Delete old versions of a design

[rpagewood]

since the most recent update I have a design with old versions that are referencing (linked) a part that is now redundant. The most recent version of the design doesn't use the linked part. I am not able to delete the part for the project because it is still referenced in old version of the design.

What can I do? It's really annoying having the redundent part sitting there when it's not necessary.

[NicolasXu]

Hi rpagewood,

Thanks for asking. It’s a current limitation that we cannot delete a part which was inserted. I have forwarded your case to the development team for how to improve it.

Meanwhile, because such parts can be moved to other folders inside the same project, you may create a “Recycle Bin” folder under the same project and move the part to that folder. I know it’s not a perfect solution but hope it can make the file list clean. 🙂

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Yeah, this is a surprising problem to have. I know it's just an aesthetic issue, but it's really annoying. And it seems like Fusion360 has a lot of these "limitations" for things that should be no-brainers. Salesmen keep telling me that Fusion360 isn't a "lite" CAD, but things like this make me really doubt that. 

[NicolasXu]

Hi Brainchild_Engineering,

Thanks for your feedback to Fusion 360 and welcome to the community!

The reason why we need to keep the referenced design even though the latest version of the top-level design is no longer referring to it is because we may promote older versions of the design to be the current version, so then the referenced design would again be needed. I have forwarded your feedback to the development team and see how we can improve it.

Best Regards,

[ThomasAEI]

I agree with the original post. It looks like a year has passed since the post - is there a workaround for this yet?

[PhilProcarioJr]

@ThomasAEI

There is a work around but it comes at a price. You can do a file save as and give it a new name which will not carry over all the old revisions thus allowing you to remove the old references.

The price is you will lose all previous revisions. You will however keep all history and parametrics in the new file for the current design. After you save as the new file the old one with all links and revisions can be deleted.

[ningman]

Is this issue fixed yet?  If so, how do you delete old versions and formerly used components that you no longer plan to use?

[Anonymous]

So is this issue going to be addressed?  A final design should be cleaned up and pointing to the latest versions.  Having multiple copies of unused version is just poor project management practices.

[Anonymous]

I really appreciate the automatic version control. However, it can cause wasted time more than it solves problems.

Case 1

I often toggle visibility to see what state something is in. I would then get prompted to save before closing and I would do it. Now, when I need to go back and find something in an older version, it takes me a very long time to find the version needed. If I could delete these "no change" saves, I could better find what I need.

Case 2

You cannot edit/create the description after the save. Because of this I have to keep a separate document of notes about what the flaws of old versions were. I should be able to update the description.

[Anonymous]

So will there ever be a point were you can delete versions at a point and back? IE. I'm on version 18 of a design, I know i'm never going to go back past version 5, so I would like to kill version 5 back (v5, v4, v3, v2, and v1 can all go). This would allow me to delete referenced files that would never be used again. Just a thought. 

[Anonymous]

Please let us clean old versions never to be used again. I have files that i cannot delete due to this, and cleaning it manually will destroy all the work I´ve done after the version linking the file I want to delete. 

Even more difficult if the file using the linked old file I want to delete is used in another file, it is practically impossible to work around too. 

Give me control over MY files - even though they are in "the cloud" please. 

[autodesk66T9S]

This is completely ridiculous.
There is no question about this. We want to delete and that is our right. We pay for this ****.

Autodesk you must add the ability to delete past designs and therefore old stale references.

Meanwhile, our design browsers are just landfills.

[jhackney1972]

Take a look at the Blog Article and Video and give it a try.

[owens.ca16]

Didn't work for me. The archive is deleted but the "Erase Me" folder still exists in Fusion 360 with all of the files that still can not be deleted.

[jhackney1972]

Did you refresh your Data Panel in Fusion 360 after the Archived Folder was deleted?  Can you open any of the files showing in the folder?

[owens.ca16]

When I created the archive the original folder still existed and I was able to open the files even after the archive was deleted. Yes I refreshed the panel and even restarted Fusion 360.

I just tried this again and it worked ok. This time when I created the archive the original folder was removed.

[hagoh]

Maaaan So thanks 😄
I spend hour to find file when it;s used. It was in previous version of other file i found using versions history with time data. I was so frustrated when i realised I can't delete previous version. You saved me, thanks again

[nmitsovski]

I have the same problem, it`s not fixed