How to improve the feature formally known as place (now: insert)

[Helmi74]

Hey,

"place" like it was known until 1.8.604 or "insert" how it is called now is one great feature of fusion360 i regullary use. Though i would love to see some small improvements on this feature.

1. i'd love to see a representation of my data structure in the window. The search form is great but really looks a bit beta. Apart from the difference to the rest of the Fusion360 UI (like many other features that differ UI design wise) it says "searching..." before i type anything and stops searching after a few seconds without finding anything. Well of course it can't find anything as it is only supposed to show search results. It would be great to see the folders and files like i see them on the data tab in my hub - this would make things easier to import if i don't know how i named the drawing or even a part of it.
2. Well more 1b) than 2) ... i'd like to be able to import components from other drawings instead of the whole drawing. I see this could be more complicated to realise but it would allow me to have a set of similar stuff inside one Drawing as different components (which would have other advantages in many cases as you could easily share geometry between similar parts) but only import one of them. Of course this should be optional because sometimes you want to insert the whole bunch of components at once. Selecting a top node in the browser of the target file and importing everything that is under that node would be a great solution i think.
3. When inserting anything don't just insert it at the origin of the document but make it easier for me to find or move it. In my more complex drawings when i'm zoomed in to one part of the drawing and insert one of my components to use it there... let's say a screw i have to zoom all out or use the home view function to move that part over to where i need it and zoom in again. There should be an option to place it from the mouse pointer like you do when you reorient the move-command.

I wanted to test things a bit more to see if i remember everything correct but right now the insert function doesn't work at all - it just doesn't find anything 😞 (Saturday, 11:46 UTC)

[big_red_frog]

For point 2, I am using the design folders to put "common" inserted parts in one place. However, as the search function is blind to heirachy this doesnt do anything for me, apart from my sense of tidy!

For point 3, the workflow I use, is any part I have decided to use as a common insert, I place a relevant joint origin ( or two ) in the design. On insert, I just accept it is going to some unknown origin, and then via browser, I select the joint origin and manipulate it into my point of interest. There may be a good workflow there, if the insert / move option also supported a default joint placement.

[deyop]

You have raised good points.  I wanted to make sure you were aware that you can copy/paste from one open document to another as a strategy for moving components or bodies.

Thanks

[Helmi74]

@deyop yes i am aware of that but that would even make it more complicated (search and open the document, locate the component, copy/paste. Of course it's possible that way but when it comes to optimizing i think the way i described above would be much smoother.