Reference Model for Drawing

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Is it possible to change the reference model from which a drawing is made?  I made a drawing from Model A.  Then I modified Model A and saved it as Model B.  I would like to change the drawing from referencing Model A to Model B.

Otherwise I will have to completely re-create the drawing.

Any help is appreciated,

Walt

[masa.minohara]

Hi Walt,

Thank you for posting! As far as I know, Fusion 360 does not have the ability to change the reference model for a drawing. However, I think you can work around by creating a copy of the drawing, and then importing B as a new version to the copied A. Does this work for you? 

[Anonymous]

I have this same problem.  Spent a lot of time creating a drawing for a model.  Then made some changes after saving the model as a new file (seems like a good practice...).   Now the drawing still references the old file and there's no way to change the reference.  The workflow above - exporting and then importing as a new design - did not work for me.  Though honestly, it's pretty hard to follow the video.  

Seems like a major problem that you can't reasociate a drawing when you save it as a new file.  It's prety standard workflow all other software I've used to save as a new file when making changes to a file that you would want to revert to if the new work doesn't go as planned.  It also seems a bit of a hedge against a file getting corrupted.  

[masa.minohara]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thank you for posting! I think you don't need to follow the steps in the screencast I posted earlier since I'm inserting a completely different model to the copied design in the video. However, it sounds like you are modifying an existing model for a drawing.

You can just download a copy of the drawing from the web, and then upload it to your project, and the newly uploaded drawing will be associated with the new design.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply to my post. I’m still not sure I understand how this would work (associating the drawing with the new file).

Example:

I make design “A”.
I make a drawing for design “A”
I then make some design changes and save design “A” as design “B”.
I want to associate Drawing A to Design B.
You say I can download Drawing A and then upload it to the project file.
How does it get associated to Design B? Do I have to rename Design B as Design A? How does the drawing know which design file to look at, and is there a way to change that?

Thanks!

Dave

[masa.minohara]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your response! Currently it's not possible to change associated design for a drawing. Please try the steps below.

1. I make design “A”.
2. I make a drawing for design “A”
3. Download a copy of the drawing for design “A”
4. Upload it to your project and rename it as "B"
5. I then make some design changes in the design "B"

Please let me know if you have any questions!

[CAMXPRESS]

Hi Dave,

The method that Masa has described work because if you export a drawing in the web (from myhub.autodesk360.com in a browser - you got an email if the exported file ready to download) the file contains the design model also. That means if you upload that .f3z file you upload the drawings and the reference model also. If you do that in a new folder you able to create a new version of your design model and drawings.

Thanks for the method Masa.

However, we have unable to export multiple drawings to one f3z file to use this method more than one drawing...

I have tried to copy multiple drawings and edit the Manifest.json file at the pack file to pack multiple drawings but I could not solve this problem.

Masa:

Do we have any method to export multiple drawings to one .f3z file?

Regards,

Joe

[ToddHarris7556]

@Anonymous and the OP... quite correct - Fusion doesn't have the ability to change the model that the drawing is based on. As an Inventor user, I'm used to being able to 'Change Model Reference' and I agree it sure is handy in certain applications. Having said that, with Fusion's fundamental versioning, doesn't that actually accomplish the 'hedging against things not going well'? You can always roll the model back to a previous version (or more accurately, promote an old version). 

So, if you're looking to branch off and have two separate models, A and B, then I agree... you're either looking at recreating the drawing, or some other workaround (inserting into other container models, etc). 

If you're actually just looking to have the drawing reference a particular version of A, then that's a different issue. 

[masa.minohara]

Hi Joe,

Thank you for posting! You can create multiple sheets within one drawing file but exporting multiple drawings to one f3z file is not possible unfortunately. 

You may consider submitting your idea to the Fusion IdeaStation forum, which is constantly monitored by developers and product managers, and is currently the most effective way to request a product enhancement:

• Autodesk Fusion 360 IdeaStation

Other forum users will have the opportunity to Vote or add Kudos to the Idea. Votes on an idea will increase the likelihood that an idea will be implemented.

Hopefully this information helps!