Joint paradigm not sinking in - workflow described

[rich.thomas]

I'm struggling to overcome my preconceived notions on how assemblies should work and could use some help.  Here is an example workflow I was trying to accomplish.

I wanted to design a box for an arduino controller.  I found models for the major components, power supply, stepper drives, adruino board, and some connectors.  Part of the challenge is managing airflow as well.  Seeing as to how the power supply is rather long, and I need 3 of the stepper drives, I wanted to align the back of the stepper drive with the power supply.

I tried constraining the end surfaces, but then the bottom surfaces didn't align.  Not sure how to properly do that.

To confound things, the corners of the stepper drive had a radius, so I had no edges to align.  What I did was create a joint origin, which seems to have a SON (Surface Outward Normal) concept going on, and aligned that with the edge of the power supply with a slider joint.  I could now drag the driver away from the power supply while keeping them both aligned at the bottom and rear surfaces.

So far so good, thought I had this figured out.  Since I need 3 drivers, I did a pattern.

Next I wanted to space the drivers and the power supply apart some normal distance, I decided to see if 4.5 inches would give me enough width to put the arduino board above everything horizontally.  Not knowing how to do that, I tried putting a slider joint set at 4.5 inches between the two surfaces.

Well that was clearly wrong, as Fusion indicated I'd created a conflict.  Not sure if that was a directional issue similar to Solidworks mate alignment or how to fix it, but by now I was getting frustrated.  I deleted the newly created joint and tried to drag the arrayed parts in to position.

When the arrayed parts didn't move together I gave up and designed my enclosure in another program.  Clearly I'm completely missing the concept of Fusion.  I watched numerous videos and read a tutorial but I'm obviously being dense and after 30 years of doing it the way I learned in Pro/E am not adapting well. 

I though the concept was, unlike a constraint that eliminates 1 DoF, a joint eliminates all DoF except what you specify such as sliding or rotation.  Fine, get that, but now how do you add further DoF downstream in your design?  And why did my array not keep the drivers aligned?

Any help would be appreciated.

[jhackney1950]

Please attach your model so the Forum users can use it to help explain your question. 

If you do not know how to attach your Fusion 360 model follow these easy steps. Open the model in Fusion 360, select the File menu, then Export and save as a F3D or F3Z file to your hard drive. Then use the Attachments section, of a forum post, to attach it.

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

You would not need a Slider, as first joint, if you use Rigid, and it’s appropriate Offset box, set the distance.

Rigid Group all the array. Fusion defaults to free to move, until the user prevents that.

Rigid Joint the last component with appropriate offsets.

Might help…

[rich.thomas]

Rigid Body, good call.  Was actually obvious now that you point it out as I'd already done that on all the subs.  To set the distance between parts I ended up having to go back and edit my original joint to add a distance between them.  Entire workflow is..... well unique.

Thanks for your help.