[Open] New Ideas for Fusion’s Dialog

[yirang.choe]

Hi All,

The Fusion team wants your feedback as we shape the future of dialogs in Fusion. Help us by sharing your experience and ideas. To participate, please click here: Take the survey.

[mhag33tg2]

I am enjoying the benefits of using parameters in my designs, but very quickly I can see the parameters dialog seems a bit limited, at least to me.   When stuff starts getting really complex I think users will struggle with managing all the variables and formulas.   I also tried to do a dimensionless calculation but could not get that to go.   Perhaps a dimensionless unit could be a good add.   Also i learned the hard way to keep my variable names short and to keep them written in my note book next to me.  I now use shorter variable names and the description field to detail more clearly what the variable is.  I'm not yet sure this is the best way but so far it seems to be.   The Fusion team guys don't suggest that but if that is indeed the way to go maybe they ought to say so in the videos to help users avoid blunders.

[mhag33tg2]

Totally agree with being able to search the browser.  And it would also be great to somehow cause the many fasteners and commercial parts  (from the McMaster Carr feature) to be consolidated into a kind of fasteners directory, yet correctly remain part of an assembly.  I find my browsers gets very cluttered with screws and nuts etc etc.   Also, in addition to being able to sort and search the browser, I would like to move components up and down the list in the browser, rather than have them be in the order in which that came into being in the design and it almost looks like that is doable but when I try to drag components up or down the list I can't seem to get them to move.

[mhag33tg2]

While working on Fusion projects in the last few weeks at times I felt as though some things could be better.  I jotted down my thoughts as I went and will add those things to this forum for your consideration:  

1: 

It would be great to have the ability to toggle the information in the browser to appear and act and be edited more like, (but not necessarily exactly like) an Excel table, showing all or several of the columns of information for each component:  Part No, Part Name, Description, material, mass, Fastener/Commercial part,  The current properties dialog is clunky.

[mhag33tg2]

I love the McMaster Components feature, but currently when you load a McMaster Carr component it only loads the their part number to the Part name and the Part Number property fields in the browser -  and that is what you see in the browser.  I don’t know about others but I can’t remember what is a “90128A337” unless I look it up in the McMaster Carr website and I have not got time for that.   This part number information is not helpful in the browser.  I would be more helpful if the McMaster Part number goes into the part number field but in the Part Name field, a more generic description gets automatically loaded; for example:  “Screw Socket Hd M8 x 1.25x 15mm Long, Zinc-Plated Alloy Steel DIN 912”    Also DIN and ISO codes should upload if available.   Currently I manually edit the part Name after I load a part so what I see in the browser helps me remember what it is.

If and when these "Part names" get created so they can load into Fusion, they should strictly follow a “Latin like” naming protocol where the first word is only ever the noun and where adjectives follow with the most significant adjectives coming first.  So for example; “SCREW Socket Hd, M8 x 20lg, 8.8 ZP.      What we don’t want to see in the browser is a part Name like this:  “Zinc-Plated Alloy Steel Socket Head Screw M8 x 1.25 mm Thread, 15 mm Long”  which is what is currently in the McMaster Carr database.  All you will see is Zinc Plated….

Furthermore it would be great to have the ability to create a way of consolidating fasteners, particularly repeated fasteners in the browser to de-clutter the browser in the UI.  Yet the components still need to remain in their proper assemblies.  A work around, and not a good one, could be to create an other assembly for each major assembly called "fasteners", where all the fasteners get put into.  But then this will create a new material etc and effect BOM’s….

[mhag33tg2]

Constraint diagnosis:   Create the ability to toggle on/off a tool, found perhaps in the inspect menu, where you can hover over a line to highlight and show in a more intuitive way what it is constrained to.   I find the constraint icon’s do not help as much as I would like with it still being quite difficult to work out how a drawing fails to be fully constrained.   My usual diagnosis method (so far) is to click on and drag a white dot on a line to see what happens.  This works, but it’s a bit clunky.  But most importantly when fusion slows down with very complex sketches this method becomes unworkable.

[mhag33tg2]

I have learned the hard way that it is so important to make sure sketches are being drawn while the correct component is activated.  Too many times I have created a sketch for a component that ended up on another component or other plane.   And if I go too far, or delete that component then it’s very hard to repair.   This is a personal training and discipline thing, but errors still happen.  It would be a big help if you could please make it much more obvious which component is active.   While sketching this would save many silly mistakes.   For example, for the active component in the browser perhaps;  increase font size compared to all else in the browser? shade a brighter colour? Blink? Do a zooming kind of visual cue.

[mhag33tg2]

When you expand or contract a component in the browser the whole browser list moves significantly and you lose visual contact of where you are in the browser list and you have to scroll up or down to get back to search for where you wanted to be.   It would be great to make it so that the component you clicked on (to expand or collapse or whatever) stays put where it was when it was last clicked, so unmoved relative to the mouse position.   Ideally if you just clicked again without moving the mouse you would either reselect the same component or reverse the action you just did.

[jean-michel_legoff]

Hello,

I'm not sure if it is the right topic, but in matter of UI, I should appreciate to get something to inspect references in a sketch.(either in sketch editing mode) or externaly (in the browser's tree)
when references are missing or lost there is sometimes a tool to help relinking refs, but sometimes not.

Or sometimes it could be useful only for checking.

[jean-michel_legoff]

Hi,

I don't know if this topic is more about data management than UI bbut it could be valuable to define a default project/folder for saving files.

It looks like by default Fusion save your new files in the first pinned project. but there is no option to sort those pin projects so it's quite easy to make mistakes.

On the other hand it could also be valuable to pin "Folder" inside "Projects" in order to make navigation easier.

Thanks

[kandennti]

Please forgive me if this is not directly about the UI.

I would like to add a way to open the f3d file that will become f3z when exporting.

I've been looking at the Japanese forums and I've seen situations where the file can't be opened. I don't know the cause.

In many cases, there are f3d files left in the local cache folder, and it would be best if I could open them, but I cannot open f3d files that have linked components.

"You can't do that, give up!" is too pitiful to say, so we created and released an add-in to extract and import shape data only.

https://github.com/kantoku-code/Fusion360_Rescue_F3D 

However, since only the shape data can be imported, a lot of information will be lost.

I would really like to see the addition of a feature/local tool that would allow for the separation of links when opening a file.

[rob.blanch]

Please can we get more than 4 open design tabs!!! Without having them moved into a dropdown list which is not immediately visible. There is no reason to artificially limit to 4 tabs - at least let the users decide in settings? With enough tabs the names will get cropped, but that's no big deal, again it should be the users choice. Much more frustrating is not being able to see everything I have open.

[lemelman]

I would really like to see the 2D Drawing UI improved. When entering text
in leader notes or straight text it should remember the settings from the
previous use. It's really annoying, and a waste of my time, to have to set
the text size and format every time. If I attempt to set defaults before
actually typing text, they revert when I start typing. When I've finished I
have to select the text I've entered and *then *set the size and format.
Why isn't there a way to set defaults?

[dave360]

Parametric Design:

More organisational ability in the "Parameters" window:

Being able to change the order of them by click and drag or some means, or possibly being able to group, give the group a name, and collapse that group within the user parameters list. It is frustrating when I set up a bunch of parameters for several features but forget one parameter on a certain feature until later on, then when I want to add that parameter in, it ends up at the bottom of the list and not near other parameters for the same feature. Then when I come back to the design after some time has past, say in a meeting after someone has suggested a change, and I say I can do that there and then, I struggle to find that parameter, or if the design requires a lot of parameters they get lost very quickly and it slows me down. (My workflow is that I try to set up as many parameters/expressions when I start a design before starting any drawings).

In the picture below I would at least like the ability to move the parameter highlighted in blue near the top of the list, next to "bottomOD":

Dark Mode:

It would make the whole interface match much better with the dark environments, which is important to me when I am showing clients designs; I always have to switch the environment back to a lighter one as it looks like there has been some graphics glitch with the light UI against the darker environments and doesn't look very professional.

[FrodoLoggins]

DARK MODE. I'm often working at night.

[birdpump]

A feature I would love is to include Prusa Slicer in the 3D print export tool. 

[TrippyLighting]

Folks, this thread isn't your general idea dump!!!

It is aimed particularly at UI improvements.

Please keep you post on topic!!!

[yirang.choe]

Thanks to everyone who has shared the feedback and comments. Also, I appreciate your participation in the survey. This Forum was created to gather feedback specifically on:

• your current dialog experience
• how you think about new approaches to dialog interactions (ideas can be found in the survey)

Aside from what I described above, I noticed that many of you shared interesting ideas in this thread, but as Peter mentioned, I believe this may not be the best place to resolve the issues besides the topics related to the survey. For a greater impact, I would recommend resharing your thread in other relevant Forums such as Fusion 360 Design, Validate & Document, or Fusion 360 Support.

[yirang.choe]

Thank you for letting me know! I will fix the language

[mattwnugent]

The grid is a foundational UI component. We currently have Adaptive and Fixed options for grid spacing. But for grid extents, we only have what is essentially Adaptive. 

It would be fantastic to also have an option for Fixed grid extents. We could then set max and min manually for X, Y, and Z independently.

Some Benefits

• matching the grid to manufacturing equipment volume
• not having to constantly zoom in and out while designing slender objects (like a boom handle) to see the reference numbers on the "thin" axis
• capturing standardized screen shots that include the reference numbers to cross-compare designs with as little "empty" grid as possible (sometimes the adaptive grid extents are set needlessly large)

[Prophet_Barnes]

In my opinion, including a feature like live editing inside a tool/feature can bring a good amount of convenience. Live editing like one can create or edit geometry while being inside a feature (I was a CATIA user before this and felt this feature in it quite convenient. Just had to right click on the respective selection windows and there we go with many options being displayed).

Although, I don't know if this point counts for UI, there is a good scope of upgradation for the construction tools. At present I feel there is a lack in the tools provided for construction. Again taking a reference, CATIA provides a tool by the name Extremum point which comes in my use a lot. And why only axis, why not lines? Not including construction tools for lines really makes one go through many indirect steps which could simply be avoided.

Also, there are instances where it feels 3D sketching with Fusion can improve. Like while inside a sketch, if we change the plane of sketch, wouldn't it be a better option to stay in the recent plane? That way we can easily define the sketch we make in that plane. Otherwise, currently when we stop using or switch from a tool while using 3D sketch, the working plane changes to the original plane of the sketch. This often leaves the sketch features undefined.

These were my thoughts on potential improvements. I love the minimalistic nature of Fusion 360, its interface and what Fusion offers.