topic Re: Import one design into another in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Import one design into another

kennymillar — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 13:53:00 GMT

I have a Fusion 360 Project with 2 designs in it.

One design contains all the walls of a house, the other contains the roof, and I want to put them together.

So I wish to import everything from one design into the other, but I just cannot figure out how to do that?

Re: Import one design into another

kennymillar — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:35:28 GMT

OK I figured out how to do this.

It's simple:

Open the first design, select everything by simply dragging the mouse over all the bits you wish to copy, then press CTRL+C (Or Edit Menu / Copy)

Then go to the second design, select the place in the browser where you wish to paste the design and press CTRL+V or Edit Menu / Paste.

ONLY KIDDING! This is autodesk we are talking about, nothing could be allowed to be that simple!

You need to first Export your first design, I cannot remember how to do that, it's complicated and slow. The you need to download your export. Not sure how to do that either, again it's complicated and slow.

The then open the new design, select 'Assemble' and then 'Insert' (Which in the documentation is called 'place' for some reason)

Now browse for the file you exported and voila! It get's placed into a random place in your design.

Re: Import one design into another

innovatenate — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 17:05:45 GMT

Thanks for the feedback, it looks like the help documentation needs updating. I believe in a previous version, the "Insert" command was named "Place" instead. I apologize for the confusion. The help doesn't really explain this, but the the Assemble > Insert command searches your dashboard only (all of the files in the cloud). It doesn't search for files from the local hard drive. If a design stored in the dashboard (in any project) needs inserted into another design in Fusion 360, use the Insert command from the Assemble drop down menu. This will bring up a retrieve model dialogue box. Type in the name of the design that you would like to insert in the "Filter" field and Fusion 360 will list the files it finds that contain the text.

Once you find the design, highlight it in the Retrieve Model dialog box and select OK. This will place another design into your current design with the component selected and the Move command initiated so that you may orient the freshly place model in the design. Please note that once inserted, this is a "copy" of the previous design. There are no references or links to the original design. Any modifications to the "inserted" design will not propagate to the original design work space.

Let me know if this helps or if you have any questions regarding this feature.

Thanks,

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 09:54:52 GMT

Thanks for the help and for not ranting about my sarcasm in the earlier post 🙂

I still don't see why we can't have a modern copy/paste option like most other software.

Re: Import one design into another

donsmac — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 13:10:20 GMT

Hi Ken,

You can do what you want by pasting while in 'create base feature' mode.

See this thread:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Get-Help-with-Fusion-360/No-more-copy-components-between-designs/m-p/4904608/highlight/true#M5058

Re: Import one design into another

robduarte — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 19:57:43 GMT

The Assemble | Insert menu option doesn't seem to exist anymore.

Re: Import one design into another

sachlene.singh — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 17:09:10 GMT

@robduarte

That is correct.The option now lives in the Data Panel.

A simple way to do the same thing is, in the Data Panel, right click on the design you want to insert and choose 'Insert into Current Design'.

Needless to say, that design to which you want to insert, should be open at the time.

I hope this helps,

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 10:40:14 GMT

Hi,

I understand this "insert into current design" but I wonder if it exist a similar workflow as in Inventor when you "derive" components/sketches/axes/etc selecting only what you need.

Re: Import one design into another

ahsan.autodesk — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 10:48:15 GMT

Hi there,

Selective Insert doesn't exist yet in Fusion. If you feel a strong need for it, can you please submit it on the IdeaStation - http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideastation-request-a-feature-or/idb-p/125?

Thx
Ahsan

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:22:07 GMT

I laughed out loud at this.

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 21:05:10 GMT

This solution not only worked for me, but I have to admit that it is easier than cutting and pasting. Thanks!!

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 07:59:02 GMT

Nice to have such an elaborate forum to answer questions about fusion360, pitty that I need it so much, relieved to see I am not the only one having difficulties with seemingly simple tasks.

I have a design with a rather big assembly in it, it was imported from Solid Works, now I want to make a new design and make that around just one part of that assembly. (I have a design form a big construction and I want to use a foot from that one and use it for a completely new construction) Selection filter is on components, I select the component that I want, then try to past in the new empty design: nothing. Searched this forum found that I need to do that after "create base feature" so I do that: nothing. Then I read there is an assembly>insert command: can't find it only to read later that that command is indeed no longer used in current version, then there is a reply mentioning I can get a design from the data panel and select "insert into current design" But I don't have a single design of that component in the data panel: it is a part of a big assembly.

What I have now as an option is to take the big assembly, make a copy, rename that copy to the component name I want, delete everything from the assembly around that component. then I will have a design made up out of just one component which I can insert into a new design.

What happened to cmdC cmdV?

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 17:25:31 GMT

Thank you!

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 23:11:35 GMT

haha - your post made me laugh

what a pain in the ass this is!!

Re: Import one design into another

jakefowler — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 22:55:45 GMT

A lot has changed in Fusion since this thread started up, so just an update on how to do this:

You can actually copy a component between designs, but the access point isn’t super-obvious at the mo. After copying the component from the original design, switch over to the target design, right-click and select Paste New:

The Ctrl/Cmd-C Ctrl/Cmd-V hotkeys still aren’t working unfortunately: the underlying reason is due to the fact that we have two ‘modes’ of paste: ‘Paste’ and ‘Paste New’. ‘Paste’ is designed to create a linked instance of the selected component, while ‘Paste New’ will create an unlinked copy of it. Ctrl/Cmd-V is mapped to ‘Paste’, but this only makes sense where you’re pasting into the same design. Pasting into a new design only permits Paste New, but this doesn’t have a shortcut key mapped today. We’ll look into whether we can improve that logic and make the Ctrl/Cmd-V hotkey more context-aware.

Note that this this kind of copy-paste just copies the geometry contained within the component, and doesn’t stay ‘linked’ to the original design. Inserting from the Data Panel allows you to create a linked instance of an entire Fusion design, but not selected objects from within a design. If you need to structure a model with this kind of ‘linked insert’ workflow, the best approach is to split the assembly up into separate designs that represent the shared components, and insert those from the Data Panel. The concept of selectively inserting objects is being actively researched, and could be something we implement in future.

Hope this helps,

Jake

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:24:02 GMT

I think I've done my update for my fusion360 last week.

I still can't find the paste new option.

@jakefowlerwrote:
A lot has changed in Fusion since this thread started up, so just an update on how to do this:

You can actually copy a component between designs, but the access point isn’t super-obvious at the mo. After copying the component from the original design, switch over to the target design, right-click and select Paste New:

The Ctrl/Cmd-C Ctrl/Cmd-V hotkeys still aren’t working unfortunately: the underlying reason is due to the fact that we have two ‘modes’ of paste: ‘Paste’ and ‘Paste New’. ‘Paste’ is designed to create a linked instance of the selected component, while ‘Paste New’ will create an unlinked copy of it. Ctrl/Cmd-V is mapped to ‘Paste’, but this only makes sense where you’re pasting into the same design. Pasting into a new design only permits Paste New, but this doesn’t have a shortcut key mapped today. We’ll look into whether we can improve that logic and make the Ctrl/Cmd-V hotkey more context-aware.

Note that this this kind of copy-paste just copies the geometry contained within the component, and doesn’t stay ‘linked’ to the original design. Inserting from the Data Panel allows you to create a linked instance of an entire Fusion design, but not selected objects from within a design. If you need to structure a model with this kind of ‘linked insert’ workflow, the best approach is to split the assembly up into separate designs that represent the shared components, and insert those from the Data Panel. The concept of selectively inserting objects is being actively researched, and could be something we implement in future.

Hope this helps,
Jake

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 16:16:55 GMT

When I left click on the file in the Data Panel it does not give me an option for this. Is there any way else that I can do this?

Re: Import one design into another

HughesTooling — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 16:20:03 GMT

Is the file a Fusion design or an imported design. If it's imported is there an option to convert to a Fusion design?

Mark

Re: Import one design into another

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 16:27:26 GMT

It is not an imported design, it is another design that I am working on in
Fusion 360...

Re: Import one design into another

HughesTooling — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 16:33:06 GMT

I noticed above you said left click is that a typo, it should be right click. Have you tried just dragging it from the data panel into your open design.

Mark