Can't draw a line without crashing on new computer

[joearledge]

I got a computer specifically to run fusion, because it quit running on my 8 year old computer. I figured it was finally having trouble keeping up with fusion. So I spent $1200 on a computer that exceeded the requirements to run fusion. I did all of the updates I could find for the new computer, downloaded fusion, and it's as bad or worse than it was before. I spent hours on the phone with the computer tech support and they confirmed that the computer that I bought does exceed the stated requirements. We tried everything and eventually did a hard factory reset. I re-setup the computer, redownloaded fusion with the same problems. Multiple rounds of uninstall-reinstall of fusion later, no improvement. Fusion worked ok-ish on my old computer till about a week ago. All I have on fusion is 1 project, a simple bullet mold that I wanted to copy for my first project. It's not even the whole mold, just 1 of the halves that doesn't even have all of the features yet. Not exactly reengineering a flux-capacitor here... to boot, Autodesk seems to have no support for the free version. So I'm looking for suggestions for better cad/cam software if anyone has any?? Because even if I get to the point of buying it, there is a 1,000% chance that it will not be an autodesk product based on the fact that it doesn't function, and there is no customer service.

[HughesTooling]

Your problem is very unusual, not see anyone have a problem just drawing a line!

If you run the graphics diagnostics what do you see, can you get a screengrab and paste into your reply?

Have you tried with this setting checked? What computer have you got, what are the specifications? As for another CAD\CAM, Solidworks perhaps but I doubt it will run on your computer as the specs are a lot higher than Fusion.

[joearledge]

The line was just an example. Pretty much any edit that I try to do to the design now(add a line, delete a line, click on a sketch plane, ect...). I've tried the "limit effects" box, and selecting the "directX 11" graphics card as opposed to the "auto select" option. I(and the tech guy for the computer) have gone through and made sure everything is optimized on that end. And I have tried to minimize the performance of fusion by going through the preferences section check boxes, in an attempt to make it work. 

[jeff_strater]

can you share this model?  @HughesTooling is correct - we have not heard of cases that behave as you describe.  So, if it not a computer issue, could it be a model issue?  Is there something specific in this model that is causing this?  We can't tell without the model itself.

[jeff_strater]

the symptoms that you describe (since they all revolve around sketching) leads me to wonder whether there is a either large sketch in your model, or a sketch with some corrupted data.  Again, if we had the model, we could look into it

[HughesTooling]

Your card shows only 128mb of memory. There was someone else this week having a similar problem, although more memory should be allocated dynamically it didn't seem to work well with Fusion. Do you know if you can set the minimum in the computer BIOS? Try setting it to 2GB and see if it helps. How much system ram do you have?

[joearledge]

Ok, it was the same issue on the 8 year old computer too(not nearly as good as the new one), so it has to be something with fusion or the model. How do I share the model?

[joearledge]

It has 16GB of RAM. Where would I find/ be able to change the BIOS setting? 

[HughesTooling]

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@joearledge wrote:

It has 16GB of RAM. Where would I find/ be able to change the BIOS setting? 

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Before trying that, did you have any warning banners in Fusion about the graphics card\driver? The other person I helped was using a different make of CPU so might be different.

The best way to share your model is Export from the file menu and save as an f3d file type or fz3 for an assembly.

[joearledge]

It was giving me the orange banner that says something like "the graphics card of this system or its hardware may limit the performance of fusion 360" which I found to be odd, since it exceeds the requirements put out by autodesk.

[joearledge]

Just tried the .f3z export and it failed twice

[jeff_strater]

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@joearledge wrote:

Ok, it was the same issue on the 8 year old computer too(not nearly as good as the new one), so it has to be something with fusion or the model. How do I share the model?

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Export, choose "Fusion archive" as the type.  This will either produce an F3D or an F3Z file on your computer.  Attach this file to a reply here in the forum (using a web browser on the forum topic, not replying to an email notification)

[joearledge]

That was the same file type I chose the first 2 times it failed to export, worked this time. I've ran into little odd things like that since I started using fusion. But here it is in all it's glory the new and improved flux-capacitor

[joearledge]

huh, I attached it but it didn't post with the reply, lets try again

[TheCADWhisperer]

@joearledge 

Computationally expensive - inefficient modeling techniques.

Sketch10 is not fully defined and numerous repeated dimensions.

Not making use of obvious symmetry about the Origin.

Sketch38 - what in the world are you attempting to do?

OK - I see what you are attempting - but this is not the way to model the knurl pattern.

Pattern Features - not sketch elements.

I saw other issues, but we will start with these.

Let me know when you are ready to start over from scratch.

Look at all these repeated dimensions (I moved them into groups for illustration), and this is just the first sketch?

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@joearledge wrote:

 I spent hours on the phone with the computer tech support and they

Autodesk seems to have no support for the free version. 

...there is no customer service.

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You should have come here and asked questions first.  I am running fine on a 10-yr old computer.

Everything in life is not free.

Of course there is customer service available.

But you can get some of the best service available right here for free.

[jeff_strater]

Thanks for the model, @joearledge .  Looking at the model, and combining that with your comments, I am guessing that you are working on sketch38.  Fusion is not "crashing" when adding a line (or deleting a line, or any other sketch operation).  You are merely asking it to do something complex (add a line to a complex sketch).  Adding a line took me about 1 min, 20 secs.  Yes, that is a long time, but it is not crashing.  It will complete.  Sketch patterns are performance problems in Fusion (and most other CAD systems, to some extent), which is why we usually recommend patterning in the feature/face/body world instead.  But, going one step farther:  Do you need to model the knurling in 3D?  Will you be 3D printing this model?  If not, you might want to re-think the need for that 3D geometry.  Can it be represented with an appearance?  If you are planning to CNC this design, you may be able to get away with doing the knurling in the Manufacturing workspace instead.  But, don't do it in a sketch.

[joearledge]

Yep, you're right there, and that is EXACTLY what I did... I tried to post this and other questions before this to the forum no less than 6 times in about 4 days. The forum post form would not let me put anything in the "details" box, it would only let me put a title, which obviously does no good without a body. I reported it the first time it happened and the "customer service" tech said they couldn't reproduce the problem so they didn't have a solution. I replied to their email and asked if they had any suggestions at all to try, and never got a response.... so I kept trying over the next few days and it never worked. I stopped by here again(about a week later) as a last resort after I tried everything else that I could find. Thankfully, it finally let me post here.

Without getting into my personal story, I am EXTREMELY well aware that everything in life isn't free, whether the cost is in sacrifices or dollars.

The free version of this program, from my understanding, is supposed to do 2 things. 1: show support for the hobby/ noob community garnering good PR among them for autodesk, and 2: act as an advertisement and sample to that community, such that, if they turn it into a business or career, they are more likely to purchase autodesk products for multiple reasons. 

A product that intermittently functions, or doesn't function at all is not a good advertisement for why someone should choose autodesk products. Then, the complete absence, not just a limitation, of tech support is not good PR for autodesk if customers can't get it to do basic functions. Then add to that, a malfunctioning website, and emails about it ignored by customer service, and you then have a significant list of reasons not to give them a penny.

[joearledge]

Yep, I was working in sketch 38, and that sounds about right for reproducing the problem. I didn't consider the sketch to be complex as it's just a pattern of straight lines, which, that ignorance, may be the root of my problem. I don't know how much you know about molds, but the purpose of the sketch was to make "air escape grooves" so that air does not get trapped when the mold is filled. After trying various other things, I settled on sketching a pattern, then using TRACE in CAM to "engrave the pattern" about 0.004" deep in the mold face(I'm using a CNC mill). My goal is to have a diamond checkering pattern similar to what you may see on traditional wooden gun stocks, to form these "air escape grooves". I originally tried making "long thin closed rectangles" and extruding them into the part. The biggest problem with that was in CAM, I had to click on each tiny segment individually to get it to engrave. With this TRACE method, I only have to select the individual lines, not the tiny segments, to get it to work. Ideally, I would like to go in to CAM, select the patter as a whole unit, and have it trace/engrave the patter to a depth that I specify. For some reason, this seemingly simple task, seems to be one of my biggest headaches so far in the world of CAD/CAM, milling, and manufacturing. I deleted sketch 38 and I can do stuff again, thanks. Any suggestions on how best to get a diamond checkering pattern milled into the face of a mold would be much appreciated. 

Thanks,

Joe

[joearledge]

This is my first attempt at a project ever, so I don't know what I'm doing. 8 months ago, I didn't know what an endmill was, now I own a CNC mill. I've tried a combination of reading things on CAD/CAM/milling/machining, watching video's online from all the usual suspects, and stumbling through it on my own. I have a VERY significant background in the hard sciences, so I'm not a complete idiot, but I am new to this field. I am more than willing and extremely able to learn(that's why I was ok diving head first into a field I knew nothing about).

The point of all of the dimensions is to get the lines of the sketch in the exact place that I want them and lock them there. I don't know a better way to do that yet.

I'm not clear on what you mean by "not fully defined" for sketch 10? Do you mean the line sticking out to the left side of the sketch? If so, those were an attempt to use trig to make sure the angles and lengths of the hypotenuses(hypoteni??) were consistent.

As I understand it, features have to be closed(a single line can't be a feature) and that presents a problem in CAM when I have to click on hundreds of individual tiny segments in the patter to get fusion to engrave it. Please see my reply just before this, for more details on sketch 38, it's reasoning and goals.

I'm not opposed to starting over. I'm currently at the point where I don't know what I don't know, except that I know that there is a ton that I don't know. So any assistance wading through that educational quagmire is appreciated and beats the hell out of the struggle method.