Edit a generative model

00:02

In this lesson we'll edit a generative model.

00:06

After completing this lesson you'll be able to edit a form and update a distributed design.

00:13

In Fusion 360 we want to carry on with our assembly that contains our generative frame.

00:18

At this point we want to figure out ways in which we can modify the frame itself.

00:22

We have a few options a few different things that we can do in order to modify the frame.

00:27

If we right click on the frame we'll notice that there is a break link icon.

00:31

Breaking the link will allow us to bring all of the features directly into the design we're working on.

00:37

In some cases you also have an edit in place.

00:41

Using edit in place will allow us to edit the generative model.

00:44

By using those specific options and temporarily bringing those features inside of this design.

00:51

So you'll notice that we have this associative edit in place if this is the first time that you've used this.

00:58

This associative edit in place tells us that references to other components will be captured in the assembly context.

01:05

You can toggle off the associativity from the edit and place menu at the top of the canvas.

01:10

We can also change default settings inside of our user preferences.

01:15

So notice it looks a little bit different. We have this blue bar around the outside

01:20

and we're working directly on the generative frame inside of this.

01:24

And we can use the associative and non-associative options if we wish.

01:28

We're not going to focus our attention too much on that.

01:31

But the first thing that we really want to do is we want to get rid of the cuts that are made

01:36

by subtracting information from our obstacles.

01:40

We created the obstacles with enough tolerance that we don't need to worry so much about cutting out these little areas.

01:47

So if we roll back the combined feature

01:51

you'll notice that what we see on the screen are going to be those obstacle bodies.

01:55

I'm going to expand the bodies folder and I'm going to hide these obstacles.

01:60

Note that they're all renamed with obstacle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

02:06

And also notice that body 22 is going to be the solid body for our frame.

02:11

If we don't want to use any of the obstacles we can select them,

02:16

we can right click and we can remove them from our design.

02:20

It's important that we use remove and not delete. As remove will place a marker in the timeline.

02:25

But if we roll the timeline to the end you'll notice that this combined feature no longer works.

02:30

And that's because none of the bodies that were used are actually still in the design.

02:35

So we're going to delete that feature, but you could also suppress it as well.

02:40

Note that we do have some slight interference or some tight clearances with the shock that we might want to work on.

02:46

We have, of course, some interference with the motor that we need to work on as well.

02:51

In order to do this we're going to be working inside of the organic form feature.

02:56

By selecting it notice that we don't have the option to edit this feature here.

03:01

When we're using edit in place we have options that allow us to make adjustments,

03:06

but not all of the options will be available.

03:09

I'm going to end edit in place and I'm going to go back into my data panel

03:14

and I'm going to open up the motorcycle frame design.

03:21

When we open up the frame design, it's important to note that the extrude cuts are still there.

03:27

So we're going to get rid of that feature.

03:29

We're going to go into our bodies folder, inside of this design, and we're going to remove all the obstacles.

03:37

So this is one of the differences between associative and non-associative and when we're using edit in place.

03:44

We're going to make a save to the file before we do anything else

03:50

and then we're going to right click on the organic form feature and we'll edit.

03:55

From here we want to make sure that we note a few things.

03:58

Anywhere this form surface intersects with one of our preserved regions, it's going to be frozen.

04:05

We can see that by taking a look and seeing these lightly blue colored edges.

04:10

The important aspect here is that all of these form bodies overlap those preserved regions

04:15

in order for the boundary fill to work and create a solid body.

04:19

So when we're making adjustments we're going to try to leave those frozen edges as is as long as we can.

04:25

If we have to make adjustments we need to make sure there's still some overlap.

04:29

I'm going to take a look at some of my modification tools.

04:32

First, I want to take a look at one that's called smooth.

04:37

With smooth I'm going to select a few of these various faces

04:40

and I want to see if I can smooth out this region a little bit.

04:44

We have a slider that allows us to influence how much is getting smoothed.

04:49

And what it's essentially doing is it's looking for an average between the selected faces.

04:55

Depending on the number of faces that you selected in the surrounding geometry,

04:60

sliding the slider up or down may make more or less of a difference.

05:05

In our case you can see that it was able to smooth those out and it looks pretty good.

05:10

And I'm pretty happy with that result, so I'm going to say, "okay" and allow it to keep that.

05:14

If we need to make more drastic changes, for example, where it overlaps the motor.

05:19

Then we're going to need to go in and use some of our manual tools.

05:23

So, in this case I'm going to go into edit form and I want to select a region.

05:30

We can use our selection tools and right now we're on box select. We can use box select to select various areas

05:37

and then we can use tools such as soft modification to allow us to determine how far out that influence is going to go.

05:47

I'm going to view this from the top to make it a little bit easier to see.

05:52

Then I'm going to grab this edge and I'm going to pull it out making those gradual changes.

05:60

I'm going to click in the canvas and I'm going to make some adjustments to the back end where the shock is.

06:08

So I'm going to double click on this edge, notice that it coils itself around.

06:12

And we still have soft modification on. So I'm going to pull this up, noting that the frozen edges are staying in place.

06:20

With those adjustments made, I'm going to select "okay" and finish my form.

06:26

It's going to go through the process of reconverting that to a surface body.

06:31

And then it's going to use the boundary fill feature in the timeline to create a solid body between that closed region.

06:36

And all of the preserved regions selected.

06:40

When we're post-processing a generative design there are many more things that we can do.

06:45

Depending on the complexity of your design, for example the small hole that's located right here.

06:51

You might determine that you need to spend extra time smoothing out those areas manually

06:56

or with certain tools like erase and fill or to remove a hole.

07:01

Once the design is once again updated let's go ahead and make sure that we save it and then we go back to our assembly.

07:12

Once we're back in our assembly we are greeted with a few warnings telling us that one of the components is out of date.

07:19

In this case our generative motorcycle frame, I'm going to use this option to update it to the most current version.

07:29

Once it's been updated you'll notice that the warnings go away.

07:32

And now our generative assembly has automatically been updated with the changes that we've made.

07:38

For example, the small hoop that goes over the shock body as well as the slight changes we made to the frame.

07:44

Note that inside of the browser we have an assembly context folder that happens whenever we're using edit in place.

07:52

So if we're using these contexts,

07:55

you can see that we can activate those local contacts and any changes that were made locally will appear only here.

08:02

For this design however we're not going to go through the entire process of making modifications

08:07

and adjustments to suit this design.

08:10

It's just important that we understand some of the things that are needed after we export a design from generative.

08:16

The more attention and time we pay to creating our obstacles, making sure that they're all smooth in the transitions.

08:22

Where this generative geometry is going to have to go around things,

08:26

the less time that likely will have to spend post processing.

08:30

So in this case everything looks pretty good. Removing those obstacles as a combined feature.

08:36

In this case left some slight issues that we wanted to address, but the rest of the geometry looks fairly good.

08:43

We could of course spend a lot of time smoothing things out, but there are a few other topics that we want to address.

08:48

So from right now let's make sure that we do save the file before we move on to the next lesson.

Video transcript

00:02

In this lesson we'll edit a generative model.

00:06

After completing this lesson you'll be able to edit a form and update a distributed design.

00:13

In Fusion 360 we want to carry on with our assembly that contains our generative frame.

00:18

At this point we want to figure out ways in which we can modify the frame itself.

00:22

We have a few options a few different things that we can do in order to modify the frame.

00:27

If we right click on the frame we'll notice that there is a break link icon.

00:31

Breaking the link will allow us to bring all of the features directly into the design we're working on.

00:37

In some cases you also have an edit in place.

00:41

Using edit in place will allow us to edit the generative model.

00:44

By using those specific options and temporarily bringing those features inside of this design.

00:51

So you'll notice that we have this associative edit in place if this is the first time that you've used this.

00:58

This associative edit in place tells us that references to other components will be captured in the assembly context.

01:05

You can toggle off the associativity from the edit and place menu at the top of the canvas.

01:10

We can also change default settings inside of our user preferences.

01:15

So notice it looks a little bit different. We have this blue bar around the outside

01:20

and we're working directly on the generative frame inside of this.

01:24

And we can use the associative and non-associative options if we wish.

01:28

We're not going to focus our attention too much on that.

01:31

But the first thing that we really want to do is we want to get rid of the cuts that are made

01:36

by subtracting information from our obstacles.

01:40

We created the obstacles with enough tolerance that we don't need to worry so much about cutting out these little areas.

01:47

So if we roll back the combined feature

01:51

you'll notice that what we see on the screen are going to be those obstacle bodies.

01:55

I'm going to expand the bodies folder and I'm going to hide these obstacles.

01:60

Note that they're all renamed with obstacle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

02:06

And also notice that body 22 is going to be the solid body for our frame.

02:11

If we don't want to use any of the obstacles we can select them,

02:16

we can right click and we can remove them from our design.

02:20

It's important that we use remove and not delete. As remove will place a marker in the timeline.

02:25

But if we roll the timeline to the end you'll notice that this combined feature no longer works.

02:30

And that's because none of the bodies that were used are actually still in the design.

02:35

So we're going to delete that feature, but you could also suppress it as well.

02:40

Note that we do have some slight interference or some tight clearances with the shock that we might want to work on.

02:46

We have, of course, some interference with the motor that we need to work on as well.

02:51

In order to do this we're going to be working inside of the organic form feature.

02:56

By selecting it notice that we don't have the option to edit this feature here.

03:01

When we're using edit in place we have options that allow us to make adjustments,

03:06

but not all of the options will be available.

03:09

I'm going to end edit in place and I'm going to go back into my data panel

03:14

and I'm going to open up the motorcycle frame design.

03:21

When we open up the frame design, it's important to note that the extrude cuts are still there.

03:27

So we're going to get rid of that feature.

03:29

We're going to go into our bodies folder, inside of this design, and we're going to remove all the obstacles.

03:37

So this is one of the differences between associative and non-associative and when we're using edit in place.

03:44

We're going to make a save to the file before we do anything else

03:50

and then we're going to right click on the organic form feature and we'll edit.

03:55

From here we want to make sure that we note a few things.

03:58

Anywhere this form surface intersects with one of our preserved regions, it's going to be frozen.

04:05

We can see that by taking a look and seeing these lightly blue colored edges.

04:10

The important aspect here is that all of these form bodies overlap those preserved regions

04:15

in order for the boundary fill to work and create a solid body.

04:19

So when we're making adjustments we're going to try to leave those frozen edges as is as long as we can.

04:25

If we have to make adjustments we need to make sure there's still some overlap.

04:29

I'm going to take a look at some of my modification tools.

04:32

First, I want to take a look at one that's called smooth.

04:37

With smooth I'm going to select a few of these various faces

04:40

and I want to see if I can smooth out this region a little bit.

04:44

We have a slider that allows us to influence how much is getting smoothed.

04:49

And what it's essentially doing is it's looking for an average between the selected faces.

04:55

Depending on the number of faces that you selected in the surrounding geometry,

04:60

sliding the slider up or down may make more or less of a difference.

05:05

In our case you can see that it was able to smooth those out and it looks pretty good.

05:10

And I'm pretty happy with that result, so I'm going to say, "okay" and allow it to keep that.

05:14

If we need to make more drastic changes, for example, where it overlaps the motor.

05:19

Then we're going to need to go in and use some of our manual tools.

05:23

So, in this case I'm going to go into edit form and I want to select a region.

05:30

We can use our selection tools and right now we're on box select. We can use box select to select various areas

05:37

and then we can use tools such as soft modification to allow us to determine how far out that influence is going to go.

05:47

I'm going to view this from the top to make it a little bit easier to see.

05:52

Then I'm going to grab this edge and I'm going to pull it out making those gradual changes.

05:60

I'm going to click in the canvas and I'm going to make some adjustments to the back end where the shock is.

06:08

So I'm going to double click on this edge, notice that it coils itself around.

06:12

And we still have soft modification on. So I'm going to pull this up, noting that the frozen edges are staying in place.

06:20

With those adjustments made, I'm going to select "okay" and finish my form.

06:26

It's going to go through the process of reconverting that to a surface body.

06:31

And then it's going to use the boundary fill feature in the timeline to create a solid body between that closed region.

06:36

And all of the preserved regions selected.

06:40

When we're post-processing a generative design there are many more things that we can do.

06:45

Depending on the complexity of your design, for example the small hole that's located right here.

06:51

You might determine that you need to spend extra time smoothing out those areas manually

06:56

or with certain tools like erase and fill or to remove a hole.

07:01

Once the design is once again updated let's go ahead and make sure that we save it and then we go back to our assembly.

07:12

Once we're back in our assembly we are greeted with a few warnings telling us that one of the components is out of date.

07:19

In this case our generative motorcycle frame, I'm going to use this option to update it to the most current version.

07:29

Once it's been updated you'll notice that the warnings go away.

07:32

And now our generative assembly has automatically been updated with the changes that we've made.

07:38

For example, the small hoop that goes over the shock body as well as the slight changes we made to the frame.

07:44

Note that inside of the browser we have an assembly context folder that happens whenever we're using edit in place.

07:52

So if we're using these contexts,

07:55

you can see that we can activate those local contacts and any changes that were made locally will appear only here.

08:02

For this design however we're not going to go through the entire process of making modifications

08:07

and adjustments to suit this design.

08:10

It's just important that we understand some of the things that are needed after we export a design from generative.

08:16

The more attention and time we pay to creating our obstacles, making sure that they're all smooth in the transitions.

08:22

Where this generative geometry is going to have to go around things,

08:26

the less time that likely will have to spend post processing.

08:30

So in this case everything looks pretty good. Removing those obstacles as a combined feature.

08:36

In this case left some slight issues that we wanted to address, but the rest of the geometry looks fairly good.

08:43

We could of course spend a lot of time smoothing things out, but there are a few other topics that we want to address.

08:48

So from right now let's make sure that we do save the file before we move on to the next lesson.

Video quiz

Which Form tool can be used to resolve bumpy geometry that is a byproduct of the generative design study resolution?

(Select one)
Select an answer

1/1 questions left unanswered

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