How do I assemble these joints together (bushing inside a clamp on a rod)?
I have made the two bearings, an as built joint, Rigid and kept the spacing you suppled,
then joined them to the carriage block, rigid, the block is not the same diameter as the bearings, so used offsets to position the centre of the bearing with the inferred centre of the channel, and the centre of the bock over the two bearings,
Then made a slider joint for one bearing and the rod,
file attached, edit the joints to see the offset settings to help make sense of it all.
Might help
@mgianzero I personally try to avoid using linked components. There are a number of disadvantages of which one you’ve already came across. They are cumbersome to work with and that really can get in the way of a design workflow.
I guess I opened that can myself 😉
In 2016 I was invited to teach a Fusion 360 class at Autodesk University together with Jeff Strater. We prepared a handout for that class and here is a link to a more up-to-date version of it.
It has a section on Linked Components and when they should be used and current limitations, which still exist in that form.
@mgianzero wrote:
Dave,
I looked at your file and I think I've figured it out.
Only thing is, I was using linked files (distributed design) and now I cannot edit the joint origins. I read somewhere why this is but I don't fully understand it. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/placing-a-joint-origin-problem/td-p/602913...
Can you join objects using joint origins on linked components?
Explicit joint origins have to belong to a component. However if you are working in a design with linked components, in that design the linked components are static and cannot be edited, so placing a joint origin on. a linked component from the assembly fails. You'll have to open the linked component place the joint origin, save it, Goa back to the assembly and update it. then you can use the joint origin.
However, when working with this red component you will have a problem selecting some of the geometry when trying to place a joint origin. If you try placing a joint origin on normal solid geometry, Fusion will recognize an arc, circle, cylinder etc and will allow you to snap the joint origin to the center of such. This red component is faceted in curved areas and will not allow that. So either you'll have to fix that, or work around it.
Also, if yo can avoid working with such triangulated garbage then you should, I've fixed designs for users where a single component like that substantially slowed Fusion 360 down. Such faceted objects have easily 10-100 times the surfaces they would have if they would be normal solid geometry.
One small correction to what @TrippyLighting said. You can, in fact, create Joint Origins on linked components. But, it's certainly not obvious that you can do so, or why you can. In fact, I had to try it just now to prove that my memory was not completely shot yet.
What is true is that you cannot make any edits to a linked component without opening that component in a separate tab. So, for instance, you cannot edit a sketch in a linked component from the top level, or even change the visibility of a body in a linked component, because those are edits to that design, and linked components are read-only in the context of the referencing design. We hope one day to change that, but it's how it is today.
And, in all local designs (where all components are defined in one design), when you place a Joint Origin, it is embedded inside of the component that owns the geometry you picked for the Joint Origin. This is, in fact, a violation of the Active Component rule. Normally, any new objects you create go into the active component. So, if you create a sketch or a work plane, it goes into the active component. Joint Origins are the one exception to that rule. Joint Origins are the only objects that can go into a non-active component. So, this combination (linked components are read-only and and Joint Origins always go into the component that owns the geometry you pick) would seem to imply exactly what my friend Peter said.
However... When we were working on linked components, we decided that this workflow was important enough to special-case. So... if you do place a Joint Origin on geometry owned by a linked component, that Joint Origin will be owned by the top-level component in your design. It's a special case to an already-special cased area.
OK, that wraps up tonight's episode of "the minutiae of Fusion functionality and history". 
After going back and investigating further, I will have to recant all of the above. I swore I was able to do this when I tested it, but whatever state I was in I am no longer able to reproduce. So, I apologize for implying that this was possible, and sending folks down the wrong path.
Jeff
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director
I post #8 in this thread I provided a link to the AU handout that Jeff and I created That contains information on when linked components are useful and current limitations.
As it pertains to these triangulated components, if you have access to a dimensioned drawing for that component then I'd "repair" those areas on such a component that have to fit to tother components. In this case the cylindrical surface for the linear bearings. Then you can joint these correctly.
These .stl comports are OK to work with, they can be a hassle simply because the joints in Fusion 360 don't provide meaningful snap points for assembly, but then you can locate a joint origin and just offset it to the desired location. Not ideal, but you only have to do that once, so it's an alternative for these components.
The scenario you are describing is one where I'd use a linked component as well.
No, the confusion is cause by @jeff_strater explanation, which suggests that if you have a linked component in a design, that you can still create a joint origin associated with it's origin in that very design.
What is different to a joint origin for an "embedded" component is that it won't be part of that linked component but will show up in the joints folder at the top level.
However, I don't know how to create that sort of a joint origin, because as you described, you aren't offered any snap points on a linked component.
Of course you can always open a linked component, add the joint origin, save it, go back to the assembly design and update it.
Hmm... I swear I was able to do this when I posted that. But, now I see the same thing - unable to select faces on linked components. I apologize, and I'll dig into this further to see if my original statement was completely wrong, or if there is some workflow where this works.
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director