Problems with axis orientation and positioning with joints

[danny_soldan]

Hello everyone,

So two things drives me crazy right now regarding joints. 

First of all i changed the Default modeling orientation to Z up.It's easier that way with 3d printing.

But the joints axis aren't working properly anymore.

In the video you can see that the slider joint, is "sliding" on the Y axis, but in the Edit joint window, on Slide, it's Z axis. It's all messed up.

Second, why in the world, the joint moves the component away from it's original position?

I needed, that part, to stay where it is, because afterwards it's a hassle to edit joint limit.

Fusion360 it's an amazing software, but sometimes it drives me crazy. 

[chrisplyler]

It seems to me that Joints get their own XYZ orientation relative to how they are oriented. Z seems to be perpendicular to the coin.

Regular Joints will move the first Component to the second Component. As-Built Joints will not move anything.

[jeff_strater]

@chrisplyler is absolutely right.  The X, Y, and Z in the UI is relative to the geometry picked.  The little disk preview in the joint is showing a coordinate system, with Z oriented away from the disk.  Think of it like this:

I agree that it can be confusing to label these as X, Y, and Z, since that is almost never oriented with the global, or even component X, Y, Z.

[etfrench]

Can you add this to the joint origins

[danny_soldan]

Ok then.

So when it's a face, the Z axis is always perpendicular to that face. When it's sn edge, the z axis is the edge itself.

Now i get it why it's not the global coordinates. It wouldn't worked if the components were at an angle.

So i figured out the Z axis, but what about the X and Y. It would be easier , like etfrench said,if all axis were displayed with a character  and color coded. It would help with the guesswork when using joints.

[chrisplyler]

Yeah that's true. I'm always having to trial-n-error the right axis for sliders, revolutes, etc, and even just joint offsets for all of 'em.