Using Axis Perpendicular to Face at Point doesn't draw an axis

[Anonymous]

I am working with the Steam HDK, for developing custom game controllers for use in Steam VR.  Specifically, I am trying to place the photo-diode sensors that are used for tracking.  The HDK uses a combination of the XYZ coordinates of the points as well as the normal vector at that location, as shown in the photo. 

Getting the coordinates of the point is easy and getting the normals is also easy most of the time.  I create a sketch on a face, place a point and construct an axis perpendicular to that face at that point.  Then I can use that to calculate everything else.   I am running into two problems with this approach.  Sometimes Fusion just doesn't draw any axis at all and gives no warnings or errors - I push OK and nothing happens.  Other times Fusion draws the axis dead center of the part which renders it useless as it needs to project beyond the face at that point as shown in the image.

Below is an example of a real simple part where I have carried out each step and every one of those points should have an axis through it.

I have also included the .f3d of this file.  I'm sure there is a way to do this.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

Thanks for sharing the model, @jlawley2.  I have a partial answer for you.  You can resize the axis display by simply dragging on the endpoints.  Fusion tries to guess the correct size of the axis when it is created, based on the selections made.  Sometimes this doesn't guarantee that the axis display will fall outside of the body.  Mostly, you can resize them.  But, one axis in your model seems to be just a single point (a really bad guess on Fusion's part).  I have been unable to resize that one, unfortunately.  Let me see if I can resize it somehow, and also file a bug to get that default setting changed

Here's a screencast that illustrates how the resize works:

[Anonymous]

@jeff_strater,  Thanks for the help.  I did not know about resizing the lines and that will be a huge help with lines that appear but are stuck in the middle of the part.  It usually doesn't matter if they go all they way through as the inspect tools seem to snap right to the correct endpoints when the axis passes through the point.  Do you know of any other approach I can try for the places where it draws a point instead of a line?  There are usually several approaches to a single problem and I would be willing to try something else if it produces similar results.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

The workaround I found for this case (only really works because the face is planar) is to create an offset workplane, sketch on it, project the original point into that sketch, and then use Axis From Two Points:

[Anonymous]

@jeff_strater, Awesome!  You just saved me hours of frustration.  Thank you.