opening local .f3d files?

[Sandflo]

Hi everybody!

I exported i file to my local drive as .f3d.

But when i try to open it with fusion, it says that its not supported?!

Is this a feature thats gonna come in a later update? Since i Wanna be able to open local f3d files!

Thank you

[prainsberry]

All data in Fusion needs to be read into an A360 project first.  Then you can open it in Fusion.  f3d files are good to get files out for archive and then move into another project later, although in many cases it isn't really necessary.

I hope that makes sense?

 

[JamieGilchrist · Accepted solution]

Hi Sandflo,

is there a  particular reason you want to open from your local drive?

Currently Fusion is a cloud based CAD/CAM system taking advantage of cloud storage and management of your data so you can always access it from any machine that has Fusion installed and so you are always up to date on the evolution of your designs and projects. We do not support the opening of files stored outside of the Fusion eco-system (i.e. your local documents storage).

There is a way to work offline and access your designs, but you will need to first open them while connected to the cloud.  Once you have opened a particular design we cache a copy locally that fusion can read and access while you do not have an internet connection.  You can work of your deisgn in offline mode, but will need to periodically connect to the cloud to ensure that your data is up to date within the connected system.

you can switch to offline under your user profile here:

As you can see, I have access to a number of designs that I've been working on over the past weeks and can continue to work on them.

you can continue to work off line, but I would connect to the internet periodically to make sure the data in the cloud is brought up to date with any offline work you've done; this happens automatically when you work online.  This will help keep your online data fresh if you ever access the data from outside of your main machine.  

Also worth noting that any upload of new files needs to be done while online, as Fusion takes advantage of cloud enable translators to convert files into Fusion ready data.

let us know if you have any further questions.

best,

-Jamie

[Sandflo]

Thank you for your quick responses.
The reason why i wanted to score files localy was when you work on a "secret" project for a customer, that don't want you to store it on the cloud.

[codefoster]

I'm just looking into F360.

I like the benefits that cloud collaboration provides, but I don't like feeling like I HAVE to use the cloud. Even though there's an offline story, I'm bummed to not be able to just open a local file and edit it. I think both workflows should be supported. If I want to drop a file into an A360 project and collaborate then great, but I don't like being forced to do that.

[prainsberry]

Hello, 

You both seem to be driving at the same point.  Obviously this is something that is of concern for many people.  We really believe that the upside of Cloud storage out weighs the risks for many people and to truely leverage the benefits of a cloud data model we moved in this direction for Fusion 360.   That being said we are always looking to gather as much user feedback as possible.

I could go through a lengthy pitch of why WE think it is best and how WE see people sharing and archiving files today and why this is better than that, but I would much rather hear from you as to WHY that is important to you.

If you were to summarize the main reasons why you are hesitant to store your data in the cloud, what would that be?

Look we know for many applications (defense etc. it isn't going to happen right now) but for your applications what is the biggest driver?

[codefoster]

I whole-heartedly agree that A360 collaboration is powerful, but I maintain that there are scenarios where I'm better off working with an .f3d file.

I would certainly use A360 for projects that are primarily design driven, but I'm not a professional designer. I'm a professional software developer, and I am considering using F360 for modelling support hardware for my hardware/software projects. In that case, it makes more sense to use GitHub for my project code and may make sense to store an .f3d file in the same location as opposed to maintaining a separate repository. Again, it's not for every project, but it feels good to have the option to keep my files together.

Beyond that, it just feels good philosophically to have the option of having my files. I have my own cloud storage options and my own project folders. The new cloud era offers me some great benefits, but should never take from me the option to do what I will with my stuff.

Hope that makes sense and is helpful. I'd love to hear of others agree.

[prainsberry]

Thats a really interesting perspective.  It isn't so much the idea of storing the files in the cloud as it is having the ability to store them where YOU want in the cloud.  It is kind of interesting  to think about the possibility of accessing other cloud storage systems from Fusion.   You are looking for a more consolidated project management experience?  THis is really good feedback and I greatly appreciate it.

[HughesTooling]

It would be nice if A360 worked more like Dropbox, where you have a directory on your hard drive that replicates the cloud storage. It would make working with non native Fusion file far easier. If you have some Word docs for example, stored in A360 and you want to edit them the only way to make sure you are always working with the most up to date version is to download edit, then re-upload. With Dropbox it is so much easier as you just edit the copy on your hard drive the it is synced with the cloud and it propagates to your other devices.

Another example where it would help is when customers email 3d models I have to save to my hard drive then upload through Dashboard then import in to fusion. It would be better if you just saved to a folder and it synced to the cloud automatically.

Also from my account if I goto Storage, Access now it takes me to something called "360 Drive" help there has a section "About using A360 Drive from the desktop" that sounds a lot like Dropbox, so is something like what I'm taking about already available?

Mark.

[Anonymous]

I think many of touched on this before and I will restate for clarity. It's not always about how WE feel about storing items in the cloud, it's how OUR CUSTOMER feels about storing things in the cloud. Most who pay for Ultimate subscriptions will have customers as they are likely a business. Since Fusion is positioning itself to be very very competative for job shops, this stands to reason. You have to consider what your customers' customers need! Without OUR customers, we cannot be YOUR customers.

As a side note, most small machining job shops in the USA do firearm development or defense contracting on the side. Any job shop that does this will likely not pay for a cloud-only service. The decision to go cloud only will hurt Fusion in the short, and long term.

I hope that made sense!

[cekuhnen]

The other aspect is that I find the upload process slow and annoying.
I want to be able to load a local file INSTANTLY and then let Fusion sync it to the cloud.

Thats the way it should be. I so often have to wait for files to upload and that waiting time specifically for business owners is a time drag.

[prainsberry]

Well HughesTooling... It is very interesting that you say that... Stay tuned.

In regards to the other latest replies.  We completely understand the need for quicker response times as well as the need to keep YOUR customers happy, obviously that is one of the most important things we need to address with cloud based data storage.

Now I would ask (... and I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, I am not trying to challenge your way of doing business by any means) how do you communicate design ideas/concepts with these custoemrs now?  Email, dropbox, FTP?  Or do you find yourself doing more 1on1 meetings to avoid electronic transfer of IP entirely?  

I'd like to hear what is the breadth of tools/methods people are using today to communicate with their clients and what is the perception of security involved in those methods?

[codefoster]

Well, I'm not just looking for collaboration with other cloud storage systems. I'm arguing that you will run into frustrated users with restricted scenarios unless you support a classic "Save to local drive". When that one scenario is unlocked, then users will be free to use their system of choice. I love OneDrive. Others want to use Dropbox. Otherwise you're talking about vendor lock in which doesn't work unless you're Apple for some reason 🙂

[codefoster]

Yes and no. I don't think we want another process running on our machine keeping files in sync. We've got that. I want F360 to be awesome at 3D design. Done. I want A360 to be awesome at online collaboration. Done. And I want to be able to work with my local file system. I have to think it's an easy feature. The archive feature is already there and is most of it. Should just be a UI change.

[codefoster]

If A360 were capabbble of aggregating files from various cloud storage systems, that would be amazing. Joe submits a file from his Dropbox, Jill edits it via F360. Its changed in Joe's Dropbox. Jill submits a file from her OneDrive, etc.

[cekuhnen]

An advantage of the online approach I can see is the ability to check out a file so nobody else works on it at the same time.

I collaborate with my students a lot on designs - but when I use it here for tests in my studio I am highly annoyed by having to wait so often each time when in Rhino it is zip zip to open a file.

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to add my $0.02 worth on this subject.

While I think the cloud based storage concept is powerful for collaboration, data security issues aside - and that is a big issue for a lot of folks by the way -  I wholeheartedly agree that forcing your user base into a particular workflow is not a recipe for success.  I too would far rather see something flexible like the Dropbox type of file-sharing that a previous poster mentioned over the forced "everything has to go to the cloud to do anything" model that is currently employed.  I agree with what another poster said, if you force this Cloud based model on your users you will lose a number of folks that don't want to store in the cloud or just don't want to bother with the workflow.

Some examples where the current workflow breaks include:

As a frequent flyer, I hate the fact that I have to pick out the projects that I might want to work on (or need) and set them to offline mode before I disconnect.  Similarly, if I am in a place where I only have access via a data card, I'd rather save the syncing until I can get to a big pipe that is free than blow my data budget syncing my F360 files.

I too downloaded some tutorial files and was surprised and disappointed to find that without a network connection I couldn't do anything with them.  This is so counter to the expectation that most users have; we expect to be able to open a file on our local system if we have the app installed locally.

I also find there is often a huge latency between what A360 and my F360 client see in the cloud. I'm not sure if this is an anomaly, but it means I have to end up launching a project from A360, onyl to have my local client squawk that it is trying to open the file but that I need to install the app locally, while it opens the project.

Anyway, looking forward to a great product, hopefully it will encompass flexible storage options.

[cekuhnen]

the other really great value I see in the cloud is the versioning and the soon implemented branching.

I think this are very important features which seems to require a server like set-up and Fusion uses the cloud as the centralized servers.

this will work well I assume.

Companies that have manufacturing and design split across the US and China use a similar set-up to check out designs.


But I also had days where Comcast decided to not work and I had no connectivity and that was a disastrous experience.

Maybe in such situations one could borrow the local storage idea from Google Drive that allows you to store files on the mobile device (for us the computer).

This way not everything is downloaded just what we might need to work on.

And I agree also without internet I cannot open any file in Fusion because I cannot upload breaking the usability here.

[Anonymous]

This thread appears to have petered out, but it is very much germane to an issue I ran into yesterday: I wanted to collaborate with a person, just as your company promotes. However: the designer I needed to show my Fusion 360 project to is very much of the 20th Century and we were meeting on a boat, and no internet..I could have set up my cell as a hotspot, but I didn't have it with me.

I incorrectly assumed that files I'd saved to my laptop would be useable, as there is an "offline mode" in Fusion 360. I think you should make it far more apparent to people that files are NOT available unless this program can access the net...It wouldn't have been a problem if I'd known ahead of time, and had thought to set up a cell hot-spot using my phone, or something like that. 

Great program, but a little more transparency on the FULLY cloud based model would be good. Not all of us wish to live and work in the 100% cloud-based future (I do realise that anachronistic throwbacks like ourselves are statistically insignificant in the general computing world, but possibly not so insignificant in the design world...)

Thanks, in any case, for a very useful and fun program.

Mike

[burnandreturn]

I personally would never use Fusion for a business.  The idea of only being able to open files if I have a internet connection is a game stopper for me.   But I just disconnected my computer from the internet by literally unplugging the CAT5 cable.   Then opened Fusion.  It  took quite a long time for it to open but it did.  Then I went to work off line and opened a previous design no problem.  Saved it offline.  Then went and plugged my computer back into the internet and it uploaded my design.   So I don't see that as a game stopper.

Edit:   I logged out of Fusion and closed Fusion then physically disconnected my computer from the internet.  Fusion would not open in this instance.  So if I don't log out of Fusion and close Fusion when I reopen without internet connection it will work.  This is not good in my opinion.  Not a game stopper but definately a game slowdowner. (I think that is not a word!)

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