What does Capture Position do?

[RogerInHawaii]

Several dialogs have a Capture Position option. What does that do? What does it mean to capture position? Under what circumstances would you NOT want to capture the position?

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

Capture Position creates a Capture Position feature in the timeline.  This feature captures the position of all components in the design in their current positions.  You need this if you are doing something that is position-dependent.  For example, if you project an edge from one component, which is in a moved position, into a sketch owned by another component, you will want to capture the position so that the project computes predictably with respect to upstream changes.

[chrisplyler]

Generally creates a mess. Only use Capture Position when necessary for something like @jeff_strater  described. Avoid it when possible.

[lichtzeichenanlage]

@jeff_strater : But wouldn't it be better to create a joint between those components or capture the position, create a joint and than remove the capture position event from the timeline?

[jeff_strater]

@lichtzeichenanlage - Yes, you can sometimes remove the Capture Position after creating the joint.  There is one very annoying workflow that exists in Fusion today, where you have to move a component out of the way so you can select the geometry that is needed to create the joint.  That particular Capture Position is no longer needed after the joint is created.

However, Capture Position is not mutually exclusive with joints.  You can still use Capture to set the values of joints for position-based modeling.  For example, if you have a model with a hinge in it, you can set the value of a joint with Drive Joint, then do a Capture Position, then a Combine, to, for example, cut out a notch for a handle.

[lichtzeichenanlage]

@jeff_strater Okay - that makes sense. Tanks for pointing this out.