Precisely positioning text

[JetForMe]

Is it possible to precisely position text in Fusion 360? When I placed text in a sketch, it created a bounding box for that text that was much larger than the exact pixel extents of the rendered glyphs. Moreover, I seemed to be unable to set up constraints to keep the text centered horizontally and vertically.

I'm hoping to automate the creation of customized pieces. so I can change the text, have it automatically position itself, generate NC code, and hand it off to the machines. Not sure if Fusion's API will allow all of that, but I'd like to solve the text placement problem.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @JetForMe,

A while back I created a screencast for another user with a similar question. Although my workflow in the video below is a bit more catered to their needs (they wanted to use parameters to align the text within the dog bone), I believe the concept should be the same! The key here is that I created my own "bounding box" that was a more snug fit and fully constrained it to the text bounding box. That way, when I went to move the text, it could be more precisely aligned. Check out the video below!

[JetForMe]

Ah, I see what you're doing there. Do you find that the extra space above and to the right of the glyphs is constant, regardless of the glyph size? Or does this only work for varying the number of glyphs at a given size?

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @JetForMe,

Personally, I do not believe that the space inbetween is constant. I don't believe it matters however using that workflow. The first step I do is to create my own bounding box around the text. This pretty much then will render that orange box useless as all of my future constraints and position will be based off the bounding box I manually create around the text. The position comes into play with the construction lines I create. In the video - I just create two midlines that intersect the center of the text and use that center to align it to the center of the dog bone. Theoretically here is where any combination of alignment can come into play! Let's say proper formatting is to use the lower third and center of the text as the "centroid" (as opposed to just the mid lines). You could then line those up with where you wanted your text precisely.

I haven't had too much time to play around with this - but please let me know your thoughts! It is very possible that I am missing something.

Thanks,