Editable parameters in a derived design

[Anonymous]

Hello,

The derive feature is awesome but not being able to adjust parameters, or declare specific parameters to be editable, is a real shame. 

I frequently have components which i need to duplicate several times, where the only differences between the derived instances are the values of a few parameters (like nominal width, height etc). It seems to me that there are countless examples of where being able to create a base design, and then several linked versions with adjusted parameters, would be enormously beneficial.

Any chance of this ever happening? 

I've been thinking about this a great deal and it doesn't strike me as being particularly difficult to implement. I don't even think it would be too difficult to write a python addon to simulate this behaviour, though having it out of the box would make me very very happy.

[etcFEE9G]

I'm searching at least once a week to see if someone found a way to do just that.

[Anonymous]

Me too! I started outlining what i thought the process might look like if i was going to attempt making an addon for it but there's obviously no point wasting time trying to build something if there's a chance of it being included off the shelf...

It seems to me that it would also open fusion to customers for whom it might not have been appropriate otherwise. when I worked in kitchen manufacturing I experimented with using fusion for the design & manufacturing process there, but most of the time we were working with dimensional variations on standard units, and the only way to achieve this was to break the linked components and change their nominal sizes. This actually worked really well initially, until you wanted to go back and change the base cabinet design (funnily enough!) In the end they went with cabinet vision and I resigned as a result. Disappointing as fusion seemed so close to being the perfect package for a company like that, and a hell of a lot cheaper than CV.

[Anonymous]

" the only way to achieve this was to break the linked components and change their nominal sizes. This actually worked really well initially, until you wanted to go back and change the base cabinet design (funnily enough!)"

This is exactly my problem.  I have to make a multitude of different fixtures where there are are several parameters that need to be changed into all kinds of slightly different configurations.  This is no problem at all until some change needs to be made to the base design and I have to go back into 40 different files and make that change over and over again.  Oh, and hoping that I don't miss any changes in the process.  The base changes usually need to be made across the board.  Maybe I am misunderstanding some feature that would make this unnecessary.

I may be wrong but it seems the "link" between files is 2 way so Fusion has to keep the derived files parameters from being editable.  Otherwise, if you changed a parameter in the derived file, the original file that you didn't intend to change WOULD and therefore all the other files that referenced the original would be changed unintentionally also.  I think if the link could be directional, then maybe this could work better.  What I mean is if I make a base design then derive that design into another, any changes made to the derived versions parameters will not affect the base design.   Changes to the base design would continue to function the same as it currently does and update the derived versions.  Although, now that I think about it, if a parameter in the derived version was changed then I think the one way link would have to recognize that and no longer update that particular parameter when changes were made to the base design.  It may be too complicated to implement.