Duplicate design with their drawings

[Eng-OS]

Hi,

I'm designing different sizes of the same type of part with just one or two dimensions that changes from one to the other. It's a very repetitive task and I was wondering if I could just copy or duplicate one part with its drawing, rename it and then changes the dimensions instead of re-creating the drawing from scratch every-time.

Or even better, would it be possible to generate automatically all my designs with the associated drawings, directly from a text or xls files containing the needed dimensions.

For those who know Creo what I,m looking for is the equivalent to the "family table" function and the "duplicate with drawing" function.

Thanks

[Beyondforce]

Hi @Eng-OS,

Welcome to Fusion 360.

You can always copy the component and then Right click on the top root component and choose Paste New. This way will create a new independent instance of the component with everything included.

If you need more info, you can create a screencast and the file. This way it will be much easier to understand and to help you.

P.s

Don't forget to read about R.U.L.E #1!

Cheers / Ben
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[Eng-OS]

Thanks Ben !

I found that but it doesn't create a copy of the drawing, only the 3D geometry. Also I tried making a copy of the drawing file itself but then it's still "linked" to the original 3D design.

[Beyondforce]

When you say "drawing" do you mean Sketches or the drawing file?

[Beyondforce]

Please create a screencast, that will help a lot to understand exactly what you need!

[Eng-OS]

The drawing files. With the scaled and detailed views etc... Basically I don't want to re-create a new drawing for every new 3D. Just copy both the 3D and drawing(s) and then just edit dimensions on the 3D to have my different versions. It would save lots of time when creating many parts that are pretty similar (screws, washers, pins...) and you need their 2d production drawings.

[Beyondforce]

I'm not so sure about that. Maybe @jeff_strater has a solution for that.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

You can do it this way:

1. starting from the drawing of the design, choose "open details on web" from the data panel
2. while in the web view (A360), export the drawing as "Fusion Archive (f3z)" format
3. download the f3z file
4. upload f3z file to your hub.  This file contains both the drawing and the design file
5. rename them to be whatever you want the new variation to be

now, you have a pair of items (design + drawing) that are paired together.  You can modify the design, and the drawing will update as expected.

But, drawings are not something I have a lot of experience with.  Maybe @kris_berg, or @cmiller66 can comment if there is a more efficient way to do this.

Jeff

[Eng-OS]

Awesome ! Thanks.

[kris_berg]

Hi @jeff_strater, 

I do not think there is a more efficient way to do this.  Your solution is the only one I am aware of.

Thanks,

[mrm1018]

How far away is the fusion team from implementing a more humane way of doing this?

[Engisign]

Thanks for the solution.

Is there a way Autodesk could make the solution work in a more convinient way?For instance, If I select a model and make a "save as", it will make a duplicate of a file with all it previous versions and all it referencing drawings (sometimes I have more then one drawing file for one model). The function save as allready exist, it just should be modified a bit.

[reecenunez]

Following up on this, and reiterating some prior comments. I have used the above method to duplicate designs and their drawing and while it sometimes works, it really isn't a solution.

For starters, the email with the link to download the archive sometimes takes 5-10 minutes to arrive. While this is more of a nuisance, it does hinder workflow. 

Secondly, it does not appear possible to export multiple drawings in a single archive file, or if it is I haven't figured it out. I realize that many users will never have more than one drawing per design (or any drawings at all) but there should not be a penalty for it.

What the archive does include is all referenced designs, which I completely understand, but unlike duplicating a model within the Fusion 360 Data pane (which of course does not bring the drawing) the link has now been severed to the original reference, with seemingly no way to restore it. To me this negates the advantage of not having to re-draft the duplicated design, as the possible divergence from the original is too high a cost.

There just has to be a better way. And after at least 4 years of users requesting a solution, in this and other threads, it seems the time has passed for a solution.

[george_pavlou]

Very clumsy methode but marginaly works. We need a "Duplicate DRAWING With BASE" menu button!