Timeline - All components rolling back

[Anonymous]

Hey all, so ill start off by saying im very new to fusion.  I've figured out alot on my own thru reading on here, watching youtube, etc, but I cant seem to find an answer to this question (maybe im not searching for the right thing...)

I have many components in my design.  I added MOST of them right at the beginning.  I have been doing most of my work in 1 component, spending lots of time rolling back and forth, changing things here and there across the timeline as a refine my design.  This has been fine so far.

Today i started having to modify some of the other components, redrawing some imported STLs to modify them, then reposition them to better work with my overall design.

The problem is, when im back in my main design component, and i roll back in the timeline to very early state (im not actually sure if i have to roll passed a certain timeline entry for this to happen), but all the other components that are not currently active also roll back.

This on its own is not a problem, and makes sense.  What DOESNT make sense is that when i press "Move To End" to see all my edits and my design in its current full state, non of the other inactive components have moved forward.  They're all still stuck back at their earlier timeline points.  So then I need to go to each one, make it active, move its timeline to the end, go to the next component, move its timeline to the end, etc etc, until everything is back where i left it before i rolled back on my main design component.  Or, i can also go to the root, and roll that timeline to the end, in which case, all is back where i left it.  Still, i would think "Move To End" should do that by definition, otherwise it should be called "Move to End of Active Component".

Hopefully that description of the problem makes sense.  This is a big time suck to have to keep jumping between components to manage each timeline independently.

[HughesTooling]

Make the top component active, the node with the document name then click roll to end. With a subcomponent active you only roll to the last feature in that component, this is what I think you're seeing.

Mark

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

I can explain the thinking behind this behavior, if you are interested.  It is all tied up with this somewhat hidden, but useful option (Hide all inactive features):

Which is on by default.  This option was not originally part of Fusion.  It was added as a way to help you visualize your timeline on a per-component basis.  Because you can create lots of components in a single design, you can end up with a very long (and sometimes disorganized) timeline.  Having this option lets you filter down the timeline to only show which features are related to the active component.  This is both good and bad.  I find myself switching it on and off all the time, depending on what I am trying to do. 

The problem, for Fusion, is:  when this option is on, it is just a filter.  All those hidden timeline entries are still there.  This can lead to some bad assumptions.  For instance, a range selection can sometimes include timeline entries you cannot even see in this view.  I think we fixed this, but I've lost track of that project.  In the first implementation after we added this option, "roll to end" worked exactly as you expected it to.  But, to some customers, this was confusing.  They were seeing the effects of features that they could not see.  So, we modified it so that it only rolls to the last visible timeline entry.  Is that good or bad?  Hard to say.

You can still get the behavior to change, by disabling this option, but the cost is that you always see the whole timeline:

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing that Jeff.  I just looked at the option, was about to click it, and it reminded me to come back here to check for replies.

So, ya, this is kinda the same as making the root active, and telling that to Move To End.  Ill try working like this, with all operations exposed, and see if it helps.  Realy i think the bigger issue is just trying to build AND develop at the same time.  There is alot of back and forth, chaning of ideas, adapting of sketches, etc.  My biggest problem is going to change a sketch to work with something AFTER the sketch was created... so when i go to Edit Sketch, the other object im trying to sketch around is no longer there.  I cant realy think of a way around this other than constantly making more and more new sketches that keep stacking up as the timeline progresses.  Sure that would work, but its not a very elegant or tidy solution.

Either way, i marked your response as a solution since it does pretty much address the issue as i explained it.