Understanding Fusion 360 Project Concept -- coming from Solidworks

[DIYedInTheWool]

I am loving getting to know Fusion 360 and absolutely love Autodesk's vision so far in bringing this to market. I always thought it would take a *lot* to pull me away from the investment I've made in learning Solidworks but integrated full 3D CAM, spline tools, cloud collaboration, and powerful enough to use at work but free for my personal hobby use is a combination that just might do it!

However, it's a bit tough as a new user when something seems odd or difficult in the software to distinguish when it's (1) just my n00b lack of understanding of how the program works and if I just look in a different menu or use a slightly different workflow the functionality is there, (2) I've discovered the growing pains/quirks/limitations of relatively new software under active development, or (3) intentionally limited functionality for the vision/commercial interest/direction Autodesk has for the product. I have no problem with 2 or 3, but it's been a bit tricky to distinguish. For example, I would love some help categorizing the following 2 things that seems strange to me:

A.) Importing a new part. If I have a Solidworks part I want to bring into Fusion 360 locally (with  File>New Design from File) I have to convert my Solidworks part into a portable format. But, if I want to send it to the cloud (with Upload) I can just drag and drop it and it will convert my .SLDPRT file for me. Why aren't the same awesome conversion tools available locally?

B.) I would expect to be able to have parts that are common between projects where if you change a part, that change propagates to all projects that use that part. Like "library parts" or "commodity parts". But, the only way I can figure out to get the same part into multiple projects is to save the dang thing as a new part in each project, and then I have to manually make any changes in each individual instance of the same part. I've read the stuff about top down vs bottom up design but sometimes you just have common parts (externally purchased, already in production, etc.) that you have to work with as a starting point. Am I missing something here or are parts really only allowed to belong to a single project?

Thanks for any input!

[TrippyLighting]

As to #3 these parts are called linked components, but are limited as compared wit SW. Linked components should be used with forethought. 

In General in Fusion 360 does not separated between part and assembly files, so it's possible to build a complex assembly in a single file.

[DIYedInTheWool]

Thanks. That helps. It's been kind of tricky figuring out how to think about organizing a project. In SolidWorks you make parts. The parts don't belong to anything, they're just parts. Then you can assemble them into different assemblies. Change the part (and rebuild) and all the assemblies update to reflect the changes.

In Fusion 360 you apparently have parts that pretty much only belong to a project, even if the same parts are also used in bunch of other projects (and each project's parts are divided into local parts and parts in the cloud.)  So, when you make new parts the system seems to be set up for creating new "components" in the context of a big monolithic file that you just keep adding onto, instead of creating individual part files and adding them in as you make them. Is that right? Is that what most people do? Even though "assemblies and parts" are the same file type, do Fusion 360 gurus still divide their work into individual files and sub-assemblies and put them together, or does it all just get built up bigger and bigger in one file? Advantages/disadvantages?

Btw, I really like that "building onto" paradigm from the perspective that you can just build onto existing geometry instead of taking a lot of measurements, etc. In fact I could really like that.

I'm just trying to get my head around the subtle paradigm shifts that will let me use Fusion 360 efficiently, especially since I work with a lot of libraries of pre-defined parts I have to work around. Pretty open ended question/rambling, but if anyone has wisdom on the best way to organize such projects from the start, that would be great.

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

If you have not watched the video's in the Learn section you should do so. there is a section aimed at people with solid Works experience.

Then you may want to review Fusion 360's R.U.L.E #1 .

You can work with library components. Here's a bit I wrote on Linked Components, in the Autodesk universe often called XREF (short for external reference):

Linked Components - XREFs

Fusion 360 does not differentiate between component and assembly files. This allows us to build a complete assembly with all components in a single file. Any given Fusion 360 file can be a component or an assembly of components.
When inserting an existing component from the data panel into the current design that component is automatically inserted as a linked component . If maintaining the link is not required the link can be broken. In that case the link should be broken before the design is saved. So the question is now:

When are linked components needed ?

1. When the component/assembly is to be reused in another design AND

2. Modifications to it are expected AND
   Note: When no modifications are expected e.g the part is a standard, off the shelf part such as a fastener or other catalog part, the link can be broken This should be done immediately after insertion, before the design is saved.

3. When the design the XREF is inserted into must reflect those modifications
   Note: In one-off designs that need to reflect an as-built state, automatic updates might be undesirable.

Even when knowing upfront that these three conditions apply, resist the urge to start the design with the component linked into a design. Most components that are to be re-used are developed in context and undergo many changes. Having to frequently update a design for changes made to a linked component can be cumbersome and even a hassle and unnecessarily slow the design process down. Consider waiting until the design for the reusable component is mature/complete and then export it to the data panel with “Save copy as”

Caveat: Currently, when exporting a component or assembly from a design into the data panel (with “save copy as”) it is exported as a stand-alone design. There is no automatic link back to the originating design.
Linked components are also the basis of distributed designs in collaborative environments when several people concurrently work on a design. In such cases having thoroughly developed and defined interfaces between components and assemblies helps to keep interferences and headaches at bay.

[DIYedInTheWool]

Exactly the info and perspective I was looking for, thanks!

[p.seem]

TrippyLighting,

That's a valuable perspective, thank you for sharing.  Broadly I'd agree with your criteria (even if I forget to follow them sometimes myself) but I'm curious if you've had any experience with a fourth reason to use XREF components: performance.  I have some large models (the one we're working on at the moment is ~1300 instances, ~450 unique components) where I've ended up breaking key sub assemblies off into their own files as a result of Fusion 360's advice that linked components can be more efficient when working with large models (see here for example).

I haven't used SW since my student days so I never had full production assemblies in there, but one assumes it wouldn't have any trouble with models of that size.  It might be one more thing to keep in mind when planning an assembly's structure, to save headaches down the road.

-Pete