Is there a tool for centering a component within a structure?

[CLmoss]

I have a 19" rack mount enclosure with a 17" cage on the back of the front panel.  In side the cage I have a circuit deck. I have been fooling around with it, trying to center it.  Is there a tool or function that will auto center this for me?  See attached.  

JM

[TheCADWhisperer]

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

[CLmoss]

No.  I posted explicit screen captures.  It should be clear from those what I am asking.  There is a blue plate in a cage.  I want to know if there is a tool or function that will allow me to simply click on the walls of the cage then click on the plate... then click CENTER.  That is done in most graphic programs that cost 1/100 of what Fusion 360 costs.  

JM

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@CLmoss wrote:

No.  I posted explicit screen captures.  ...  That is done in most graphic programs that cost 1/100 of what Fusion 360 costs.  

JM

---

I see a number of issues in the images that you attached, but I am not familiar with editing images in Fusion.

I think you would see very significant benefit of posting the *.f3d file (I would do the design for you, from scratch and for free - the way it should have been done, as a learning aid).

Fusion (or any other MCAD software) is not a mere graphics program.

[CLmoss]

Well, thank you for your offer, but I am into this learning process now and I am not going to give up.  

What issues do you see?  I would like to know. 

I have everything but the wrap-around and the plate suppressed.

There are two parts.  

1) The wrap around which is part of the cage (back part of a rack mount enclosure)

2) The deck section which is a sketch rectangle that was +extruded to 0.75".

Then do an offset on the parameter.

This is a -offset the parameter leaving a ring of .090"

Then I did a -extrude the center (the inside of the offset parameter)  done to .75" - .090" = 0.66".

This leave you with a deck plate (dished out) that has vertical elements which can old PEM nuts.

The deck plate can then be secured inside of the wrap around with screws. 

JM

[CLmoss]

Yes you are right, Fusion (or any other MCAD software) is not a mere graphics program.  That is my point. Everything from word processors to photoshop can find the center between two points and center a selected object.  I did that in my first semester of C++.  

I was not sure if this ability existed or not.  I have not found every function in this program.  There may be tricks that people have figured out to do this.  I would like to hear from them.  It seems like a lot of work to get something centered simply by trial and error.  To this end I believe that the dimension function should simply start up if you select it. You have to start drawing a line, then cancel it, to get to start sketch and then dimension.  There are times when I just want to measure something, like the total distance between the inside surfaces of the cage and subtract the width of the plate, then divide that number by two... and off you go. 

JM

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@CLmoss wrote:

What issues do you see?  I would like to know. 

---

I like to ask a rhetorical question.  Why are you using Fusion?

Follow-up.

To create mere pretty pictures? Don't need an MCAD software to do that.

There is a ton of meta-data built into a CAD design that makes the significant effort required to learn a CAD program worth the effort.

So why toss all that design/engineering information built into the CAD model (the design intent) and revert to mere pretty pictures at the first sign of difficulty.

I could certainly give much better answer to your question of, "What issues do your see?" with the actual CAD model than I could typing a bunch of paragraphs.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a CAD file might be worth a thousand pictures.

[CLmoss]

"I like to ask a rhetorical question.  Why are you using Fusion?

 Follow-up.

To create mere pretty pictures? Don't need an MCAD software to do that. "

Look, CatWisperer,

you have been zero help to me with all of your comments over the last week.  I want you to leave me alone.  Your comments I quoted are totally unproductive. 

I have had great help from the other folks on here.  I agree that there are a lot of very cool functions here.  There are bugs too. 

Frankly, I don't believe you are in a position to comment on OO multi-string or multi-process programming code or the root causes of bugs like possible out of scope pointers.  Issues that I am pointing out in my other post.  I have been programming since the 1980s. I do know how this kind of thing happens.   

Right now I am building a 19" 3U rack mount enclosure for some electronics I designed.   I don't need you to ask if I am just making pretty pictures.  You are the one who said you could see a number or issues in my screen captures.   

On this post I just asked if anyone knew of a way to center an object. Simple question here on this post.  

No hard feelings.  

JM

[HughesTooling]

Have you tried creating a joint origin, it has an option Between 2 Faces.

Mark

[CLmoss]

No I have not.  I have never even heard of it. 

I will research it.  

Thanks! 

JIM 

[Beyondforce]

Hi @CLmoss,

If you will attach the file, I'll show you how to do it.

Cheers / Ben
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[CLmoss]

I will have to make up a public file similar to what I am doing.  I can do that later tonight.  

Thanks. 

JM

[TrippyLighting]

I am not sure this is exactly what you are looking for, but it should get you on the right track.

[CLmoss]

Yeah, that is pretty much it.  Huh!  See, ask and you will receive.  Thanks a lot. I will give that a try. 

I need to wake up first.  I am on my first cup of coffee.  I am a night person.  

You know the type, programmer, musician.  

JM

[CLmoss]

After I import a component from another project I get some ghosts of other sketches or something from the project I am exporting from.  This might just be an index file issue. Since the timeline is a database and it will surely have indexes, is there a way to recompile the timeline?  Someone somewhere was talking about a Compute All command. 

JM

[TrippyLighting]

Menu "Modify->Compute All"

I doubt that will eliminate the issue but we'll see.

[CLmoss]

Well, Compute-All gave a list of errors.  

At the time I was doing this work I didn't have problems with these steps.  Now it want me to recover the lost references. 

What is up with that?  

Warning: Extrude2
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The profile reference is lost, try editing this the feature to reselect the lost profile.
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>Failed to get target occurrence transform
Error: MoveFace1
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The face reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost face.
Compute Failed
Error: MoveFace2
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The face reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost face.
Compute Failed
Error: DeleteFace2
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The face reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost face.
Compute Failed
Error: Chamfer3
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The edge reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost edge.
Compute Failed
Error: Chamfer4
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The edge reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost edge.
Compute Failed
Error: Chamfer5
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The edge reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost edge.
Compute Failed
Error: Chamfer6
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The edge reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost edge.
Compute Failed
Error: Chamfer2
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The edge reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost edge.
Compute Failed
Error: Chamfer1
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The edge reference is lost, try editing this feature to reselect the lost edge.
Compute Failed
Warning: Extrude1
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The profile reference is lost, try editing this the feature to reselect the lost profile.
Warning: Extrude3
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The profile reference is lost, try editing this the feature to reselect the lost profile.
Warning: Extrude4
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The profile reference is lost, try editing this the feature to reselect the lost profile.
Warning: Sketch43
Project1
Error: MoveFace1
Compute Failed
Warning: Sketch44
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The sketch plane is lost, Cache is used. Please redefine the sketch to select other plane!
<b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>Failed to get target occurrence transform
Project1

At a glance, these all seem to be relics of the originating drawing from which I imported a component.  

JM

[daniel_lyall]

@CLmoss The main reasion people wont to see your file is so they can show you how to do something in your file, so it is relevant to what you need to do.

And (this is a big help to you) to check for any mistake that they may find so they can make your experience in fusion happy and get you on track faster.

There is no other reasons why they wont to see your file, It's just to help you.

And if you state in your first post when you have a private file, some off the guys will do it privately and if needed do a NDA, you just have to say and ask we are all here to help.

And if someone is on here to steal other people's work they will be gone very fast.

[CLmoss]

I am willing to work off the forum with someone, but I just cannot let this out to the public.  

Last month I worked off line with James Youmatz.  

If it is someone who I feel comfortable with and is willing to go to go off forum as far as the actual drawing is concerned.  

Jim

[CLmoss]

So clearly, I took the train off the tracks today, but, this is an opportunity to excel, as they say. 

Well, here is what I think I am learning:

1) when I go to the file section and right click over a file then select "Insert Into Current Design",

I am exporting the entire drawing into the current design.  !! Yikes...!! 

Even if I have all the other parts in the drawing turned off, they still go to the current design along with the component I want to insert. 

So that is not desired and this is most likely where the errors are coming from in my "Compute All" effort. 

( I was wondering where all those ghosts were coming from. It was like Shadow People or Shadow Cats in my drawing. |You have seen those right?)

2) I would like to know, how to export a single component from one drawing to another without all the baggage.  Anybody? 

3) There is an old Silicon Valley saying, "Never do more damage in the first half of the day, than you can UNDO in the second half."

With this in mind, I was looking for ways to eliminate the Shadow Drawings I had picked up.  

The only thing I could find, that worked, was to eliminate the TIME LINE which drops the Time Line data. Great! I can live with that... I think. 

Then after I saved the work as a new file, I turned the Time Line back on and ran "Compute All" again. No Errors!... of course, no timeline data no errors. 

This eliminated all the Shadow Stuff, which was getting really creepy.  ( Like seeing the olympia beer artesians, back in the day)

Again, I would like to know, how to export a single component from one drawing to another without all the baggage. 

JM