Adding notes/annotations into the model

[lure23]

( I didn't find anything with "annotation" on the forums - has this not been suggested yet? )

I finished a model but would like to mark some "to do" items next to it, to remember what could be further developed next time I return to it.

Currently, there doesn't seem to be any way to add such textual remarks? I believe it should be very handy - I use it with i.e. PDFs all the time.

I hope this is coming in at some stage. How do other CAD systems implement it?

[Oceanconcepts]

Asko,

This thread:  

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Everything-Else-General/Are-any-of-you-interested-in-3D-Annotations-PM...

Ron

[schneik-adsk]

One thing you could try... You can turn on the design feed and add comments. We had tested "tasks" as part of the design feed but it was not stable enough for release.

[lure23]

Ron, thanks for the link. I did think of that thread when posting (but thought this idea was different - maybe it's not). I'll re-read it now.

Kevin, thanks for the suggestion but..: 

I considered the feeds. There's an important difference between the role of feeds and the role of notes/annotation within the model itself.

The first is akin to "commit messages" in software version control. They describe the changes made, and work as a communication tool (to others, or to oneself, if checking aged versions).

The notes within the model are like comments in source code. They need to live close to the 'code', and be changed as the code changes. A 'TBD' (to be done) comment is one category of such. 'Potential optimization' is another. 'Bug' is a third. All these categories make sense with regard to CAD models just as they do with software source code. And they definately shouldn't be in the commit messages, where they would get lost and forgotten, and there is no clear connection to what they referred to in the first place (within that particular design version).

Ideally, there'd be an editable text field within the model editor, tied to a certain element by a line. Just as in text editors that allow annotations (s.a. Word, Pages etc.)

p.s. it's unfortunate signatures don't show on the IdeaStation side - why? Had to pick up Kevin's name elsewhere.

[lure23]

A wild idea:

Since Fusion 360 already has a nice wiki integration, why not utilize it for the notes-within-model feature.

Here's a mock-up on how it would look:

The page would be a link to a 'live' wiki page. It can be edited either from within this edit view (probably would open the wiki editor in another tab) or normally from the wiki itself.

This may or may not work. There'd be two items (model and wiki page) both separately version controlled. Should the page being shown in the model always be the latest one? The whole idea for having notes "within" the model was to have something which remains tied to the model's state and versioning (like source code comments are tied to the code).

Anyways, even if the notes would be "internal" to a model, the full wiki expressibility (fonts, colors, embedding pictures and even video) could be available.

It does look good - doesn't it!

[Anonymous]

I also think that annotating the sketches (and/or bodies and components maybe) would be a good improvement.  With all the possibilities of using constraings and parameters, it becomes necessary to explain the way a drawing was designed (intents) and how to tweak it without breaking the design.

With this, it would be nice if we could turn on/off annotation visibility while designing.

[Scoox]

Yep, this would be very handy. I also do circuit design and annotation is an important feature.

[h.verouden]

Yes this would be a very good feature. Implement it simply in the tree with the possibility to show / hide them like we do with scetches/bodies. I imagine 3 parameters, origin of the point (p1) and than a line to a textballoon (origin balloon parameters, p2) whitch we can place where we like and the text in the balloon (p3).

[atherisinnovations]

How hard could it be to have a notepad associated with each workspace? Or, at least, a global 'Notes' toggle button in the toolbar (like the 'inspect' toggle)? And it would be great to be able to output or export the notes with the current save version tagged somehow.

Some annotation is typically needed with EVERY design, especially designs in development with multiple people involved.. I guess comments could cover some of this but in my experience it has been woefully inadequate..

[scottgpearse]

This issue has been open since the initial release, and it's a no-brainer 😞

[wilsonbrett85]

I would like to see something like this. It would be nice to see what sort of hardware I had specified for certain holes without needing to edit the hole parameters.

[Anonymous]

This would be a good improvement, especially if work on a project is for any reason happening in bursts, with down periods in between.

Extra nice would be to be able to take screen grabs, and "grease pencil" over them as one type of note.