Disappearing (invisible) component in Modeling

[Anonymous]

I have a pretty complex model I'm working on, including gears, about 18 bearings, several housings, etc. I have hit a pretty bad problem in that the first component I modeled has become invisible, as if its opacity was set to 0 or if it was hidden, even though its opacity is set to 100% and it is definitely not hidden. If you select it, the geometry appears translucent blue as normal, but that's the only way to see it. The same issue occurs in the other views too (rendering, animation, etc.).

Help would be gratefully appreciated.

For any Autodesk folks, the drawing is in ARADS/Trochoidal Gear in my account -- ping me if you need me to give you a direct link.

Thank you in advance,

Sarah Thompson

[chengyun.yang]

Hi, 

Can you please give me a direct link or invite me to your project if that is appropriate? I can help take a look at it. My email address is: chengyun.yang@autodesk.com

Thanks

Chengyun

Fusion Development Team

[TOwens777]

I had been having a similar problem in the CAM environment.  I haven't seen it in a week or so but it ususally occurs after I make any component (other that the root component) active and then try to go back and activate the root componet again. The visible bulb (as well as any parent componets) will be off showing the objects is not visble but I can still see a blue silhouette of that sub-component. Sometimes turning the visiblity on and off a few times will work but usually not.  The only consisten fix I have found is to exit the application and restart.  This so far has worked.

[Anonymous]

Ack. My own stupid fault -- somehow the body inside the component got turned off without me noticing, and I never thought to check. A good learning opportunity ... 😕

Sarah

[Anonymous]

OK, so this is a little weirder than it first seemed. Somehow it seems that bodies within components can get turned off accidentally whilst double-clicking objects and hiding them using the V shortcut key. I've not been able to repeat the behavior, but it definitely happens.

Suggestion: as well as having a top-level option on the right click menu to turn on all components, can we please have an option to also turn on all components *and* bodies? Otherwise it's necesary to go through every component in turn checking to see whether the bodies are turned on.

Thanks!

Sarah

[Anonymous]

I'm also not able to see components. Unlike Sarah, all of the invisible components are set to be visible.

[Anonymous]

Did you try popping open the component and making sure the body or bodies were turned on too? That's where I was going wrong. -- [s]

[Anonymous]

Yes, I did verify that every item was set to be visible. Thanks for checking.

[Anonymous]

Closing the file, waiting a couple of minutes to see that A360 had an updated file, and reopening in Fusion 360 made the component visible again.

[jeff_strater]

This is a good thread.  There are a few basic fundamental behaviors in Fusion that are interesting to understand that relate to this topic:

1. object visibility in Fusion operates on a "valve" model.  Think of each light bulb icon as a water valve in a pipe network.  If you turn off the light bulb at a component level, then everything owned by that component will be invisible (just like shutting off the water main to your house - it doesn't matter whether any faucets in the house are turned on, no water will come out).  This model propagates all the way down the hierarchy tree.  So, if the "Bodies" folder is off, then all bodies under it will be invisible, regardless of the state of the individual body lightbulbs.  Another way to say this is:  For any object to be actually drawn, the entire chain to the design root must be visible.
2. The "V" shortcut is just another way of toggling the visibility of whatever is selected.  So, if you have two bodies selected, and one component, and all are currently visible, and you type "V", all will be marked invisible (that is, their light bulbs will be switched to off).  But, also, this is a toggle.  So, if you have 3 bodies selected, body1 and body2 are visible, but body3 is invisible, and you type "V", body1 and body2 will switch to invisible, and body3 will switch to visible.
3. Double click.   If you double click on a model face or edge, Fusion will select the most direct owning component of that object.  So, if a component has two bodies, and you double click on a face of one of the bodies in that component, the component itself will be selected.  So, if you do this, then type "V", the entire component will be made invisible.

Here is a screencast that demonstrates some of this:

Finally, regarding the suggestion to add a command that does "make everything visible".  This is a good idea.  You should post it to the Fusion 360 Idea Station.  I didn't see this suggestion in a quick search of the Idea Station.  So you should add it.  It probably needs a bit of design.  If we just did the simple thing and have this command just turn on every single light bulb in the design, you might get more than you bargained for.  All consumed sketches, work geometry, etc will turn on.  So, we might want to have options on this:  turn on all body geometry, turn on all sketches, etc.

Hope this helps clear up what might be going on in this area.

Jeff Strater (Fusion development)

[Anonymous]

That's a great post. Thanks, Jeff.

Unfortunately, it didn't explain how occasionally I need to exit the program, before being able to see a performed command, in an updated file. Simply saving the file isn't sufficient. I have to exit Fusion 360 and reopen to see the file changes.

Thanks for any further insights!

[Anonymous]

I'll create a feature request, as you suggest. I have an idea how to make this work nicely from a UI point of view.

[jeff_strater]

Sorry, @Anonymous, I don't know why you experience this "need to close and restart Fusion to see changes".  Is it all changes, or just visibility changes?  If it's all changes, then it sounds as if your 3D graphics has somehow stopped working, which could be a machine-specific problem, a graphics card or driver problem, etc.  Or maybe there is a bug and we just need to reproduce and fix it.

If you want to share the model with me at jeff.strater@autodesk.com, I'd be happy to see if I can reproduce the problem.

Jeff

oh, and before I forget, there is one more visibility-related thing (I always forget this, because I don't use it much).  You can actually turn off the visibility of some classes of objects, such as all sketches, all workplanes, etc.  Using this menu at the bottom of the screen:

If an item is unchecked, then no matter what it's light bulb or parent light bulb status is, it won't be seen.  The reason I don't like these is that I turn them off and then can't figure out why I don't see my sketches any more...

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Sarah, for your post.  It showed the same to me.

With so many components in my model I need a quick way to make all bodies inside a selection of components visible next time this happens - would also like to know the cause of it.

Thanks again,

Ali

[lekonna]

I've recently ran into these issues as well.

I'm guessing it has something to do with manufacturing or some other thing that impacts the visibility of the

components. When i go back from manufacturing to design, the component visibilities are all set, but the models inside the components are suddenly turned off. 

I work always on a component level with visibility, so it has to be something in fusion that does this. Its pretty nasty. 

I'll check if i can re-produce the issue easily

[HughesTooling]

@lekonna  If you've enabled Sync visibility with active setup it sets all the other bodies to hidden when you activate a setup im the CAM workspace. It will also make the component and body visible for that setup but not change the visiblity setting for any other component, just bodies.

Before switching back to the model workspace right click the top of the browser and select Show All Bodies and you should get the same visibility you had before activating the setup.

Mark

[lekonna]

i think that did it, thank you!

[jamesfurber]

Hi All...

I know this is an old thread but i have made a discovery that isnt listed below. I too had everything go invisible, i checked inside components, bodies, visibility toggles etc..

Turns out that the culprit was was down to section analysis.

If you do a section analysis and then accidently, or intently close the file, or it corrupts or you move onto anything else and go back in then there is nothing obvious to tell you its still activated in the main window. I spent nearly an hour researching and looking for my missing items. I then, by chance went to do another sectional analysis on another componetns and as i pulled the slider back... my old friends reappeared, like the Philadelphia experiment!

Anyway for me - case closed and another check to add to your missing components checklist