Who gets warned before data is deleted? - Fusion 360

[r.moss]

Hi

I note the warning:

"Autodesk has a policy where content may be subject to deletion if the account owner does not sign in for more than 365 days.   Users typically receive email notifications prior to this happening, with instructions to log in to keep their data active. "

My question is, who are the "Users"?

Last year one of our DPhil students left the university to take up a job.  His data was shared with me, so I thought it was safe but then it suddenly got deleted.  I presume his account was terminated because he hadn't used it for a while, but shouldn't the data have been safe as it was shared with me?   I had no warning.

Autodesk managed to restore the data (thank you) but it took several months.  They are still in the shared hub.  There are hundreds of model files in the restored project and no easy way of saving them to hard disk.  How can I know this won't happen again?  The Team Hubs have the Collaborative Editing logo, which means one cannot transfer ownership into a hub that I own.  The project appears as "Shared with me" in the student's hub.

Similarly, I now have a technician who is leaving us next week.  His F360 files are in a Collaborative Editing hub under his name.  When I look at it, I see the projects have been assigned to me and show as "Owned by me" in his hub.   Presumably however when his account expires he will be sent a message (which he won't get, because his Warwick email address will have been terminated by then) and then the whole hub (including the projects "Owned by me") will get deleted.

How can I avoid this?

The long-term implications of using F360 when colleagues might want to access models in the distant future are a nightmare.  Surely ("Oh please, Autodesk") it should be possible to permanently archive the latest version of each model and associated drawings so that it can be restored in years to come?  If storing one version rather than all 900 previous copies, the storage space required would be pretty minimal.  It would be good to pay a fixed sum and know the files were safe for the next 30 years.

This post has been edited due to: @heather_tracy added the product to the title to help more users find this topic via external search.

[abhijeet_gajbhiye]

Hi,

The Hub lock notification email is sent to all the members of the Hub, so the users here are "All members of the Hub". We send three notifications, 60, 30, and 15 days before the final locking of the hub. 

Abhijeet G.

Senior Product Owner - Autodesk

[r.moss]

Hi Abhijeet

Thanks.  Is that a new policy?  It didn't work like that when I lost a student's shared files earlier this year.  See https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-team-data-project/projects-lost-through-team-hub-migration/m-p... messages 25-31.  I have searched my emails.  There were no messages from Autodesk.

Secondly, if I get a message, what should I do about it?

Roger.

[abhijeet_gajbhiye]

Hi,

Yes. We have started this recently, but be assured that no data will be locked without sending the notification emails. To keep using fusion, depending upon the entitlement you have, you can follow the process given on FAQ-for-Fusion-Content-Storage-Standard.html. Different entitlement types have different methods of keeping the account active. 

Abhijeet G.

Senior Product Owner - Autodesk

[r.moss]

I looked at the Content Storage Standard page but it says nothing about educational licences.   I suspect that it's because it is an educational licence that I cannot transfer the projects from the ex-student into my personal hub.   I can see the projects within his hub but as I'm not the hub owner I don't know what will happen to them when his licence expires.  It seems unlikely that the hub will continue to exist in the absence of a valid owner.

Thanks

Roger

[r.moss]

Also, the Content page says: 

"How do I move my data out of a Fusion Hub?

You can move your Fusion Content by exporting (downloading). Additionally, there are open source add-on scripts that exist for bulk export."

The link to "open source add-on scripts" is broken.   It would be much better if this functionality were provided via the Fusion web interface.

[r.moss]

I saw this thread:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-educators-read-only/archiving-student-projects/td-p/12222249 

which lists third-party add ons.  None of them seem to export drawings in a format that can be uploaded back into Fusion at a later date though (a native format, not dxf!).

How is one meant to preserve Fusion drawings, so they can be edited and updated in the future?

Just wondering: if I insert every model into a "super assembly" and save that as .f3z, will the f3z file include all the drawings associated with all those models as well as the 3D models themselves?

I can see that Autodesk are perhaps nervous of people keeping off-line copies that would be incompatible with future F360 releases.  That's no different though to someone keeping their models and drawings in the cloud, keeping their account active and re-opening the model in five years time.  Or do files update themselves silently in the cloud each time a new release comes out, to preserve compatibility?  (I sometimes find files do not open properly after a new release and I need to do "Compute all" and re-save them on my PC, then open them again on the Mac and do "Compute all" on that platform to get all the joints to work as before).