Aligning an Imported File with Fusion 360 Origin

I often hear users of Autodesk Fusion 360, who import neutral format models such as STEP or SAT files, say that the model is not oriented to either the origin center or planes.  It is important to designing to correct this condition to not only make the component easier to edit but also to make it easier to manage inside an assembly.

I covered the Fusion 360 Align tool and its uses in an assembly environment is an earlier article.  Now I want to show you how ease the Align tool can make the task of aligning imported components to the origin center and planes.  Please take a look at this short video covering the process. 

 

Adding and Manipulating Joints in Autodesk Fusion 360

Autodesk Fusion 360 uses Joints to constrain components together within an assembly.  There are a variety of joints for applying both fixed and movable constrains, each one having a variety of unique position and motion settings. 

I have created three videos on this subject and even then, I have barely scratched the surface of the possibilities available when using joints in your assembly.  The first video covers the basic process of placing joints and covering the most common types of joints.  I tried to cover joints that compare to the four basic types of constrains using in Inventor assemblies, Mate, Flush, Angle, Tangent and Insert.

The second video covers some of the methods and commands used to control the movement or motion of various joint types. The video also talks about the Motion Study command vs Animate Model, the two main commands used to animate your completed assembly.

The third video covers two other methods of applying joints.  One is to add Joint Origins to the components of the assembly that can be used to place joints in future assemblies.  These are great because they can be saved with the components and used over and over in other assemblies.  They can be compared to iMates in Autodesk Inventor.  They can be configured to carry assembly information that can be applied, by others, to an assembly joint who may not be familiar with the design.  Also in this video I use the "As-built Joint" command which can be applied to components that are already positioned in the correct relationship to each other in a matter of seconds.  If you watched my earlier video on the "Align" command you will see how quickly you can add joints to a temporary aligned assembly.

Autodesk Fusion 360 Align Tool

There are many ways to model in Autodesk Fusion 360 and using the Align Tool is just one of them.  In this short video I will be using the align tool to center some rectangular blocks on two flats cut on the edge of a circular part.  During the video, I will be showing one method of creating flats on the perimeter of a circular part using a surface and work planes.  

In the second part of the video I will use the align tool to create "temporary" assemblies.  There are occasions when you will need completed assemblies but do not need to take the time to fully constraint the model using joints.  You need a method to quickly assembly the parts and just ground the parts for later use in another top level assembly.  The align tool makes quick work of creating such of an assembly.