Joint

The Joint tool lets you position components relative to one another, then define the relative motion between them.

Use this tool when the components are not yet positioned relative to each other in an assembly.

You place the joint origin in relation to each component to define the joint position.
Then you select the joint type to define the relative motion.
The joint motion previews once in the canvas.

The Joint tool typically moves the first component you select to the second component. If necessary, Fusion relaxes existing relationships or grounded component status to allow the first component to move.

Tip: It is difficult to animate joints between components if neither component is connected to anything. If you ground one component to lock it in place, the joint motion becomes more predictable.

Selection order

The order in which you select components determines the positive direction for joint movement. The first component you select, Component 1, rotates around or moves along an axis in the direction of the degrees of freedom arrow , relative to Component 2.

For example, if you create a Revolute joint, set to rotate 30.0 deg around the Z Axis, Component 1 will rotate 30 degrees around the Z Axis in the direction that the degrees of freedom arrow points.

Another way to think about this is if you have a door slider lock, the slider should be selected first and the component attached to the door second.

Joints may still move correctly if you select components in the wrong order, but you may need to set negative Joint Alignment values to achieve the motion you expect.

Visibility

In the Browser > Relationships folder > Joints folder, show or hide individual joints to toggle their visibility in the canvas.

In the Navigation bar at the bottom of the canvas, click Display Settings > Object Visibility > Joints to toggle visibility of joint glyphs in the active design without overriding individual joint visibility settings in the Browser.

To set default visibility for joints in new designs, in the upper right corner open Preferences, then navigate to Design > Assemblies. Locate the Default Joints Object Visibility setting and select a default:

Visible: Turns on Joints Object Visibility and shows the joints in the canvas.
Hidden - Turns off Joints Object Visibility and hides the joints in the canvas.

Note: This only affects new designs and existing designs will maintain their current visibility status.