topic Re: Electronic library lost models in Fusion Electronics Forum

Electronic library lost models

cyberreefguru — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 01:51:59 GMT

Ok, so I've been struggling with library management within Fusion Electronics for two years now. It seems every time I figure things out, something changes. But I digress.

A few months ago I finally got a good number of 3D models associated with my footprints after many, many relentless hours of twiddling with them. Chaffed by the experience, I stopped and refocused on other tasks.

At some point in the intervening months, I was having issues with library.io, so I broke the link and continued editing without any issues. In fact, though the library workflow is still far more complicated than it needs to be IMHO, it works if the library is local.

A few days ago, in a moment of mindless brilliance, I decided to "relink" my libraries with library.io. I honestly don't know what I was thinking but within minutes I regretted the decision.

Aside from having to save my library twice - once "locally" before upload, and then once after "upload" thereby doubling my version count for no reason, seemingly randomly half my 3D models were no longer associated with my footprints. They are still in my data panel, but in library "content manager" the models were missing (see pictures). I tried "Attaching a copy of an existing 3D model", but of course, Fusion refuses to recognize *any* of the models it had created previously and I meticulously edited to meet my needs.

So, I'm making a plea -- is there an *easy* way to "re-associate" my models with the foot print. I don't mean "create a new 3D model" and "insert" the old model into the new model -- thanks not re-associating -- that's starting over. Example, can I export the 3D model from Fusion and upload it to library.io manually? Will that relink them?

In summary - three things at play here - one gripe, two defects:

1 - [GRIPE] I should be able to associate ANY model with a foot print - I don't know why we are restricted to these "special" models that Fusion creates in Electronics and only in electronics.

2 - [DEFECT] There simply is no reasonable reason why Fusion does not recognize the model **it created** and **associated** with the footprint as a valid 3D model -- NONE.

3 - [DEFECT] Why did Fusion lose some of my models when I relinked to library.io and not all or better yet, none?

This has happened to a number of my libraries that I recently re-linked, but I am not able to reliably reproduce it ATM. I will continue trying to reproduce when I have a spare moment, but honestly, it takes so long to get models in and uploaded (which is **so** slow), I don't know that I will ever find a reproducible workflow.

For now, I just need my full 3D model to complete my enclosure and move on with this project. Platform details below:

Mac Studio

Apple M2 Ultra

128GB RAM

2TB SSD, 33% used

MacOS Sonoma 14.5

Fusion 2.0.19440 arm64 [Native]
Active Plan: Subscription
macOS 14.5 (23F79) on Mac14,14

Studio Display

Logitech 3 button Bluetooth Mouse

Capricorn

AB-

Long walks on the beach

I'm logged to library.io AND fusion as the same user and using the same "team".

Anything else I forgot? 🙂

-Tom

Re: Electronic library lost models

jorge_garcia — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 20:33:55 GMT

Hello @cyberreefguru,

I hope you're doing well. I spoke to our library team. They are very interested in seeing the library in it's current state and prior to re-linking. Here's the process to export the library.

1) Open the Electronics library

2) Go File > Export > Autodesk Fusion Archive format

I'll send you a DM with my email. Please send me the current version of your library exactly as it is now.

In addition to the above. You can recover the library by reverting to your previous version before you linked it back to library.io. That's probably the easiest way to do it. You can do this from the data panel when you see a library you can click on the it's version number and it will expand to show you all of the versions. Open the last version of the library without the issue. You can then save as latest. This will get you back up and running.

Please export the restored library as well. Being able to compare will help use figure out what's going wrong.

The developers have asked me to re-assure you that we are aware of how difficult these workflows are and we are working on improving them.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: Electronic library lost models

cyberreefguru — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 21:45:26 GMT

Thanks Jorge --

I don't know why I didn't think to roll back to a previous version.

I spent 3 or 4 hours last night fixing some of the problems so I'll what's left or if another library is a better example. I will reach out directly.

Many thanks.

-Tom

Re: Electronic library lost models

Taylor.Chris — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 23:03:53 GMT

Hi @cyberreefguru ,
We are trying to get to the bottom of how this happened because we understand how frustrating this situation was, and how frustrating it would be to any users that may hit it in the future.

I may ask more questions as we continue to discuss internally, but the first thing to rule out would be a possible newer version of the library coming in from EAGLE. Are you aware if it is possible that you (or someone with access) could have pushed a new version to this managed library? (From EAGLE or from the library.io website?) If a new version of the managed library was made, then you re-linked the Fusion library to the library.io library, it might have seen the library.io packages as the "newer" of the two and removed the Fusion links. That is our first theory, but there also could be some bug deep in there. Our first goal is to make sure you have everything you need to continue working, our second is to figure out how to recreate this so we can assure it won't happen again.
Thanks,
Chris

Re: Electronic library lost models

cyberreefguru — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 21:52:48 GMT

Hi Chris - it's just me, so no one else could have overwritten my library. I'll break down what happened over time:

1 - converted my old Eagle libraries to new Fusion libraries (not library.io) about a 3 years ago.
2 - converted my primary library to be "managed" around the same time.
3 - about a year ago, I dissected my main library into smaller focused libraries - passives, connectors, mechanical, etc. Some components had models, but most did not (I couldn't figure out how to "attach" model to a component).
4 - In the process of breaking the libraries up, I changed some of the component names - that completely dorked up the design I was working on because none of the changes to the components were being moved to the design. This is probably where things when south.
5 - attempted to fix the designs by adding all the "new" components in, but I was getting confused between the library.io library, the library in the data panel, and my old local copy on my HD. I had components from all three in the design and it was maddening.
6 - Eventually I got the design to use components from the data panel library, and then started having issues syncing that to library.io. So I broke the link.
7 - Operated this way for a few months without any problems. And I continued to break apart libraries, refine the footprints, and create a ton of models for all the parts.
8 - Some time a few months ago I was forced to convert my Fusion account to "team" account to get access to features I paid for but didn't work with the old 'individual' account -- very annoying
9 - Somewhere along the line, created a new "folder" in library.io for all the new libraries.
10 - I relinked libraries and saved them into my new folder to make a 'clean break' from the old stuff
11 - Shortly thereafter (like within an hour), I noticed some of my models were missing from the libraries.

Fundamentally, having a "local" Fusion copy (in the data panel) and a web copy in library.io with DIFFERENT version numbers caught me off guard and may have contributed to some of my issues around steps 4-6. Especially because in the design library manager, the two libraries show up as completely different libraries with no indication they are linked. I just assumed the lower version library was old and there was some sync issue so I never selected it in the library manager. Now that I understand the versioning, I still don't know why I would choose the library.io version over my "local" version since any changes locally would not get moved to library.io until I push. I usually make many changes locally before I push - no different than source code management. Except when I save my source code it doesn't bump a local version number like Fusion does.

Look - I get Fusion is in process of migrating from Eagle to the new Fusion way, but if there is a clear and streamlined end state for library management I'm simply not seeing it. Having two copies of the same thing with different version numbers is dumb. Having both of them show up in the library manager separately is dumb. Being forced to have 100 different model files lying around in my data panel is dumb. And frankly, having 3 or 4 design files lying around for a SINGLE design is also dumb (the project file, the schematic, the PCB, and the PCB model). Just do it the way Fusion aways does - hide the details - I don't have a separate file for my sketches, my CAM, and render - hide all the details from the user even if there are separate files in cloud land. And while I'm at it, having the drawing file be separate from the rest of the design is also dumb - again, hide the details.

Sorry for the rant, but I've always loved the simplicity of Fusion and I've always hated the way Eagle managed libraries (I've been using Eagle for over 15 years BTW).

Let me know how I can help ferret out what went wrong.

Thanks

-Tom

Re: Electronic library lost models

Taylor.Chris — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 18:05:33 GMT

Hi @cyberreefguru ,

Firstly, thank you, we really appreciate the detailed information here and it helped us to replicate the issue. We have figured out how to replicate the issue and are investigating a solution. Due to our package limitations this is a workflow-blocking issue, and we are treating it as such. I am very sorry that syncing with library.io damaged your data. I understand the frustration and confusion around managed libraries, I do want to let you know that we spent a lot of time over the past year coming up with a plan for how to simplify all of it, we recognize the challenges. This project is ongoing, and, in the future, the "Fusion" type libraries will be the only type of library, you won't have to keep track of different types and different versions. Library.io will still be available as a tool for users who need to keep libraries in sync across different teams, but unless you have that need, you are safe just working with Fusion libraries and not syncing personal libraries with library.io. Sorry again, thank you for your patience, I will reach out again when we have the issue resolved.

Thanks,
Chris

Re: Electronic library lost models

panpan_fan — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 09:14:22 GMT

Hi @cyberreefguru

I hope you are doing well!

Today we release Fusion V2.0.20256 and this issue should be fixed.

Please upgrade Fusion and have a try, thanks a lot!

Regards,

Panpan Fan

Re: Electronic library lost models

cyberreefguru — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 21:06:13 GMT

Thanks @panpan_fan - I will check it out!

-Tom