While F360 is lacking proper part configuration management and configuration/design tables, I found a way around to achieve similar results and avoid copying same file with different parameters. I call it parametric configurations, or in-place configurations and it works pretty well, except it quickly becomes unmanageable. First, what I do. I create, say, a parametric part model. Taking rod as example, it has 3 parameters: length, diameter, and chamfer size. So I enter 3 user parameters in the Parameters window, like this: Then I save this model with default parameters. Whenever I want this part to be used in another model I insert it in the design, break the link (it's necessary, otherwise it's not possible to change parameters), and adjust settings of the rod as I want. One of interesting features is that it's possible to replace, say, Length parameter with some other parameter, which already exists in the model, and which will become a driver for the Length of the Rod. For example, it can be offset value of a joint, so the Rod will adjust its length depending on how far joint components are from each other, like shown below: With this setup the Rod length will be automatically adjusted depending on the joint offset you specify in the model, like shown below: You can add as many rods as you like from that very same file and configure them individually and independently of each other: It's all great and very powerful (you can design your part once and configure in many different ways in the same or many other designs), except for for a few things, and a number of limitations to be called a proper configuration management. The most limiting one is this: As you can see, every Rod adds its set of parameters directly on the top level of user parameters. Even three components, three parameters each makes it pretty clashed. Imagine a dozen of parts driven by 7-12 parameters..Yet another problem I noticed, when you delete component you previously inserted and conlgured, its parmeters remain in the list of user parameters. As you can see it can quickly become a mess, especially that it's hard to tell, after a number of insertions and deletions, which parameter belongs to which exact part in your design. I can think of a few things to improve parameters management (which can also be used in configuration management (coming soon as far as I understand)): Have parameters not in the parameters pop-up window, but available and accessible from the browser or toolbar (similar to how you access other tools, like extrude, having extrusion parameters on a side window). That way you can easily configure any component right in place. Do not restrict editing parameters if the component is linked. This means, after linking the component, its own parameters, stored in the original file, should become its default ones, and a copy should be created for the model it was inserted into, so it could be possible to edit parameters without the need to break the link. In case the original component is updated in its original file, after updating the model it was inserted into, the remaining parameters should retain their configured preoperties as in the model, and new parameters should take their default values from the original file. Obviously, to develop it further into proper configuration management, the original part needs a way to store design variants, e.g. in one variant the Rod might have a hole, and in another it might have flat sides. Considering the way things are modelled in F360 I can think of a branched timeline feature. Currently it's flat from left to right. However, if you add a feature to create branches on the timeline you can easily enable configurations, naturally based upon native design paradigm of F360. In that case parameters can be also tied to the timeline and its branches, thus forming concrete sub-set of parameters for different variants of design, which can then be selected by the user while inserting that model into another design. Just by selecting ends of branches you therefore can quickly choose part configuration.
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