Importing STEP files

[whittakerdw]

Hello all. I have looked through the settings and can't find anything, and easily could have missed it, but every time I download a STEP file, the design history is turned off, and the units are changed to mm. I have the settings to where the design history should automatically turn on at the start of every design but with it being a STEP file, I didn't know if there was a separate setting that needed to be turned on. Same with the units. I have the default units set as inches, but when I upload a STEP file, the units are set as millimeters when I upload the file. I don't know if the file is created using millimeters and that is now the default units of the file and I just have to manually change it back or what.

Neither of these are huge problems, I usually catch the units right off the bat, but the design history I don't catch until I finish with a feature and instead of going into the timeline it goes into the model tree and it is now too late to turn on capture design history.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

STEP is a "units-aware" standard.  The units provided by the exporting software will be honored on import.  So, if you are seeing imports come in as mm, that means the exporting system specified mm (or, maybe, did NOT specify a unit, in which case perhaps the default unit is mm).

Regarding history, there is no setting to import with history in Fusion.  All imported designs default to direct modeling.  That is just a design choice we made, because, mostly, when you import a design, you don't often want to modify it, and adding history would make those designs much heavier.  You can turn it on yourself, if you want, but there is no automatic way to do this.  We've discussed an option to do this, but it has not been implemented to date.

[whittakerdw · Accepted solution]

Okay. Thank you. I hadn't seen anything in settings that would change these particular options, and as mentioned earlier, these are not necessarily life-changing differences that would make or break me renewing a subscription of Fusion. Just another step as far as changing the units and turning on design history. I understand importing the STEP file with design history turned off because that would make for a heavy file with some of the files I deal with, but having design history turned on automatically from the upload on out would be a thought, but I am sure there's more to it and its not very crucial. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

[TrippyLighting]

Turning recording of the design history on per default is a mistake!

1. Designs with a timeline are up to three times larger in  file size than designs without.

2. Very often, imported designs need to be cleaned up, e.g. simplified. Removing modeled thread, fillets and chamfers and other unnecessary geometry can help keep an assembly model lean and quick

3. Simple changes to an imported model can still be made using direct modeling methods and often don't even have to be parametric.

[infoJB53Z]

I understand why importing step files is automatically done without history. How can I manually make the choice to still have the history of an imported step file? Probably should make a choice before I import, right?

[TrippyLighting]

STEP files do not contain a design history.

Design histories are very  application specific. I know of no CAD software that can import the design history of another CAD software.

[infoJB53Z]

Thanks