Joint referenced from center of hole...

[Leo_Dyn]

Trying to apply a joint, and need to have the measurement come from the center of that hole to the edge of the part laying on top. However, when doing the "re-anchor" Fusion doesn't allow a snap to the center of that hole, it only seems to allow you to click the circle/hole itself. Granted I could just place it anywhere, do a measurement and then do the math to see how far it is off, then go back and edit the joint to get an exact placement, but I'd much rather have this work right away without messing around.

Am I missing a way to have that center point of the hole "snap-able"?

I've tried holding down: alt, shift, ctrl, ... no luck with any of those.

Note: I've also posted this to the Fusion 360 community discord, hoping a get some quick help in one spot or the other!

[jeff_strater]

If I understand the workflow (and I may not...) you should not need to use Reanchor in the measurement of the translation.  Why not just snap to the hole when creating the joint?  If I'm not getting this right, please show a screencast of what you are trying to achieve.  Thanks.

[Leo_Dyn]

If you look in my screenshot, you can see the joint command started, the edge of that top part needs to be offset from the center of that hole by a set distance. (currently you can see I have the value at -.25" in the joint command)

What I was expecting to do is to be able to re-anchor off the center of the hole to set my distance. (the top part is in the correct orientation, just not the correct distance slid away from the hole)

edit: you can also see that the correct axis is highlighted blue in the joint command. So I need to slide in that direction the correct distance away from the hole.

edit2: Forgot to add what happens now when you click on the hole, it basically just takes wherever you happened to click on the circles diameter as the anchor point, it'd be workable if it even snapped to quadrants, but there does not seem to be a way to snap to anything of any meaning currently.

[Leo_Dyn]

So, I did it the "math" way I mentioned in my first post, just so you can see the desired result. Would like to learn how to do that without jumping through the hoops of placing it, measuring it, subtracting the incorrect amount, and then editing the joint by that distance to get the correct answer!

Here is a pic showing the desired result:

[davebYYPCU]

Snap to the hole centre,

click drag the triad handle/s in the required direction/s,  

enter the required Offset in the Dialogue Box.

Might help.....

[Leo_Dyn]

That gets to the heart of my issue, it is not snapping to the center of the circle, only to any point on the diameter, which seems to just be the exact spot on the diameter where you choose the circle.

[davebYYPCU]

Hover over the plate face with the hole in it, 

hold down Control Key, the snap for centre will be pinned, unless the edge is a spline.

Might help....

[jeff_strater]

@Leo_Dyn - I think it is not clear to us what the intended joint location should be, or what interaction you are seeing.  So, I think we need some more information, preferably a screencast of what you are doing within the Joint command, and even the model itself.

You can consider a few other ways to do this - using explicit Joint Origins, or a sketch.  Those are easy to explain, but without the context of what you are trying to achieve, it would be hard to make those effective.

[Leo_Dyn]

The intended joint location is where I have it as explained and shown in post # 4.

While that location is now correct, I just had to work harder than I expected to get it there. Still not difficult, just not a simple solution, the only problem being that during selection of the re-anchor point, you can not snap to the circle center. I had to use the method I mentioned in my original post, and that is what I was trying to find a way to not need to do.

If you need me to, I'll try to record something with OBS and post it to youtube or something. However screencast is no longer welcome on my system per this 5 year old thread: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/screencast-forum/screencast-should-have-an-option-to-not-start-when-w...

I just don't use it often enough to warrant it ALWAYS RUNNING, even if I shut it down, it starts itself up regularly. Not sure what triggers that, but it is annoying.

edit: Could also zoom my screen when at work tomorrow if that is preferable.

[etfrench]

When the hole is normal to a planar surface, you can snap to the center by putting the cursor on the circumference or selecting the face of the hole:

[etfrench]

And if the hole is in a non planar surface, you may still be able to create the joint by selecting the face of the hole:

[Leo_Dyn]

@etfrenchThanks, I don't need to joint to the hole though, I just want to reference the hole with the re-anchor. My only issue is that at point it will not reference the center point of the hole while at the "re-anchor" choosing point.

[TrippyLighting]

@Leo_Dyn I did not see your model attached to any posts.

[etfrench]

I must apologize as I've never used the Re-Anchor command and didn't know it existed🤔  It's always a good day when you learn something new.

It seems the Re-Anchor command can only reference planar faces (at least on my computer), so the question becomes how do you create a planar face at the center of a hole.  One method is to create an axis on the centerline of the hole, then create a plane at angle on the axis.  Next create a sketch on the plane and draw some geometry with a closed boundary.  In the Surface workspace, patch the geometry.  You now have a planar face to use with the re-anchor command. 

[etfrench]

There is an easier way to create the planar face.  Just add a line through the center of the circle in the original sketch.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

I still don't completely understand where the joint is supposed to go, or why you are using Reanchor to position it.  Maybe I'm just tired at the end of the week, but I don't see a joint or a joint origin in the image in post #4.  Without the model, I just created one myself that looks similar, and guessed as to where you want the joint located:  Attached to the selected face, but aligned so that it is the same distance away from the face as the hole.  I did this with a Joint Origin.  You select the face, snap to whatever point on that face you are interested in (I chose the center, but it doesn't matter).  Then, offset the Joint Origin using one of the manipulators, and just pick on the cylinder.  That snaps the JO to be aligned with the hole center.  If this is in the wrong place, please indicate where you would like this location to be.  You will find that placing a Joint Origin has more options than an "implicit" JO created as part of the Joint command.  You can also create sketch geometry to help you place a JO wherever you want it (but you have to make sure that the sketch is owned by the component by activating it before creating the sketch, otherwise it will move independently)

[Leo_Dyn]

That is what I was attempting to do that day, but on that day it was not snapping to the center of the hole, for some reason it was snapping to the nearest point on where I happened to click on the hole. It is working as it should today. I have no idea why it wasn't doing that the other day. The fact that it wasn't snapping to that circle was why I was trying to use the re-anchor point.

Either way it is working correctly today.

If I see a thing happening like that again, I'll make sure to take a screen video of what is happening. For now though, all good!