Inventor to Fusion with link

[gbowen]

Has anybody actually managed to link an Inventor assembly to Fusion?

I know the theory but I've never got it to work.

Does anyone have any real life experience of it working?

[Phil.E]

Hi,

Yes I do this every day. 

Here is an older article about it. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/learn-explore/caas/simplecontent/content/anycad-wo...

Here is the help article about it.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-FC614FD3-EFA5-4523-B00C-C63B216D39F0https://k...

Please let me know if those links don't answer your questions, especially the second (newer) one because it should show you every step required.

Thanks,

[gbowen]

Thanks for the reply Phil.

I've now imported into F360, however there doesn't appear to be any link between F360 and Inventor or a way to even update the files.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Phil.E]

Hi,

I realized I posted the wrong link. Sorry for wasting your time with that.

I've corrected my post above, and the link is here:

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-FC614FD3-EFA5-4523-B00C-C63B216D39F0

This is the help page with step by step instructions.

Thanks!

[ScottPreston7657]

Thanks again, Phil.

That does work, but there is no link created between the model and F360. Here is the current process:

Get the model from Vault

Copy the model into Desktop Connector (my model contains assembly's)

Open model in F360

There is no link to the model because using Desktop Connector is just a workaround for F360 not being able to handle assembly files; it doesn't link back. If a model is updated F360 does not see it; I have to manually replace it in Desktop Connector.

EDIT: Sorry for the confusion, I am the original OP but have 2 x Autodesk accounts.

[Phil.E]

Hi,

That sounds like as-designed behavior. Fusion is only synced with the designs in the Desktop Connector folder. Not Vault. So if you edit copies of those designs and save them outside of the Desktop Connector folder, you would need to manually  replace the designs that Fusion knows about inside the Desktop Connector folder. Have you tried editing the design files while they reside in Desktop Connector folder?

Please let me know what you find.

I'm curious why you say this:

"Desktop Connector is just a workaround for F360 not being able to handle assembly files"

Can you explain what that means to you?

Thanks,

[DarthBane55]

Resurrecting an old post here...

We are trying to use Fusion more and more, as the development is going fast and it improved a lot lately.  But our main CAD software is Inventor.  We have a lot of data (years and years worth) in Inventor, so we will try to avoid re-creating all that in Fusion. 

AnyCAD to the rescue?  I tried it, but it seems only good for single users that work on their home computer.  We have 7 users sharing files stored on a server.  The desktop connector can only link to a specific drive that it creates (Fusion drive) on the local computer of each user, it seems, so if I drop my files from the server to the Fusion drive on my local computer, that works fine... but...  I can't do that, and assume most if not all companies have the same issue.  Companies store files on servers, not on each employee's machines.  

So if I do that anyway, drop files from server to the Fusion drive on local machine, the link is alive with Fusion.  But it is useless because when a file gets changed, it gets changed on the server.  I need a link from Fusion to the server files, otherwise the move to Fusion will be an incredibly time wasting endeavor and we won't do it I fear, which is too bad because we are a machine shop and the CAM functions of Fusion are now above Inventor, and the gap will keep growing.  

To add a layer to this... we use Vault basic.  I know this is a big additional problem, but I've heard that Vault Pro would link to Fusion, could someone confirm this please?

To sum it all up, anyCAD is not meant for companies, correct?  If it is, then how do I link the files from the server to the desktop connector?

Thanks for the help!