Madness with rectangular pattern behavior (cannot edit directions or bodies after entering pattern instances/spacing)

[jw.hendy]

I don't use rectangular patterns that often, but am really surprised/frustrated by some current behavior. I'm trying to make a cool 3d pattern, and what was initially comical is now turning into craziness of having to delete the feature and start over if I don't get the order correct.

Once you select the bodies, you can no longer select pattern axes through them

I was wrapping my head around how to pattern this, initially thinking I needed one direction, then realizing I needed two. I found that this won't let me select a second origin axis:

• create pattern
• select first axis (e.g. y)
• enter instances/distances
• realize I need to pattern in x as well
• try to click x and fail, including rotating the view around to the "backside". Nope, x is plain and simple obscured by the selected bodies

So from this view, after re-clicking Axes in the pattern window, only planes get highlighted, not the axis.

Workaround behavior: you have to select both axes first, before selecting bodies.

Once you enter instances/distances, you can no longer edit the bodies

Because I guess my brain doesn't work with weird geometry, I didn't initially realize I needed to select that second row, but to properly replicate, I need both rows. So my second finding was that after selecting n initial objects, I can't add new ones?

After screenshotting the above, I x'd out the "Objects: 6 selected", re-clicked the first extrude, but no other bodies highlight for me when hovering, nor can I choose them from the left hand "Bodies" feature tree!? Clicking bodies does not yield "2 selected," even though hovering bodies in the main screen highlights them on the left. So it's like Fusion "knows" what they are, they just can't be brought into the pattern after a de-select.

Workaround behavior: select all bodies before entering instances/spacing.

I came to post this, as across a couple handfuls of me getting my bearings, I kept forgetting one of these steps and just could not believe this behavior. Is this well known and I'm just too noob level to know, is this the intended behavior, or is this a bug/opportunity for improvement?

Expectation: I can add/remove/change axis directions or bodies, regardless of the state of the pattern and where I am in the workflow (i.e. if I've selected bodies/axes yet, or if I've entered any parameters like instances/spacing).

[jhackney1972]

Please attach you model so someone help you out.

[jw.hendy]

I didn't see it as a "help out" situation, more of a "is this how it should work?" The behavior is the behavior: hover, no option to click. I didn't view it as model-specific or see how anyone could help with that, only sanity check.

I've made a simple reproducible example and attached, and you could try it yourself in ~2min.

• sketch on xy plane
• create two shapes
• extrude them
• create a rectangular pattern
• click one of the shapes
• click "Axes" and click the x axis (click to view the Origin collection if not visible)
• enter any spacing distance into Axis 1: Distance
• now try to click the y axis to add a new direction; find you cannot
• now click Objects: 1 selected, and try to select the other object; find you cannot (you can try the document tree Bodies > Body2 if you want as well)
• for either of these, you can x out the current selection and select one axis or object, but not a second

While playing around, I found that if I set Distance to 0, it will let me select more things. That was not intuitive, but is the sort of thing I thought someone might chime in with here. Again, it wasn't help with this model but how Fusion behaves.

I guess now I know, but this seems like good input to improve the user experience to be more intuitive. Why would I expect that I can't change the objects/direction if a distance is entered? I can select or deselect sketch profiles when extruding and it adapts, for example.

[jhackney1972]

The attached video will  help you with you two issues.  One of the main things to remember when selecting or deselecting Objects in any command is the use of the Ctrl (Command) key.  This key allows you to add and remove objects from the select set at anytime in the command. 

If this answers your question, please select the "Accept Solution" on my post. If you need further help, please ask.