from a mesh model. Note that next to the Create menu is a Modify menu. Its
tools edit existing sketches.
Sketch a Rectangle
First, click the green plus sign. Second, click the horizontal origin plane
that appears (Figure
F
). The plane will rotate to face you. Third, click on the
rectangle tool→2 Point Rectangle (while there, note the options for 3 Point
and Center Point). Then click two places on the canvas (Figure
G
).
Press the Enter key to finish the sketch. Note that the rectangle’s interior
turns blue, meaning it’s a face. This means it can be modeled. You can draw
more sketches on this plane or just click the green Finish Sketch button in
the upper-right of the screen to exit Sketch mode. Note that exiting a sketch
and exiting sketch mode are two different things. You are still in sketch mode
when you press Enter after using a tool. You exit sketch mode when you click
the green Finish Sketch button.
Constraints
Constraints are rules that govern a shape by enforcing relationships
between the shape’s parts. For instance, you can constrain a drawing so that
two lines are always parallel or always perpendicular to each other. Note the
Tip: To place sketches that are on different planes onto one plane, project one sketch
into the active plane. To separate sketches on the same plane into different planes, make
a new construction plane and project the sketch onto it.
Fusion 360 for Makers 2nd Edition 23
F G
Click the green plus
sign and then click the
horizontal origin plane
to start a sketch.
Sketching a rectangle
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horizontal and vertical constraint symbols on the rectangle sketch. These
force the lines to be parallel to the sketch’s horizontal and vertical axes.
Click the dropdown arrow next to the Constraints menu to see all of them
(Figure
H
).
To apply a constraint, click its icon and then click two sketch curves to apply
it. The curves will adjust accordingly. To exit from applying a constraint, press
the Escape key or right-click and choose Cancel.
A drawing can be fully constrained (also called fully defined) with
constraints. It can also be partly constrained or completely unconstrained.
To prevent constraints from forming, press and hold the CTRL key (CMD
on a Mac) while drawing each sketch line. To delete a constraint, click
the constraint icon . A blue circle will appear to show that it is selected
(Figure
I
). Press the Delete key. The constraint will no longer apply to that
sketch line. If you can’t delete it by selecting, delete its Browser entry. If a
constrained sketch is inside a body, turn the body off through the Browser
first (click the eye in front of it to make it gray instead of yellow), and then
delete the constraint.
24
Chapter 2: Sketching
H
The rectangle sketch and Constraints menu.
Select and delete a
constraint to remove it
I
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A fully constrained sketch means you can click any point on it to move it
and it will move as a whole without changing its shape. None of its lines
can move independently. When a sketch isn’t fully constrained, part of the
sketch will move and change. The advantage of a fully constrained sketch is
that it will always maintain its shape (design intent) and produce predictable
results when you perform other operations on it such as mirroring its
features. When applying constraints, if you get an error message saying the
sketch will be over-constrained, that means that the existing constraints
make the application of a new one impossible. For instance, if the line is
already constrained vertically and you try to add a horizontal constraint,
you’ll get the error message because the line can’t be constrained in both
horizontal and vertical.
Sketch Palette
A panel of settings options appears while in sketch mode (Figure
J
). Note
the construction option. When you select a sketch curve and click that
option (or type X on the keyboard) the line becomes dashed, indicating it’s
a construction line. Such lines are useful when you need lines to snap,
measure or align to, but don’t want them to affect
the sketch like regular lines do. For example,
in Figure
K
, if the diagonal lines were not
constructed, you would have to extrude all four
parts upward separately. The construction line
option is also accessible by right-clicking on a
line and choosing Normal/Construction from the
context menu. Once chosen, all subsequent lines
will appear as construction until you right-click on
a line and choose Normal/Construction again.
Tip: If trying to constrain two sketches doesn’t work - for example, one won’t move to the other
in the desired order, or the sketch changes sizes – try applying the Fixed constraint to one and then
applying the desired constraint to the other.
Tip: White points are unconstrained. Black points are either spline fit points, stacked points
(such as sketch points on a constrained point) or constrained circle center points. If you don’t see
points, check Show Points on the Sketch Palette. If a sketch doesn’t have a face, look for a white
point. That shows where the sketch curves are not connected.
Fusion 360 for Makers 2nd Edition 25
J
K
The Sketch Palette appears
when you’re in Sketch mode.
The dashes are construction lines.
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A couple of other note-worth entries on the Palette are:
• Show Constraints. Unclick this to “clean the screen” when troubleshooting
constraints. You can select just the sketch curves you want to see their
constraints.
• 3D Sketch. This lets you sketch lines and splines in all three directions.
Use the Move tool to relocate sketch points. You need to enable it in the
Preferences menu. You may want to uncheck it when you’re only drawing
in 2D.
Finally, click the arrows at the top of the Sketch Palette to collapse it.
Inference Symbols and Colors
You may notice small geometric shapes popping up as you move the mouse
around. These pop-ups indicate center points, midpoints, endpoints, and
perpendicularity. Dashed lines may also appear, indicating that a line you
drew matches the length of an existing line. Some lines are different colors;
for instance, regular lines are light blue, construction lines are yellow, fixed
(locked) lines are green. A white (open) point is unconstrained; a black one is
either a constrained circle center point, stacked points, or spline fit points.
Select and Delete Sketches
Selecting was discussed in Chapter 1. To recap, you can select an item by
dragging a selection (left-to- right) or crossing (right-to-left) window around
it; by clicking its Browser entry; by clicking its Timeline icon or by clicking
options under the Select menu at the top of the screen. Hold the Shift key
down to select or deselect multiple items and to remove or add individual
items. Double-click a sketch curve to select the whole “chain,” that is,
everything attached to it. Selected items appear dark blue.
Selecting isn’t always a simple task. Depending on how you select
something, you will get different context menus. Or you may not have
selected enough of it to perform an operation; for example, you may not have
selected a body’s under or back sides. Simply clicking the face of a sketch
won’t select the sketch; you must select all its edges, too. You can generally
drag a selection window around a sketch and then press the Delete key
to remove it. You can also right-click the sketch and select Delete. If the
26
Chapter 2: Sketching
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sketch still won’t delete, select it, right-click, and choose Edit Sketch from
the context menu. Then select it by dragging a window around it and press
Delete. Clicking the Browser entry or Timeline icon always selects the entire
item and is sometimes the only way to delete some items, such as a sketch
point or a sketch curve if just selecting, right-clicking and choosing Delete
doesn’t work.
Click the dropdown arrow in front of the word Sketches to see all sketches
in the file. A gray eye in front of a sketch listing means the sketch is visible.
Click the eye to gray it out, which makes the sketch invisible. In Figure
L
, I
selected the sketch by clicking its browser entry. To select multiple items,
press and hold the Shift key and click them.
Create a Selection Set
You can select lines and save that selection to revisit for future editing.
Select the lines (press and hold the Shift key to make multiple selections),
right-click one, and choose Create Selection Set (Figure
M
). This selection
will show up in the Browser panel, where you can rename it. Hover over the
selection’s Browser panel listing to access two icons; one lets you select all
those lines again, and the other lets you update any changes you’ve made to
the selection set, such as new line additions or subtractions.
A selection set may make future editing easier.
M
Fusion 360 for Makers 2nd Edition 27
L
Sketches are nested under
the Sketches listing in the
browser and can be selected
from the Browser.
Icon
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