topic Re: Components - When to Use? Effect on Timeline? in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

topic Re: Components - When to Use? Effect on Timeline? in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-design-validate-document/components-when-to-use-effect-on-timeline/m-p/5553601#M299983 <BLOCKQUOTE><HR />@Anonymous wrote: I am new to Fusion 360 as of December.  I come from Solidworks and would consider myself a Solidworks expert.  Like many others I am struggling with "getting it" coming into Fusion 360.  Until this weekend I was importing Solidworks files into Fusion 360 and just using Fusions CAM.  Of course during that time I would expose myself little by little to Fusion 360 modeling.  This weekend I had a small fixture to design so I committed myself to Fusion 360 and, with a little help, completed my first "real" Fusion 360 assembly.  I am starting to get the Joints (verses mates) concept, and I am also starting to get the Components concept.  With that I'll go to my question/situation. Now that I have completed my assembly I look at my timeline and it is a confusing mess.  I built everything as bodies all the way to the ends and then converted the bodies to components to start jointing (is that the right word) everything.  So, my timeline is one long timeine addressing all three components.  This long timeline is horrible to work with. If I understand correctly I could have done things differently.  Assuming I am making an assembly, would it make sense for me to have created an empty component immediately upon starting the file?  This way everything I do is captured within that component, and that component would have its own timeline?  Then, when it was time for the second part, I would create another empty component.  I could then move back and forth between components, activating them as appropriate when making changes?  Then, If I wanted to make assembly (top) level changes I could do so by activating the root?  These top level changes would be, for example, if I wanted to make a hole through multiple components.  Does this seem like the appropriate workflow? Assuming my "vision" above is correct, I would question why it is not default for Fusion to start in an empty component.  I also wonder if this is only overly confusing/convoluted due to Fusion being imagined with distributed design in mind, yet developed without that functionality. I hope I can finally say I am starting to get this.  Once I get past this curve, I feel I can be productive enough to commit to Fusion 360 for everything.<HR /></BLOCKQUOTE>   Coming from Solidworks myself; I would say if you intend to use design history it would be better to create your components first and then model inside of them.  It does mean a little extra work in switching context all the time, but it will keep your timeline more organized.  Many people don't use design history at all, so for them it wouldn't be useful to start inside of a component.  And even Solidworks doesn't start you off in a part when you create a new assembly.  C| Mon, 23 Mar 2015 17:55:03 GMT kb9ydn 2015-03-23T17:55:03Z