Fusion 360 hangs when updating linked component

[patrik-web]

Hi,

I've run into a problem where I have a fairly complex design with several linked components that are then used as bases for sketches. I updated one of the linked components and when I update the link to get the latest version of it, Fusion hangs saying "computing Sketch1: 60%" in the lower right corner. I've left it for hours and it will never finish. I've attached a screenshot.

How do I recover from this situation? It would be very bad if a design can become unusable in this way.

Thanks,

/Patrik J.

[innovatenate]

Hi Patrick,

Sorry to hear about the troubles updating. Could you share a public link of the design? You can send me a private message through the forum. 

Let me know if you have any questions.

[patrik-web]

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for responding. I'll send you a PM with a link.

I managed to open the design and update the component in the Mac version. (The hang was on the PC.) However, something seems very messed up. There are numerous warnings and errors in the timeline, and when I go back to try to fix those components, things don't seem to work right. As an example, an extrusion was warning, but when I edited it, I was unable to click on any sketch profiles. It was as if the sketch was "dead". After going back further in the timeline to edit that sketch in some non-significant way (I added a driven dimension), I was suddenly able to click on those profiles and update the extrusion.  I had the same issue with a thread that had lost its hole, however after clicking edit I was unable to select any holes. The faces were "dead" and didn't react when I clicked on them.

If you can help me figure out how it got into this state and what to do about it, I'd appreciate it. I'm fairly new to F360, so it's quite possible I just haven't designed things in an optimal manner, but I hope the situation is salvageable.

Thanks,

/Patrik J.

[patrik-web]

The situation has now gone from bad to worse. After saving that design, it now won't open (on either Mac or PC). I get an error saying

"Could not open file: /Users/patrik/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/Autodesk Fusion 360/EKDGJ483ALNJ/W.login/F/TB assembly.819891a3-3919-4620-9d11-6467cd7163d2.f3d, Version Number: 56, Error message: Ok"

[innovatenate]

Thanks for sharing the link. I can reproduce the file corrupt error on my side. I have forwarded this to development for review. 

One thing I do want to share is the modeling best practices (link below). The warnings in the timeline may have contributed to this scenario. 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-differently/fusion-360-modeling-best-practices/ba-p/5502252

Another possiblitiy is that there is some bad model geometry. I noticed there was an imported component or two in the model. I didn't note any problems with them; however, I like to run a command Patch > Inspect > Validate after importing a design to check for geometry errors.

For now, you may be able to promote an earlier version of the design to recover. I hope this helps, if you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,

[patrik-web]

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the tip about the best practices. I managed to go back to an earlier version, but I also decided to just take the opportunity to start over and be more careful about the workflow to hopefully avoid these things happening again.

In general I'm happy with F360, but it is very unstable, especially the PC version. I tried to use the simulation workspace and had it crash on me numerous times in a row. It makes me a bit apprehensive that I could end up in the same situation again where you put a lot of effort into modeling a large assembly only to have it blow up and become unusable. Hopefully you guys will get the kinks ironed out with time.

Cheers,

/Patrik

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm having essentially the exact same problem.

I have a large assembly with many components, some build right in the model, some external linked objects, but none of it being very exotic.  For reference, it's basically a large RC helicopter.

I just went and made a very minor change to one of the externally linked objects (added a chamfer and a threaded hole to a camera).  This camera object is inserted into the larger design, but is NOT used for geometry in any way.  It's just sort of floating in space at the moment for reference.  Nothing touches it, and it wasn't used for any geometry.

After making the changes to the camera model, and then trying to update the linked component in the main design, it tries to regenerate the entire model, and keeps hanging in the same place.  If I delete the camera model from the design, then it all blows up.  Lots of errors on completely unrelated components.

I'm now a little bit stuck, as I'm afraid to do anything.  This probably actually started happening a few days ago with some other components, but I sort of worked around it.

I'm a bit like Patrik.  I'm sort of new at this, and have probably made some mistakes.  But I've now got a lot of work into this thing, and it might all be lost if I have to start over from scratch.  This probably only started happening after the recent large update, but I don't know if that's related at all.  I've been loving the software up until this point.  Now I'm concerned.

Rob

[patrik-web]

Hey Rob,

If this was in Windows, try to open the design on a Mac and fix the issues there. The Mac version seems more stable to me (but I prefer windows because my Mac is much slower than my PC...)

Good luck,

/Patrik

[Anonymous]

Thanks, but I don't have access to a Mac unfortunately. Probably doesn't matter, but this is a very high end PC.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, this is getting bad now.

Decided to try fixing up some of the warnings I've had.  Went back to the first one, and tried to fix it, but couldn't.  Fine, I'll just delete that feature.  And it blows up.  Seems the model is completely unstable. 😞

I hope I can at least salvage some of the individual components I have designed or this is going to be extremely bad.

[Anonymous]

Just found something very curious. I went over to another model I did a while back, another helicopter. (from which some of the components have been brought into the new one).

So it has two errors in it. If I click on the step with the error, it highlights one part/feature. Then I attempt to edit that feature, and the edit function gives me a completely different feature. The original feature highlighted as having the error, doesn't even exist once I go into edit mode.

It seems like things have become disassociated in the timeline.

Another curious thing, this older model, I'm sure used to have other errors on a component. Those errors are no longer shown. I haven't changed anything on this model in a long time. It's been stagnant.

[Anonymous]

So back to my main problem. I made changes to the camera, and now the main assembly design into which the camera is linked wants to be udpated. Again, there's not one thing that references the camera in the design, it's just hanging out in space as a reference at this point.

If I update the camera, the program hangs. If I delete the camera from the model, the model blows up. Even if I just do "break link" on the camera, the model blows up.

[innovatenate]

Can you share a public link of the design? Feel free to send me a private message with the link. I'm happy to take a look at the design.

From your description, it doesn't sound like the camera is a totally independent component. There are a lots of ways to introduce small dependencies within a design. If deleting a component introduces errors, it's likely there are some relationships based on that component. Can you Delete (hard delete) the XREF'd camera component? Note there is a difference between delete (hard delete) and remove (soft delete).

If you open the XREF'd camera design on its own, are there any warnings or errors in the timeline? Are the warnings and errors in the current design workspace's timeline?

Does the Compute All command successfully run on this design and any XREF'd designs?

One thing to keep in mind is that you don't HAVE to design with a parametric design in Fusion 360, there is Direct Modeling too! At any point, you can right click on the designs name in the browser (top node) or the gear icon in the timeline and select Do not capture design history.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Ok, I sent you a link to the design.

I tried doing a Compute All, and a few things got messed up, but not hugely.  I'm going to try to fix those up.  The Xref'd design does not have any errors or warnings.

My main goal at this point, is to save this thing, or at least capture some of the components I've designed into independent designs.  What I should have done from the start.  This thing was close to low volume manufacture until this problem came up.  I'm building up the prototype now.

[innovatenate]

Thanks for the quick reply! Can you add the option for the item to be downloaded? 

Thanks

[Anonymous]

What is the difference between able to be downloaded, and not?  Does downloaded mean you possess the design (ie: it's a copy for ever more?)  I'm happy to let you see it, but would rather not allow a permanent copy.  Sorry if that's a bit persnickity, but I've just been through a wild ride on an open source software project that blew up, so I'm cautious. 

[Anonymous]

So if I do a Computer All on the design I'm having the big problem with, it runs, but 4 components get moved for some reason.  So, I moved them back using Align.  Then I tried to Compute All, and they move again?

Also, after the first Compute All, this component (a pulley) that is imported from another design gets majorly messed up.  This does not surprise me, as I know that component has issues.  I'd be happy to just delete it and redo it from scratch if that fixes things.

So the strange thing is that, that pulley comes from another design.  I knew it was messed up in that design.  But now, it does not show as having any issues in that design.  Clear as mud?

It just seems to me that something happened in the software, whereby, designs with components with issues, became scrambled up.

[innovatenate]

If you allowed me to download, then I could create a copy of my own to review. I'm also happy to speculate to the best of my ability. 🙂

Are you capturing Snapshots of the components after moving them with the align command? If not, then it may make sense that compute all dismisses the current snapshot and moves the components back to the original location.

Does that help?

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Yes, that does make sense about the snapshots I guess.

I have made some progress. After the Compute All, I have been able to delete the pulley which I believe is the source of much of the problem. And now, I have been able to update the camera, and delete a couple other extraneous objects that I couldn't delete before without blowing up. I still have a few issues in the timeline, I'll try to clear them out. They are still related to the pulley, though they shouldn't be.

I'm not longer worried I'm going to lose the whole thing, which is good.

[patrik-web]

Interestingly, I just went back to the first assembly I had problems with, that had numerous warnings and errors. When I did "compute all", all the errors and warnings went away! The assembly now seems perfectly usable again.

I guess the lesson from this episode is to be much more aggressive about "compute all" (which I did not previously know about) to find out about these things before they cascade into a huge issue.

Thanks for helping out, Nathan!

Cheers,

/Patrik J.