Fusion 360 - unassign and delete physical material not working

[Anonymous]

when i go to unassign and delete a physical material from the physical materials panel, it just stays there. In this case I initially had my object set to white ABS plastic, then I put a brass material onto the object. Being OCD I want to delete the abs material out of the panel but when I go to do that, nothing happens. Is this a bug?

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @Anonymous,

I just tested this on my computer and I got the same result! I believe this has to do with whatever material is selected to be your default material. In your case, it is ABS plastic. Any new body that is created will by default be set to ABS plastic. It seems that any physical material set after this will be able to be unassigned and deleted, but the default material will remain in that dialog. 

Let me check in with the team to see if this is as designed or if this is a bug. Either way, great observation!

Thanks,

[anandjoshi · Accepted solution]

Hi Jellyam,

Thats not a bug.

User would not be able to delete the default physical material. Apperance acts like a subset of default physical material. So user may delete an apperance but cannot default physical material.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Anand 

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to assign a "default" material ? Kind of annoying as it seems like you can't delete a material you never planned on manufacturing / designing in. 

[jeff_strater]

you can set the default physical material and appearance in the preferences dialog:

[louismazz]

That is ridiculous... If I need to change the material within a project, I should NOT have to change the general default values.  I need to model in different materials, so it would be problematic to have to change the default value for every project.  The DEFAULT should be exactly that, the default with the option to change it.

[louismazz]

How is this a solution?

[Anonymous]

I agree this is not a valid or reasonable solution. I ran an FEA on some Acrylic panels, and I thought the deflections looked low. I found that the appearance was Acrylic per the discussion here, but that the default properties for the body were Steel. How would you ever be able to analyze things made of both? If you change the default material, they both become that default material. How do you actually assign different materials to different bodies then? Thank you.

[David5VZSL]

5 years later and you still haven't figured out why this might cause problems. This software is kiddie CAD for amateurs. What a joke. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

@David5VZSL 

In my FEA class my students assign whatever material properties that we need.

If you need help - Attach your file here and indicate the material properties that you need.

[Phil.E]

@David5VZSL what exactly is the problem here? I'm glad to spend time with any complaint you have about this. If there is room for improvement, I'm happy to log improvement tickets. I just need to understand what your experience is like that would make you feel this way.

[David5VZSL]

I have a large assembly, the decision of what material is going to be used has been made. I am now applying that material to the relative parts so that I can check overall weight etc. However the default material "steel" is still listed. I cannot remove it from the list or figure out what part it is associated with. From reading this discussion there does not appear to be any way to remove it. I have tried unassign and delete but that doesn't do anything. How can I trust the weight value when I don't know if the correct materials are applied. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@David5VZSL wrote:

 How can I trust the weight value when I don't know if the correct materials are applied. 

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I apply the correct materials and then I can trust the results.

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

BTW:  This thread has been marked as Solved.  It probably would have been best to start a new thread with a link back to this thread for reference.

[Phil.E]

Thanks for the details.

Couple things:

When you open physical materials, the model will display all the physical materials in it. So one way to verify the physical materials is looking at the model. I understand that this isn't always convenient in very large assemblies.

The other thing you should know is you can replace the default material by dragging a new material onto it.

[Phil.E]

There are a few more methods that should be mentioned because the method I show above relies on visual verification and you mentioned that's not always the best option.

First, every body/component has properties you can query. Right click on objects in the browser and pick Properties.

Also, physical materials show up in drawings/parts lists. This is really the best check you can have on large or complex assemblies because it lists the materials automatically, and is an easy list to read that doesn't require you to look at the colors/textures of objects in the model.

[richardrTR6VB]

Thanks for the instruction for how to replace (hide) the default material. I too have wanted to hide the default material.

[khushaldas.badhan.001]

Marked solved when I'm still facing the issue even today.

What a joke.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@khushaldas.badhan.001 wrote:

Marked solved when I'm still facing the issue even today.

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@khushaldas.badhan.001 

You missed a couple of steps...

Step 1. It probably would have been best to start a new thread with a link back to this thread for reference.

Step 2. Attach your *.f3d or *.f3z file to the new discussion thread.

[Phil.E]

The marked solution explains that this is not a bug. 

Even so, there are workarounds. It would help for you to explain what you are trying to achieve and provide a design file for me to test. I'm glad to take a look.

[mike28E6QG]

Seems to me like the problem is quite simple.

1. User designs products that use different types of material.
2. User sets default material to "ABS" in general preferences because he usually makes toy widgets.
3. User has a new project where he needs to design a Stainless Steel widget. He creates his first body, and applies Stainless Steel. He thinks all is well.
4. He creates his next body, only to be surprised that it has the physical material of ABS. He thought by changing the material early on, it would persist throughout.
5. User figures he will simply remove the ABS material from the physical material panel, so he applies Stainless Steel to the new body, right clicks the ABS material and selects "unassign and delete". 
6. He is surprised to see that Fusion 360 actually removes the Stainless Steel from all bodies and re-applies ABS and is met with an error message:

   

7. He reapplies Stainless Steel from all objects, and curiously right clicks the unwanted ABS material in the panel, clicks "select objects applied to", and finds his object still have ABS applied even though he already (thought he) changed it!
8. Now he has to go to his global preferences and change it to Stainless Steel, just for this one project, unless he wants to design it like its ABS and change it all at the end?

Please watch this video is just recorded showing how challenging it is working with different materials in Fusion 360. There should be a default material setting in the left panel under document settings. Or at the very least, let us easily change materials per-project with a primary document material type.

Am I crazy or completely misunderstanding how materials work in Fusion 360? It's extremely confusing for what should be one of the simplest parts of the program.