Reference Component Visibility: Can we switch from "Read-Only?"

[jkessler_ideo]

 I'm collaborating with several other engineers on a large, complex assembly. We'd like to use a "master model" method where about 10 key sketches define the overall geometry for several sub-assemblies that move around and must fit together.   After building the root master model, we've discovered that we can't turn visibility of these sketches on and off in the other documents.    We get the error "visibility cannot be changed because it's read-only in the referenced document."  There is no clear way to change visibility from read-only to toggle-able in either the master model or the sub-assembly models in Fusion 360. 

It's crucial for the interdependence of the various sub-assembly components that they all reference the same master model and update upon changes, so un-linking is not an option.  This type of master modeling is common and easy in SolidWorks, NX and other systems we've used, but it's extremely clumsy to open and save the master model whenever we want to turn a sketch on and off in the component models...

Thanks for any insight you can provide,,
Jeff

[Phil.E]

@jkessler_ideo

Welcome to the Fusion 360 community.

There is no way to go to non-read-only except breaking links. 

You can turn off sketch visibility globally in your master model using the display controls > object visibility. Have you tried that?

Thanks and let me know if you have more questions.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Wow, that's not the right answer at all, AutoDesk Team!  I'm running into a similar problem and am tired of reopening source files to toggle the visibility, is there a plan to fix this?  And I use the word 'fix' intentionally, 'cause that's just broken....

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@Phil.Ewrote:

@jkessler_ideo

Welcome to the Fusion 360 community.

There is no way to go to non-read-only except breaking links. 

You can turn off sketch visibility globally in your master model using the display controls > object visibility. Have you tried that?

Thanks and let me know if you have more questions.

Regards,

---

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@Phil.Ewrote:

@jkessler_ideo

Welcome to the Fusion 360 community.

There is no way to go to non-read-only except breaking links. 

You can turn off sketch visibility globally in your master model using the display controls > object visibility. Have you tried that?

Thanks and let me know if you have more questions.

Regards,

---

[Anonymous]

I'm also constantly fighting this issue. The other engineers I work with need to see certain sketches for certain components they're working on.

So at different times, someone will go into the original 'Master Geometry' file, turn on the sketch, re-save then update their drawing, while the rest of us can't update our work till they're done

The Solution would be to allow the 'inserted linked components' to have the ability to turn on/off the sketches in their tree whilst still being a 'read-only'.

Surely this is possible?? Anyone else agree?

[lichtzeichenanlage]

Simple answer: You can't to this. Linked components are read only for each and every information. You can only control them by breaking the link, but it doesn't sound like you want to do that.

[Anonymous]

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@lichtzeichenanlage wrote:

Simple answer: You can't to this. Linked components are read only for each and every information. You can only control them by breaking the link, but it doesn't sound like you want to do that.

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Yes, I'm completely aware that it CAN'T be done, I guess what i'm asking is, why not?

When you have a linked component inserted and it is 'Read only', you can still reference sketches that are turned on.

The sketches that are turned off, can be hovered over and you can see the information show up on the screen but it can't be selected etc.

 - So if they just enabled the turn on/off function to operate so that the corresponding sketch information can be referenced (not modified) in the same manner, then it would solve everything.

I feel like there shouldn't be any barriers preventing this from happening?

[lichtzeichenanlage]

The requirement is not exceptional. You will find more than a few threads on this topic here. The same should apply to the IdeaStation.

[TrippyLighting]

This is a limitation, however I find it's dead easy one to work round.

You CAN hide components, so putting the sketches into components is the next natural step.

[Anonymous]

Sooo, what you're saying is that you make the single 'Master Geometry' Sketch as a component then you can just turn it on/off within the assembly as you like?

• How do you make a component from a sketch without making it into a solid of some sort? 
• or do you mean, save each sketch as its own 'part' with the visibility turned on and then import them one by one into the assembly? - (this seems crazy as we have about 10 different Master sketches referring to different datums and viewpoints in our 'Master Geometry File') ... but could work I guess!?  

... As a whole - Still seems insanely unnecessary when you should simply be able to turn on/off the lightbulb's that are literally ALREADY there.

[lichtzeichenanlage]

A component does not have to contain anything. You can even create a joint to an empty component. My guess @TrippyLighting might had this in mind:

Edit: Screencast added

[TrippyLighting]

@lichtzeichenanlage of course that is what I mean.

@Anonymous You can create an empty component and then drag a sketch into it, assuming there are no relationships between these sketches. Of course this is a workaround.

[lichtzeichenanlage]

Check out the new "Insert Derive" feature. This might be interesting for you:

[kgrunawalt]

Yes derive does help with this gap! You can derive a sketch from a master (with correct positioning) and change visibility however you want because the associative copy lives in the target. Derive may be more efficient for this workflow because you may not need the rest of the stuff in the master in every part. You could also derive the entire master design, but that is heavier than inserting it. Just derive what you need in the target with specific selections. You can also derive components but exclude parts of them you don't need.

However it would still be good to be able to override object visibility in inserted designs -- not just component occurrence visibility. This is an old pain point, but not forgotten. I mention "override" because that is what is really happening with component occurrence visibility. We don't change the visibility in the inserted design, we have an override in the target design for a specific path from the root component to the inserted component. To extend this to objects like sketches, bodies, we would need more overrides. This is easy but we would need to have a clear means of toggling an actual object's visibility vs an override of an occurrence of the object. You'll notice you cannot hide a component in all occurrences because the visibility toggle on a component is always per occurrence.