Parametric consistency between Designs

[jaccostuitje]

Fusion 360 describes itself as a Parametric Modeling Environment. 

If so, then why doesn't Fusion have the ability to make 1 set of User Parameters which are kept consistent between the designs that make use of them?

There is only one way to edit User Parameters, and it is not very well made. 
People have made plugins allowing to import and export parameters, and in this way one can use the same parameters in two different designs. 

If you edit one or more of the parameters in one design the changes are not propagated however to other designs using them - and this just does not feel right to me. 

I like to split my projects in different designs - a guitar neck, a guitar body, a pickguard and a bridge, all in one project, and of course driven by the same set of parameters. I could make 1 big design with all of the above, but I really hate long Timelines.
If one parameter is changed in 1 design and I forget to update the other sets as well - the neck doesn't fit the guitarbody anymore or worse...

And yes, this has already happened to me. It was not nice to have to discard two fine pieces of tonewood, believe you me.

Why doesn't Fusion have the ability to make 1 set of User Parameters which are kept consistent between the designs that make use of them?

And, if you're at it, please make a better Parameter Edit Function. 

Thank you for considering!
All the best, 
Jacco

[DLWinegardner]

I absolutely agree! As a furniture designer / cabinetmaker I am constantly running into this same problem, it would save a boatload of time, not to mention frustration, if we could establish a parameter set, or maybe sets, that could be applied to a line of products; then, have the ability to apply the changes to all designs that share that set(s).

[dmorris750]

I agree completely!!  This has been the BIGGEST headache/drawback to using Fusion 360 for me!!! (No Nesting for Routers being the second, but I digress...).  If I have a lock that gets put into a door, and the manufacturer changes the dies and the striker distance is now slightly different, I have no way of updating that across multiple designs other than using Sheeter.  You can create the lock as a component in one file and add it to the door in a second file, and everything works okay.  It is when you have to then take the door/Lock component to a 3rd level where you have multiple doors with different sizes that things become unworkable.  You have to break the link just to change the size, and then Fusion is no longer Parametric(Which is one of it's most referenced selling points!?) Seems like a HUGE logistical/Workflow oversight!!

[hpekristiansen]

Maybe it could be implemented, so that a parameter list when saved in a folder was available in all documents in that folder, and sub folders.

For a given project one could create a global parameter list for the whole project, and parameter lists in folders containing sub projects. Finally the design itself can have parameters just as now. For parameters with the same name, the most local should be used, -so that one can overwrite a global parameter at any level.

[jaccostuitje]

That would certainly be a worthy system of distributing parameters across designs, but it would need a complete different view and focus on how parameters are created and edited.
I would love to hear something of a respond from the developers’ team about these ideas.