Plasticity 1.4 | Dimensions and Measure Tools | What They Do And How To Use Them |  

Great to hear! Thanks for the kind words and don't hesitate to ask questions!

and the year after that or the year after that...personally I think the subscription model providing it's possible to Pause a subscription when you don't want or need it, is better than any particular version purchase. I do agree, there's been very positive improvements during v1

For sure. I make a lot of content for Fusion 360 because I see the value it brings for the price. A lot of people complain about it and even complain that all features aren't in the free version, but see how much any other CAD company gives you for free :) Even though I don't use Plasticity all that much at the moment i was happy to buy the Studio version to help support its development. The way dimensions work in Plasticity is not like other programs so its shows some innovation!

Awesome, thank you!

Very welcome!

Thank you very much!

Yeah Nick has done a great job with Plasticity. He is thinking pretty far down the road and what is going in. Like the inclusion of more advanced surfacing tools that for any other software as an add-in would cost more than Plasticity itself. I do think some more advanced functionality may end up being in the studio version only so just keep on eye on the list of features. We will have a 5 part series coming out soon for basic modeling workflows after the current scanning series is done fyi.

That point is under discussion on the beta forum. I think we will see it at some point but not likely in any near future releases.

Before Plasticity was public there were lengthy talks about the license model. I personally don't mind the sub model, but the majority of users wanted to own it. I know a lot of people still complain about the price because things like Blender are free, but its a killer deal for sure compared to everything else out there.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign It is not about the price, it is about its stage. Actually you get only 1 year of free updates, and a year passes very fast in development. The app is great, but still has many things missing, or in a "bad" workflow. With one word: it is still very young. In my opinion the price is not too high, but the time you get updates is too short. There will not be that much updates and progress in a further year, good developing takes it time. I would have bought it too right now, but with only 12 months of free updates it is too expensive to wait for optimizations. So I wait to pay for a "proper" state, money you do not have for developement right now. I am fine with 12 month of support if a more polished version is out, but 1.4 in its actual state is way too early. My opinion. I think a minumum of two years at this stage should be ok, so a user gets some few updates within its supportlifetime.

Designspark Mechanical has had 'dimensioning' for what, 10 years now. The free version is a perfectly good CAD tool to make 3D prints - It uses Parasolid and I think the modelling is absolutely decent enough. It doesn't have G3 blends - but so much of it is very very similar strangely enough to Plasticity. DSM does have a Constraint sketcher or a traditional sketcher and patterns are procedural / persistent. Many hobbyists and makers have given v6 a bad press due to the free version having .stl imports and dxf exports taken away - the ability to break step read-only imports into readable steps was also removed from the free version. Free version is free, Paid versions additionally have Drawings and Data Exchange and importantly now a universal instant object mirroring tools, all available on flexi-monthly subscriptions - full yearly cost, if needed, will be less than Plasticity v2.0 cost. Any hobbyist that creates their own models and just wants to 3D print, DSM Explorer is very good and free - Learn direct very capable CAD for free. Annotation dimensions are smarter in DSM because they can be directly and indirectly used ( referenced) in move and pull operations. Learn Everything About Design is a great channel.

But cam

Yeah there are no shortage of options. I own several CAD programs and have explored many others like Shapr. Rhino etc. I think where the free version of Fusion shines is the ability to do SubD modeling on a mesh body, to make PCB designs, and simple detailed drawings as well as program/control CNC machines(with limitations). That is one reason (as well as the UX) i like Fusion. It isn't perfect but pretty good when you compare what some others cost. FWIW Fusion and Plasticity are both on the same Parasolid Kernel as DSM, Shapr and many other CAD programs. That is a big reason for the price of Plasticity. The indie version is basically paying for the kernel. As Software progresses I think there is going to be a big shift based on what the user is doing. Direct modeling is a great tool (SpaceClaim) and that is how Plasticity works as well as some of the tools in Fusion. One big difference you see is the OS support. Plasticity supports win/mac/linux i do believe. when you look at mac support that greatly limits your choices of CAD/Modeling and if you dive into Linux that restricts it even more.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign i thought DSM used ACIS, not Parasolid, And yeah, Mac Os does not have a lot of options, other CAD software i know it works on Mac is TurboCAD, one of the softwares that is part of market i like to call "AutoCAD indie clones"

@@omegadeepblue1407 DSM v6 is now Parasolid.

Great tip! Using move or rotated is an option but I don't think you could do it with a measurement/dimension input. If all the selections are cylindrical it might work to do it from a reference plane.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign If you want to move say 10mm in x, hit g then select X axis arrow, start moving with mouse in X direction then type in 10. If you want to move in a different direction use v to realign the axis.. If you want to move to an existing point again get it moving in the axis you want then hit control and the specific feature you want to move to. Putting in exact dimensions while extruding or rotating is as easy as described above .. To me it is mildly annoying that you need to hit tab for exact line length or box dimensions. Although this measure function is useful, general feature information was/is always shown at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Select a line and it's length will be displayed there. Select an area and it will show numeric area of feature selected. select a solid will give position centroid etc.

@@colinhare4722 oh yeah 100% agree. I was just saying if you measure it at 214.378mm and need it at 215mm, the dimension tool just hitting 215 would be easier than grabbing everything you need to move and putting in .622mm. For something like this I would stick with a CAD approach generally and not add all the little details until the geometry was right and then G or even Dimension would be so much easier. Like deleting the hole for the fork before the bolt/clamp section is on you could just move a single outside face easily then redo the hole centered on that arc.

Glad I could help! Plasticity has updated to version 24.1.1 (they are using the year now as the first number). Dim/measure are still in there but just a heads up some things may be a bit different. We have a Whats new video as well as some newer content.

Glad to help!

You are welcome!

IF feature works works then yes :) It is hit or miss. But this is built on the Parasolid Kernel so you will be getting good BREP geometry in the process.

I would imagine v 2.0 will have more measure functionality. It wasn't on the list of things originally for Plasticity but Nick has been taking inputs from the Beta crowd and adding things in.

With Plasticity there is no direct dimensioning system like you have with other CAD programs. You can dimension "curves" meaning lines on input but not on a spline curve. About the best you could do is set up some reference lines for where you want control points and snap to them. You can use Measure so there is an onscreen dimension to show you where they are in space. If you need precise input for complex splines Plasticity might not be the right program currently.

Great suggestion! I would love to do it as i ride mx/sm, but it will have to wait. I did a car series with plasticity ru-vid.com/group/PLBDfGh8A8kXXglEZA2MGsn-U8z2pNCPny but the amount of time that takes for those series is tough right now. Both from my available time and also the rate the software changes. I did a concept car body video and then some updates happened to make that workflow a bit better. I do have a website www.learneverythingaboutdesign.com where i sell fusion courses. the plan this year is to get some other software courses there becuase i can swap out videos when the software changes. can't do that on youtube, just need to hide them.

When you search for a tool in Plasticity "F", you can right click on the tool in the list and change the shortcut to whatever you want. That might be the best option. Also keep in mind these tools showed up in version 1.4, but its on a new released 24.1.1 now.

Yeah it all depends on what you do/need to do in CAD. I couldn't leave Fusion and just use Plasticity, but I do design work for clients and need a lot of parametric control. Sometimes the clients require I use Solidworks, sometimes Inventor, and Sometimes Fusion. I don't think Plasticity will ever go to a history based parametric CAD replacement. It is aimed at a different target user, but it might get people who want a perpetual license model and don't need drawings, simulation, PCB design or other things that Fusion offers.

There are no materials/mass properties in Plasticity. But if you select a body in the bottom right it will tell you the volume and you can use the mass of whatever material you want to figure it out.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign UR AMAZING THANK YOU!

Yeah you really want a parametric CAD program. Fusion is great for that using user parameters. If you have a commercial or edu license you can also use configurations. depending on the complexity of the bike frame it can get pretty tricky to ensure the ends rebuilt properly. If you are doing just simple tubes you could try the Pipe tool in fusion along a sketch but the chain stay area might get dicey.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Yes I've pretty much completed a bike on F360 now (and watched lots of your videos) but I dislike how brittle F360 timeline is - upstream changes break refs all the time. I'm sure I'll get better at following the strict rules but its way worse than Solidworks, and having seen some impressive videos on Plasticity I'd hoped maybe that was the solution.

@@s_cycle1921 yeah. certain features are more robust. I break Solidworks all the time too :)

Well Plasticity can't directly work with the mesh yet. You can insert it but not snap anything to it, and it doesn't have freeform modeling like Fusion. It does have pretty good surfacing tools. So if you want to work with mesh data and want to use Freeform modeling you gotta stick with Fusion for sure.

well yes and no. The big difference here is that there is less parametric control. So in Fusion you start with a sketch, you define that (typically) with dimensions, then you build solids or surfaces from that sketch. With plasticity the "curves" just exist. You can control the input with a dimension at creation but for the most part after its created you are doing all direct modeling. So for example say you make a square that is 10mm x 10mm. then you start modeling and adding features like fillets. If you want to go back and change it to 12mm x 12mm, in fusion you would edit the sketch and it would update the shape. In plasticity you would need to offset faces. That has some downstream problems if say you HAD to have a 2mm fillet because now if you offset the entire thing the fillets get larger. It takes a different approach and typically its used for modeling intended for vfx/animation, game assets etc. It can be used for 3d printing as well and we have several videos on that (Mario ? block, 3d printed threads, and some older videos), but your approach to modeling needs to be a bit different.

​@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thanks for the reply. I need precise fillets for CNC carving, but I'm doing smaller and not particularly complex shapes. If I resize and break all fillets or the "CAM-ability" for a given radius end mill, is that easily fixable for simple designs or would I be significantly better off with Fusion 360? (I absolutely hate the SaaS model and would love avoiding it if I can).

@@kay6736 If your end goal is CNC I might suggest a CAM program that has basic CAD in it that doesn't have the SaaS if that is what you are trying to avoid. CAD in a CAM program usually sucks :) I supported Mastercam for years and always preferred to do something like an add-in for Solidworks instead of modeling in the CAM program. There are options out there. I do most of my CAM program. well all of it these days in Fusion but a quick search on some free options out there. mecsoft.com/products/freemill/free-cad-cam-software/ I have no experience with that. They do also have an add-in for Rhino. I am not a fan of the workflow/ui in Rhino but to be fair i haven't tried Rhino 8 yet.

Hi Aleksander, I am not 100% sure as my laptop has a full keyboard on it. but what you can do is hit F on the keyboard to find the dimension command. when it pops up, right click on it and you can assign a new shortcut so you don't have to use = if that is problematic

Odd but thanks for the update! The = is meant to work with the box primitive but for me it works from the rectangle and extruding that. If you use the box primitive or sphere or cylinder does it work any different?

1.4 is the newer way. I think for a rectangle you now hit C for center. when you have the tool active look at the bottom right corner and it will list available shortcuts. This was a big point of confusion sadly :)

Thank you

Everything in Plasticity is "direct" modeling. After you make geometry there is no link back to the curve. If you want to increase the size of a hole you offset its face. So some primitives can be manipulated with the dimensions but only until you add or remove from them.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign It might be something to think about....once you add some dimension, which you positively do not want to change, freeze it and put maybe red mark on it and make it connected to the model in a table(?) of frozen dim's....That is a typical problem with direct modeling, you can screw up the model not even realizing it.

@@jiritichy6855 Thats a cool idea. I know the onscreen measurements are there for a sort of check of that, but freezing geometry would be nice. ill take a look at the Plasticity Discord and bring it up.

hmm, when you search for Dimension is the = key the shortcut you see? With the dimensions on objects it will be dependent on the selection. Does it work with anything at all? Like if you start a new design with a primitive Cylinder or box, do you see those?

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign thx for reply. Some shortcuts work, but far from all. Maybe its because Im on the free version still?

@@Ronh83 that shouldn't be the case. what type of machine are you on? Windows, Mac? pc/laptop?

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign im on a Windows laptop.

@@Ronh83 do you happen to have a desktop to try it on? I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't work for you. Which version are you currently running of plasticity? I am on 1.4.18

Depending on your selection filter, the first selection might be an object and not a face. Dimension (=) works on faces only. You can change to face selection with the number 3 above the keyboard (not numpad) to make sure you are only selecting faces. Select the reference face (where 0 will be), then all faces you want to move. The last face you select will be the one used as a reference dimension away from your first selection. Once all faces are selected press = to activate the dimension tool. From there either hit enter again to move section 2 to n-1 to the measurement of the last face (n). Hope that makes sense.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign that worked for the outer faces but it didn't work for the holes. The thing is that in the video you have all selections active.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign the weird thing is that when I tried to align the holes with the face on the other side it worked. Must still be a bug or glitch.

@@terrykuehne6173 not sure. I know it doesn't work with everything. The first selection needs to be a planar face.

I am doing this in Linux, so I don't know if that's the problem or not. but like I said it does work if I try a different first planar face than the original.@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign

I think i need to redo this video. these dimension and measure tools came out in version 1.4, but now its on version 24.1.1. I honestly don't use these tools in my workflow with Plasticity. I haven't noticed a different behavior in 24.1.1 though.

Yeah I would start here with this video. I just updated content including a UI overview and basics of modeling. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9cgBK8ljH1k.html the video here you just watched was more talking about changes and updates to v1.4.

sorry, it is different for sure. Plasticity is on version 24.1.1 now and things evolved slightly, but I don't think this changed.