Fusion 360 on the Move —Command Now Does More

Fusion 360's Move command has been significantly improved to kick off the New Year.

To kick off the New Year, Autodesk’s Fusion 360 design team has been digging deep into user input and selected the “Move” tool as its primary area of focus.

Autodesk Gets on the Move

In previous editions of Fusion 360, the Move command could be used to select a component face and articulate it in the X, Y and Z directions or give that face an angle by rotating it. Now users have the ability to translate not only a component face, but also a sketch object, bodies and even entire components. Users also have the ability to activate these same commands in history modeling, whereas in the past, these features were reserved for direct modeling only.

But the enhancements to the Move command don’t end there. The Move command has also been updated to have parametric move features that give improved control of how a component is translated. In the past, the Move tool was limited to two controls, “Free Move” and “Point to Point.” The January update adds “Translate”, “Rotate” and “Point to Position” options to the command, and each of these controls can be guided by either dragging an object in the user interface or entering a value into the Move command window.

Finally, the Move command also has a “Create Copy” check box, giving drafters the opportunity to preserve the original position of an object even if its copy is being moved.

(Quick note, as yesterday Autodesk is working to correct a piece of missing functionality involving the midpoint selection in the Move tool. The company says a fix will be available soon. For more information visit this forum thread.)

Improved Conversion UI

January also marks a new look for the Convert command. In the past, the Convert tool was cluttered by a confusing set of options that made the tool a bit harder to use than it should have been. Autodesk’s engineers have remedied that problem by streamlining the user interface to offer clear conversion options.

Inspection Gets a Bit More Balance

Inspection is an important part of design. It gives drafters the ability to validate their geometry and ensure that parts won’t fracture under strain. Well, now Fusion’s engineers have enhanced the users’ ability to visualize what they’re inspecting by making the center of an object’s mass visible. Now that this feature has been added, users can use the center of mass as a reference for measurements. Oh, and since the center of mass is associative, if a model is changed, the center of mass will adjust dynamically with those updates.

For more details about Fusion 360’s January release, visit Autodesk’s Fusion Blog.