How to edit or fix copy-and-paste - "Please reselect reference geometry" ???

[dunderhead]

I'm getting the error below with a pleasant "Please" .... But how to reselect the source? It's really important to keep the reference to the existing copy of the body, even if as the source has changed -- otherwise, lots and lots of features will be have to manually edited downstream. And, these features are not marked -- they'll just disappear if I delete the copy-and-paste (cut-and-paste) feature -- instead of being flagged.

Keywords: CopyPasteBodies, CutPasteBodies, "reference failures"

[TrippyLighting]

This is very difficult to answer without having access to the file. Could you share your design ?

[dunderhead]

Thanks for quick reply: the problem is very simple I hope. Let me try rephrase it a bit without digging into gory details....

So no "Edit Feature" (not even greyd out!!!) shows when right-clicking on the yellowed copy-paste operation (right in the pic) below:

Explanation for sequence: the preceding feature (left) creates the new component. I'm copying object A into this new component where the copy gets identify B. The "Please" in the warning makes me optimistic that I should easily be able to make the B identity in the new component an alias for a new A', where A' is another body.  Not so?

Object A happens to be the output of a Stitch feature that is not resistant to editing: with every edit the resulting body A' is a new one. Don't know why that is. But I want to remedy this identity crisis in the copy-paste operation. It should keep aliasing A, A', A'', A''' etc (as they change when I fiddle with design) to B..  Currently, it takes a lot of effort to change A --- most stuff following in the timeline is blown apart!

[TrippyLighting]

If you could share your design it will be much easier to assess. You can simply export as .f3d and attach to your next post.

[b.marchal88]

Well I have the same problem and it is not difficult to recreate it on a very simple 3D object (I have a mac) 

- Create 2 bodies let's say a box and a sphere 

- select the 2 bodies and do copy & past 

- move to a new position the new elements .. at this point you have 4 bodies 

- delete the original sphere , accept the consequence 

. both sphere will disappear (only 2 bodies remains) and the Copy & Paste in the history will appear yellow with a warning 

- the warning will say: Warning: CopyPasteBodies1 <b>1 Reference Failures</b><br/>The model is using cached geometry to solve. Please reselect reference geometry for failed features in the timeline.

- but it is impossible to 'reselect refernce geometry'  as the copy & paste element in the history does not allow editing!!!!!!!

By the way, how it is possible to add an additional body to the copy & paste operation since it is not possible to edit?

B.

[TrippyLighting]

Actually, this is not at all the same problem!

The workflow you are following makes little sense, because if you did not want a duplicate sphere why would you copy/paste one ?

If you modified the copy/pasted sphere and then decided you did not need the first one after all, you should have used "remove" to eliminate the 1st sphere from that time forward in the timeline.

Before continuing you might want to familiarize yourself with the difference between components and bodies in Fusion 360 and perhaps also watch the 60 minutes of introductory tutorials in the Support & Learning section.

[dunderhead]

Thanks TrippyLighting for your earlier attempt to help me!  The problem I encountered was intertwined with a couple of Fusion 360 bugs. The more fundamental issue is still there.

You're right, b.marchal88 will probably be helped by grouping using components as you suggest.

BUT....in general: if you need subtractive features then components are not the answer AFAIK.  You CANNOT subtract from a component (splits, cuts, intersections don't work). And a component can only be converted back to a body, or rather a set of bodies, by un-editable copy-and-paste ops on all the contained bodies.

Funnily, there is a "Move to Group" entry on the right-click list of a body in the browser.  This concept is entirely distinct from "Create Group" further down in that list. The former is I think a legacy concept relating to surfaces and direct modelling.  (I don't even know how to create such a group!) The latter is the ability to group timeline features into a kind of subroutines (which btw also aren't easily editable which in practice is annoying).

The "identity crisis" problem is that you generally CANNOT generally create a stable identify with which to refer to a group or a set of bodies.

An exception is a singleton set, a single object (use "Combine" and create new object, this will avoid creating gazillions of downstream errors when say you're using a body resulting from a split type of operations -- no guarantees that the body that results from the split won't change ID later with trivial updates earlier in the timeline --- the "Combine" catches a single unstable ID).

The other exception is a component with its additional baggage of capabilities unrelated to a stable ID for a body or a set of bodies.

The "identity crisis" problem is almost a showstopper in my workflow and the only major problem in Fusion 360 that I've had a hard time compensating for. So I'm glad to see this discussed again!

The answer to the add-on question: it is not possible to add to a copy-paste (unless moving bodies into a component, where you can move one object at a time).

In my understanding, the simplest two kinds of grouping (for bodies and timeline) are both incompletely implemented at the fundamental level. It's exciting to think of pure solutions to this -- a pleasing subroutine concept will emerge and so on, but that's another story and would involve a basic redesign of Fusion 360 concepts.

[b.marchal88]

Thanks a lot Dunderhead, TrippyLighting for the very quick reply. 

The extremely simple example I gave was just a way to create a situation in which a warning in copy and paste propose to reselect the reference while it is apparently not possible

My 3D design is a lot more complex and using components is not really an option as mentioned Dunderhead.

I got such warning not by deleting a sphere but by making some minor changes to a sketch. For whatever reason a resulting body is renamed and lost in the copy&paste. The copy&paste get the yellow warning and I do not have a way to fix it. Following the copy & paste there are many other operations and deleting the copy& paste is not an option

I would like to add the renamed body to the copy&paste operation but since there is no way to edit the copy&paste operation: not possible. I could create a new copy&paste but the exact move details are not longer provided (another problem I am facing )

Need to look further 😞

B. 

[TrippyLighting]

Maybe you should share your design so we can evaluate it and suggest workaround if there are any.

Perhaps also share a screencast of your workflow.

Also, I am not at all dismissing this as an issue. I've that the same problem in a more complex design and it's been recognized by the Fusion 360 team as a problem. Having another documented workflow that also highlights the problem would be a good thing...we'll.. in a way.

[dunderhead]

I misspoke above (don't use "Combine").

Use "Boundary fill" on the body obtained from the sketch.  Select the one cell that results. The body that results from Boundary fill now has a stable ID and the boundary fill feature is editable. So when the reference is lost, you edit the Boundary fill only to correct its invalid input id. All invalid downstream references are then immediately fixed, because the output ID of the boundary fill doesn't change, and that's with just one edit (at least in common cases).

Example: 

U want to make a component out of the "Loft" between profiles in sketches. The solution is to:

1. turn body into a stable ID using Boundary fill
2. make the component -- as empty
3. copy and paste the result of the Boundary fill

I've shown what then happens after u modify the sketch: the boundary fill breaks, not the copy and paste. Fix the boundary fill and all is good.  Somebody smarter than me figured this out -- can't remember who.