Components moving when saving a copy

[Oceanconcepts]

I’m adjusting the position of some components on a PCB in a file I got as a STEP from a Pro-E user. I moved the things I needed to in Fusion, and saved the entire Circuit board component with subcomponents as a copy so I could share a link for just that part and get the file back to the originator. When I look at my “saved as" copy, or the linked file in A360 (which fortunately I checked first) the components I moved have jumped off the PCB entirely and lost their position and X-Y-Z alignment, all by different amounts. This was done in direct modeling.

Any Ideas about what is going on?

[mike.tessier]

Thanks for posting!

Unfortunately, I am not too sure exactly what would cause this behavior.

Is the movement of the components reproducible (i.e. can you start from the design where the components have not been moved, and take certain steps to cause this same, undesired behavior every time)? If so, could you record an Autodesk Screencast detailing your workflow up until the undesired result and post it in your response?

Does this behavior occur with only this design, or does it affect all of your designs? If it only affects this one design, could you share a public link to the design?

I look forward to hearing back from you!

[Oceanconcepts]

Hi Mike,

This is reproducible, but only with this one file, I have not see this before.

I don’t think a screencast would add anything, the steps are:
1) RMB on the component in the browser.
2) Select the Save Copy As option.

When I open the copy from the browser, some of the sub-components have shifted position, but only ones that I had used the Move Component command on since importing the STEP file.

I can’t share a public link here, but if you email or message me I can send it to you or others at Autodesk, or invite you to the project.

[mike.tessier · Accepted solution]

Hi @Oceanconcepts,

I received your design through the private message and I am also able to reproduce this behavior! I have also fixed the issue!

Because you were using direct modeling, it is very difficult to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but my best guess is that somehow the components reference was lost. I was able to correct this by moving the component an arbitrary distance away from its current position and OK'ing the move. Then I moved the component the same exact distance back to its original position.

After doing this, I saved a copy of the component, and upon opening the copy, all of the sub-components are in their desired position!

Could you try moving the component from its position then moving it back to see if that fixes the problem?

I look forward to hearing back from you! Hope this helps!

[Oceanconcepts]

I was able to look at this today. The workaround does solve the issue for those parts, but it’s kind of a whack-a-mole situation. I was sent a revised PCB file when some mounting holes changed position, I brought it in and positioned it in exactly the same spot as the original, and moved the wandering parts out and back as you suggested. Those components preserved their position in the new “save a copy as” file, but all the others have now jumped to new positions. These are components that did not move before, and some newly imported components where I need to bring in larger parts to populate the PCB and check spacing. Nobody stayed in the same place.

The workaround seems to be to 1) move the component to a new position; and 2) move it back to exactly the original position. Just importing a component and moving it to position does not preserve the relationship, and apparently importing new components can send other components off into space when you save a copy. The newly imported PCB kept the same relationship to the origin in the saved as file, but other components lost their moorings. 

This is not something I have encountered in Fusion previously, and doesn’t seem like desirable behavior, to put it mildly. In this instance the problem is obvious, but I can certainly envision situations where the migrating components wouldn’t be spotted in time to avoid problems. Is this a bug, or is there something specific I’m doing that is creating this? The workflow of going back and forth with other CAD systems has to be pretty common, and for a file at this stage, where I'm just moving components around a history free file to arrive at solutions for fit, history based modeling doesn’t seem to make much sense.

[smithweyer]

Well, I just happen to be having the same issue.. I think it has something to do with constraints but I cant seem to fix the issue with your trick. really frustrating. Anyone have any ideas? Its still an issue 3 years later aparently..

[smithweyer]

Oh and it does it when you copy the component in question.. even if it has rigid constraints.. 

[TrippyLighting]

@smithweyer please create a new thread and share your model in that thread.

[chrisplyler]

I strongly suspect that you have accidentally moved BODIES instead of COMPONENTS.

When you move a body, it is moved "inside of" its component, relative to its component origin.

[smithweyer]

forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-support/components-moving-when-saving-a-copy-or-moving/td-p/900522...

made a thread it's here.