Offset face not added to the timeline, base feature changed instead

[ltomuta]

I need to modify a design (uploaded STEP) in order to improve the results on CAM side. When doing so, I need to keep track of this change so that the next time I look at the file I know what changes were done to the model in order to achieve the result.

Now, on Design side I made sure to enable "Capture Design History" and the sketches created show up nicely in the timeline next to the original model's base feature. All good.

Next I need to offset some faces but when doing so, a new feature is not created on the timeline, instead the operation is applied over the base feature and once done I have no trace of it ever being performed.

I made the effort of enabling the design history (which you still keep off by default for incomprehensible reasons) and I'm still not capturing the things I need. Why?

[TrippyLighting]

Can you demonstrate this in a screencast and then share the model as well?

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@ltomuta wrote:

Next I need to offset some faces but when doing so, a new feature is not created on the timeline, instead the operation is applied over the base feature and once done I have no trace of it ever being performed.

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I just followed  your steps and it worked as expected on my machine.

[HughesTooling]

Are you using Offset Face from the modify menu or getting there using Press Pull? If you used Press Pull did you select New Offset, Automatic might just modify.

[ltomuta]

The "Automatic" thing may indeed be the faulty component of the puzzle. I use press pull as seen in this screencast (random STEP used for testing, found by Google at https://www.cax-if.org/cax/cax_stepLib.php#GeometricVal )

I guess this is an attempt to keep the timeline slim but that's not the most clever thing to do with a timeline that was just started. The feature I would expect automatic to update is the first push-pull/offset feature that matches the faces, if one exists as such.

[jeff_strater]

this is just my personal opinion, but I think that Automatic, (and Press/Pull in general) is an abomination, and we should not have included it in the product.  Press/Pull itself is kind of a "meta" command - all it does is to fire off other commands, depending on what is selected.  If you select an edge, it will start Fillet for you, if you select a profile, it will start Extrude, etc.  If a face is selected, the default is Automatic.  What this tries to do is to be smarter than you are - if the face you selected was created from a sketch line, and that sketch line is free to move, Fusion will try to turn your drag into a move of that sketch geometry.  It sounded cool at the time, but in reality it is just too confusing and unpredictable (as well as slow, if the sketch happens to be early in a long timeline).  So, I never use Press/Pull at all.  If you want an Offset Faces, just use that command....  Sorry for the rant, but this confuses a lot of people, and I apologize for it.

[ltomuta]

@jeff_strater I agree with all your points adding that it also does the capital sin of performing direct edits even after the design was explicitly set in parametric mode. The only command that should ever do that is "Edit base feature".

So I am all in favor of burning it at the stake and assigning that Ctrl+Q shortcut default directly to the Offset faces command.