How to join two components

[Anonymous]

I did the following steps once for each mesh body:

1- Turned the mesh into Brep

2- Exported as f3d file

3- Used File>New Design from file to place a single Brep in a browser

4- Converted the Brep in the browser to a component and used Copy As to place it in the data panel

Then I did the following:

1- To get a new blank browser I used File>New Design

2- Dragged two components from the data panel into the browser

Now, my goal is to combine (join) the two components in the browser to form one rigid component so I did the following:

1- Using the mouse, I manually moved the components so they were graphically aligned in a joined fashion

2- Clicking in Modify>Combine

3- When I tried to select the Target Body the component could not be selected! What do I do about this?

When describing what to do please don't generically write: do A to B and then do C to D as if I am a seasoned expert at Fusion 360....I am not.........instead please describe the detailed exact steps that need to be done including all mouse clicks on the interface.

Thanks

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

I think that the problem here is that you are referencing external designs.  It would help if you could share a screencast or image of your design.  But if that is the problem then it's because you have inserted two other designs into your new design.  Those designs still exist elsewhere, and can be modified and updated in your new design.  We call these designs "external referenced" or "linked" designs.  Or "XRef" designs.  You can tell this by the browser icon has a little chain link icon:

Because those designs exist elsewhere, you cannot modify them in the referencing (top-level) design - they are read-only.  That's why you cannot select one of them as the target component in the combine command.

You can make it work by doing a "Break Link" on the referenced component.  Here is a video illustrating:

However, you may be making life more complicated than it needs to be.  You should be able to do all this in a single design, and not rely on linked components.  Maybe you have good reasons for wanting these components to be in separate designs, so I won't go into the details unless you'd like me to.  But, you should be able to do all of this in one design.  For instance, you can insert a mesh and convert it to BRep and keep it as a component in your main design without having to save it as a separate design.

If you want to share the design or make a screencast, people here will be happy to make more informed suggestions to help.

Jeff

[etfrench]

I like Jeff's reply, but since I already created the videos, I'll share them 🙂  These are just random stls on my harddrive.

[etfrench]

Here's another screencast:

[Anonymous]

Thank you all so much for the fast and professionally informative solutions!  Very nice.