Learn about Drawing Settings in Fusion

As a designer or engineer working with Fusion, the ability to customize your drawing settings can be a game-changer. From adjusting text heights and line types to automating drawing creation, the drawing settings in Fusion offer a wealth of options to optimize your workflow and create professional-looking technical drawings. In this comprehensive blog post, we'll dive deep into the various drawing settings available in Fusion and explore how you can leverage them to streamline your design process.

Understanding the Document Settings

The foundation of your drawing customization lies within the Document Settings. This allows you to control a wide range of parameters, from text formatting to unit preferences. Let's explore the key areas you can customize:

Text Settings

• Font Selection: Choose from a variety of font options to ensure your text aligns with your company's branding or personal style.

• Text Height Groups: Customize the text height for different elements of your drawing, such as dimensions, view labels, and general annotations. This allows you to create a visually balanced layout.

• Custom Text Heights: Take control of your text sizes by setting custom values for small, medium, and large text groups. This ensures your dimensions, section views, and other annotations are perfectly proportioned.

Unit Settings

• Unit Type: Specify the primary unit of measurement for your drawing, whether it's inches, millimeters, or any other standard.

• Decimal vs. Fractional: Choose between decimal or fractional representation for your dimensions, depending on your industry or personal preference.

• Linear Precision: Adjust the number of decimal places displayed in your dimensions, ensuring the appropriate level of detail for your project.

Line Width and Type

• Display Line Widths: Toggle this option to see the varying line widths in your drawing, which can help differentiate between object lines, hatch lines, and dimension lines.

• Customizable Line Widths: Assign specific line widths to different element types, such as making object lines thicker and hatch lines thinner.

• Line Type Scale: Adjust the distance between dashes in hidden, phantom, and other line types to suit your preferences.

Revision History

• Revision Scope: Specify whether your revision history applies to the entire drawing or individual sheets.

• Revision Numbering: Choose between alphabetical, numerical, or custom revision labeling to match your company's standards.

Standards Settings

Fusion allows you to select the appropriate industry standards for various drawing elements, such as surface texture, feature control frames, and welding symbols. This ensures your drawings adhere to the necessary conventions.

Customizing Annotations and Labels

The Annotation tab in the Document Settings provides a wealth of options for fine-tuning the appearance and behavior of your dimensions, edge extensions, and labels. Let's explore some of the key customizations:

Dimension Settings

• Line Type and Color: Choose the line type (continuous, center, hidden, etc.) and color for your dimensions.

• Gap Distance: Adjust the spacing between the extension line and the object line, creating a more visually appealing layout.

• Arrow Heads: Select from a variety of arrow head styles, such as closed, open, or right-angled, to suit your design preferences.

Edge Extensions

Edge extensions allow you to create additional reference lines for your dimensions. You can customize the line type, color, and other properties of these edge extensions to differentiate them from the rest of your drawing.

Label Customization

• View Labels: Change the color and arrow head style for your section, detail, and other view labels.

• Leader Notes: Customize the line width, arrow head, and color of your leader notes to make them stand out or blend in with your drawing as needed.

Mastering the View Settings

The View tab in the Document Settings gives you granular control over the appearance of various drawing elements, from visible outer lines to center marks and hidden edges. This level of customization allows you to create a cohesive and visually appealing technical drawing.

Line Type and Color

• Visible Outer Lines: Adjust the line type, width, and color of your object's visible outer edges.

• Tangent Edges: Customize the appearance of tangent edges, which can be useful for highlighting specific design features.

• Hidden Lines: Modify the line type, width, and color of hidden edges to improve the clarity of your drawing.

Center Marks and Lines

• Center Marks: Specify the line type, width, and color of the center marks used to indicate the center of circles, holes, and other features.

• Center Lines: Customize the appearance of center lines, which can be helpful for visualizing the symmetry of your design.

Advanced View Options

The "More Options" section within the View tab offers a wealth of additional customization possibilities, including settings for detail boundaries, section lines, and crop view outlines. These advanced options allow you to fine-tune the visual hierarchy and clarity of your technical drawings.

Hatch, Table, and Symbol Settings

While the previous sections covered the majority of the drawing settings, Fusion also provides customization options for hatch patterns, table formatting, and symbols. Let's explore these additional areas of control:

Hatch Settings

In the Hatch tab, you can adjust the line width and color of your hatch patterns, ensuring they seamlessly integrate with the overall aesthetic of your drawing.

Table Settings

• Table Formatting: Customize the border color, line width, and other properties of your parts lists, bend tables, and revision tables.

• Default Table Widths: Preconfigure the column widths for your various table types, ensuring a consistent and well-organized layout.

Symbol Settings

The Symbol tab allows you to control the line width and color of your drawing's surface finish symbols, feature control frames, and other industry-standard annotations.

Automating Drawing Creation with View Defaults

One of the most powerful features in the Document Settings is the View Defaults tab. This section enables you to specify how Fusion should handle the creation of different view types, such as assemblies, components, and sheet metal flat patterns. By configuring these settings, you can streamline your drawing creation process and ensure a consistent visual style across your technical drawings.

View Type Settings

• Assembly Views: Customize the visibility of edges, interference, and center marks for your assembly drawings.

• Component Views: Specify the display settings for individual components, including the handling of tangent edges and automatic center mark creation.

• Sheet Metal Views: Tailor the view settings for your sheet metal flat patterns and folded assemblies.

Dimension and Annotation Preferences

• Automatic Dimensioning: Choose whether to automatically dimension your views or leave them undimensioned.

• Dimension Strategies: Select the appropriate dimensioning approach, such as overall dimensions or symmetric with baseline, for each view type.

• Hole and Thread Preferences: Decide how holes and threads should be represented in your drawings, either with notes or dimensioned directly.

Implementing Drawing Settings with Templates

To streamline your drawing creation process and ensure consistency across all your technical drawings, it's recommended to create a custom drawing template that incorporates your preferred Document Settings. Here's how you can set up a drawing template in Fusion:

1. Create a New Drawing Template: Start by creating a new drawing from scratch and selecting the appropriate standard (ASME, ISO, etc.) and sheet size.

2. Configure the Document Settings: Customize all the drawing settings as discussed in the previous sections, including text, units, line widths, annotations, and view defaults.

3. Set Up Base Views and Title Block: Add your desired base views (isometric, top, front, etc.) and configure the title block with your company's branding and information.

4. Save the Drawing Template: Once you've completed the setup, save the drawing as a template for future use.

When creating new drawings, simply select your custom drawing template instead of starting from scratch. This will ensure that all your preferred Document Settings, base views, and title block information are automatically applied, saving you time and promoting consistency across your technical drawings.

Conclusion

Mastering the drawing settings in Fusion is a crucial step in optimizing your design workflow and creating professional-looking technical drawings. By leveraging the customization options available in the Document Settings, you can fine-tune the appearance and behavior of your dimensions, annotations, views, and more. Additionally, by implementing a custom drawing template, you can streamline your drawing creation process and maintain a consistent visual style across all your projects.