked in another package where this is possible, and thus don't understand what the question is, or why it really has nothing to do with the specific file as such.

It has to do with the timeline design workflow in Fusion in general, which appears to be more simplistic than in more sophisticated tools.

I thought including a screen shot would help explain the question better, but it seems it just confused the matter and made people focus on something I don't need an answer to instead.

From the answers here, I infer that the answer is "there is no way to re-parent a downstream feature to depend on some new feature instead of its current dependency parent." (From observation, the closest I can come is re-define a sketch to a new plane, but what I want is that kind of operation, on steroids, for any feature dependency.)

I also infer that the second answer is "no, there is no way to individually color features in the timeline, only components."

Thanks for listening.

[davebYYPCU]

Correct you can't colour change the features.  Fusion does that with yellow and red icons though.

But you certainly can re assign features to a new parent 

Break an Extrude by deleting it's profile, 

select new profile with Edit Extrude.  Providing all other things equal job done.

Might help...

[carl.j.barker · Accepted solution]

If you were to wind the timeline back and create a set of mitre flanges before you made the 3 single ones, then delete the 3 off singles. any feature that was dependent on the originals will show as either a red or yellow highlight in the time line.

Since the length of your timeline is not great you may only need a couple of mins to relink stuff. The problems you may see will be sketches that have lost their plane, sketches with lost projections and perhaps features losing their profile etc.

You should be able to right click any highlighted sketch in the time line and choose review warning to see whether it's a plane or projection issue. There will also be options in the right click menu to help repair them (redefine sketch plane or fix missing projections).

It may be better to put small extrusions on the end of your flanges to close the gaps yourself.

[jwatte]

@carl.j.barker  that's what I would assume, but it hasn't worked that way for me here.

When I select the three separate flanges and delete them, all the downstream features are also deleted.

Maybe that's some option I need to switch somehow? Maybe there's more than one way to delete a feature, and I'm choosing the wrong one?

I'll go spelunk some more, but the answer that "it's supposed to work" is in itself helpful. Thanks!

[jeff_strater]

Is there a way to delete a feature, and have downstream features not be deleted?

The answer is:  it depends.  In general, no, there is no way to control the behavior.  If you extrude, then fillet an edge, then delete that extrude, the fillet will go away, and there is no way to prevent that, or "re-parent" the fillet.  However, if you delete the sketch on which that extrude is based, the extrude will not be deleted, and will just be in a warning state.  That warning state can be corrected.

[davebYYPCU]

Sounds like it, 

best not to delete anything

create the new version back in the timeline, Hide the old, replace the assignments.

To be a little clearer, yellow icons can normally be edited, and red icons in general are redo, at least quicker than fussing with them, as Jeff mentioned.

When you have rebuilt the file Remove the old, with the Remove command, not Delete.  I can’t get my head around Suppress so leave that to you.  

Best advice you got here here so far was in message 2 and 6, should have let us review the existing so we could advise with the required.

I have seen some wonderfull newby files, things I would never have thought of.