Users with Role: viewer, can't actually see folders they're a Viewer of - how to restrict editing of models?

[MJHyne]

Hi folks,

I have done a fair bit of searching on this one, & the best I can come up with are posts from a good few years ago which only seem to skirt the issue I'm having.

So, the issue is this: I have team members in Fusion that I want to be able to see models / folders, but not edit them, they'll need to place them into their own models, but under no circumstances do i want them changing those models.

So I assign them the User Role "Viewer".

But, unless they're an "Editor" or higher, they can't even see the folder in Fusion, to which they are added. If I make them an "Editor", they can see things just fine, but now they can also make changes (& as in a recent example, cause some pretty heinous problems).

If I switch them back to "Viewer", the folder disappears, as if "Viewer" should actually be "Non-Visible". Which strikes me as weird, but perhaps I am drastically misunderstanding the role?

The gist of it is that I want to control read / write access to folders within Fusion to avoid key reference models getting changed, but I can't see how to achieve this, despite my best efforts.

Am I being a plank? Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? 

[prichas · Accepted solution]

Hey Matt,

Thanks for the details.  You are not doing anything wrong.  Our viewer role today only allows users to access designs via the web (Fusion Team).  This causes some major confusion because the projects don't even show up in the data panel.  Since everything in Fusion 360 is open and writable, this viewer role is protecting the data from being opened and cached to user local machine.  We absolutely are changing this for a better experience.

We are in the process of enhancing the viewer role to have these projects show up in the data panel and still protecting the contents from being downloaded by only allowing the file(s) to be opened in our web viewer.

However, this doesn't solve your problem of your users being able to use or insert these designs into their assemblies or drawings.

So, drum roll.....we are introducing a new roll named Reader.  Which allow you as an admin to assign this role and ensure that the file is protect and can not be overwritten.

As soon as we get closer to making this available to everyone, I will post some updates.

Regards,

Shayne Prichard

Fusion 360 Product Manager

[MJHyne]

Thanks for the reply, & for already being in the process of creating those additional roles!

Your explanation is great & makes things much clearer - I wonder; in regard to the new role, would it be worth considering allowing admins to adjust the role rules for themselves, or even allow them to create new roles & assign different rules to them?

Not to screw with what you're already doing (which sounds great), but just a thought that might make it easier all around as you're not having to make specific roles for specific use cases?

For instance, I do want my colleagues to open the models in Fusion & be able to place them in their models, I just don't want them changing the model - so right there you have several check options per role for an admin to turn on / off:

• Can / Can't see in Fusion Data Panel
• Can / Can't add to models from Data Panel
• Can / Can't Save As a New Copy
• Can / Can't Edit & Save

In an ideal world I'd even be able to restrict what Folders they can & can't adjust - being able to assign rules by Folder as we can currently assign roles by Folder would be one way, but a bit of a mission to manage with multiple folders I guess (such as we have!).

Another thought I had on the same lines - Milestone Flags being "locked" so that only certain roles could unlock them for further editing.

But, that's just me dumping my brain into a comments box. Everything you've described sounds like a huge step forward, so I look forward to those changes going live, & thanks for your reply 😄

Thanks again!