Fusion 360 | Demystifying Projection Preferences

[@Fusion360School]

Here is my wishlist for a better scheme: - Remove the 2 options in preferences. - Allow for snapping to any entity by default, whether the referenced entity is on the active sketch plane or not. Keep the ability to temporarily toggle off snapping with ctrl/cmd. - Snapping should not trigger the projection of the referenced entity. I get that users would still want to know to which entity a sketch line has snapped to. A possible way to do this is to highlight the referenced entity only when the user hovers over the sketch line. I realise that this is really a matter of personal preference. I might be way off the mark here. What do you think?

[@adambergendorff2702]

Simply put, your videos are the BEST!

[@kurtlindner]

OMG, I completely agree with your opinion on snapping. I can't imagine why Fusion didn't make snapping to any edge the default functionality, it's far more intuitive.

[@kenndanner3310]

A problem arises with complex bodies. There can be many edges that will trigger a snap-to and they can be very close together. It would be nice to have an easier way to turn this feature on, without having to toggle in Preferences; maybe a Right Click? Thank you for your extremely valuable tutorials. They are as good as it gets!

[@Fusion360School]

Thank you. To temporarily disable the snapping, you can hold down the ctrl/cmd key.

[@kevparkin5263]

I agree with you about snapping to existing geometry and not adding extra entities

[@robertpinto615]

There are some complications when exporting the geometry in a sketch as a dxf file to support a laser cutter, for example. Online companies specifically request that any projections not include the auto project options in Fusion 360.

[@joepasqua1751]

"And if we choose not to snap, we can simply use the existing option of holding down the CTRL key". This 5-second comment was really useful to me. For some reason I didn't know about this. On the Mac it is the "command" key. Thanks as always. Coffee is incoming.

[@davidfoster6433]

Thanks that helped me better under stand projections and when to use them.

[@NeilStansbury]

I didn't know about these options so have just been manually selecting and projecting geometry. The annoying thing about all projected lines is that even when they are hidden in the options panel they are still selected when you drag select over the actual sketch geometry, additionally they can't be triple click selected like normal/construction lines, so removing projected geometry requires you manually select every line.

[@aL3891_]

thanks for clarifying these options!

[@latinokooll7]

Nice video, disagree on the projected lines not be needed after snap, I agree that they are annoying and clutter a bit the sketch but necessary for the sake of remaining parametric. In Catia V5/6 it does exactly the same. Keep up with the top content on F360, have a great Christmas and New Year!

[@Fusion360School]

Happy new year to you too! I am definitely not advocating for the removal of the coincident constraint. I am quite sure that there is a way to remove the projected line without removing the coincident constraint. If that is not the case, perhaps the line can be projected in the background, which is what is already being done for the "auto project geometry on active sketch plane" option. In SolidWorks, lines can be snapped to existing geometry without the referenced entity being projected.

[@broderp]

As a tinker in Fusion360, this video was great help. It explained the behavior I have seen and how to change it to meet my needs. I'm not advanced enough to have your thoughts on snapping mean much to me as the current tool and my skill set do not warranty any change. Perhaps if you explained why you prefer a change, it would make more sense. Thank you for the great video. Thumbs up and subscribed.

[@Fusion360School]

In general, I think the options are rather confusing. When I work in CAD, I often need to snap to entities frequently. Being able to snap without the need to project would help to save time. Also, snapping without triggering the addition of projected entities would simply allow for a neater sketch, especially when it comes t creating profiles. Of course, this is highly subject to a user's workflow.

[@ruudb72]

I did not understand it correctly!...thanks for the clarification, this is clearly explaned and demonstrated. Thanks!

[@tonyelkington4014]

Fully agree, your suggestion is basically how Solidworks handles reference geometry. Do you know if there is at least a way to have the auto-projected edges default to construction geometry instead of having to manual change them to exclude them from the sketch profiles?

[@ianpendlebury9503]

Very clear instruction - as usual. I didn't know about the Control Key option. Thanks.

[@Arrowtake]

Always learning.

[@charlesdaigneault5041]

Dear Fusion 360 school, thank you very much for your excellent tutorials, they are precise, clear and to the point. The most useful topics I found yet. I am eager to learn more form you. Regarding projections, I found that as a model becomes more complex, I try, as much as possible, to project points instead of lines and/or geometry, this evidently makes things more laborious and annoying in some instances... for some reason, the model seems to behave more fluidly when the sketches are as devoid as possible of projected geometry, or maybe it is due to a completely different issue, anyway, your tutorial suggested me to approach this in regards of the auto project settings, also, I was surprised I did not notice before the fact auto project does not work on coincident planes, this sheds a new light on some issues I had in the past. your logical approach to this topic is much appreciated.

[@masood6086]

Thanks that was very helpful Best regards

[@AerialLensVideo]

Well done - Thanks! But now I cannot get rid of the pesky purple dots. Like super glue, the dots even show up in render mode and appear to serve no purpose, visually.

[@karlosss1868]

OMG... You will have saved me heaps of time in the future. I agree with your comments (initially) but until I turn on both options, I will need some time to consider whether or not its been designed this way or not on purpose. Thx for the info. Sooo cool!!!

[@MethOz]

Merci beaucoup !

[@jessefurqueron5555]

@4:37 0) ok with on by default as you propose 1) at least make these options on a per sketch basis, not global. 2) ok with adding entities to sketch, easy enough to turn off visibility, though it’s be nice to have grouped visibility for these (Ala Rhino groups) 3) coming from a Rhino background, we’re more than ok with selecting edges when “orientation is NOT aligned to active sketch plane”. But then we first learned CAD in Rhino by creating curves in 3D space for face generation and using multi pane viewing in Rhino (& do so 360) to maintain spatial awareness. But hey, We long for a shorthand command line in 360, Rhino is so fast in this regards compared to mousing, if I had a penny for every second spent moving the cursor back and forth to 360 window panes…painful. But I digress. YMMV, different strokes, different folks. As always just sharing, nothing more, nothing less.

[@NorMaker3d]

I don't use any of these options. I prefer to have control on what is projected to avoid filling the sketch with noise. One clear case is when I want an intersection instead of a projection. I know it's an additional step but I still prefer to have to take it for clarity. Makes it easier when I have to modify later in the future. I remember to have seen people with issues when using "autoproject geometry" option, as if it brings the geometry but it's sort of ghost lines that you cannot delete later on. Not sure about this...

[@santorcuato]

I agree about "the noise". Maybe it's a little bit slower but you have more control.

[@Fusion360School]

I guess this is really based on a user's personal preference and I can understand your reasons. For me, having to project every time that I need to snap to something is too much of a hassle. I have learnt to live with the messiness of the unwanted projected lines. The "ghost lines" can actually be deleted.

[@NorMaker3d]

@@Fusion360School I will have to give a chance again to auto projection on snapping 😉

[@Sun0faBeach1]

I did not know that - thank you for yet another great tip! I have one more question: what kind of hardware (3D mouse, trackball,...?) do you use to rotate your models? I myself still use a regular mouse and find rotating stuff to the right orientation rather cumbersome sometimes. I'm looking at an upgrade and would love your recommendation. Cheers :)

[@Fusion360School]

I use a 3D Connexion spacemouse, the most basic one with the knob and the 2 buttons. It does provide some convenience by decoupling the rotating from the clicking of the mouse. For example, you can use you master hand for the regular mouse and you non-master hand to use the spacemouse. I find that the main reason I use the spacemouse is to provide for a better viewing experience for the viewer. When I am designing my own models, I find myself not using it that frequently.😀I would not recommend an upgrade unless you can really benefit from the decoupling. It is quite expensive.

[@Sun0faBeach1]

@@Fusion360School Thank you very much for the response. The more I look into products like spacemouse the more I find reviews of people saying that it is not the solution to all problems, just like you are saying. It seems learning how to use it takes some time and since it doesn't replace the primary mouse, it takes your hand away from the keyboard, therefore rendering stuff like using keyboard short cuts or typing dimensions more inconvenient. I think I will indeed stick with the regular mouse for now. I must say I do enjoy the smooth motions in your videos however, so thank you for making this effort! Please keep up your fantastic tutorials, the best on f360 imho :)

[@franmo662]

it 's sound good

[@joshua43214]

You have had the best F360 content for a while, but I have to say, you have really upped your game recently. Sometime in the past, F360 changed things so projected lines are not construction lines, which is really shitty. And since they no longer care to hear from their users, this is just another reason why I will never give them a penny.

[@Fusion360School]

Thank you for the kind words. It came as a surprise to know that the projected lines used to be construction lines. I was not aware of that at all.

[@joshua43214]

@@Fusion360School They may not have been properly construction lines. But they where not considered during extruding. So you could project something, and then not have to worry about some tiny detail not getting extruded.

[@smorris12]

Is it that snapping to *any* edge by default would start getting tricky/messy quite quickly on complicated models?

[@Fusion360School]

I guess it is a matter of personal preference. When I work in Fusion 360, I turn on both options. When I use SolidWorks, all entities are available to be snapped to. When I don't need to snap, I would just hold down ctrl. I couldn't imagine working any other way. I understand some would get annoyed by snapping of entities when the cursor gets close, but that has never been a problem for me.

[@smorris12]

@@Fusion360School When I started playing with Fusion I would often have 2 planar faces as the result of an extruded cut. I'd place a sketch on one and then couldn't understand why I could snap to one face but not the other. That's where this option would have really helped but only because I was completely ignorant of doing projections! I might turn it on and see whether it helps or hinders. I like the CTRL tip; I must spend ages getting the mouse in just the right place to select something

[@dittilio]

I'm "okay" with projecting a line but I wish the default line projection a construction line. It's a pain when you project an edge and end up with half a dozen different profiles because it intersects a spline.

[@joshua43214]

It's a freaking nightmare.

[@Innov8cnc]

agreed