Just Want To Move and Align A Hole !!!!!

[cmoher3]

Back again to ask how to perform the simplest of tasks that I simply can't do in this software. I have taken to doing everything I can in Tinkercad. They have an align tool. I don't understand why, no matter what I try and do here, I can't. I'm in sketch mode and can constrain ....ie align stuff, but the moment I extrude a face, I kicked out of sketch mode and lose all the constraint tools. Sorry guys , I just don't get this software at all and i've spent months at it now.

2 Counterbored holes, I make one and would like to simply duplicate it and move both into position. Easy to do in Tinkercad, not so here. I would like to align them on the axis of the circle and make them equidistant from the center of the circle. Again, a few mouse clicks in Tinkercad but an hour spent clicking around this software and I still can't figure out how to do it !! I cannot even move the hole I've made now. Hell I can't even save the files outside of the Fusion environment, because it's not an option for save location !! I found it in the Export menu.

Sorry for sounding off here, but man is this software ever unintuitive. I don't use it, it uses me for a wrestling match every time I go to use it.

[TrippyLighting]

And none of the tutorials in Learn & Support section make any sense to you?

The large number of Fusion 360 for absolute Beginners on YouTube don't do it ?

This thread in the sticky posts right on top of this forum where you posted has a whole host of educational materials. 

Lars Christensen made an entire series of Youtube videos squarely aimed at CAD beginners.

[cmoher3]

I've done all that and none of it covers the myriad of things that Fusion does that is unexpected and unintuitive and has no obvious solution. It's rather disingenuous to suggest that all people have to do is drop everything they're doing and go back to school to study a new piece of software. There would be time for nothing else in life.

Lets go with something simple.... why does Fusion use tiny dots to indicate the center of a circle, instead of cross-hatches as was done for two centuries ? What are the implications of using a tiny dot instead of cross hatches ? This is the sort of stuff that drives me mad everytime I use it.

Why are my counterbored holes locked when I didn't ask them to be locked ? I see the command Align in the right click popup menu, so I pick it and the two dots , indicating center , to align my holes with the circle center they're on and nothing happens.

And on and on it goes......

[TheCADWhisperer]

File>Export and then Attach your *.f3d file here and end all doubt.

[TrippyLighting]

If you've done "all that" and moving a hole is still an arduous unintuitive task, then clearly CAD isn't for you.

The tutorials I've linked to do cover that sort of entry level basic functionality.

1. Hole locations can be defined in a sketch at line intersections or line end points or just generally points.. Then you change the dimensions in that sketch to change the location of that hole. That is how most modern (for the last 20 years or so) history based parametric CAD software works. Autodesk Inventor, Solid Works, Solid Edge, Alibre Design, ZW3D etc.
2. When in the hole dialogue you can also pick body edges to define the location from.
3. You can actually move a hole with the move tool, but you'd have to select "faces" a the option. in a timeline based design I would not recommend this. 

The Align tool is in the Assemble menu. I find it non-intuitive to assume that it can be used to modify geometry!

If you want to create a screencast of your difficulties then there's a tool for that.

[cmoher3]

File attached as per OP.

[cmoher3]

The only reason I didn't do this in Tinkercad is that Fusion has a nice , via a plane, split tool. If I was doing this in Tinkercad, moving a hole and aligning it with the center of a cylinder, after duplicating it, would be done literally in seconds. Drawing holes "at the intersection of lines" ??? What lines ? That's my complaint among many. There are none. Some good old fashioned cross hairs for centers instead of tiny bubbles would be a nice touch. Tiny bubbles don't make for very good reference points. All they had to do was put cross hairs on these circles, like we did for 2 centuries and I would have had x-y reference lines for alignments and measurements.

[TrippyLighting]

I am assuming you are talking about the hole location on the cylindrical face. I would have to agree that editing that hole location is either unintuitive lacks basic functionality or both!

The normal workflow to fix this would be yo create a sketch with a dimensioned line or point, which would be used as the reference point in the hole creation dialogue.

When you create a new hole and select that sketch point Fusion 360 automatically selects one of two available hole creation modes:

However if you started the hole just selecting the face, I don't see a way to change that section as the selection is greyed out. @ryan.bales Can this be improved ?

So at this time you'll have to re-create the hole.

[TrippyLighting]

In Fusion 360 many things start with a sketch. That is also one of the best methods to locate holes. That goes for both holes, the counter bore at the top and the tangential hole.

In the sketch you draw a line, or point and dimension it.

Then in the hole creation dialogue you pick that sketch point and the hole will remain snapped to that sketch point. When you change dimensions in the sketch you move the hole.

When you just place a hole on a face, the snap points you see in some cases, for example the snap point on the cylinder top face, are only snap points at the time you place the hole.

When you change the geometry and the snap point changes, that does not automatically change the location of the hole.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@cmoher3 wrote:

File attached as per OP.

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Oops, I missed that.

I will try to create a video later today if Peter doesn't do it first.

I can tell you that using the BORN Technique - I seldom create extraneous workplanes.

Edit: 

Also, can you give some sort of information on your ultimate Design Intent (pictures of similar real world designs or other information)?  I have been doing this stuff for so long that I sometimes don't recognize the issues that a beginner sees.

[cmoher3]

I'm basically making a satellite tracking antenna and these pieces are to be 3d printed. That hole you see going through the split is going to accomodate a simple 1/4 inch diameter rod of aluminum. I need to anchor it down so I split it right through the hole and am putting two counterbored holes through the cap end and will press threaded inserts into the main body. I will put screws in that cap to clamp the aluminum passing through the cylinder.

I just need a couple of counterbored holes in it. I drew one but as you know, couldn't budge it afterwards to get it to line up with the center of the cylinder. I'll need another one on the other side of that hole.

The thing is, I understand that with Fusion, alignments are made with constraints, but constraints are only showing up in the sketch menu. Once I extrude a circle into a cylinder, I lost my sketch options. I can draw circles in 2 dimensional sketches, but can't make 3 dimensional counter-bored holes in 2 dimensional sketched planes. 

I'm just baffled at how easy it is to do this stuff in Tinkertard but not in Fusion.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@cmoher3 wrote:

I'm just baffled at how easy it is to do this stuff in Tinkertard but not in Fusion.

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Rest assured, it is trivially easy in Fusion 360.

We will get there, but I have to get my real paying work done first.

You will look back in 6 mths at this discussion thread and chuckle about how this could have ever been confusing.

[ryan.bales]

I think it could be improved but its probably more of how complex hole is. I've asked about this before and i think the answer had to do with how hole is situated in the timeline. We are talking about going from one singular hole already computed to multiple holes from a sketch - a completely different reference that may or may not have existed when the hole was made originally. 

I think that if I was making the decision here, i'd remove the option not selected when you EDIT feature. 

I'm sure @jeff_strater can chime in on this one as i think he was who i talked to about this -hopefully my wonky description isn't all wrong 🤞

[cmoher3 · Accepted solution]

i deleted the hole...went back to sketch mode and did it all over again.

[yateslowell]

Please don't be disrespectful.  This is what the forum if for-to ask questions. It would have been better to just point him to the correct video or give advice.  I would never post again if I were ridiculed in from of everyone.  If one would look at many of these posts one could find it.  Asking questions also creates an archive for others to search.  That is how I found your post.  Also remember, there is a vast range of experience posting.  That is why the forum was created.    

[Anonymous]

If anyone is still active on this forum.  I'm NEW, and I'm having a strange problem.  I've tried to watch youtube videos for help, but none seem to cover "moving counterbored holes".  
Basically (in a nutshell) I made a model.  I put 4 holes around it.  Saved it. 3d printed it. (holes are in the right spot still). Saved my file and went to bed.  Wokeup, opened my model, and 2/4 holes are out of alignment.  I've spent about 3hrs now trying to fix the holes (rather than recreate the simple model from scratch) just so I can try to learn what to do. I'll post a screen show of what it looks like now, and I'm sure you'll clearly see why it should'n't look that way. lol

[davebYYPCU]

Attach the file, for investigation.

File > Export, and add to another message.

[Anonymous]

I have a hole in a part i need to move after a test fit i found it to be slightly off. How do i do this? 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

1. please start a new thread.  This will make it easier for future readers.

2. Please share the file.

File > export > save as f3d on local drive  > attach it to the next post.

günther

[m_walczak]

I have seen you post a number of times, and there is no reason in the world to be so condescending.  You put so much effort into putting people down, that you could have answered their question and been a hero.  I have had a number of problems with F360 and they turned out to be confirmed bug by Autodesk.  Am I an idiot too for posting first?