How to Work on Assembly Components with 2 people

[logan.stephenson1]

Can Fusion 360 really be used collaboratively at the same time for a complex assembly?

I am in the beginning stages of working on a medium complexity assembly collaboratively with a 2nd person.  However, after several days of trying alternative ways of doing things, we've not found a way to work on separate components in the assembly at the same time without those changes ultimately ending up in two separate/distinct versions of the assembly. 

The end goal is to be able to sit down both at the same time and work on two separate components in the assembly that have to be referenced to one another. 

As an example, say person 1 owns the design of component (1) and person 2 owns component (2):

Option A

Person 1 creates a new component (1) in the assembly and puts a complex bolt pattern on it, then I would hope person 2 could create component (2) that sits on top of (1) and has a matching bolt pattern that will update if the base pattern changes.  As a single person, this is quite easy.  However, if person 1 starts editing component(1) and person 2 starts editing component(2) in say assembly v1, then when person 1 saves, it goes to v2, and when person 2 saves, it goes to v3.  So now, I don't know how to get changes that are in v2 component (1) and changes in v3 component (2) back together in the same version. 

Option B

^Assuming there is no way to do this, I assume the next thing is to work with linked components that are their own separate parts.  Now person 1 just works on Linked_Component (1) and person 2 just works on Linked_Component (2).  However, I can't find a way to edit a linked part in context of the assembly it sits in - it has to be edited on its own.  This is like going back to the stone age of CAD however where you have to keep connections between part super simple.  i.e assume that the connecting bolt pattern was a 3D face with hundreds of connecting passageways.  No one ever would want to draw each side of the joint individually on each component. 

I hope this is a clear explanation of the issue.  No CAD I'm aware of has a way around the v1, v2 issue.  However, I do know in something like NX its easy to link components to other geometry in the assembly and then have people work on the separate components.  

Thanks for any insight.  

[logan.stephenson1]

Well, after more searching, it appears I didn't have the right terminology for what I was really asking for.  

Branching and Merging

There is documentation going back to early 2015 with reference to it, and various posts in 2016 saying this is on the way shortly.  From what I've gathered, this seems to be the way to get around 2 edits ending up in different versions - you can bring those edits together into 1.  

My question is, if this is delayed 6 months, a year, 2 years, etc... what might be an alternative?  How are people handling this now?  I can't be the only person wanting to work on an assembly that someone else is also working on?  

[brianrepp]

Hi @logan.stephenson1 - it's definitely been a complex project that has taken longer than expected, but we needed to get it right.  The Branch & Merge preview will be here very, very soon... keep an eye out for the next update 

[PhilProcarioJr]

@logan.stephenson1

All I can say is wait for Branch and merge to be released, it is a very nice addition to Fusion and I think a lot of people will be very pleased with it.

[logan.stephenson1]

Awesome news on the branch and merge functionality.  I certainly can appreciate that it wouldn't be easy to implement and I respect AD taking the time to do it right (and at all).  

In the mean time I've resorted to working on separate components that I just link into the assembly.  For components with easy interfaces, its possible to just draw the matching interface on both components.  For the more complex ones, I'm just using the linked body as a mental reference and completely redrawing it as a component in the main assembly.  I thought this would be a tremendous waste of time, but once you know what features to re-create you can just switch back and forth between the models quickly and re-duplicate it without too much work.