Parametrically Spacing Objects without A Sketch?

[Anonymous]

I have had this issue come up on so many different designs that I'm forced to finally ask for help. I hope I can make this clear.

When modeling some larger assemblies, I have run into this issue where I need components to have a specific spacing, and that spacing may need to change as the design matures. The Pattern Components command doesn't address these scenarios, and I can't drive the spacing from a sketch since the components are being flown in from other projects, or are just too complex to model over and over again from a single sketch (plus complex sketches seem to bog down my computer, anyone else?). Two scenarios to consider:

1- Identical components with varied spacing, like a few dozen brackets on a wall in a complex arrangement (like some spaced 1' apart, some 2' apart, some 5.487" apart).

2- Dissimilar components with identical spacing (like a panel-based project where hundreds of dissimilar panels had to be spaced .2" apart on all sides, but then we later changed our preference to .3").

See the attached image. It's very simplistic, but if there were ten times as many components (and variations of components), how would you go about specifying the spacing between them?

Thanks for your time!

[neljoshua]

@Anonymous,

Off the top of my head I am not certain how I would accomplish #1.

Regarding #2, I suggest creating a parameter for the spacing (under Modify > Change Parameters).  You can then space all of the parts using joints referencing that parameter.  If you need to change the spacing later, just edit that one parameter and everything should adjust to reflect the change.

[Anonymous]

That makes perfect sense, thank you. Just showing how under-developed my grasp of joints really is by not thinking of such a perfect solution. 😕

Still curious if there is a solution for #1 other than joint-making. I think the joint method would be too kludgy for easy-as-sketching dimensioning of spaces with many components, since you'd be doing so many manual joint origin placements and diving in and out of joint editing. 

[neljoshua · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous,

Yeah, that would definitely lead to a lot of time spent joining.

This might not be worth the time, but you could create a sketch that just shows the positions of the components in question--like a large, variable-spaced grid.  Then you could place joint origins at the vertices.  Then you could join the components to the joint origins.  This should do what you want, but depending on the number of components and the size of the sketch, it might slow Fusion down a lot.

[Anonymous]

That sounds workable (and I didn't know about placing joint origins on sketch vertices, wow). I did want to ask about sluggishness. I definitely get sluggish sketch performance already (2-4sec lag times on a single action when I'm overdoing it). Having not used tons of joints in a single project yet, I am curious if you've seen similar lag with a joint-heavy project? Thinking several hundred of them.

Feel foolish for not knowing the program well enough for these ideas, but glad you took the time to help. Thank you!

[neljoshua]

@Anonymous,

You are welcome.  No need to feel foolish--we are all learning here.  I would posit that the only foolish question is the unasked one.

I am currently working on a design that has hundreds of parts, hundreds of joints, and quite a few sketches.  It is not unacceptably slow on my machine (although I do get some hangs and crashes).

[Anonymous]

Good to know, thanks for the tips. Happy Friday, as well!