Use sketch constraints in Fusion 360 to create perfect regular polygons.

Transcript

Autodesk Fusion 360 tutorial I’m going to show you how to use constraints to make a perfect hexagon. We can easily do that by creating a sketch on the ground plane. Let’s draw a circle from the origin then we’ll draw sides. One make sure they attach, then we’ll click again at this point, then click again at this point, then click again at this point, then click again at this point.

We can shift click all these lines to select them all at one time. Then we will apply the equal constraint. This automatically makes a pentagon, you can then dimension this pentagon based on the lines and if I type 80 that will lock it down or if I delete this dimension and I dimension the circle I can dimension that and that will also lock it down to the size. I can finish the sketch. Then if I click extrude I can extrude up this pentagon.

I want to make a hexagon. Let’s once again will create a sketch on the ground plane this time once again we’ll draw a circle. Then inside we’ll make sure we draw six lines. It’s important to make sure the lines are coincident. Then we’ll shift-click all these interior lines. Make sure they’re equal and then we either dimension the circle or the lines. So if I do this I’m going to say 80 and it’s not fully locked down because we need to define it to the origin so we’ll make it horizontal to the origin and then we’ll give it a distance from the origin of 200 and then we’re locked down.

Finish the sketch, press e and then we can extrude. And this time we’ll make it the same height so we’ll go extent type “to object” the top of that object and that’s great because now if I edit this feature and I pull it up the other one updates automatically.

So, there’s a regular pentagon and regular hexagon let’s do an octagon real quick. So we’ll create a sketch once again on the ground plane we will draw a circle right here then we will draw some lines. First we will draw one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight lines. Then we need to shift click all of these lines. Hold shift, select them all at the same time and then we’ll use the equal constraint.

Sometimes you may get these perpendicular constraints so what you need to do is delete those constraints so you can add the equal constraint. Sometimes Fusion over constrains a sketch. We can also delete this horizontal constraint then shift-click all of the pieces then click the equal constraint. Now they’re all equal if you do want this to be horizontal to the origin you can do that and now it’s perfectly parallel. Then we need to dimension it. So, we’ll dimension this circle. We’ll give it a dimension of 130. We also need to make it over from the origin so we’ll give it a dimension from the origin of 100.

And then we’ll give it a dimension down from the origin of 150. Finish our sketch. We will extrude and once again we’ll go to object and we’ll go to that same object. So now we have regular polygons that are now in prism form. You can do this with a triangle or any other size shape that is a regular polygon.

Hopefully you can use this to model interesting patterns into your 3D models in Fusion 360.