Break Link Between Copied and Pasted Components

[Anonymous]

I have copied and pasted a component. When I make changes to one of the components it makes the same changes automatically to the other. In a previous thread I saw something about pasting new or making independent, but I cannot find those command in the Fusion 360 version that I am using (startup licience). Any other suggestions?

[carl.j.barker]

Copy - paste new, the big gear you want to edit. REMOVE not DELETE the original, Edit the gear to put a handle on.

or

Make the handle as a new component and joint it to the gear.

Could these options work?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help @carl.j.barker 
I already moved on using the second way you suggested. But I think it's a temporary solution. I will try the "Paste New" option next time or if I forget then I will go with the first way you suggested, I think the "Remove" command is a better way to do it.

But still, I'm hoping somebody to come up with an actual way to Unlink copied components.

[etfrench]

@Anonymous  Copy creates a clone while Copy/Paste New creates an independent copy.  The second method by @carl.j.barker of creating a separate component for the handle would be the best way to do this in the future.  In addition, it would be better to use joints to position all of your 3d models instead of using Align or Move.  Joints are parametric, so when the underlying models are changed, the joint is updated.  The Move and Align commands are not updated.  In addition every Move and Align command from the start of the file has to be recomputed every time a change is made in the file.  This can slow Fusion 360 down significantly.

[engineer1984]

For me it's frustrating because I'll want all the components to be linked for Bill of Material purposes, but then I'll get a good amount into the dwg and realize I need to do something unique to one of the components or more.  My immediate response is, "no problem, there must be an easy way to just unlink these things"

And here we are.  It's just another step in "thinking ahead" that I have to make before I actually know what the final design is going to look like.  

If I go with Paste->New from here on out, my BOM will be screwy because I'll have multiple PN's (or multipe Balloons, at the least) for literally the same part if I don't end up needing any unique modifications.  It doesn't look very professional to have a BOM Table that keeps calling out Qty 1 for the same PN 5 times.  (Then again, the 2D drawings and BOM tables on this software aren't super pro looking anyway... but another topic for another day)

The solution isn't to force the user to either select Paste->New or Paste.  The solution is to give the user the option to link and unlink components for both modeling reasons and BOM reasons.  Having not fixed this in 5 years makes me believe there is some core problem with making a solution...

Anyway, I'm starting to make enough money that I'm crossing my fingers it won't be long until I / my company gets Solidworks.  Sorry to be a Debby Downer...  I am starting to enjoy this software more and more.  Does Solidworks have the same issue?  I'll have to check it out.... Maybe it's completely different.

Does this issue come up when the user decides not to use the timeline?

Cheers,

[ewachtel7DLKU]

I found that copying bodies inside of the component instead of the component itself does not create a link so you could potentially create a copy of the gear, put a handle on it, and then put it in place of the existing one.

[jim7485]

I came across this thread after struggling with the same issue. Copy & pasted bodies were sometimes linked. If I moved one, the other would move too. Quite by accident, I discovered that if you right click on the name of one of the linked bodies in the browser, the option 'Make Independent' is shown near the top of the pop-up list. Clicking it breaks the link between the two bodies so that they can be moved independent of one another. 

[jhackney1972]

Copying and Pasting Bodies are never linked.  Copying and Pasting Components are linked.  What you found "Make Independent" is only available if you are in Direct Modeling mode, in other words you have turned off your Capture Design History (timeline) which often is not a good thing.

[friedl.basson]

Hi - 

Just in case anybody else has this problem, the "BREAK LINK" function now is available when you right click on the component.  Refer to image attached.

Hope it helps someone.

Regards, Friedl.

[davebYYPCU]

You are off topic with this suggestion,

Break Link is only available for Linked Components showing the Chain Link Icon as per your pic, to / from external documents, and not internal components that this thread is about.

Might help....

[brianreese2]

yea its 2021, and i gotta admit  the only reason i use fusion 360 is because my university makes us;   i use solidowrks at home for 3d printing stuff          this free teaser has done nothing but show me how usless this company is     this is like,  anti marketing   

[jhackney1972]

Don,

It is possible to break the link between a copied and pasted component.  It is not a simple command but a process which is outlined in this Screencast.  The video was made for another individual via private message but the information is the same.

[hawesw1985]

This is one of the most basic necessities possible. Somebody fix it.

[jhackney1972]

You will not have this issue if you use Copy/Paste New.  If you did not, there is a workaround video in message 31 of this forum post.

[nigel76FS8]

100% this. I'm doing locks. So there are, say, 6 pin stacks with 6 springs, 6 chambers, 6 key pins, 6 driver pins, and some of those require slight changes. The level of frustration that one tweak to any one of them, anywhere on the timeline retroactively affects all the others back up the timeline, but only sometimes, is insane. Frustration levels have reached 9000, as the kids say. The other day, one small tweak took about a day, just to make a slight change to one pin, and instead I ended up redrawing them all. Thank god for being able to drive them using individual parameters, and that I realised the "alignment" tool/command would do what the joints just wouldn't.

And I'm paying for this service!

[TrippyLighting]

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@Anonymous wrote:

...

Any new user will think his copy-pasted components are individual.
...

---

A new user to what CAD in general or 3D modeling or just Fusion 360 ?

Instancing in any CAD software I know creates an instance, a pointe to the one and original data source.

Even when I was new to Fusion 360 I never thought that copy/paste would create an independent copy.

It would indeed be nice if we could create an independent copy from an instance. I consider that core functionality.

You could use "remove" to remove that instance from your design and copy-paste/new another one that you then could modify independently.

Or, after removing the component, you could create another empty component and copy-paste the body from the original component into that new component and then you can modify that component

It would probably wise to start a new thread and explain your need. Otherwise we cannot provide help.

[hawesw1985]

Some day, the right programmer will get his hands on these comments and
implement a simple fix for it.

Until then, there's always pencil and paper, lathes and vices and drill
presses.

Some part of technology seems compelled to force us back into the technical
dark ages. That faction is the enemy. 😉

[Anonymous]

It seems that in 2021, paste new doesn't keep the component's links. Is this a bug??

[g-andresen]

Hi,

"Paste New" is what I use when I don't want to have a link to the parent instance.

günther

[TrippyLighting]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It seems that in 2021, paste new doesn't keep the component's links. Is this a bug??

---

copy/paste creates a component instance ( a linked copy so to speak).

copy/paste-new creates a new, independent component with no ties to the original component.

That's always been the case!

[Anonymous]

My bad, I meant doesn't copy the joints