Using MS Word documents for general project notes

[Anonymous]

I would like to upload an MS Word document for each project. It worked great this morning. I created the file, saved it on my desktop (Macbook, Sierra 10.12.6), and then uploaded it to the project. It displayed as a PDF in my browser when I double-clicked it, and then to edit it I had to install A360 Desktop. So far so good.

Then I did the same for another project. But now when I try to edit the document from the first project, it tells me "The design is being prepared for viewing and will be displayed as soon as processing is complete. This may take several minutes." It's been way more than several minutes.

Is this not a reliable way to do general notes for an entire project? I don't find the "comments" for designs to be very useful since I can't edit them. Or is there another way? Whatever I use, I need to be able to edit and add to it over and over as the project develops. I'm a one-man band, so collaboration with other users is not a concern. Thank you.

[paul.clauss · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for posting! It does seem odd that you are unable to view the Word document you uploaded first after adding another one to a different project - if you can reproduce that issue please record a screencast and attach it to this forum thread. At this time, I have been unable to trigger the "The design is being prepared for viewing and will be displayed as soon as processing is complete. This may take several minutes" message.

One method that you could consider using for project notes other than the Fusion 360 comments and the Word documents could be project Wiki pages. When logged into your hub in a web browser (at myhub.autodesk360.com), you have the option to create Wiki pages for any project in your Fusion 360 hub. These pages can be edited and saved throughout the design process - I have shown how to create a Wiki page for a project in the screencast below.

Hopefully this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions.

[Anonymous]

Paul, thank you. I must have read your mind because I pasted the text from those two Word documents into Wiki pages this morning, and that seems to be a good solution. I started to re-upload the two documents after reading your post, but got an error message about an outage of some sort. It's still spinning...

I uninstalled A360 Desktop this morning. Somewhere in the process of uploading and attempting to edit the Word documents I was prompted to install Desktop. When I started having problems with the Word documents, I searched for info on Desktop, since I wasn't familiar with it. Looks like it's a client for syncing files to the cloud, similar to the Dropbox client? One place said that it only works with Autodesk's desktop programs, and not Fusion 360. Another said something about the free version being limited to one project (which might explain why I had trouble when I uploaded a Word document to a second project?). Anyhow, I'm still pretty confused about A360 Desktop, but if you think Wiki pages are the best way to go for simple, edit-every-two-minutes project notes, I'm happy with that. Seems easy and reliable.

I've had a nearly three-year layoff from using Fusion 360, and now I'm trying to get up to speed with it again. A lot has changed, but the fabulous support hasn't. Thanks again!

[paul.clauss]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for the response! I'm glad to hear that you are back to using Fusion 360!

My understanding of the A360 Desktop app is that is is similar to Dropbox or Box Sync. I don't believe that you can directly connect Fusion to A360 Desktop at this time - your Fusion hub is in a different location than your A360 Drive, which is what is seen in the Desktop app. I was not aware of any limitations with a single project in the A360 Drive, so you may be able to get better advice on those questions in the A360 Forum. 

I do think the Wiki pages will work well for your purposes! I actually only found that feature recently as well and am excited to use it to keep some more detailed project notes than I was able to in design comments.