Beginner Component Question

[Anonymous]

I have been working on creating bodies and components. So far I am not quite sure what the difference is. I have two files, One is a guitar body, the other is a bridge. I would like to make a file including both so I can make some positioning measurements. I can not seem to copy and paste one body into another file.

[daniel_lyall]

Silly question have you read trippys post on rule 1

A component is a total of all parts that go with a body, sketch, work plane what ever inside a component. What can be reused many times as long as there are no external dependencies it's also what joins and drawings require to work as advertised.

A body is just that a body a lump of something. 

If something is only going to be used once and never touched again it can just be a body or a dead model and forgotten about.

If you wont to use that body again in other models or in assemblies make it a component it save a lot of problems down the road when you want to use it elsewhere. I made that mistake again the other day now I have a model to do from scratch again 

For your Guitars Components all the way.

[laughingcreek]

There are lots of advantages to using components.  many are listed in Rule#1.

In the case of the bridge, I would draw your attention to the Exception to rule 1 item 3.  In this case, the entire design is treated as a component, you wouldn't actually make a separate one (assuming you created the bridge in a design by itself).  You can just drag the file for the bridge from the data panel and drop it into your design.

[jeff_strater]

I would also recommend:  Bodies and Components in the Fusion help site.  It gives a pretty good introduction.  Basically, it comes down to what you want to do with these "pieces" of geometry.  If they are building blocks to use to eventually create a singly piece of material, I'd use a body.  However, if you want to be able to create multiple instances of this thing, and have it contain sketches, work geometry, canvases, etc, then a Component is better.  Definitely, if you expect to use Joints, you must have a Component.