Duplicate project

[Anonymous]

Can I really not duplicate a project? I have  project with assemblies with external links and considerable engineering drawings which I want to re-use as the basis for a new project, a quick search suggests this can't be done, rebuilding my assemblies won't take too many hours but am I really going to have to redo all my engineering drawings?

[jack.scolding]

Does this copy the drawings as well? or only the Model

[lichtzeichenanlage]

AFAIK you have to export the drawing as *f3z file and that will include
everything

[jack.scolding]

sorry I didn't explain fully. I have a model which has multiple drawings for each of the parts. Is there a way to export the main model so all the drawings still attached or do I have to export each drawing individually and then re build the model with the new component's which are bound to the drawings?

[stephen_mcmillan]

Exporting from the drawing is a good suggestion, but what if a project has dozens of drawings?

Imagine the design of a 3d printer, for example, with hundreds of linked parts, subassemblies, and many drawings.

Now we want to iterate on the design, keeping the old design files as-is, but creating a whole copy of everything that we can edit without disrupting the original file set.

[jack.scolding]

I tend to work with projects with around 30+ drawings which alot of the time only differ in total height/width/depth. Being able to automate the size is fantastic but after that i still have to re do all the drawings. which shouldn't have to happen. If i could copy/paste the model changed parameters then have updated drawings automatically be made instead of still being tied to the original copy that would save me many many hours.

[stephen_mcmillan]

I just discovered a work-around for this:

Use just one drawing, but with many pages.

I have a "distributed design" with linked components.

I created a multi-page drawing of the assembly and each part.

From FUSION TEAM hub (autodesk360.com) navigate to the folder and select the drawing, and download as Fusion 360 Archive (.F3Z). This is an email download link. This includes all linked designs and referenced components. Save locally.

In F360 create a new folder (named for the new version), and then upload the .F3Z.

Unfortunately the file names are the same as previous, so you have to be careful with working from the correct folder.

Should be easier, but it works.

[tedbradley314]

Use case : I have created  a project with about 10 component 3D models and a dimensioned drawing for each. They're all joined together in an assembly. Now I need to design the exact same project, but with different dimensions. Without the ability to copy the project, what should be 30 seconds (right click > copy) will be a 5 hours of copying each component, recreating the assembly (joints), and recreating each drawing from scratch. Depending on the value of my time, if I have to do that more than a few times per year, it would be more economical for me to purchase a SolidWorks license. 

[dusan.naus.trz]

Yes. Buy Solidworks. It's faster. 😅

[lichtzeichenanlage]

I agree that this should be possible from withing Fusion 360. But you don't have to do it manually. Go into your project in Fusion 360 and open team viewer (web) by clicking the globe icon.

Than hover over the assembly you want to duplicate in the list view , click on the download symbol (arrow down) and export the assembly as fusion 360 archive. The archive will contain all references that are used in the assembly.

After a short time you get an email with the download link. You can now import the archive in fusion into a new project.

[stephen_mcmillan]

My suggestion is to use multi-sheet drawings, instead of dozens of separate drawing files. It's easier to manage.

From the Web/Teams viewer, export the drawing as .F3Z archive, and save locally. It will contain all linked files.

Create a new project or folder in F360 data panel for the new iteration of your design, and upload the archive.

You now have everything in a new, unlinked version, ready to make changes, without affecting your original version.

[dusan.naus.trz]

I am very glad that there are users who can answer. I think sometimes it is better to make a video, because many programmers think that it works somehow and they will understand everything when they try it. Sometimes even the customer understands it better with videos. I don't want to offend anyone, but there is sometimes a big difference between programming something and actually using something often. We are waiting for your reaction. Does it work for you? @tedbradley314 

[lichtzeichenanlage]

AFAIK multi sheet drawings are disabled in the free version. So it doesn't work for all of us. Might be wrong about this.

[stephen_mcmillan]

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that.

I have also not tested if the .F3Z archive export automatically includes all (separate) drawings that reference an assembly, or subcomponents.

[aaron.searl]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I'm struggling with the exact same issue in 2024 and cant find a solution anywhere. 

Has the issue being discussed here been fixed yet?

[stephen_mcmillan]

Yes, they have added the option to include drawings.

For example:

Create a new project, with a top-level assembly, and associated drawings.

In the data panel, right click on the assembly, and click COPY.

Dialog box now automatically detects associated drawings and gives you the option to include them.

Create a new folder for the location to copy to.

Done.

New copies are not connected to the original files, which is good.

Be careful, because the file names are unchanged, so you now have duplicate named files/projects. Use folders with revision history names instead. I use the same folder name with -REV 2, etc.

[aaron.searl]

Hi Stephen

Thanks for this, the issue is, this method only brings 2d drawings made from the top assembly 3d model, and not any of the 2d drawings linked to all the individual components used in the top assembly. 

The work around of having one multi sheet 2d drawing for each component from the top assembly 3D is not practical in my use case.

[stephen_mcmillan]

Agreed, this is still a big problem.

Also, I now realize that my previous suggested method also fails to copy any referenced components, so basically the whole idea of copy project is broken.

In any modern CAD workflow we need a way to iterate on designs, while maintaining unedited copies of previous versions, and not needing to recreate drawings or rebuild assemblies.

Currently, the export / re-import workflow is the closest option, but it doesn't handle separate drawings of each different part.

Solidworks has "Pack and go". Autodesk needs to emulate this functionality.

[Mublio]

Upvote for this one. We have one master assembly with several drawings and linked components that we adjust for each customer. The export import trick sometimes work, but exports sometimes fail, it takes quite some time and it's just not a convenient way.

Hope this will be on the roadmap for this year!