How to resize easily

[michael_ray_neal]

OK guys I'm trying to create this little design and as you can see it is a 45 pound weight lifting plate. I have to create multiple other plates but in different values that are size differently. An example is that this 45 pound plate is 40 mm around the outside. The 25 pound plate will be 24.8 mm, the 10 pound plate will be 20.4 mm and the 5 pound plate will be 16 mm. All of these are outside dimensions. The question here is I've got the 45 pound plate designed the way I like it (as you can see sketch five is not fully constraint), I was hoping that I could just change the outside dimension of the 45 pound plate (which is 40 mm) and that would size everything accordingly down to the proper size for the next plate. Well, that's not working exactly the way I want hence hopefully that's where you guys come in and can point out my errors. The goal here is to get the 45 pound plate drawing to be fully constrained or I could just change one or two settings and everything will size accordingly. Also noticed that I have text that would also be nice to have that size accordingly as well. Any help would be appreciated. Please see attached files.

[bwalker145 · Accepted solution]

Any dimensions that will be impacted by the change in OD need to be driven parametrically.

Example: Your second sketch (36mm Inside) has the diameter rigidly defined at 36mm. Couple options:

a) Change this to an offset of the outer diameter; this will maintain consistent web thickness that will adjust with updates to the OD.

b) Set a parameter for the OD, and use a scaling factor to adjust (Ex. 36mm dimension = outer_diameter * 0.9). This will result in linear scaling of the web thickness.

This should give you a couple clues on how to move forward.

[laughingcreek · Accepted solution]

what specifically do you want to resize?  I asssume you just want the outer diameter to change, and the positioning of the text to remain relative to the outer diameter, but the webs would stay the same thickness, and the text size would stay the same?

any way, maybe the approach in the attached model will give you some ideas-

[kacper.suchomski]

Hi

I believe the best approach is configuration.

Please read the instructions below or watch the YouTube tutorials under this heading.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=CFG-OVERVIEW

[michael_ray_neal]

really want to resize the outer dimension and it all changes (plate size as well as text.

I got the plate size to change but the text stays the same... any thoughts?

[michael_ray_neal]

really want to resize the outer dimension and it all changes (plate size as well as text.

I got the plate size to change but the text stays the same... any thoughts?

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

Maybe the Fusion Add-In Parametric Text will solve your text problem.

[laughingcreek]

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@michael_ray_neal wrote:

really want to resize the outer dimension and it all changes (plate size as well as text.

I got the plate size to change but the text stays the same... any thoughts?....

---

what you're describing is a straight scale of the whole plate.  but I don't think that is what you are thinking.  we all have a tendency to go off on tangents when we here certain words, but those words will mean different things to different people .  so some questions-

do yo want the size of the text to change, or do you want it to just be properly positioned when the diameter changes?

do you want the wording of the text to change? (that's a little tricker to do automatically.  if you don't have many it's easiest to just manually make the change)

are yo looking to scale everything (the width of the raised islands (the webbing) will change),  or have the elements properly reposition themselves?

did you open and look at the model I posted for you?  that should give you some ideas.  you might noticed I did considerably less sketching than you did.  you can change the values to suit your requirements. 

[michael_ray_neal]

I did have a look at the model you attached and it's doing the same thing as mine is. I use a parameter and if you look at the attached file, I changed the outside dimensions from 40 to 25 and I understand the text is a little crazy to automatically size so I've taken the text out of the equation and all I'm trying to do is get everything on this drawing to size according to the outside dimensions. In other words if I changed the outside dimensions from 40 to 25, the only things that should change is the outside dimension, inside dimension, pole, ring, and any of the construction offset lines I've placed in there for adding my text later. I'm almost there as everything is sizing on the plate except for the temporary construction lines. I've added in there to eventually add my text in.

[bwalker145]

How do you want the construction lines to behave when the size is changed? Design intent will drive the next steps.

Do you want the outside -1.50mm offset to stay consistent through all sizes, and the inside 4.3mm offset to scale linearly with changes in OD?

It's also possible to set text height as a function of the OD; this could be one solution to your text scaling issue.

[michael_ray_neal]

Sorry for the late reply as I’ve been swamped, but the goal here would be to create one weight plate that had the construction line offsets as that’s where I place the different text and it would be nice to have those sized as I size the outer diameter of the plate so a percentage would be needed when sizing. An example would be if the plate is 40 mm then the construction lines need to be sized accordingly to fit the text the right way, but if the plate gets size to 20 mm those construction offsets get sized down keeping about the same amount of space so the text looks uniform. As for the height of the text, yes the text would be 3 mm tall for the large text and the small text would be about 1 mm. But again that would size keeping the text in proportion to the size of the plate. I don’t know if all that can be done easily, but it’s worth a shot.

[kacper.suchomski]

Hi Michael

The key question is - is the number of variants limited?

If the answer is "yes," take a sheet of paper and draw a diagram with dimension and description symbols. Then create a table listing these variables for each feature. If the dimension needs to be different, indicate it in the table. If the text needs to be different, indicate it in the table. If the text size needs to be different, indicate it in the table. Of course, you can do this digitally (the paper is a symbol, but don't ignore it).

Also answer the questions:

1. How many variants of product
2. Are there any dimensions that are supposed to be directly dependent on the others in each variant (proportionally)?
3. Which dimensions are fixed (e.g. text depth, hole diameter, etc)?
4. Which dimensions are variable but disproportionate?
5. Will any dimensions result from a constant difference from another (delta/offset)
6. How does the text change (height and content)?

All these questions should be answered by the table with the diagram you have prepared.

This entire project can be completed within ~15 minutes of launching the program.

But if we don't understand the goal, it will take ~15 days.
This is because any given variable may require a different workflow (and not necessarily in the final design phase).

Yes - it can be done.
Yes - you can automatically change the text size (without any add-ons or plugins, although these are harmless).
Yes - you can automatically change the text content.
Yes - you can automatically update the text position.
Yes - I can show you and teach you all of this.

No - I will not provide you with a finished model.

If you'd like, I'll take you by the hand the entire way. I'll show you how to build such a model - flexible, controllable, healthy and precise.
But there's no shortcut.
You'll have to read and learn.
I give the designers fishing rods, not fish.

If you're ready to learn how to build these models and want to do it yourself in the future, prepare the materials I described above. They're essential for understanding everything and planning your design strategy, as I mentioned.

If you expect free outsourcing - please ignore this message.