Understanding History Time Line and parametric modeling

[changedsoul]

So I am making this small clip that mounts to a tripod for my iphone:  http://a360.co/2xQxNnE

I created it in two parts, The bottom clip, and the iphone clip sections. I then did a combine on both to create a new component, added all the fillets. Now I have a single body so I could 3d print it.

I forgot to add a small cutout on the bottom to snap into something on the tripod.....So, thinking in terms of history, I selected the bottom clip component and made it active. I created the indent I needed. When I clicked back on the main top level component, I see that what I just added was placed at the very end of the time line, and not at the end of clips individual time line.

I was hoping that by selecting the component and isolating its time line, when I add a feature, it would naturally propagate through and be visible after the two bodies were combined into one.

Is this natural behavior? What have I done wrong?

[davebYYPCU · Accepted solution]

What you did is expected behaviour.

What you want, 

Roll the timeline marker back to a position where the clip was being created, 

at least To before the combine, but you can pick a logical place to insert new features

Activate component etc, then add your new features.

when done, Send Timeline to the end.

Might help...

[changedsoul]

Yes, after playing some more I figured that is what I might have to do. At first I thought that by activating the component, it was also moving the timeline back to that spot. I guess fusion cant read minds, so it is up to the user to know where to place it.

Just was not sure if that is how it should be done, but by figuring that out and by having you reaffirm that, it sounds like a solution to me.

Thanks

[TrippyLighting]

What happens when you activate a component is that the timeline is filtered to only show this timeline entires that are part of that component.

Features you add after activating a component are not necessarily added after then last feature in the filtered timeline. They are aded at the position where the timeline marker was located before you activated the component. Don't be fooled by the activated component view of the timeline. The timeline marker shows to be at the end of the activated component and suggests that that is where the new feature is inserted, however that is not the case, unless by coincidence it was already located there before the component was activated.

It will take deliberate action to get Fusion 360 to do that. When I activate a component and want to add a feature and want it to be aded directly after the last feature of that component I pull the timeline marker back one stop and then forward it one stop.

The timeline can be very tricky to deal with and I personally find the tools available to manage the timeline very rudimentary and really are a limiting factor to manage complex designs.

[davebYYPCU]

No problem, 

I can see how the isolating of the component history can get you where you though was Ok, 

Good that you figured it out, we learn faster that way....