Rulers and Measures

[THRobinson75]

I've used Illustrator for years, then worked in Sketchup casually for some designs (arcade cabinet, workshop layout, etc) and decided to learn Fusion360 and bought myself a small CNC 3018-Pro.

Doing some simple stuff to get started, but, a few things I just expected to find, I don't see.

In Sketchup, if I wanted to make a hole in an object, I can use the ruler to measure out 1" and up 1", puts a dot on the screen and when I make a circle on the face it snaps to it.

I can't seem to make guides, nothing seems to snap to anything.... snap is checked, but if I grab an object to move and grab a corner I can't snap it to the 0,0,0 position on the grid. 

How do you accurately place holes?

I tried MOVE, and I can tell it move 100mm X, and 25mm Y... but no idea what the origin is.

Anyone know of a good YouTube video?  I'm not having luck finding what I'm after.

I can do it super easy and super quick in Illustrator and export/import as an SVG, but I would like to learn how to do it all in one program if possible.

[jda70az]

Fusion 360 isn't Sketchup or Illustrator so forget about them.

Just start from scratch and do some tutorials on You tube.

Check out these channels.

Mechanical Advantage

Product Design Online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvrHuaHhqHI

[THRobinson75]

Definitely not like either... though... could learn a few things from them.

I know Sketchup isn't as powerful as Fusion360, but, it made more sense. I learned it and designed a full arcade cabinet over a long weekend. I spent hours in Fusion and still can't accurately place a screw hole. 😖

I'll check the video out. 😉

[etfrench]

Fusion 360 is a parametric modeler.  What this means is you use parameters, dimensions, constraints, and joints to position geometry.  Try this simple exercise:

• Start a new sketch.
• Draw a rectangle at a random size and position.
• Draw a circle inside the rectangle.
• Dimension two sides of the rectangle.
• Add Perpendicular constraints and/or Horizontal/Vertical constraints to the sides of the rectangle.
• Add horizontal and vertical dimensions from the Origin to one corner of the rectangle.
• Add horizontal and vertical dimensions from that corner to the center point of the circle.
• Dimension the diameter of the circle.

At this point all of the geometry should have turned black and the Browser should show a red lock icon on the sketch.  You should not be able to drag any of the geometry to a new position.

Now edit one of the circle's dimensions.  Note how it moves.

The next step is to start using User Parameters with formulas to control your model.

p.s. See Rule #1

p.s.p.s. I tried Sketchup and found it to have the worst user interface of any program I've ever used. 🤔

[THRobinson75]

I think the learning curve is simply that for over a decade I've used apps like Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Sketchup, etc... and one thing they all had in common was rulers and guides, and a snap feature that worked.

It's very weird to not see these features in a program.

Sketchup interface wise, again, I semi-mastered that app in 3-days... interface can't be 'that' bad. 😁

[jda70az]

There is a button at the bottom center called Grid and Snaps.

Also the icon in the toolbar called Inspect.

And hot key D for Dimension

You will want to really get familiar with them.