McMaster-Carr import causes program lock-up.

[Careless_]

[Using Latest F360 Update as of this post on MacOS]

Whilst attempting to use the McMaster-Carr Import function, I mistakenly clicked SAVE on a cap screw component I wanted to import, but it was set to "3-D SOLIDWORKS" instead of STEP or IGES (I rarely use the function, so I forget sometimes).

There was no warning, error, etc. The rest of the program locked up. I could not click "CANCEL" to close the box. But interestingly enough, I could still browse the McMaster-Carr catalog, though selecting STEP or IGES and saving did not produce anything.

Attempts to click on anything from F360 in the background resulted in the MacOS "bonk" sound indicating invalid action attempt.

Luckily I saved shortly before because I had to Force Quit.

EDIT:

Seems that after retrying, even IGES will lock up the dialog box.

I attempted with STEP thereafter (after force closing 2 or 3 times, hoping my file was not damaged or reverted to some older version), and although there is no indication to select STEP files only, it does work with STEP files. 

Though there is no indication that this is the only acceptable CAD model from the catalog.

In light of these lock-ups, it would be detrimental to some users if they hadn't saved in a while, because F360 doesn't seem to recognize that the program was force-closed, so it does not produce the file recovery dialog box (which is usually a few actions behind the current point in the timeline anyway, but still useful for its purpose).

There should be a emboldened letters beside the "CANCEL" button that state "SELECT STEP FILE FOR IMPORT", or the actual action should be renamed "Insert McMaster-Carr Component (STEP)" or something to that effect.

A lot of things in F360 need to be looked at and redesigned without the expectation of user intuition being a key factor between an action being successful and the program locking up.

Otherwise, most features work well.

[Phil.E]

@Careless_

Thanks for taking the time to post about this.

This is a known issue that we have been working to fix for a couple months. 

The problem is that on Mac there is no way for the UI thread to show a dialog like this:

Windows shows this dialog

There is a fix of sorts for Mac that prevents the lockup of the UI when you pick the wrong type, but it will not be released until later this month. We are still looking for a way to break the MacOS UI rules about dialog warnings, because that warning dialog is what you really need in this situation.

The other ideas we have are to show a dialog message the first time you insert a part, with a message about what types can be inserted and a link to help.

Sorry for any inconvenience and thanks for the advice. We never intentionally provide this kind of experience for you, this one just flew under our radar for too long. 

Regards,

[Careless_]

Phil,

There seems to be more issues with the McMaster-Carr search function.

On the mac dialog box that pops up, I attempted to search by part number, and it worked exactly once.

I've now restarted the program, restarted my computer, and tried again even in a new file.

I simply cannot click on the Search input field in the McMaster dialog box anymore. It will not allow me to type anything. If I click on the Magnifying glass, an F360 box pops up telling me to enter something in the search.

This is kind of annoying, since I have to go through pages of McMaster's huge catalog to find something I've already found.

How do I fix this, or better yet, why is F360 preventing me from using the search function?

[Careless_ · Accepted solution]

Ok, I found a way around the issue.

I have to right click on the search input field- a context menu comes up as it would when right clicking anything, and instead of using the context menu. If I press the ESCape key to close the menu, even though the blinking text field cursor is not actively blinking, I can type on the keyboard and the text shows up in the box.

MacOS 10.13.6 on latest F360 update as of yesterday.

[Phil.E]

@Careless_

Try this instead. When the McMaster-Carr web page opens in Fusion, click once anywhere on it. Then click into the search field.

What you are experiencing is that the page does not have focus when it opens, and the search field happens to be the only place where this causes an additional click. The first click in the McMaster-Carr window brings full focus to the window, and the second click in the search field allows you to enter text into it.

I've logged an improvement to fix the focus issue. At most you should have to just click once in the search field, if at all.

Thanks for reporting this and sorry for the confusion. Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Regards,

[Careless_]

Phil.E, your recommended solution does not work as well as the solution that I posted.

For some reason, the McMaster window does not detect focus as readily as if you do the right click + escape trick that I outlined. The action I posted has worked 100% of the time for me, the click + search bar click action you recommend works maaaaaaybe 50% off the time.

I'm not sure why, but currently my provided solution seems to be the best way for activating the search bar. Since I know about it now, it's not a huge issue- but it would be nice to have it fixed automatically. 

Perhaps if there's a way for Fusion 360 team to have the modal window activate mouse focus on the search bar by using any CSS ID's it has associated with it. Just an idea.

Thanks for looking into it.