new guy help aligning components

[pascalyoung]

Hi there, first post.  Must say this seems to be an amazing community!

Just made the move from 123D to Fusion360 - wow, what an amazing SW package!  With all the great screencasts on this forum I was able to start re-creating a planetary watch winder which I had made in 123D where it is almost done, however the crashes and other issues led me trying Fusion360.  

If you could help, I can not figure out how to align two components with another component while staying relative to a plane.  I tried more methods than in the screencast such as creating a tangent plane which I also couldn't figure out.

goal is to place the bearing shaft component and the bearing receiver component aligned center on the outside of the inner ring such that the center inside edge of the bearing receiver is flush with the outer part of the inner ring.  the rings are based on parameters so they can be re-sized - ideally I would like the bearing components to stay centered on the ring.

screencast: http://autode.sk/2f2UdYz

I tried to share the model, hopefully this works: http://a360.co/2jBAPqE

thanks!

[pascalyoung]

properly inserting screencast!

[TrippyLighting]

I'll create a screencast , but while I do that, please familiarize yourself with Fusion 360s R.U.L.E #1.

[TrippyLighting]

Actually, before I do a screencast, what is it what you want to do with these two bodies after they are "aligned" ?

Are these two discrete manufactured components in your design or are they going to be combined to form a single piece ?

[pascalyoung]

good afternoon.  thank you for the help!  I plan to "cut" them out of the rings and print them on their own.  as i change filaments I've found the tolerances change a bit, this lets me push "inserts" in for the bearings or change bearings without having to re-print the rings.  The bearing shaft assembly length is based on a parameter which is used in spacing the rings so it should adjust as I play with moving the rings around.

the positioning is such that the top and bottom highlighted section of the bearing assembly is flush and centered with the highlighted sections of the ring.

The goal is learning how to create these models properly, if I built it wrong please help, I'm always looking forward to improving.

I attached a picture that hopefully clarifies it.  also here is a picture of the model I did in 123D - the orientation of the bearings is incorrect and the base isn't finished - plan to do that in Fusion 360 🙂

[pascalyoung]

I'm looking to cut the bearings out of the rings so that I can 3D print with re-usable holes.  That allows me to play with the tolerances of the bearings or change bearings all together as needed without re-print the rings and base.  

I would like to align the highlighted ring on the bearing assembly to the highlighted area of the rings (centered).

if there is a better way to model this, please educate me. I'm looking to learn how to create these models properly!

attached is a screenshot of what I'm trying to align and a screenshot of where I ended up in 123D before moving to fusion.  Note that the orientation of the holder in 123D is incorrect, planning to fix in fusion 🙂

thanks!

Pascal

[pascalyoung]

I will be needing for of these bearing components which will allow the rings to rotate opposing each other.  I tried to attach a video of the test print, looks like that is not a supported format for attachments.

end goal is something similar to this: https://youtu.be/uDLooLzLR8E

initial version will be run with arduino nano and a DC 5V Stepper Motor 28BYJ-48 with ULN2003 Driver.  After that I'm going to control 2 winders with the nano along with a GPS module, screen and a control knob (haven't vetted the details on that yet 🙂 )

The center of the rings has a cutout for holding a watch holder - I plan to make a standalone stand with the same cutouts so i can put my watches on them that aren't on the winder or for the quartz.

fun stuff 🙂

[pascalyoung]

Just looked up rule #1 again - I'm going to need to spend some more time wrapping my head around it, I surely didn't move the sketches after creating the ring components - how would I do that if the rings were all made from the same sketch?

I believe you nailed my mistake - failing to create components from the beginning.  I probably would have benefited from more playing around instead of starting right off with this winder 🙂

thanks for the help!

[TrippyLighting]

For the rings it's fine to make all the bodies from one sketch and then turn them into components.

Just make components as soon as you can.

In general for a design such as this, it makes a lot of sense to design the components in place, so you don't have to move bodies into place.

[pascalyoung]

I'm still stuck trying to line these items up, any help would be appreciated!  thanks!

[etfrench]

Use the Align tool or a Joint in an existing design.  When you are using either of these tools, there is a joint origin in the center of the model each ring.  You can use this to align the component each ring to another ring's joint origin. 

If you want to animate the model, you can use a revolute joint between each axle and its ring.  There are quite a few videos available on how to create joints.

If you are starting a new design (See @TrippyLighting's recommendation for using Rule #1), then use one sketch to layout the rings, one inside the other.  When you extrude them, they will be aligned. 

[TrippyLighting]

This design has a number of issues e.g under constrained sketches and really so little geometry in it I'd start from scratch.

And just as I was working on it I discover yet another bug in Fusion 360. This is getting really old!

[laughingcreek]

Just to address your original question (though you should do the clean up work suggested by others), the reason the ring was moving to the bearing is because the bearing wasn't a component, but rather resided in the top level of the design.  If you make the bearing a component, and then "ground" the ring, then the bearing will move to the ring the way you were expecting it to in your original screen cast.

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

@pascalyoung

Here is one way how to approach such a design. You are overusing user parameters! That does not make the design more usable, or readable, it makes it unnecessary complicated.

Almost all dimensions are covered in 2 sketches.

[etfrench]

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@pascalyoung wrote:

I will be needing for of these bearing components which will allow the rings to rotate opposing each other.  I tried to attach a video of the test print, looks like that is not a supported format for attachments.

end goal is something similar to this: https://youtu.be/uDLooLzLR8E

initial version will be run with arduino nano and a DC 5V Stepper Motor 28BYJ-48 with ULN2003 Driver.  After that I'm going to control 2 winders with the nano along with a GPS module, screen and a control knob (haven't vetted the details on that yet 🙂 )

The center of the rings has a cutout for holding a watch holder - I plan to make a standalone stand with the same cutouts so i can put my watches on them that aren't on the winder or for the quartz.

fun stuff 🙂

---

You can zip video files, then attach them to the post.

At 2:16 in the video he shows a ball bearing moving off the tuning forks.  How and why was he doing that?

[pascalyoung]

After a busy week i got back to playing with this.  Thanks for all the help, I'm getting closer.  using the components and activation as you recommended I can get the joint made, unfortunately I'm having trouble keeping it centered.  could you take a look and show me how to properly do this?

etfrench - I'm not seeing what you mentioned in the video, when I follow the link it goes to a shorter video.

thanks!

[laughingcreek · Accepted solution]

I haven't looked at your uploaded design, so I don't now if this will work for this design.  This is how I generally approach doing something like this-

[TrippyLighting]

@pascalyoung you should download the design I posted and go through the timeline step by step. It would occur to me that you've not done that.

[pascalyoung]

thank you, apologies - I saw the screenshot, but not the file.  Much appreciated!  angst a few other things to practice is selection sets.  so much to learn!

[pascalyoung]

laughingcreek - thank you also.  That was very helpfull!