Problems with flat pattern

[Anonymous]

Can anyone give me some pointers. I need to convert this chute to a flat pattern so that I can cut it out with a manual plasma 

[TheCADWhisperer]

Are there any unresolved issues highlighted in the Timeline?

Are all sketches fully defined (especially Sketch1)?

Have you used Components?

Are you willing to start over from scratch?

[TheCADWhisperer]

Start a new part file/

Step 1.  Sketch a Horizontal line from the Origin towards the right side of the screen.

What color is the line?

Add a 33 inch dimension to the line.

What color is the line now?

[TheCADWhisperer]

Step 2.

Sketch a Vertical (or Perpendicular) line from the right end of line1 as shown.

Note the white dot at the end of the line - this indicates a missing dimension.

Add a 3 inch dimension.

What do you note about the dot color?

[TheCADWhisperer]

Step 3.

Sketch the angled 44 inch line as shown.

What do you note about the color of the line?

What do you note about the color of the endpoint of the line?

Another dimension is needed.

It could be an angle dimension, but how would you measure angle on the shop floor?  Angles are difficult to measure, but if that is the Design Intent - do what honors the intent.

You could use either a Horizontal or a Vertical dimension - think about the Design Intent - what is most important, but whichever dimension you use be sure it is a logical dimension that can be measured with standard shop floor measuring instruments (for sheet metal this measuring instrument might be a tape measure).

29.3224769999999992 in would not be a logical dimension.

[Anonymous]

Please bear with me as I have just started using fusion a week ago. No previous experience with any modeling software.  I am currently trying to resolve the issues in the timeline. What could prevent a model from becoming a flat pattern

[TheCADWhisperer]

Maybe the Design Intent is to have this point located vertical in relation to the 3 inch line - in which case a Vertical constraint can be substituted for the dimension.

In a case like this I will often add a Construction Line so that the Design Intent is instantly recognized by anyone looking at the design (at my age, I forget why I did something last month, last week, or even yesterday...).  The Construction Line makes it obvious without searching through the constraint glyphs.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Please bear with me as I have just started using fusion a week ago. 

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We can walk through this step-by-step building robust and predictable models.

I noticed that you already changed the design from the origin - adding this 3 inch line at the left.

That is fine (if that is your Design Intent), but we will have to verify each and every change along the way...

I waited an hour for you to respond to my initial Reply - now I have to go get some other work done.

I will check back in a bit.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad you caught that. I will change it I am currently making my sketch match yours. I appreciate you taking this time to help me! 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 I am currently making my sketch match yours.

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Well, it should be your design, not mine.

Continue to completion of Sketch1 (my example shown in image below).

Not sure if you wanted the two angled lines on left to be Perpendicular to each other.

Not sure if you wanted angled lines at top or bottom to be Parallel to each other or not (they are not parallel in image below, maybe equal distance parallel at 22 inches - I don't know your Design Intent).

Attach your new file here for next step.

[Anonymous]

Once again thank you for your time, and please excuse how green I am when it comes to Fusion. I will upload what I have so far.

[Anonymous]

I was finally able to use the flat pattern by only selecting a few edges if that makes sense. Any pro tips for future reference? @TheCADWhisperer 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

... please excuse how green I am when it comes to Fusion. 

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How did you manage to miss the Origin?

Blue geometry should keep you up an night.

When I walk out to the shop floor to set up a machine, the first thing I do is establish an Origin.

[DrKropp]

I just want to pop in and say "THANKS!" to the CADWhisperer for being an absolute treasure to the community. Every time I make a boneheaded or noobish error I come search the forums and between them and Trippylighting I will find not only a solution but a well documented explanation of what I did wrong, why it was wrong, and the better way to do it in the future. Absolute treasures who should be on the Autodesk payroll for making this place so useful.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what you mean by missing the origin. Can you explain that and the blue geometry please @TheCADWhisperer 

[TheCADWhisperer]

Go back and read Step #1 in Message #3.

I don't understand how you could miss this.  

Look at all that blue geometry???

In my instructions all geometry was black, step-by-individual-step.

You initially followed my instructions correctly.  What happened!  Why did you stop following instructions.

Here is a new instruction.

Edit your sketch.

Click and drag the endpoints of one of your blue lines around the screen.

What do you observe?

You want absolute robust and predictable behavior.

Blue lines are not predictable - they should keep you awake at night.

Rather than create 10 blue lines, you should have STOPPED after the first blue line and asked questions about why it was still blue.

Blue lines should bother you to the ends of time... ...you can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't...

[Oceanconcepts]

"Blue lines should bother you to the ends of time... ...you can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't..."

Unless they are spline curves- or maybe especially if they are spline curves...  

[davebYYPCU]

You leave those black or green.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Oceanconcepts wrote:

Unless they are spline curves- or maybe especially if they are spline curves...  

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“Blue lines should bother you to the ends of time… …you can’t eat, you can’t sleep, you can’t…”

I borrowed this line from a story I read more than 30 years ago.  The story was written more than 400 years ago by a fellow named Shakespeare.  Although he wrote in English – it must have been a very different language in his time as I had a difficult time with some of the passages, and again, it was more than 30 years ago that I read the story – so my translation might be a bit off, but it is a story of building strong families and is still relevant today.

It is best understood if you put yourself in the character named “Geometry”.

Your name is Geometry.  You see a very pretty/handsome gal/fellow named Line.  You would like to marry up with Line and create Body and Component.  It is the custom when marrying in the Fusion tribe to change you appearance from blue to black (different  tribes have different colors depending on their environment, but the tradition is the same – standard appearance customs when married vs free).

You want Line to join with you and be a predictable parent to Base and Component.  But Line says he/she needs to be free and being constrained would interfere with his/her design intent.  Line freely moves anywhere and mates with anyone, sometime even “by accident”.  Sometime Line mates with Circle, sometimes with Rectangle and sometimes (gasp) even with Spline.  Now Spline is a very free spirit and can be exceptionally difficult to fully constrain.  (That’s an entire chapter.)

The story of free Line goes on, but is unfortunately a tragedy, a timeless story repeated throughout history.

Happily, Geometry after many failed attempts, eventually discovered a new partner - first name Origin, last name Datum and went on to create many robust children with strong parent/child relationships.