Using a component to subtract from another component

[ericschimel]

Hey all, question for the collective brain trust:

I'm trying to somewhat duplicate a workflow that I use in SketchUp. In SketchUp you can create a component that largely works the same way they do in Fusion in that any copies of a component you make are all the same.

One thing that SketchUp does is allow a component to cut into a surface in the model. If you change the component that in SketchUp, all of the other components change, along with the face that's cut.

What I'm trying to do is something similar in Fusion. I've got a bolt slot that I created, and I want to so a solid subtraction to another body, and I want to just be able to pull in my component from another model and subtract it from a body. That's probably not going to be easy to figure out from this description, so I made a quick video explaining what I'm after:

http://autode.sk/2scDycg

Does anyone have a suggestion of how I should approach this? Nearly all of my Fusion modeling thus far has been creating everything from scratch in one model, now I'm trying to get a little more efficient.

Like I do in SketchUp, it would be cool to have a "kit of parts" I could pull from to make mods like this...

[HughesTooling]

Try combine on the modify menu, it has an option Cut. You can only use one body as the cutting object, a component in Fusion can have more than one body so I don't know if that's a problem. If your component has several components you'll need a combine cut for each one.

Mark

[HughesTooling]

Looking at your screencast (no sound at work) you might want to experiment with patterning. You can mirror or pattern an extrude cut, you have options to select faces to pattern or features from the timeline.

Mark

[ericschimel]

So I have in the past patterned both sketch objects that I use to cut, and that works OK, but I have to re-draw the shape in each sketch.

What I'm really after is being able to plop a pre-made assembly (so a component with multiple bodies) from a library of stuff and just have it be able to subtract from a body in my current Fusion model...

Sounds like I might be stuck with just patterning a basic body? 

[TrippyLighting]

A component with multiple bodies is not an assembly. It's a multi body component.

[Scoox]

This requirement arose for me today. I am making a foam insert for an aluminium case to transport DJ hardware. I've modelled the hardware separately, and now I want to remove material from a large block of foam in such a way that the cut outs are an exact 'negative' of the hardware they are supposed to accommodate. My models of the hardware are made up of not just several bodies but also a multi-level assembly of components and sub-components. How should I go about this?

[HughesTooling]

Are you working with history enabled? fI not you could try Fluid Volume, if you are using history one way might be to start a new design without history and import your assembly\assemblies and use fluid volume to create the foam insert then enable history and split and finish the insert with history. Real pity fluid volume's not available with history enabled, should at least be available in a base feature.

Mark

[Scoox]

Mark, thanks for chiming in. Unfortunately I need history enabled for this particular project.

To be honest, I'm not even sure the Combine tool would work in this case—not the way I'm trying to use it. For example, what would happen if the tool body has hollows?

It just crossed my mind that it might be possible to make a copy of the 'tool' assembly, then combine all its bodies into a single body, ensure any voids are filled, and then use the combined body as the tool. To make it easier to select all bodies of the assembly, I could hide everything else and then just marquee-select all bodies, then combine, then cut.

Maybe there are better ways to do this. At the moment I'm just not familiar enough with Fusion 360.

[HughesTooling]

In theory you could use boundary fill but I find it's a bit flakey. Doesn't help that it's another feature where Fusion doesn't use colour highlighting well so it difficult to see what the result will be before hitting OK. Does the insert need the 3d shape of the part or could you just project the outlines of the bodies and extrude through the foam. Project has an option for bodies so you only get an outline but you'd probably still need to delete curves to get just the outline of an assembly\component.

Mark

[Scoox]

Haden't thought about this carefully, but in this case I projecting geometry from the 'tool' and just extruding vertically is probably the better thing to do, since the foam CNC mill probably can only do vertical cuts anyway.

For things such as making silicone molds etc being able to create a negative from an assembly would still be very handy, IMO.

[wburton006]

I've managed to get around this problem  - the cyclic redundancy is annoying!!! 

In my scenario, I am making a group of quite complex items, and each must be separate for testing, so they need to be single components - the timeline/history gets unmanageable after a while, and the models break a lot - nuf said... 

So what I did, was - to part that I want to use as a tool - I exported locally as a step file. I then imported the step file (which does not have the history, but does retain almost everything else) but the link is unique to the step, rather than the design file.

Selecting my part, and using the step file import as the tool I can then cut my part without the redundancy error. My original part design then still has all of its history intact, and I can manage the step files locally.

There is probably another way to do this, but everything I tried for the last several hours failed with the cyclic redundancy, or did not allow me to select the tool.

[TrippyLighting]

@wburton006 In most (95%+) of the designs I've reviewed here one the last 5 years, the behavior you describe is due to a flawed workflow. IF you can post your current design then we can get to the ground of this.

[wburton006]

I fully agree, that my workflow is probably flawed. I come from subtractive manufacturing, rather than additive, and thus generally work from top down. My workflow is generally this... 

Create design file

Create initial master sketch (first component - usually from drawing or dxf) 

-   Create component (first part of the actual part)

-    -   Create sketches and bodies to create the part.

-   -   Adjust dimensions and colour and material

-   -   Create final part drawing for reference

-   -   Export and test design 

-  Create another component (related part of the designs) 

-   -   Create sketches/bodies/etc...

-   -  et cetera

The problem comes in when I need to revise and/or update the item in the design before the finished product. If I select the component and make changes to any sketch, the timeline becomes impossible to follow, and making multiple changes within the design makes it convoluted and haphazard.

If I roll back the timeline to make the changes, while the timeline remains more streamlined, it too breaks the future events. 

So - Can you point me in the direction of a tutorial to correctly manage the workflow? I can add the designs if you want, but I have already broken them up and separated them. And I need to know how to upload them since they are already in Fusions' cloud.

Wayne

[TrippyLighting]

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@wburton006 wrote:

... but I have already broken them up and separated them ...

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What exactly do yo mean with that ? And why would you need to do that ?

It does not really matter what form of manufacturing you are coming from. Whether subtractive, or additive , good workflow works with any of that.

Are you aware of Fusion 360 R.U.L.E #1 ?

[Anonymous]

Just what I was looking for...wish I had looked this up 3 hours ago...