Bug: Cannot reference driven dimensions in Parameters for use in Patterns.

[jeffwPP4JQ]

Trying to use Patterns where the count and spacing is specified in parameters. There's a bug that prevents using driven dimensions. I've included two screen shots of the parameters dialog.

In the first I've created a construction line with a user specified dimension. It works just fine for the pattern's count parameter.

In the second I've tried to use a dimension that is driven. No other changes. It fails miserably.

[jhackney1972 · Accepted solution]

This is not a bug, this is a restriction on the use of Driven Dimensions.  Driven Dimensions can only be use as parameters "within" the sketch that they are a part of. 

[jeffwPP4JQ]

I clicked "solution" because you are correct; not because my problem is solved. This is another example of the many stupid limitations that Fusion 360 has. There are so many convenient workflow possibilities that this restriction prevents that it's crazy.

[jeff_strater]

I think that your characterization of this as a "stupid limitation" does not really help the discourse here.  This forum is not Twitter...

For an explanation of why that limitation exists, please see:  

• ability-to-reference-driven-dimensions 
• use-driven-dimension-as-a-parameter 

This decision was made as a conscious choice, due to limited resources, and the desire to solve as much of the requirement as possible without further delay.  Using a driven dimension within a sketch is a much easier solution to implement than the more general case, as it does not introduce dependencies between parameters and the timeline items.  Would it be better to have the more general solution?  Certainly.  But, that would have come with a tradeoff of some other functionality or bug fixes that we felt were higher priority.

[geogod2066]

I agree. I'm no software engineer, but this seems like a large oversite in the scope of parametric modeling. Using reference/driven dimensions outside of their parent sketch would eliminate the hassle of hunting down and properly defining the dimension. I can, however, understand the complexity of missing references in the case of changing the geometry outside of the sketch. Really wish this was a feature :(.