How to open a compoenent from the assembly

[Anonymous]

I love the ability to "Make component from body" tool.  But after I've made a new component within the assembly, how do I open that component as it's own stand alone file?  I want to use this part in other assemblies and I'm not sure how to get a part "out" of the assembly.  I've got a Solidworks paradigm I guess.

Thanks,

Walt

[TrippyLighting]

When you first make a sketch and then create a body from that sketch and then create a component from that body, you might experience a rude morning awakenig when you export that component with "save copy as" into the data panel.

A component created that way will not contain the sketch that was used to create it and the parametric history is lost.

If you want to avoid that you should follow Fusion 360 R.U.L.E #1

[xander.luciano]

Hello!

Don't worry, you're not alone on this, coming from the solidworks mentality and workflow to the fusion workflow can be a little tricky (I would know myself as I went through the same process). I promise you though, once you start messing around with it though, you'll find it works wonderfully. The trick is just being introduced to everything.

First off, fusion works best as single files. Sure you could create all individual files and then assemble them together and such, but that just makes for a cluttered folder! Instead, we use components inside a single file to represent what you use to know as part files. So component = Part files. 

Components can also be made up of components though, think of this as a subassembly inside solidworks. Components made of components have a special icon in fusion denoting this difference as well - see note (1) in the image below.



If you've ever used "Edit Part" in an assembly in solidworks that's exactly how the fusion workflow is supposed to work. But sometimes parts start getting in the way, even if they are transparent, or you just want to focus in on a single component. How do you do that?

In fusion, to only show a single part, you right click it and choose "Isolate" - now it's the only one you can see. This works by turning off the visibility of all the other components in fusion. You can ctrl-click multiple parts and choose isolate to only show the selected components.




But Xander, my timeline is still cluttered with all this other stuff, how do I see just the features for one component?

Well fear not, because we have an "Activate Component" button which also you to make only 1 component the Active component, and the timeline at the bottom will only show features from the active component.



Ah, much cleaner now! Notice how the other components are now transparent -  this is why I said it was similar to "Edit Part" in a solidworks assembly. If you didn't want to see the other parts though, Just isolate the active component! Now you're doing the equivalent of editing a single part file.

Hopefully this helps clear some of the confusion up! - You're probably the 3rd person I've seen on the forums now with this, and I struggled myself with it, so I think I'll be creating a youtube tutorial on this soon to help clarify the workflow.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Best,

Xander Luciano

[Anonymous]

Xander,

Wow, thanks for the details explanation.  I think I understand - I'll try it out and see.

Thanks,

Walt

[Anonymous]

Xander,

OK, it's clear now.  I understand that Fusion prefers you work in a single file, and is written accordingly.

For kicks, I designed and saved a separate part (part 2) and inserted it into my part file (part-1).  It shows up as a component, and includes the little chain symbol telling me it has external design inputs.  Still, that's fine.  However, I found that I'm not able to edit anything about part2 while working with part1.  I have to open part2 to make any changes.  In Solidworks I can "edit part" from within the assembly.  It seems in Fusion you can only do this if the component was created as part of the main part - this is kind of a big deal for me.

I'm getting the impression that Fusion might be best suited for smaller projects with fewer parts, that are more stand alone than I'm used to.  I design automation equipment, and there are many common parts that we share among machines (more than simple fasteners & etc).  Often, we pull similar parts in and "save as" and then work from there - it saves lots of time to take something already existing and modify vs start from scratch.  I was hoping that in those cases I could simply insert parts as components into my Fusion model, but not being able to edit them from within the assembly makes that more difficult.

Thanks,

Walt

[xander.luciano · Accepted solution]

Hello Walt,

You can still do that in fusion 360, you just have to break the link to the referenced file first.

Then you will be able to edit it as if it were made inside the file.

Hope that answers your question!

Best,

[Anonymous]

Xander,

Excellent, this will work for me.  And, I am also able to "export" this revised part once I've made changes for use in other projects as well.

Thanks for the help,

Walt

[garthWLX4N]

Thanks for that detailed explanation, it was very helpful, now my one question is, can you now program in cam on that isolated part without any interference from the assembly?