How to delete design

[trhodesL6HUL]

I've tried restarting the machine, and restarting Fusion 360. Still getting the same error message.

[paul.clauss]

Hi @trhodesL6HUL

Thanks for posting! It looks like you are unable to delete a design that is not referenced by any other designs or in use by another team member.

Sometimes this issue can be resolved by opening the design, saving a new version, and then closing the design. After the new version is allowed to sync to the cloud you should be able to delete it. Please try doing so and let me know if you are still unable to delete the design.

You might also want to try deleting the design from your A360 Dashboard rather than the Fusion 360 Data Panel.

Hopefully this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions - I am happy to continue troubleshooting.

[trhodesL6HUL]

Saving a new version and deleting from the A360 Dashboard did not work. What should I try next?

[masa.minohara · Accepted solution]

Hi @trhodesL6HUL,

Did you insert the design to any other designs, and then delete the link by any chance? If that's the case, the older version of the design is still referenced and you will need to delete its parent first. In the screencast below, I inserted "Child" into "Parent" and saved "Parent" as version 2. Then, I broke the link in "Parent"and saved it as version 3 so it seems like "Child" is not used in any other designs but actually it is still used in version 2 of "Parent". To delete "Child", I deleted "Parent" first and then I was able to delete "Child". 

If you need to keep the parent design, please download a copy from A360. I hope this helps!

[alexandwirtz]

this is really annoying, I'm trying to delete old designs since half an hour but can't get it to work! why is it not possibel to check a box saying "delete all references!"? ...I can't find any references in any version but it still tells me so. is there another clean way to handle this?

Thank you!

Alex

[masa.minohara]

Hi Alex,

Are you receiving this error?

As I mentioned in the earlier post, have you deleted the parent design? At the moment, I am not aware of another way of deleting designs that were once referenced.

If that does not fix the issue, would you be able to invite me to your project and let me know the name of the design you are trying to delete? I'd like to take a deeper look at it. My email address is masanobu.minohara@autodesk.com

[masa.minohara]

Hi @alexandwirtz,

Thank you for inviting me to your project! I didn't have time to check all the versions of both designs but I found they were once used in Lipod. You need to delete Lipod first, then you will be able to delete MiniLight alt! If you need to keep Lipod, please download a backup file from the web before deleting it.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

[johnson2423]

Is this still the most current method of deleting a file? 

What if you can't remember what the 'Parent' was that the child is referencing?  I"ve changed the files name to "delete" to segregate it but I"m not certain what design I stuffed this parent into.  So I can't just download the "parent", delete the parent, and the re-upload the parent....

https://a360.co/2w00sru

[David_Ewen]

This supposed solution is all good so long as you know how, when, where and why you have referenced a file.... I can't remember what I did 10 minutes ago, much less some obscure reference to some version of some design somewhere in my tree of designs...

But, the issue still remains - how to find references when Fusion says there is no reference, yet still will not delete the file?

Fusion should be able to advise what the Child -> Parent or Parent -> Child references are regardless if "link" is broken in the design.

* Or, enable us to delete files if the link is broken. It's broken, so why should that stop the deletion?

* If the file is deleted, yet is "unlinked" in another design/file, then if it is needed later, open that unlinked file from the design that contains it. It should be stored in that design if there is no external link.

[David_Ewen]

After a bit of digging around - (I've struggled with this issue for months, maybe as long as 2 years....)

I finally discovered that I can investigate previous "references" of a file - BUT  only on the web, NOT within Fusion itself.

I'm running the MacOS version of Fusion, maybe it's possible in the Windows version.

[David_Ewen]

More and more and more and more and more steps, digging, attempting to find, downloading, uploading....

4 hours later, still can't delete 2 files. Can I charge Autodesk for my time?

After these 4 hours of attempts to delete just (2) files.

I have discovered

1. downloading a drawing of an assembly (.fz3 file) 
   1. includes all of the components of the assembly file AND the assembly file itself and all sub assemblies
      1. Uploading - of course - uploads all of these files
         1. My suggestion - make a new folder for each file if it is 
            1. A drawing
            2. An assembly
      2. Uploading does NOT link the original assembly file to the drawing.
         1. Not the same way it was originally linked
            1. ie: the drawing is part of the assembly
               1. Now the assembly is part of the drawing - so it's backwards. 
2. Certain tasks can ONLY be done on the web, and certain tasks can ONLY be done in the Fusion App.
   1. Finding links can only be done on the web
   2. Uploading fz? files can only be done in the App.
      1. Well, you can upload them via the web, but they are unusable and inoperable.
3. Once a design is downloaded and then re-uploaded (into it's own folder of coarse)
   1. The app and the web don't seem to sync.
      1. One doesn't know what the other contains.
         1. Especially if you attempt to "clean up" the mess Fusion just created by uploading every component of an assembly, which sometimes contain multiple assemblies nestled. Not to mention drawings.

To top it all off;

Downloading even (1) file is extremely tedious. 

1. Open the App
   1. Find the file
      1. Click the version history button 
         1. Click the link to open the file on the web
            1. Click the download arrow
               1. select the file type
                  1. wait for the download message informing you that an email will be sent
                     1. click the "OK" button
                        1. wait 5-30 minutes for the email for (1) file

This should be a 3 step process

1. Click the file in Fusion
   1. Select the file type
      1. Click the Download button

No email, no going to the web - etc etc etc

[alexandwirtz]

Hi David, 

I gave up on it a long time ago and just simply create a trash folder in the project and move anything I don't need any more in there. (..or name it "old stuff", archive...).

Alex

[jpgX6TC9]

This question is still unresolved.
And my projects are cluttered with files that I can not delete or move.
It is very painful. It's time for a simple way to delete files.
cordially

[levleon13]

How stupid that this is not yet solved????

Same issue... can't find the reference. Really annoying and actually thinking migrating to other software if such simple requests  cant be fixed\done for.. jesus crist, almost 6 years

[jhackney1972]

If you are interested, this Blog Article and Video will tell you how to get rid of undeletable files.  I suggest you create a Trash folder, move all files you want to get rid of, that give you issues, and run the process on that folder from time to time.

[levleon13]

yep.. i dont have other options i guess.

[David_Ewen]

This solution works on all files.

I have used it to remove / delete old files that I could not remove any other way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAx6tOHFRfo

[David_Ewen]

Jay,

I also posted a link to your YouTube video.

Thanks for this info! It really helped me clean up my data.

David

[mmcnallyTJJW3]

I'm sorry that is in no way a solution. 

[jhackney1972]

I never said it was a solution, just a workaround to get the job done.