Joining bodies fails to join, shows no error message

[jarkman]

I'm trying to join two bodies - Tooth 1 and Tooth 2 - to the Faceplate body in this design.

Join doesn't issue any error message, but also does not actually join anything. Though it does rename Tooth 2.

So, two issues:

(1) Why isn't it joining, and how should I fix that ? I presume the bodies are either not quite touching or are slightly overlapping in some way that troubles Join.

(2) Why isn't there some kind of error message to help me work out what is wrong ?

As a new Fusion 360 user, this is the single most frustrating part of the experience - operations which fail silently and uninformatively. 

[jarkman]

.. update: managed to make them join by using the align tool. 

Still mystified by the lack of an error message, though.

[HughesTooling]

You have a really strange way of building parts, why don't you use Extrude Join rater than all those combines? See attached file. Note how I made the counterboars in Extrude5. 

As for your question about the combine seeming to fail, Fusion allows you to combine bodies that don't touch. Not sure what use that is @jeff_strater can you explain.

Mark

[HughesTooling]

I noticed an odd line on the finished component and traced it to your sketch. There is an overlap where the top arrow is pointing, you need a collinear constraint between the lines of the 2 rectangles. Your mirror line is not constrained nor is your outer rectangle. Everything in your sketch should be fully defined of you're asking for trouble sooner or later

[jarkman]

Why did I build it this way ? Did I mention I was a new user ? 🙂

Thanks for the tips. Still keen to know why the combine fails with no warning.

[jeff_strater]

@jarkman, you raise a good question.  This was a conscious decision in Fusion not to treat Combines that don't really have any action as not an error case.  It is certainly debatable whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but that's the way it works today.

Jeff

[jarkman]

Jeff - thanks for the explanation.

Just by way of feedback, I find this behaviour extremely frustrating. I'm obviously expecting the bodies to be combinable, and Fusion is passing up the opportunity to tell me exactly why they are not combinable. 

I had a similar & equally maddening experience earlier today, when a move behaved as though it was going to work - asked me for a distance and everything - and then just didn't move the thing. I still have no idea what that was about. Some kind of constraint I didn't know how to find, I suppose. I worked around it in a very ugly way in the end, by chopping the end off the thing with a new body..

It is easy to lose confidence in an application when these things happen. From my point of view they are not really distinguishable from straightforward bugs, where a simple thing that usually works just silently doesn't work.

I can only hope you revisit this decision one day... 🙂

Thanks,

Richard