topic Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color) in Fusion Support Forum

Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

to3dornottobe — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 21:44:52 GMT

I am using Fusion for producing cabinets, i've been using appearances to give faces of panels a certain color to indicate where what edgeband needs to go. Mostly using a distinctive color to obviously show where the edgeband needs to go, The body itself is white, 3d walnut or whatever type of appearance is assigned to the model. Every now and then the face appearance isn't showing Powder Coat (Red), i say showing, since it DOES have a Powder Coat (Red) assigned to it; let me explain; if i go into the appearance, select face, and assign Powder Coat (Red) again, it doesn't change. It stays walnut or whatever appearance the body has.

If i switch the color of that face to Powder Coat (Blue) and then to Powder Coat (Red) it changes accordingly (from blue to red in this situation), so it's an indication for me the body thinks it's showing Powder Coat (Red) while in fact it doesn't. It shows the color of the body.

But this trick doesn't solve it. Today i had a model that changed back to walnut again, after the blue/red trickery. I have noticed this a bunch of times in a bunch of models.

And sometimes you save a file, open it a day later to find out some of the appearances on edges have changed into this dodgy state of instability.

So long story short, the appearances assigned to faces is unstable. I've been noticing this since the last half year or so. It's unpredictable and unreliable.

It doesn't matter if it's on body level or on component level, all situations are affected.

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

TheCADWhisperer — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 21:55:48 GMT

@to3dornottobe

Can you File>Export a *.f3d file that exhibits this behavior to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

to3dornottobe — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 05:58:53 GMT

The drawers behind the doors now have this particular issue

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

to3dornottobe — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 22:06:13 GMT

Attached file.

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

jeff_strater — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 23:54:09 GMT

Thanks for the model. Can you point to which faces here that are showing the wrong appearance? (I made the doors invisible):

A couple of tricks to use:

1. If you select a face and right click, and if the context menu item appears that says "Remove Appearance Override", then you know that that face has an appearance override applied:

2. In the appearance command, if you click on an appearance, and right click, and choose "Select Objects Applied To", it will do just that:

Here is what I get if I do that for "Powder Coat (Red)":

I didn't see any that looked obviously wrong, but I admit I did not look all that hard.

Any input you can provide will be helpful

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

to3dornottobe — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 06:00:09 GMT

The edges on the drawers behind the doors have assigned, but invisible, red faces to the outside contour

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

to3dornottobe — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 09:14:44 GMT

I notice that when i select 'select objects applied to' it doesn't show the drawers. But i can't add that appearance to the edges of these drawers (it stays walnut), so my hypothesis that the edges had the color added while not visible is not holding up. But i'm still unable to add that red color, unless i first add blue and then the red, in that case it changes from walnut to blue to red. But red has been assigned and it seemed to become corrupted.

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

jeff_strater — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 17:01:57 GMT

I looked a bit at the drawer front components (the "Lades" components). There is definitely something odd with those components and face colors. I am not yet sure what the issue might be. I probably won't get to it today, but I'll try to look at it later this week. My only theory so far is that the component I looked at started with a copy/pasted body. Nothing wrong with that, but it is the only thing I can think of that might be different from other components I've seen.

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

jeff_strater — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 17:19:46 GMT

Taking a fresh look at this, I realize now what the issue is. I suppose I knew this at some point, but I've forgotten it: Using the "solid wood" appearances does not allow face overrides. See the video for a simple case. So, the possible solutions would be: use "regular" wood for the drawer fronts, and then override the side faces, or create a thin dummy body for the side faces, or probably a few other options.

(view in My Videos)

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

to3dornottobe — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 17:36:48 GMT

You can't assign 3d wood to a face, but you can add an appearance to a body with a 3d wood appearance. Try adding blue, like i described and then add red. That's working just fine. There is some corruption going on. And like i said in the initial post, it also applies to bodies with a solid color added.

Re: Issue with appearances added to faces (Fusion thinks the color is assigned, but doesn't show the right color)

jeff_strater — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 16:29:20 GMT

Sorry, you are correct. I was misled by that dialog that comes up.

The next thing I tried was to do a Compute All. That did reveal something - when I did that, I noticed that all the 3D walnut appearances disappeared, and it was left with just a gray color on the drawers. I tried re-applying the wood appearance to the body, but it had no effect. Then, I noticed that if I selected the drawer front face and right clicked, it did show "Remove Appearance Override" as an option, which is a clue that there is a face color applied to that face. If I remove that override, the walnut comes back, and the red edges are still there. So, somewhere along the way, it looks like a face color was applied to lots of faces in the model. Further investigation seems to point to the color "Cashmere". I'm not sure why, when you open the design, the 3D Walnut is shown - face color is supposed to have a higher priority than body/component color. I also found that, if I open the design again, and delete the Cashmere color, the drawer fronts look correct - 3D Walnut with red edges. Unfortunately, it changes lots of other colors that I assume that you don't want to be changed.

Managing appearance in Fusion can be challenging. At one time, someone developed an "appearance debugger" add-in that helped to explain what appearances and physical materials were applied to the model, but I don't think it works anymore. A good, working tool like that would be very valuable, IMO.

(view in My Videos)