How to update a projected geometry when the projecting component has been moved

[vm.reg]

Hey, Fusion community!

This is definitely a beginner question which has been answered already, but I was not able to find that answer yet...

I'm making a box for a few components which will be placed inside this box and then can be accessed via cut-outs in the walls of the box, for example, a PCB with USB plugs which should be accessible from outside of the box to plug a connector. In the process of design, I do not know yet, where to place those components, but I would like to have cut-offs done on the walls to better see and decide the best positioning. In my design, I got a PCB with USB plugs inserted as an external component from another design. I placed it inside the box body and meanwhile placed it with a joint, since I thought it would resolve me problem. I projected the geometry of the plugs on a sketch on a plane at one of the walls of the box. The projected geometry is visible and I could create rectangles for cut-offs. Now, when I move the PCB to another position, the projected geometry stays on the old position. I would like to see it changing and so moving the cut-off automatically. I failed to find any controls where I can tell Fusion to update the projection... What am I missing?

PS. I hope I explained it well... It is my first post and I did not figure out yet how to post a screencast, so I added a simple screenshot for now.

Thanks!

[TheCADWhisperer]

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

[vm.reg]

Thanks for a quick reply. The archive is attached. I did not get the f3d extension, but the attached is the same but compress IMHO.

[davebYYPCU]

What am I missing? - fully defined sketches.

I have not found the problem, in your file, 

Your projected geometry is updating when the derived components are re positioned.  

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

I have not looked at the model, I'm basing this on your description.  But, in Fusion, positioning components are a timeline operation.  If the component is moved after the sketch, the projected geometry will compute before the component is moved.  However, if you roll back to before the sketch, move the component there, and Capture Position, the sketch will update correctly.  See the screencast:

[davebYYPCU]

And there you go, I would never have thought of moving after the sketch to make it break.  

Could be what he is up to.....

[vm.reg]

> "if you roll back to before the sketch, move the component there, and Capture Position, the sketch will update correctly. " -- YEAH!!!!! THIS IS THE POINT! Thanks! Now it works! And, yes, IMHO, this aspect is not easy to find and learn up until this solution!

Thanks for a very quick replies!

[davebYYPCU]

Excuse me?

Why would you roll back the time line - move - Capture the new position and find it works as expected. I would expect the Joints to break if you could do that.

I edited the provided joints to move, and could not break the file.

[vm.reg]

Well... As a beginner, it is beyond my knowledge to judge about the quality of the solution, but it works 😉  I actually tried using joints and modified the corresponding joint to get that component moved. In this case, the projection was not updated either. Not sure what is wrong... Yet, I must admit, after I posted my initial question, I continued to work on my model and did not test the way via joints recently. Generally, I introduced joints in my model to only solve this problem with the projection update, whereas I learned that it is a good praxis to use joint more often. As a beginner, it is hard to follow all those fine details anyways... Generally, as a user, I wish there will be an option somewhere where you can decide to update projections or not in such a case. Maybe in the "Postion" menu...  There are similar options meanwhile for other purposes as I saw. Maybe I'm mistaken, but IMHO this use case might be popular. I think it is very convenient in the design to "try-n-decide": move things around and see what works better. And again, the proposed solution solves my problem and this is a good news for me 😉 I will try to play with joints once more! 

Thank you, folks, for a very quick replies and help! I'm impressed with Fusion 360 and I'm impressed that I got a replies and a solution on the product forum in a bit more than 24h... This does not happen often with other products!

Happy New Year too all! 

[vm.reg]

I now tried joints again and this way now works too: projections are updated as well. I do not know what was wrong before... This time the slots for the plugs were extruded directly from projected shapes, and updating "moved" them accordingly. I guess, last time I tried this, I had sketches with elements which were not constrained to the projected geometry or my first joints had a problem... The only thing I can see now as my wish is that a free move of components in phases of "try-n-decide" is more convenient, IMHO, since there are might be no surfaces or joint points for joints at this early time of design yet. So an option for updating projections regardless of if joints are used or not would be nice.

Cheers! 

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

I understand you are new to Fusion, and Fusion is almost too flexible, so many ways - does confuse.

It is best practise to place the incoming parts with Joints.  You can always revisit their position, by updating the joint offsets.  I was doing this, and did not break your file, could not see the problem.

Projection made from those parts will always update, because the sketch comes after the Joint, but the Projecting must remain linked.  There is an option to turn the linking off, don’t do that.  

Moves and Captures are not recommended as it bogs Fusion down.

Components are free to move click drag and Capture, before you find the position for the Joint.  Once jointed delete all the previous captures.

The penny will drop....

[vm.reg]

Thanks for the detailed background information! Very handy! I spotted one thing in your reply. How can I delete all the previous captures? You mean captured positions, right? 

For such a sophisticated system as Fusion 360, I had a very smooth start, I think. I used ThinkerCAD before and it took me around half a day to re-make a few models in Fusion 360. As a beginner, it was a very good and motivating feeling. Watching a few video tutorials before you start clicking around is a must though, IMHO. What I found more difficult is to discover the important "you need to pay more attention to this" topics. For example, using components, name them, pay attention to what is "activated", to what you click on, define Origins, use Sketches instead of ready-made 3D bodies form the menu, use Planes instead of just sketching on Faces, then these  Joints which we discussed here, etc, etc. I did not know all of this in the beginning and spend two days for a complex model which was my actual thing I wanted to 3D print. I managed to finish it, but I dumped this work after I printed it, since it was a dead-end - completely cluttered and filled with tons of interdependencies. IMHO, there is too much information on how do you do this cool XZY thing or how do I assign keyboard shortcuts. All this is great too, but as a beginner does not take you on the right route... There are just 3, max 4 really good channels on YouTube with some useful guides. Just some thoughts speaking loud out 😉 My bottom line: I'm very impressed of Fusion 360! Really cool stuff! 

Cheers and thanks once more for the help!

--

Vladimir

[davebYYPCU]

Yes, Capture Position, they are a huge memory hog, and after the Joint is done, they are redundant, but still hogging the memory.

[jdkopinski]

Thx boss