Can't move components in file browser

[eddevane]

Hi,

I was able to move components and bodies around in the project I'm working on a couple of days ago but can't seem to now. The more parts and copies I add the more confusing the file structure of my drawing is getting. When I try to drag and drop nothing happens. Am I doing something wrong? I've only started using components to organise my work with this drawing so it's a distinct possibility...

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @eddevane,

Can you expand a bit on the workflow you are trying? For instance - are you moving components/bodies into other components/bodies and now it is not letting you? Do you have the timeline enabled? If so, it is possible it is not letting you due to dependencies in the timeline that would not allow for this restructuring. It is hard to tell though - can you please post a screencast of the workflow here. Also, can you attach the model so I can take a deeper peek.

Thanks,

[eddevane]

Hi James

yes I want to be able to group components within components. I had been able to do this fine and it was a great way of keeping a hierarchy. You can see the component "Structure" which is where I was keeping it.

Any way of sharing the model just with you rather than publicly?

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @eddevane,

You can share the model with me at james.youmatz@autodesk.com. Can you also send me your exact steps to reproduce. 

Thanks,

[eddevane]

workshop instruments / SoundCheck

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @eddevane,

Thanks for sharing. As I thought, I believe this is due to parametric dependencies within your timeline. I tried to move a component to live somewhere else - and as you noticed - I could not get it to move. As a test, I disabled the timeline (thus getting rid of these dependencies) and was able to successfully move it. Although narrowing down where the dependency lives might be challenging with the model - one thing I have to ask - if you are going to be moving components, why are you not building the components where they should already be? For instance, if you wanted to nest a component within a component, the workflow should be to first activate the component. Then, when you create a new component, it will live within the activated component, instead of creating its own component. 

Thanks,

[eddevane]

the way I started out my model was the way you suggested, but whatever happened meant I could no longer do that, hence the dozens of components that can't be moved to where they should logically be. I've too much to do with this model to do too much digging. Will try and improve my workflow with future projects though...thanks for your help

[3Dpcb]

I have the same problem.

My quick fix is to copy / past and then delete the one I can't move.

[webberen2502]

SAME issue here !! Suddenly after the latest update ?!?! 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Can you show the behavior in a screencast?

günther

[rbtHTJJU]

<<< why are you not building the components where they should already be? >>>

Why? Because we are HUMAN and we live in an environment where things change and we want and need to change things and we need a mechanism to be able to do that without going stark raving nuts. That's supposed to be a parametric design program. Parametric means if you make a bunch of stuff and then you change your mind and want the "eXee" thing to become a "waYeey" thing then you just go back to where you made it and change it and VOILA! - it all updates. Right? And it works. But that needs to map to simple things like grabbing a component in a list a dragging it up to another position and then the GD computer do all the fancy stuff behind the Autodesk OZ curtain and get it done.

It would appear that we need to convince the programmers of such product that it is their job to do this. Not the designer's job to spend 2 hours trying to figure out how to merely drag and drop components in a list. So let's urge the programmers who have crafted this amazingly irrational design tool -  to do their job so we can do ours. Yo?

Oh and - If you craft software for a living - please do us all a favor and read    "The Humane Interface"

Oh BTW does anyone know how to move a component? (ha ha that was a joke - but not a joke that it took me 2 months to figure it out 😐  )    

Thank you and good day.

[marta.almajano]

You are completely right. I have never see a program like this before. Being myself a programmer, I also cannot understand the answers people becomes by asking about a problem: "no, it is not possible" "It is like it is" "we are working on this" "it is your (bad) way of working" etc. A good programmer says: "I will solve it", but at Autodesk, apparently, there are a bunch of programmers disturbing each other under the leadership of people only looking for marketing. It is a great thing to get this program for free, when you are a student, but if they think that, after loosing 75% of the time struggling against the buggy software, those students will continue to use the tool in their professional lives, they are really missing the point.

[Lambodesigns]

Any word on when this is going to be fixed?   This is the 3rd thing that is now broken in the latest release (that I've found) and really wishing I could roll back to a prior release.  Other 2 that I've experienced were in the CAM portion of the software and the "workaround" is less than stellar and causes jobs to take much longer in some cases from the g code generated previously for the same parts with the same layout.  I'm also on a paid subscription using this for paying jobs..... time lost is money.  

[Anonymous]

I had the exact same problem today after an update.  I couldnt move a component into a sub assembly like I was doing all day long.  I finally got it to work after I set the timeline all the way back to the front then set the timeline back to the current status.  Not sure what happend but now I can move items again.  Hope this helps others as well.

Cheers

[Anonymous]

I'm having the same issue with the latest version: 2.0.7830.  I'm trying to move a simple component, which consists of a single sketch and extrude, into a new component I just created for my subassembly. My timeline is all the way at the end!!! After 30 minutes of searching, I ended up working around this by copying & pasting new and deleting my original component. Please fix!!

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous this worked for me! thank you!

[Anonymous]

Hi @James.Youmatz ,

I'm following one of your team's livestreams and by going step by step I've encountered this problem. So maybe take out your head from 'almighty know everything place' and fix it.

One of the steps is to divide existing component and convert one of the resulting bodies into separate component. Then, move it higher in hierarchy. It cannot be done by just drag and drop.

it's 1st on November and problem still exists.

(Solved it by suggested workaround: copy/paste) 

Cheers 

[tien.tnEJZWK]

I found this, hope it would work with everyone. 

Select all components you want to move, then Suppress all Joints its have. Then you can move components in Browser. 

[The.Broken.Engineer]

This should be marked as the solution. Just tried it and it worked a treat. Looks like it is something with the deleting some of the timeline items in components. Once that is done then you create more components it seems to get befuddled. Scroll back to the beginning in the top level of the project and then back to the end fixes this.

Well done you!

[mike_hodgson]

I'm a new user (just started with Fusion 360 today).  I've been struggling with this same issue and pulling out my hair trying to figure it out - reading through forums, online product documentation, tutorial video on YouTube, etc.  For me, the issue was that my timeline marker was part way through the timeline (I think I had been trying to figure out what activating a component did and how to "deactivate" it after I had activated it; i.e. activating the main/default component; this all resulted in me being somewhere in the middle of my timeline).

As The.Broken.Engineer said about 9 months ago in this thread, when I dragged my timeline marker to the end of the timeline I could then move bodies between components, delete components, drag bodies back into the main component etc.  I did get a bunch of warnings (when deleting test bodies & components) about dependencies getting trashed, but I didn't care.

I have to agree with some of the comments above about the interface being unintuitive and very confusing (this is coming from about 30 years in IT and having a programming background).  And this whole timeline thing sucks big time.  How do you disable the timeline entirely?  I can't see how it would be of any help to me, only a hinderance.