Slow processing during joint creations

jaylaudeman · ‎06-23-2022

I've been noticing I have been having some issues with slow processing when I am dealing with larger assemblies that have a lot of joints. This was one example from yesterday when I was trying to align components, after selecting both of them it processed for a couple minutes before it finally finished. Its done this not just on this file but others and its almost looks like its processing on one core at a time sometimes taking like 5 minutes. Is this an issue with Fusion or is it an issue within my drawings that is causing this?

subversivespeed · ‎06-23-2022

Unfortunately I find Fusion still only using single core. I don't know why this hasn't been remedied since I think it would help speed up these types of operations.

Basically what I was told was "Remove the Joints you absolutely do not need".

Well, I only had 10 joints. and I needed ALL of them.

I have done some very simple kinematic models that worked fine under older versions (2018 etc) and no longer work smoothly or just lock up.

Maybe I need to revisit it myself and make a video.

Seems like I end up making alot of videos.

TrippyLighting · ‎06-23-2022

@subversivespeed wrote:

Unfortunately I find Fusion still only using single core. I don't know why this hasn't been remedied since I think it would help speed up these types of operations.

That is the inherent nature of ALL parametric CAD software. Many of the algorithms and math simply don't lend themselves to parallelization.

jaylaudeman · ‎06-24-2022

Thank you both for your responses, it helps to know how fusion is working to figure out a solution.

So if I go back to one of previous questions on the forum about running into performance issues. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/best-practice-for-components-or-sub-assemb...

So basically I need to not have as many joints. What would be the best solution for my drawings. Is a rigid joint worse than a rigid group? Or would it be better to use Align and then Ground components. I'm not sure which way would be the best, I know its quickest for my personal workflow to just insert the component and rigid joint them together.

Is Fusion even really the best product for what we are trying to do in our situation?

TrippyLighting · ‎06-24-2022

How many components are in your design ?

jaylaudeman · ‎06-24-2022

Around 100 I think. I also would have components that have sub assemblies of rigid components.

jaylaudeman · ‎06-24-2022

Here is a screenshot with component color cycling turned on. Some items like a catwalk for example I would normally assemble that from components and save that as its own file and then add that into the job file where that would then be placed or joined into the drawing.

TrippyLighting · ‎06-24-2022

@jaylaudeman wrote:

Thank you both for your responses, it helps to know how fusion is working to figure out a solution.

So if I go back to one of previous questions on the forum about running into performance issues. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/best-practice-for-components-or-sub-assemb...

So basically I need to not have as many joints. What would be the best solution for my drawings. Is a rigid joint worse than a rigid group? Or would it be better to use Align and then Ground components. I'm not sure which way would be the best, I know its quickest for my personal workflow to just insert the component and rigid joint them together.

Is Fusion even really the best product for what we are trying to do in our situation?

In response to the questions above, I am not sure that it is the amount of joints that is the problem.

If you are using Align I believe you'll have to use a position capture feature before you then ground. That more position capture features you use, the more your design will slow down, so that is not a recommended workflow.

Insertion followed by a rigid joint is the correct workflow.

Are your linked assembles fully assembled and can stand on their own as an assembly ?

Also, if you can use a rigid group, that is preferred over man individual rigid joints.

Another consideration is to use a file without a timeline for assembly only, meaning it would contain only linked components.

jaylaudeman · ‎06-24-2022

The align feature is something that I try not use often anyways in my designs, it just happened to be used during that example.

As for Position Capture features slowing down the design, that brings up a good question. Lets take this file I was playing around with this morning. If you scroll threw the timeline you would see that the revolute joint will fail if I go from the top elbow to the discharge of the leg. But if I take that top elbow and drag it close to the discharge of the leg and then capture position, it will the let me create that revolute joint. I believe it has to do with there is 2 possible position outcomes for the elbows and that fusion just gets confused and says it cannot figure it out.

You can see in that file I show that I usually have a linked component that itself has a joint between linked components. I'm questioning if all of those linked subcomponents are causing issues too.

I will have to try looking into doing a file without a timeline. Just thinking about it I am not sure how it would be if I needed to change positioning of a object or if I needed to go and make a leg taller by inserting another section of trunking.

jaylaudeman · ‎06-27-2022

I tried doing a file without a timeline and it seemed to work good up until I go to make the pipe between. To make the pipe between I would normally go and create a 3D sketch and then project include 3D Geometry of both end points and then create a line snapping to those points. Then use the pipe command and select that line. It makes the pipe fine but if any changes are made to the positioning of the leg or bin, the pipe stays the same as when created.