Alright, here’s a step by step way to do it. This works for any part in general, not just placing the insert in a gear or wheel.
Fig. 1:
Insert is horribly malaligned.
Fig. 2:
After highlighting your part, hit the button I mentioned in the previous post. Click on the face you want to align, and hit the green check mark on the right.
Fig. 3:
Now, drag the part a bit towards your desired direction to tell fusion 360 which way you’re going.
Click the face you want to move it to. The image above shows that fusion automatically moved it to match your selected face with the face you clicked.
NOTE: You may need to do the previous steps twice to get the insert fully aligned as it might be off on the x and y axis.
Fig. 4:
Highlight the part again, and set the pivot on the face again. This time, you set the pivot on the face that’s facing towards the gear. This is the final step where we put the insert into the gear.
Fig. 5:
Hit the green checkmark, and move the part slightly towards the gear. After you finish all of that, click the face again. Boom! You have a perfectly placed insert.
Once you’re done moving it, you can highlight both parts and right click. Find rigid join to join them together.
As for your question with aligning the teeth on the gears, you have to just rotate the gears to match the teeth up correctly. They do not match by default.
Summary:
The pivot method to align parts face-to-face is a way to put the insert into gear perfectly. Even though it looks like a lot of steps, it only takes a few seconds with someone that’s used to it. Also, don’t forget to rigid join your insert to your gear so it moves with it when it gets animated. Hope you found this useful. 