Is it possible to get the rulers closer to the work?

[CLmoss]

Is it possible to get the rulers closer to the work?  Even though many think there are no rulers, they are there.  The problem is that they are miles away from the work.  They need to be close enough to see when you are up close to the work.

[jeevesme]

Are you talking about the "Ruler" that is just outside of the grid?  You cannot adjust it.  But you can adjust how the grid reacts:

[CLmoss]

Yes... Very nice, but what I am wanting are the rulers closer to the work.  See 19" x 5.25" plate in attachments. 

[jeevesme]

You cannot adjust that ruler to be closer to the origin. You can only adjust the spacing of the grid. The grid IS the ruler, it just doesn't show the numbers until you start sketching.  I know what you want, the option just isn't there. 

[CLmoss]

Big Mistake. I have news for you.  The grid is not the ruler.  The grid is the grid.  Without markings you have no ruler.  So you have no direct feedback on where you are on the screen on that grid.  Big Mistake.  

[jeevesme]

LOL Not sure what you mean by "Big Mistake" , but assuming you aren't completely blind, you can clearly see in the screen cast @ :55 there are numbered increments on the grid.

[CLmoss]

OK, I see that at 50 and 55, in Sketch, you have the lines with numbers and they do go up to greater than 5.5" which is all that I get on my grid.  For some reason, and I did the same setup as you show in the video, my markings end at 5.5"  How do I get around that?  I have mine set to Fixed/1"/10 div.  I really need 20 divs, but for this 10 will do. 

[CLmoss]

Here is how I come to this issue.  I am designing a 19" x 5.25" x .25 rack mount panel that will be milled.  There will be chamfered slots that are not rectangles, but odd angles.  Then there are plates that are to be bolted to that plate in specific places on the front and back which have positional tolerances are very tight.  

So LOL, I can see this in Illustrator where I did my initial design.  I just cannot see it here in Fusion 360..... yet.  Maybe I don't have some basic setting set yet.  I did not see a place where I could define the total sheet size as in Illustrator.  I can't do much with only 5.5" of marked grid space.   In a perfect world I would be able to switch on and off a numbered grid so that I could make evaluations of the work.  I could check the relationships between bodies with a marked grid or not.  

So I can see that we have different displays already.  That means that there is something different between our setups.  

[jeevesme]

I use Illustrator on an almost daily basis, and have for 10 years. Fusion 360 doesn't have a ruler like that. The build volume is basically infinite like illustrators. You can do what I did in the beginning and create a sketch that shows your overall size. But I quickly found out its kind of pointless.
If you want to share your illustrator file, I could show you how I would go about it to give you an idea. Otherwise i probably can't help you.

[CLmoss]

Thanks for the offer.  For now, just look at the fact that the numbered grid that appears in Sketch, on my install, only goes to 5.5" then is blank.  I can see on your video that your numbered grid goes to 12.5".  How did you get yours to do that?

[jeevesme]

I'm not sure. I have "adaptive" toggled on. I didnt think there was a way to change those particular ruler sizes. Maybe @TrippyLighting could chime in?

[daniel_lyall]

@CLmoss This is a Fusion thing you need to Learn (you have no choice in the matter) When Sketching in fusion you don't need to do your measurements straight away, you can added them latter.

Instead of haveing rulers and position cal-louts on screen fusion use's the diamention tool to set the size and position of objects, (I asked the same thing when I started to use fusion) you get use to it and It's faster than a ruler or callouts on screen.

When you go to draw a say a squire you will see the measurements of each side you can set the diamention when doing the squire or you can just wack a squire out and get it ruffly to size and carry on adding your sketch elements.

If you wont to add the diamention when doing the squire the measurement callout that is high lighted is the one you can add a diamention to first, then you can tab to the next one and add the measurement, if the first one is wrong you can just tab back to it.

if you wont the squire to be equal on all sides you can set the first side tab to the next one and just click on the first one it will auto populate the second one. 

[CLmoss]

Where is "adaptive" toggled? 

[CLmoss]

Thanks for you in depth explanation.

Even if  you are roughing out your bodies, then dim them, you need to place them.  When you place them, that is where having a ruler is handy.  I have used the Parametric Move to do this based on the side of the panel and a side of a second body.  I guess that is what you mean.  It is not intuitive for sure, but it works.  Then I guess you come back and use sketch dim to check your work.  

Still, jeevesme has the X and Y have this ruler going,  but not working so well on my install.  My  X/Y is limited to 5.5" for some weird reason where jeevesme's goes on.  I am not sure what to change to get this same performance.  

[Anonymous]

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@CLmoss wrote:

Where is "adaptive" toggled? 

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Here:

[CLmoss]

Oh Right... I tried that already. It didn't help. Plus, jeevesme had his set to Fixed in his video.  

I thought there  might be a global setting in prefs or something that I missed.  

Thanks to all for the help, by the way. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@CLmoss wrote:

.... which have positional tolerances are very tight... 

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While editing a sketch - hit d on the keyboard and enter your precise dimensions.  Parametric dimensions will drive the geometry.

Absolute and predictable control and far far easier editing when changes need to be made (simply double click the dimension - remember, the dimensions drive the geometry).

[CLmoss]

Oh wait.  My mistake.  He starts out in Fixed then goes to Adaptive.   Sorry. 

[CLmoss]

Got it.  Thanks!

I have difficulty in Sketch Dimension when I try to find the distance from a rounded edge to a straight edge.  Like the distance between a ball to a square.  Square to square works fine.  Ball to square always defaults to finding the angle or radius, not the distance between the objects.  Are there special keys that I need to push to get the tool to switch through it's modes?  I had to draw squares tangent to the round objects, then use that to create distance dims. 

Here is a great link that I found.  It addresses the little things. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_2If5zVp84

When you are just figuring things out, videos like this really help.  

[TheCADWhisperer]

Use Construction lines and/or Sketch Points where appropriate.

I was taught to always use construction lines back on the drawing board in the last century and still use them today, 40yrs later - even if they are not technically needed - to give visual indication of geometry intent.