Assembly Centric Workflow?

[amagrude]

I'm designing what is essentially a collection of boxes which fit into a single larger box. I would like to know if I'm effectively/correctly using Fusion 360 efficiently.

I have a file which is not but a collection of Inserted Components and Rigid Assembly operations. These Inserted components come from a few other files which contain between 2 and 20 difference configurations. My basic workflow goes something like this:

1. Make one-to-many changes in the other files (adjusting the configuration of designs of the smaller boxes.)

2. Save.

3. Wait 15-90 seconds for upload.

4. Switch to Assembly file.

5. Update all.

6. Wait 15-90 seconds. Approximately 5% chance of infinite hang.

7. Repeat from Step 1 until project complete.

I have the following questions:

1. Is this the "right" Assembly workflow? Is there an alternative?

2. How many iterations are "reasonable"? My "other" files are typically 100+ revisions and my main Assembly file is typically 50.

3. Is there some way to eliminate the requirement to round-trip through the Cloud? It's not providing me any advantage, and it's slowing me down a 1-2 minutes per iteration which totals to 2-4 HOURS per project.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

There is no right/wrong answer, in my opinion.  There are lots of other workflows, certainly, but a lot depends on what is most important to you.  If you are most concerned about the upload/update time, you could do everything in a single design, using local components.  That will likely have other downsides (a much larger, more complex design with a big timeline).  You mention that in the current workflow, the designs have configurations.  Are those actual Fusion Configurations?  That would certainly be much harder to manage in a single design.  

Another thought:  If you are using Fusion Configurations, that means you have a commercial license, in which case you also have access to "Edit in Place".  This can expedite your current workflow, because any changes you make to external components will immediately be reflected in the top-level design upon exiting from Edit in Place.  That could reduce the upload and update time.

[amagrude]

I didn't know about "Edit in Place" and I like it a LOT. 🙂 (Yes I'm using commercial.)

Yes. I'm using Fusion Configurations. For the purposes of this conversation, I have a Box design file with 10 different configurations of the same basic box. (Changes to size, wall/bottom thickness, interior characteristics, etc.). I have an Assembly file which pulls in those boxes to make sure various combinations (e.g. 4 of configuration 1 + 2 of configuration 4-8) fit and stack nicely. In that file, I'm inserting ~20 links to components and then assembling them using Rigid.

Your solution works great - if I insert a component which doesn't have associated configurations. It's ZOT fast and perfect!

However, "Edit in Place" is grayed out when trying to work with an inserted component which has a Fusion configuration associated with it. I'm going to dig through the documentation and this forum to see what comes up. I'm currently thinking to not use Fusion configurations at all, and have a file per box, because I'm confident in the most of the shared aspects of the box design (stack-ability, lids, sides, etc.)

Thank you again for the nudge in the right direction. That's exactly what I was hoping for.

[jeff_strater]

I am a little out of touch with what is supported for which license, etc.  But, you are probably correct that Edit in Place for an instance of a configured design is not yet supported, which would be unfortunate for your workflow.  I would guess that this is on the list of enhancements (there is no technical reason that I know of why it could not be supported), but I do not know where on that list it is.  @karina.harper , perhaps you can better address this question, thanks!

[TrippyLighting]

The slow performance when updating configured designs and assemblies is well known by the developers and I can assure you that they work feverishly on getting that rectified.

[karina.harper]

Thanks @jeff_strater @TrippyLighting - 

Yes, EIP is blocked with Configs for now and is not on the immediate roadmap. It does sound like the root of the problem here is performance, which as Trippy said I can attest to it being an ongoing project and is slowly (ha) getting better with every release. There are a lot of little things that contribute to it; in addition to some relatively new tech that is driving the config capabilities in the background (to put it simply). 

So, @amagrude  if it's not snappy enough for you today, standard designs and legacy processes may be the way to go until you feel that Configurations is at the speed you need it to be.

Cheers,

Karina

[amagrude]

Thank you all for your updates and information!

Now that I've had the, what should have been obvious, Edit in Place option pointed out to me, I can sufficiently mitigate the performance issue, becuase I know  which designs I'm going to iterating often and which are stable.

Thank you for clarifying the future roadmap. I've been quite happy with the frequent updates and improvements thus far and look forward to what y'all do next!

Andrew