Design Block Creation & Tutorial

[lmirtes2]

Hey all,

I have looked in the official help as well as on Youtube for answers but I cannot find anything (recent) regarding the creation of design blocks. Placement seems easy enough, it's covered in the help manual, but where's the stuff on creation?

I found the official video on design blocks as well, but that wasn't anything beyond an announcement.

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hello @lmirtes2,

I hope this message finds you well. Designblocks are kind of in limbo in Fusion 360 Electronics, we can consume them but there is no workflow for creating them. We consume them so that the ones that were created in EAGLE are available to Fusion 360 users.

We want to revisit how they work and make improvements before releasing full creation workflows.  In the meantime the best approach is to use the Insert Electronics Design command.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[jeffrbeyer]

@jorge_garcia wait, so just to be clear, we are being forced onto a slow, cloud based software from something that was solid and worked for years, and something as basic as design blocks STILL requires the old software? Did you guys ever think that MAYBE you should rethink this whole merging of Eagle and Fusion thing? Because you should. You all need to sit down, print out all of the complaints about the ending of eagle and Fusion electronics issues, then print out all the praises about the same platform. Hopefully that will show you what the public would actually want.

[lmirtes2]

@jeffrbeyer I accepted and solution and wasn't going to say anything, but I am disappointed that a basic feature would be left unfinished. I'm also disappointed in the roadmap for electronics given the announcement to end Eagle. It seems to me that they're done with electronics in 2023.

@jorge_garcia, is 2024 a safe bet for when this feature will be fully implemented as it was in Eagle?

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @lmirtes2  and @jeffrbeyer,

Thank you for your feedback. I will pass your comments back to management.

I don't have an ETA for when Designblocks or it's replacement will be available. As far as I have been informed the goal is to have the replacement available sometime in 2024. I've made a ticket to track this request and added your comments to it.

In regards to the complaints, I would just reply with these classic words from Henry Ford
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Autodesk strategy is to innovate and bring something new which Fusion as a platform is. I agree there is a lot of risk there but Fusion has improved a lot in the last few years and the future looks promising.

Electronics is not done in 2023, and there is a lot of work slated for 2024.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[pblase]

Design blocks are a fundamental part of CAD. I highly suggest that you hurry it up a bit. 

[giladk]

Quite disappointed. The YouTube video a year ago shows this great new feature that was added but it feels like a marketing scam rather than engineering.

[jeffrbeyer]

Innovation is a process by which a domain, a product, or a service is renewed and brought up to date by applying new processes, introducing new techniques, or establishing successful ideas to create new value. The creation of value is a defining characteristic of innovation. 

Removing features and nerfing existing abilities removes value, and is not innovative, it is greed motivated by lower dev cost and higher license requirements. Saying Autodesk is innovative is, by definition, incorrect. 

By the way, there is no actual proof that Ford ever said that. Take a look at this, and send it to all of the Autodesk higher-ups: https://hbr.org/2011/08/henry-ford-never-said-the-fast

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @jeffrbeyer,

Thank you for the correction on the quote. Keep in mind that everything designblocks could do can be achieved using the Insert Electronic Design functionality. Additionally, you can consume designblocks as is or upload them to Fusion where they will be converted into electronic designs, making it easy to re-use them.

Could you elaborate more on what part of re-use has been nerfed? If there are other features you feel are missing please let me know.

Best Regards,

[lobetrotter]

Is it done yet?

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @lobetrotter,

I hope you're doing well. No it's still not done yet. Still under construction, I've seen some UX samples of what it will look like but there are still a few projects that have priority.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[s_benkner]

Hello,

are there any updates on this function?

Best,

S.

[pblase]

Nope. 

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @s_benkner ,

Nothing new to update. I think I should clarify that we don't intend to bring back design blocks as they were in EAGLE. Whatever improved version we release it will likely not be called designblocks. 

Once there is something to report on this front I'll post it here.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[s_benkner]

Thanks for the update. Is  this new deature anyhow similar to design blocks? And is there a timeline for implementation?

Best,

S.

[pblase]

Just a reminder: what we need is to be able to save a subsection of circuitry, along with the PCB layout and 3D model, for reuse. The classic case is a bus interface, including the connector and all of the associated interface circuitry. Having to re-lay it out every time leads to errors. Integrating it into the library system and essentially treating them like components would be idea. 

[jorge_garcia]

Thank you @pblase ,

You put it very clearly. I'll make sure the team gets this, there is currently no timeline for when this would be implemented but it is very important and we are aligned with you on what the feature should be able to do.

Best Regards,

[aespin01]

I'm new to PCB design, but experienced in 3D CAD. having a way to highlight a part of  a circuit, say a power supply, save it to a block or whatever, and re-use it seems like something that should already exist. The previous post sounds like exactly what I'd expect. Let's save and re-use a schematic along with its PCB counterpart.

[s_benkner]

@jorge_garcia Are there any news on this topic and timeline?

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @s_benkner ,

I hope you're doing well. At this time there are no news on this front and no timeline. I'll continue to bump the ticket on this to raise it's visibility.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,