3D package not showing up in 3D PCB

[Red_Ant_Engineering]

I think my version of Fusion360 is possessed!

After working previously, I am now having issues with some components (at the moment, its all my 0603 resistors) loading up the 3D model into my 3D PCB.

The component in schematic is showing that is has an associated 3D model, but when I go to the 3D PCB (yep, I make sure I go there via "View 3D PCB" in the 2D PCB file so that changes get sync'd up), they are missing.  You can see all the missing resistor packages in my 3D PCB screenshot below.  I've also taken a screen shot of the properties dialog box for one of the affected resistors from within the 2D PCB file, showing that it has an associated 3D package

I've tried removing my library and re-adding it, but its still an issue.

If I look at the in use Library list, I can see some anomoly right down the bottom where it looks like some local version of my Teams library appears in the list - this may have something to do with it.

Anyone know how I can fix this?  Its driving me nuts

[Pieter.Jan.Van.de.Maele]

This is interesting. I assume you are using version 32 of the Solux library? Would you mind updating your design with the latest version of your library one more time by going into the library tab, selecting "update design from library" and choose the latest version of your library? After that go to the 3D PCB (by using "View 3D PCB" option like you already do). 

[Red_Ant_Engineering]

Yep, I'm definitely using the latest verison of my library; below are screen shots from within Library manager showing that my library (V32) is both In Design and In Use.

I've then done numerous Library updates, both within Schematic and also within the 2D PCB.  But I'm still not seeing the 3D packages for those 0603 resistors pop up.

Is there any local Fusion360 support in my timezone (GMT+10) that I can access?  Its pretty time consuming for me at the moment with all the issues I'm facing to post an issue on these forums, then wait 24 hours before I see a response (presumably because all the support people are in North America or Europe), which then requires me to provide some additional information, and then wait another 24 hours before I see a response.

Cheers,

Mike

[Red_Ant_Engineering]

Tried a few more things:

1.  Updating library (had some other components for another design that I needed to update) - no change to my 0603 resistors

2.  Started a new test design, that simply involved a few of those 0603 resistors on the schematic - the packages showed up in the 3D PCB design for that

3.  Changed the footprint of my resistors in the affected design to 0805 - the 3D package for those showed up OK.  So I then changed the footprint back to 0603 - no 3D package again 😞

So, somehow Fusion360 has a broken link with regards to the 3D model for my 0603 resistor footprint, but for this design only.

[yqliu]

Hello @Red_Ant_Engineering ,

Can you try the following steps:
1. Export the board file as "EAGLE brd files"

2. Create a new Electronics design, add your schematics and this new board file into this Electronics design.
3. View 3D PCB and see what will happen.

Meanwhile, if you can share your 2D PCB files (the one it doesn't work and the one works) to me (richard.liu@autodesk.com), I will try to reproduce the issue on my side and then look at what is wrong.

[Red_Ant_Engineering]

Hi Richard,

Did the export and new design process - no joy.  I'm still missing the resistor models 😞

I've emailed you both the busted PCB file, and a test PCB file that just contains a bunch of those resistors

Cheers,

Mike

[yqliu]

Thanks @Red_Ant_Engineering  for adding me into your projects which helps a lot for me to understand what is going wrong.

Here are some notes to help others avoid similar issue:

• When creating a 3d package, we can insert a 3d model into the 3d package document as xref. It's recommended to break link after inserting the xref. 
• If you have 3d packages that come to 3D PCB as boxes, you can check if you are using xref in your 3d packages. If so, you can break 3D PCB link in 2D PCB environment and then create 3D PCB again.
• If breaking 3D PCB link doesn't work, you can edit the bad packages, save a new version and then update the PCB.

[nick7LNK4]

Hi, 

Did this problem get resolved?  I have just experienced the same thing in my design.  I created a new schematic, added a few components all of which have 3D packages associated with them in the library, then created the PCB and finally hit view 3D PCB.  The model gets generated but one of the four 3D packages doesn't show up.  

I tried re-building the library part and replacing it, no difference, its still missing.  So I went through the whole process again from the start and this time a different 3D packages is missing!  It's clearly not a problem with the library devices themselves rather a problem when trying to generate the 3D PCB from the 2D board.  

If I expand the 'Packages' tab in the 3D PCB I can see all 4 parts but if I expand each one in turn, the one with no 3D package is missing the sub component completely ( see screen grab).

Also as the 3D PCB model is generating a quick warning flashes up saying that part x may be not have a 3d package associated with it. 

Any help would be much appreciated.  

Thanks

[Red_Ant_Engineering]

@nick7LNK4 - it did, but I had to get @yqliu involved to fix my issue.

From memory there was something he was able to do to the affected packages in my Library, which weren’t looking at the latest version of my library (or something like that)

@yqliu - can you help out here?

Cheers,

Mike

[yqliu]

Hi @nick7LNK4 ,

May I ask a few questions about the 3d packages?

1. Did you create the 3d packages recently or before (like a month ago)?

2. Are the 3d packages created in libray.io or in Fusion 360 environment?

3. Do you use external references in the 3d pacakges (Did you create the 3d packages by inserting from other documents)?

4. If you "view 3D PCB" again, do you see the same issue?

I'm asking because there were a couple of bugs related to 3d package creation before. Some  common known issues were: 1） if you select "reuse" when creating the 3d packages, the new document could be corrupted. 2) if you have external references to other documents in the 3d packages, the 3d model could not be loaded into 3D PCB. Those issues should have been fixed in Aug and Sept update. That is, if you created the 3d packages recently, it might be a different issue.

[nick7LNK4]

Hi Yqliu,

1 - The packages were created some time ago, could be several months ago.

2 - They were created in the Fusion 360 environment.

3 - No external references were used, they were created from scratch.

4 - If I 'view 3D PCB' again the problem persists, but I did have one occasion when I was able to get all the packages to show up.  After making a change to something however it disappeared again. 

Whats strange is that one time package 'A' would show but not package 'B', then after some changes to the 2D PCB and re-opening of the 3D PCB, package 'B' might appear but package 'A' would be missing.

Is it possible the problem is somehow linked to the packages because they were created before the bugs were known about and fixed?  If I started from scratch and re-made the packages, should that sort the problem?

Thanks for your help.

Nick

[nick7LNK4]

Thanks Mike,

Appreciate you replying.  @yqliu has responded with some questions which I have tried to answer. 

Cheers

Nick

[Red_Ant_Engineering]

Hi Nick,

Did you get this resolved?

I just had this happen AGAIN in one of my designs, but was able to resolve
it pretty quickly by following what Richard had shown me when it happened
before. I needed to edit the affected packages and "break the link" to the
STEP files. This resolved my issue with my most recent occurrence.

I now do this as a matter of course when creating new 3D packages if I am
using external models that I import. When using the Fusion360 Package
Generator, I've not found this problem to occure

Cheers,

Mike

[nick7LNK4]

Hi Mike,

I have not resolved this yet and not had any more response from @yqliu.  I t seems worse than it was before if I'm honest,  even with new 3D packages I create in Fusion.

  I will try again to follow the steps you are using but previous attempts have not been consistent.  Sometimes one or some 3D packages show up again, other times they do not.  I was going to do a screencast the other day to demonstrate the process but I found that audio no longer works with Autodesk's screencast app on my Mac ( apparently a known problem according to the forum).  I might just have to record a silent screen cast. 

 It's pretty frustrating.  It would be good if it just worked without me having to spend precious time trying to find convoluted work arounds.

It would be great to know that someone on the Fusion development team was looking into this.

Thanks

Nick

[Red_Ant_Engineering]

Yeah, its frustrating trying to get stuff resolved in a timely manner when things go pear-shaped.

My issue was related to 3D packages I created by importing a STEP file into the 3D package.  I had to break the link to that file once I had created the package, and that somehow 'embedded' the 3D details into the component, rather than having a link back to the STEP file.

But in reading your post, it looks like the issue is with components you have created using the Package Generator feature in Fusion360 - is that correct?

Cheers,

Mike

[yqliu]

Hi @nick7LNK4 ,

Sorry for the late response. The issue you described sounds different than that of Mike's case. My guess is something is wrong with one or more 3d package documents. Can you try to open the 3d package documents from the data panel directly and see if there is any issue to open them?

There was a bug that if you "reuse" existing models when creating a 3d package, it could create corrupted documents. If you use the corrupted documents as 3d packages, it will make other 3d models disappear randomly.

Richard

[johnnyblazsus]

Hi,

Can you explain what you mean by "breaking the link". 

I have the exact same problem.

Only effects packages I have created myself which are linked to step files downloaded from the internet.

They appeared before but now are not.

Thanks 

John 

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @johnnyblazsus,

I hope you're doing well. Breaking the link is explained as follows.

When you create a 3D package, you then insert the STEP model into the 3D package. This creates an external reference. if you look at the browser tree inside the 3D package editor you'll see it has a chain icon. Right click it, you'll see the option to Break the link. This will allow the 3D model to exists and survive without being dependent on the original model.

Let me know if you continue to run into problems.

Best Regards,

[t1]

Thank you Jorge, 

that’s sorted now.

Regards 

John