Stuck with "sketches", and getting lines on them which are hideable when done.

[mark33.in.oz]

I'm stuck on designing an object.

For the sake of it, I am doing my NUC.

(See attached.)

So, I am looking at the front face (to start with a face/side):

The face is grey.  The inset rectangle where the USB ports and power switch is black (MATT)

There are 2 USB ports; an audio port and the power button.

These are in a rectangle area which I marked out.

I made the areas for the USB ports, power switch and audio jack.

But the CONSTRUCTION LINES are not hideable.

If I put them on a different "sketch" (I think that's the term) when I do to use the reference points made from the construction lines:  they are invisible.

So I thought I got around that by putting them all on the one sketch.

But that has opened another can of worms.

On the side there is an area (both actually) of holes for ventilation.  These comprise of diamond hones 3 high and go along the size of the rectangle.

I marked out that area and then drew a diamond/polygon but then am stuck in filling in the rectangle with said thing.

Yeah, more learning.

But I am not seeing anything intuitive (to me) on how this is done.

Then I did the back.

I am sure you can see the general idea of what I am TRYING to do.   But again:  these construction lines are not really helping me the way I did it.

I shall continue to resolve it myself, but need to ask, because I am very good at wasting time going down "dead end paths".

Thanks.

[karina.harper]

Hi @mark33.in.oz,

Thanks for posting in the forums!

To answer your questions:

- to hide your construction lines you need to hide the entire sketch. You can do this by clicking the yellow light next to the sketch.

- How to make a diamond pattern : you might be interested in the grid pattern tool. 

Also, here is some more information about sketches in our learning materials. You might be interested to read through some of this for some more in-depth information: http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-101C0598-F00A-46EA-8319-32BDA7483C0B

 Let me know if that solved your problem!

[davebYYPCU]

Mostly it is file structure, you have one body, with lots of features being developed, on that body, with a various part colouring scheme, fine if that's as far as it goes, 

Fusion works better in making lots of small Components / parts, that are copied pasted, and jointed to be the replica of the article being modelled.

for example there are various USB connections, do one, then copy and position all the others.  solid bodies rather than convoluted sketch with many offset outlines.

Might help...

[mark33.in.oz]

Hi.

And thanks for the reply.

Alas I didn't explain the pattern well enough.

(I have "free time" and am just throwing myself at F360 to get some time up on it doing things.  I seem to be good at finding things that are difficult - to say the least.)

I goofed with the pattern and how it looks.

It is 13 x diamonds - row 1.

12 diamonds - row 2

13 diamonds - row 3

Clearer?

I haven't read your second reply at time of posting.

(I think I saw two posts from you.)

[mark33.in.oz]

(Oh great..... )

I hope this is works.

https://autode.sk/2UZODtH

(Oh, ok.  see below.)

(Explanation:  I see there is a "paste screencast URL" link.   I put it in there and it isn't showing for me when I post.)

The "problem" is fitting the pattern to the area.

On the NUC the pattern is 82mm "wide".

It is 3 rows of the diamond holes.

13 holes.

12 holes.

13 holes.

So the middle one is half out of phase with the top one.

NEARLY had it, but it all fell apart when I had to edit a couple of things.

The size of the diamond was wrong and while trying to set it to the right value.....  all the worms fell out of the can.

So I have an 82mm rectangle shown.

When I try to put 13 of them in it, F360 seems to think otherwise.

Seems that the spacing between the pattern is too big.......   (Shrug)

You can see how I measure the 82mm.

Then I open the pattern function.

You can see I specify 13 repeats and 82mm.

Why does it exceed that when it makes them?

[karina.harper]

Hi @mark33.in.oz

When using "extent" in the rectangle pattern, Fusion measures from the far left to the left side of the final pattern instance. If you are looking to fit within a certain boundary, you will need to set the dimension of the instance. See the image below, the diamond is dimensioned to 8mm, so if I wanted to fit into 82 mm I would set the extent to (82-8mm) or 74mm.

To answer your question about getting the alternating rows, you can draw more diamonds to add to your pattern or make a separate pattern using a new diamond. 

Judging by what you said about the worms via the can, you might be interested in some of our learning material about dimensioning and constraints. I recommend checking out this article about dimensioning sketches using values and constraints.

Make sure to check out the sub-articles on the left side here. 

I would also like to reiterate what @davebYYPCU said in his post; using sketches as a pattern in your case works fine for now. But in the future, best practice in Fusion is to create a feature/object and then pattern that. This would look something more like this:

When you are learning, I recommend trying everything and seeing what works for you.  You might also take a peek at our support forum best practices post that describes when it's best to post in the support forum and when it's best to post in Design, Validate & Document. 

[mark33.in.oz]

Hi Karina,

Thanks.

The pattern method you showed "above" is a good thing to know.

But looking at it, I don't think it would give me the pattern I want.   But, it is knowledge.

Oh "where to post":

Thanks.

There seems to be a few different places and I am still coming to grips with that as well.

I shall try to remember the "support best practices" one.

The "Design and validate"....   Ah!  Silly me.   Though it now makes sense, I thought that was more complex than it is.

Again:  Thanks.