I give up, is there a way to make cloud tool libraries work?

[chjade84]

I have three computers I use F360 on and was quite looking forward to having the shared tool libraries between them.  However, it's never worked well for me.  Libraries come and go at random, sometimes being duplicated and today, I've got no libraries at all on one computer,  one of the two on another computer and both on the third.

I tried the various "find and delete these files and restart Fusion and don't open the libraries so it can sync" solutions through the forums and other places online but none have done anything.  All three computers have the same problem and I usually have to go to a360, download, then import the library I need that day if it doesn't happen to want to show up.

Any word on allowing us to choose where our tool library files are stored so I can just use Dropbox, Drive, etc to share them between computers?  I'd love to hear why this was never an option in the first place; seeing as they are just text files with the tool information in them.

[masa.minohara]

Hi @chjade84,

Thank you for posting and I am sorry to hear about the issue! Could you try the following steps to see if that helps?

1. Open the CAMTools folder in the Assets library in the data panel
2. Hit the Refresh button and wait for libraries to show up
3. Once libraries show up, open the Tool Library in the CAM workspace of Fusion 360

Regarding usage of Dropbox, you may consider submitting the idea in the IdesStation community forum here. The IdeaStation is constantly monitored by developers and product managers, and is currently the most effective way to request a product enhancement.

Hopefully this helps!

[chjade84]

It shows up there, I refreshed but it's still not in my cloud tools.  It was there; I was using it and went to do a new op and lo and behold it's gone again.  I force import libraries downloaded from a360 to get back to work but eventually I end up with duplicates.  I don't know how much time I've wasted with this issue.  I know they are "working" on Dropbox but I don't hold out much hope that will be resolved in the next few years.

[masa.minohara]

Hi @chjade84,

Thank you for your response! I am sorry to hear that the issue still persists. I had the same issue on one of my machines this morning as well, and I was able to fix it by restarting the program. Could you try restarting the program to see if that helps? I'm not sure if this affected but I also cleared user cache data and restarted my computer as well, so please try those.

Hopefully that helps!

[chjade84]

Clearing the cache made the duplicate .json library I uploaded last night at home, appear here at work.  So that's at least a start.

I've been dealing with this for several months and with daily restarts of the software and computers so I imagine this won't be the last I see of it.

[chjade84]

No good, lost the wood tools library sometime between my last post and now (2 hours).  I've actually not really been using Fusion, it's just been open in the background.

[andy_concept303]

Same continual frustrations here too, I've wasted so much time with this now!

As a workaround, every time I make a tool library change I export to Dropbox as a back up.

But, when I then try and upload to cloud in Fusion, it initially shows the new version, but when I hit refresh or the round circular symbol, it jumps back to the old version! (see attached)

And yes, I've tried restarting Fusion and clear cache.

[chjade84]

Hey Andy.  I got so frustrated I figured I'd try and fix it myself.  Here's what I did:

I've worked out a solution that seems to work just fine although I just got it working.  Using Windows symbolic links and Google Drive, now called "Backup and Sync" you can save your tool libraries (and I assume your CAM posts, etc) in your Google Drive folder to have available on multiple computers.

This is not a fully tested solution so be careful, make backups, follow at your own risk, etc.

Step 1: Open fusion and make a new tool library in the "Local" folder and name it appropriately. Then open your cloud library and hit ctrl + a to select all your tools, then ctrl + c to copy them. Open your new local library and hit ctrl + v to paste all those tools in. Now you have a duplicate library but stored locally.

Step 2: Make a folder in your cloud folder (Drive folder, Dropbox folder, etc) for your files to live. I named mine "FusionToolLibraries".

Step 3: Go to the folder containing your Fusion libraries located at C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\CAM360\libraries\Local and move those .json files to your new cloud sync'd folder, in my case, "FusionToolLibraries".

Step 4: Open a command prompt as an Administrator and make the symbolic links. Symbolic links are basically file shortcuts but as far as programs can tell, they are just the file.

The syntax is "mklink "path to local file" "path to cloud file"

So in my case it was:

mklink "C:\users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\CAM360\libraries\Local\PCNC 1100.json" "C:\Users\Chris\Google Drive\FusionToolLibraries\PCNC 1100.json"

That will make a symbolic link in the Autodesk library folder to the library file saved in the cloud folder. Do this same thing for each .json library you want to have sync'd in the cloud.

Step 5: Do this same procedure on each other computer you want sync'd, but now the .json files are already in the cloud folder so just remove the originals from the Autodesk folder and then make the symbolic links, same as before.

You can now use your sync'd libraries in Fusion by simply using the "Local" libraries instead of the "Cloud" libraries. I don't know if F360 re-checks the files periodically but if you make a change in one library it may not show up in the others until you either restart Fusion or click the little refresh arrows in the top right hand of the navigation pane.

I only just finished setting this up so it may have problems, but so far so good!

[andy_concept303]

Many thanks for that, really helpful!  I have been saving my tool libraries in Dropbox anyway as a backup.  I had wondered if there was a way to point them at the local folder, although not familiar with that process.

For the time being I've resorted back to using local libraries, and updating on each machine once changes are made.  Kinda ridiculous really!

[Anonymous]

Hey there,

I'm having exactly the same troubles, so I too would be interested in a solution.