Tips on Sketching?: Need Help Working With Construction Lines

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am currently having some minor issues working with sketches. When I am creating concepts, I am often creating construction lines constantly to guide my sketch so I can essentially help to create dimensions before actual sketch lines are applied. I often create several construction lines atop one another. I usually delete older construction lines a little later on to clean up the work. 

The issue I am having is that when I have construction lines the lie atop one another or a sketch line that lies atop a construction line, I have trouble accurately selected the desired linework. Example: I have created a construction line of x length. I then created a sketch line of x/2 length that lies directly on top of the construction line. If I go to select this new sketch line, I have extreme trouble doing so because the construction line is selected first. 

Is there any way to make  construction lines selectable/unselectable like you can with bodies? This would greatly aid my workflow. 

Cheers!

[robduarte · Accepted solution]

Sorry if either/both of these suggestions is already known to you:

1) If you hold down the mouse button on top of the sketch curve or construction line (or bodies or whatever), it will pop up a list of all of the items under your cursor. If you hover over items in the list, you can usually tell which is which. 

2) You can change the selection filter - I'm not looking at Fusion 360 at the moment but I'd assume there's a way to not allow the selection of construction lines there (maybe "work geometry"?). Here's a screenshot from someone else showing where they are: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uT8nhQfaRkA/maxresdefault.jpg

You might find, as I have, that you actually don't need to use construction lines as much as you might in other software. If you're drawing lines on top of other lines, it sounds like there is probably a better solution.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

Thank you for pointing out selection filters to me. I was not aware of them or quite how they work. I am still learning a lot about fusion and as I learn more, I am adjusting my workflow to better improve things.

You are probably right about there being a better workflow for concepting without heavy reliance on construction lines. In the past I have designed a lot in vector programs like Illustrator and have gotten used to aggressively using guides, outlines, snapping features, you name it. I am still sort of unlearning some habits I formed in other software.

I'll have to continue the process of learning, adjusting, discovering, etc..

Thank you again for your help @robduarte

[robduarte]

Don't get me wrong, I like construction lines. They can help explain, visually, what's going on in a sketch sometimes. A case where they are really handy is as a centerline when symmetry is involved. I do think it's easy to overuse them, however, if you're used to illustrator, sketchup, etc. Sketching a shape with construction lines and then "tracing" those lines with more lines is definitely overdoing it...