I love parametric modeling!

[fredk]

Since it was free (students and hobbyists) and had some features I was interested in, I decided to give fusion 360 a try.

Day 1: Utter frustration. I could make basic shapes and forms but could not get objects to interact in a predictable way. 6 hours got me a basic 90 degree plumbing elbow (but I wasn't quite sure how I got there). Watched lots of vids.

Day 2: complete confusion. I could begin to appreciate the complexities of the app compared to Sketchup, but there were so many things going on. 6 hours got me a a wye sweep with slip insets. Darned if I could put threads on a part. Watched lots of vids.

Day3: Constraints made sense and the underlying concepts of Fusion started to make sense. Boy are there a lot of different ways to do the same thing, some much better/easier than others. Recreated the wye in 15 minutes. Made an npt threaded cylinder the easy way using a circle, extrude and the coil tool. Open tool, start sketch, add parameters in dialog box and presto... paremetric is awesome.

I might actually have something of my own design to print by the time my printer arrives.

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[Sebastian Finke]

Yes, parametric is awesome

but

What you describe isn't what defines parametric software. A truly parametric methodology involves inter-design dependencies. You will only really get into that when you start a top-down approach that relies on article/product parameters that govern and control subsequent stage stages.

In a nutshell, you design a product. This can be a single item or an assembly. This governs all down-stream parts and assemblies required for manufacture, testing, etc. Change the product and all down-stream parts will adjust accordingly, including drawing and other documentation.

[fredk]

Hmm, well I took parametric to mean the way in which you access data points to define/redefine them. That is that you can edit a database of interdependent data to change or modify one data point to define/redefine an object.

Even so, the threaded thingamabob is a parametric design in that it is two objects, a tapered cylinder and a tapered coil, bound together by an inner to outer face. The coil an cylinder are defined as a single body in Fusion. Those two objects can have a fixed or dynamic relationship depending how they are bound.

The ability to re-use an object or 2d sketch, such as concentric circles, to create additional objects is, another example of parametric design? So a much better alternative to creating a wye (than I used) would be to define two concentric circles, grab the space between them and extrude around an axis to create a 90 degree sweep and then grab the same area and do a second extrude along an axis. From there delete the wall of the second tube where it intersects the inner wall of the first extrude (gotta love programmer magic!). Et voila, basic wye defined.

I love parametric modeling.

Edit: Oooh! Oooh, I forgot the bestest part. Made a mistake in the wall thickness? go back and change the diameter of one of the circles and the whole model adjusts.

[Sebastian Finke]

Yeah like I say it is cool. Definitely a far more effective way to work. I as far as possible I like to work in a parametric modeller.

[Todd-67]

I haven't stepped outside the parametric world since the mid 90's. Like Sabastian stated there is more to it than just the dynamic relationship between two features on two different parts. When you couple that with Parametric data management it gets even more powerful. You can control changes/revisioins of entire designs that can be retrieved at any time Say you designed a product 3 years ago and it has been in production for the past 2 years. You can retrieve the state of the design with the parts as saved 1 year ago and compare it to what it's current state is. You can also route products through workflows that require approvals by other individuals before moving past certain states. For example... you design something and want a prototype that cost 1K. You would bump it to an approval state where your boss would have to sign off. He gets an email notification telling him he has an action item. He goes in and approves it. Once he approves it gets forwarded to purchasing to cut a purchase order. I just set up our system at work 2 years ago but have been using this type of technology for a long time.

This is a demo of the system I set up at work and gives you and idea of the whole approach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aySYterKog

[fredk]

Nice demo Todd. Yup, lots of cool document control and revision stuffs you can do electronically these days. All that stuff is way beyond my needs, but I appreciate how it has simplified engineering project management.

[Todd-67]

That is not "my" demo but it's the same base software and works very similar.

[curious aardvark]

lol I'm just happy when I make a single model that can be resized easily and parametrically :-)

[fredk]

So close. Thought I had the right diameters on the cut but...