Great job!
Don’t forget to check out the 2D drawing tutorial. It is a really powerful tool in the process!
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Hey, great tutorial! Really appreciate the guidance. A question: what is the centerline sketch for? Why can’t we define our tubes/other solid bodies from the base sketch?
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@Demonic_Dom welcome!
Good question. The base sketch has the geometry of the bike:
The centerline sketch represents the centerline of the tubes:
Notice how the top tube, downtube, and seatstay’s don’t match the base sketch.
You could specify the geometry in the centerline sketch, but I found separating the geometry sketch (base sketch) from the centerline sketch makes the model more robust and easier to work on.
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Question: the tools you show here in Fusion360, are they available in the free limited version?
As far as I know, everything I show is available in the free version. The two differences I am aware of:
- the free version limits how many documents you can have “open” (very annoying)
- the free version does not allow you to have multiple pages in your 2D drawings
- you can get around this by making one giant sheet
However I can’t know for sure, so if anyone has any trouble with the free version, please let me know.
my bad
One of the things I noticed in the tutorial is how the base sketch point that should be the dropouts is not linked to the centerline sketch or any other - if you do connect them (same process as per headtube for example) then changing the CS length would effectively resize all layers.
Just something I noticed while working on it 
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It’s coming together, I lost count of how many times I have deleted and restarted but so far so good, I am missing the yoke (but the yoke measurements are there) and the dropouts (that I have from paragon, just need to add them)
Thank you @Daniel_Y
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A frustrating issue I run into with this is making the dropout joint. I’ve made the sketch on the dropout face, but when selecting the axis of the joint and trying to get it in line with my chainstay/BB drop I always have a problem. Sometimes it wants to face the correct way and other times it faces 90 degrees and I cannot figure out how to change the orientation. Any tips?
Joints are definately a steep learning curve with Fusion. But once you get it, it just clicks (pun intended). One tip that might help is using CTRL to toggle the joint origins. This video shows it in action:
more advanced stuff
This is my latest workflow that indirectly solves the dropout clocking relative to the CS. I design/engineer the CS sub-assemblies in a separate assembly. Then I join them to my base sketch:
I “duplicate” the SS and CS assemblies, and lay them out on the top plane (XY). Because these “phantom” CS and SS’s don’t rotate as the bike changes, those sub-assemblies can be permanently linked to the 2D drawings (won’t break).
It’s a pretty complex workflow, and I don’t expect people to do it this way, but hopefully it can unlock some new lines of thinking.
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I tried using “rigid group” to lock the sketch to the dropout but couldn’t get it to work. The way I got the parts to stay together was:
- start by working within the original dropout file downloaded from Paragon
- ground the dropout component (indicated by the pin icon)
- make the component active before creating the sketch
- choose the x-y plane as the sketch plane (as opposed to a surface on the dropout)
- note that the feature tree shows the sketch within the dropout component and with a lock symbol
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Thanks for the push to try this is SolidWorks!
There a a few items SW users need to be aware of- beware these are coming from a total novice so there are certainly better workarounds .
1-Make your axle path construction geometry or the Extrude Cut for the dropouts will make it go away.
2-Make a new Plane and circle sketch for the dropout cut. If you Use the center line sketch, that sketch becomes assigned to the cut.
3-The Combine feature is not the same in SW. I was told to use the Split feature but am still trying to figure that out.
4-The Mirror feature will not work with the chainstays because they are not attached to the body. I think it would work if you put the yoke in.
5-The provided Yoke and Dropout files don’t transfer to SW. I didn’t add the yoke because its not my design, It wont go on a bike I make and I understand the idea of how to do it. I have links to SW files for the dropouts with the added offset Geometry.
DR1065_DR2065L.STEP (173.2 KB)
DR1065_DR2065R.STEP (143.1 KB)
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@Daniel_Y Thanks for all the work on this tutorial! I haven’t touched a CAD program in years and it was great to have a concise and logical tutorial to follow.
I was wondering if you have any advice/tips on how to do a multi-plane seatstay (or chainstay) in which the tube is bending along one plane (for foot clearance) and also on a second plane (mostly for aesthetics) as in the Otso Fenrir or many other frames of similar design.
Edit: I’m wondering if applying the handlebar @nickhiti1 Posted in the Fusion help post would be a method of executing what I’m referring to (and another way to handle CS/SS?)
Thanks again!
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Very nice! The curved DT is a nice touch
The cleanest solution I can think of is using a combination of 2D sketches to form a 3D sketch. The tool you will find most useful: include 3D geometry
Side Sketch
Bottom Segment Sketch
Upper Segment Sketch
Final 3D Sketch:
I don’t do SS bends like that often, so my CAD is sloppy. However, here is the file if you want to reverse-engineer it: Fusion
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Thanks for the feedback/suggestions, I’ll dig through your file to try and reverse engineer it. It makes sense to me in theory but my CAD skills are still weak so we’ll see!
I did have one more question as it relates to different dropout/yoke types. I’m trying to insert the Paragon sliders into this frame and one curious feature is how offset the CS plane needs to be to the theoretical BB to axle plane you use in your original tutorial. Best I can tell is using a centerline CS sketch that mirrors the actual plane of the BB - Axle is the best method. Secondly with that, I took this yoke from Cobra (he provides a nice CAD file for that) and aligned it to the BB and rotated it to the same angle as the actual CS plane. Can you think of more efficient/smarter way to do this?
Thanks again for all this knowledge, this is just a fun little side project for me and it’s awesome to have the guidance.
Cheers
Ryan
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This is the classic “actual” and “virtual” chainstay.
Acutal chainstay - the physical chainstay
Virtual chainstay- BB center to Axle
That sketch calls out the paragon slider hood locations realtive to the axle, which is useful to locate your stays and dropout:
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Makes sense, I’ll have to redraw my whole CS set up to clean it up. The circles for location of the dropout/cutting the SS/CS is clever too.
Thanks again!
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Finally found some time to start building our bikes in Fusion and again thanks for the tutorial Daniel. It has sooo much potential to make life easier.
One thing I am struggling at the moment is to have my cableguides and bottlebosses fixed to the geometry. These are external files and I have aligned them with the centerlines but when changing the geo the don’t move with the frame. Any idea how to do this apart from drawing them every time from a projected sketch?
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I create a sketch called “DWG Sketch” which I use to locate my bottles and also pull all the construction dimensions in my 2D drawings:
DWG Sketch:
This is how I call out the boss location:
The length of the lines are 1/2 the tubing diameter (a parameter). That way, it updates with the sketch:
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