This is a little late, but configurations in Fusion have been great! When I came to my current workplace that uses Fusion one of the key features I missed from Inventor was the configurable iParts. We have a few projects that could have really benefited from configurations before they were added. It's great to see a feature I will be using lots!
After having used configurations in two small/medium-sized projects (1-4 main configured parts with ~20-30 adjustable user parameters + ~50 small external parts, many of which are duplicates) there's one thing that has come up in each project that required a workaround over what could have been a direct solution.
In each project I have three patterns that make up a larger pattern (different spacings and quantities between each of the individual patterns) which reference one sketch and set of extrusions through a surface on the part. This part surface has 3 depth and 4 length variants, so I have configured the pattern to fit each size. The issue I've run into is that one of the depths requires the pattern to be slightly offset to remain consistent across the parts (the depth on this part is larger in difference between the other two where the pattern is referenced from the centerpoint of the face). The one solution I have done is seemingly easy enough, add a suppression feature to the configuration, suppress the original sketch/extrusions/pattern on the third depth variant, and add a new sketch/extrusions/pattern with the offset that is suppressed on the first two depth variants.
This ultimately works, but it slightly defeats the purpose of having the sketch configured. As there is no dimension to the reference on the first two (because they are centered on the face) but there is an added offset dimension for the third one I can't just use that dimension as a configured parameter. I first thought to modify the reference point to the sketch by dimensioning from the top/bottom edge of the face and making that a configured dimension, but there are other features in the part that cause that edge reference in the sketch to be lost in some variants.
My suggestion/request, if it is possible, would be to have a "break link" feature in a configured file similar to how you can insert a part into an assembly and break the link to the original. Essentially, the ability to "break" a feature (sketch/extrusion/pattern/etc.) in the configuration you have activated. The thought behind this is that I could "break" the sketch for the third depth where an offset is necessary, make the adjustment to the sketch, and then still use the extrusion/pattern features which are configured across the parts on the adjusted sketch. Or have both the base and offset references in the same sketch, and "break" the extrusion so that I can select one set of profiles instead of the other, and keep the configured pattern.
If something like this is possible that I've been oblivious to, or there is a more direct solution someone more intelligent has thought of please provide feedback, I'm very open to it. If this request is too far-fetched then I'll continue to use the method I have thus far. Thanks for all the work you folks pour into Fusion!
