Fusion out button in 2021?

[DarthBane55]

Hi, we have a problem with vault 2022, due to MS Server 2012 not being supported by autodesk anymore, but still officially supported by MicroSoft until 2023.  I have a post about that in the Vault forum so I don't want to duplicate the post here.  The problem leads us to use Inventor 2021 for 2 more years though, while paying for the subscription, with no benefit to us.  We use Inventor CAM as well, and the push for CAM is to Fusion.

Here the question I have:  In Inventor 2022, there is a button to push the files to Fusion, and the files in Fusion maintain a link to the Inventor files.  This is something we are interested to try, as Fusion gets all the new CAM functionality.  Problem is, we will be with Inventor 2021 for 2 more years (if we are to stay with autodesk).  Is there any way, and hope, that autodesk could bring this button to Inventor 2021?  It would bring a partial sense of relief, because at least we'd get the new CAM features as they come along, via Fusion.  It could be an addin or whatever method, but this would add a bit of value to our coming 2 years of paying for nothing.

[ChrisMitchell01]

The direct send to Fusion capability is not planned to be added to 2021. However, you can still interoperate with Fusion from 2021. You can either just leverage the "Desktop Connector" to save Inventor files to Fusion Team for use in CAM workflows, or you can use the synchronization capabilities from Vault to share files/folders as part of a release workflow.

Thanks,

Chris

[DarthBane55]

Hi @ChrisMitchell01 ,

according to our reseller, we cannot use the desktop connector with Vault basic, only with Vault pro.  We use basic.  Is there something our reseller doesn't know?  If we can make this work, that would be fine, thanks.

[ChrisMitchell01]

Yes, that's correct - you need Vault Pro to use that capability. So you're best option is to use Desktop Connector to share the Inventor files directly to Fusion Team, (outside of vault).

-Chris

[DarthBane55]

Ok, that won't work, because it would force a copy to Fusion drive to be made, which would not be linked to the vault data.  The problem is that the desktop connector cannot be configured, it uses the Fusion drive period.  If we could change the path to use the vault working folder then it would work.

If you see any method we could use to make this work, without making copies (files without link to vault), please let me know.

[ChrisMitchell01]

No, I don't know of any workarounds for those. Without Vault Pro you will indeed be creating copies which are  then sent to Fusion team.

-Chris

[DarthBane55]

@ChrisMitchell01 

So I went ahead and installed Inventor 2022, without installing the vault, just for the purpose of trying out the "send to Fusion" new button.  I can open files in 2022 without saving them, and send to Fusion, that worked fine... however, this is only for models (.ipt) files only it seems, when I tried to send an assembly, it told me that this was not supported.  Is that normal?  If so, I mean...  what is the use of this?  Why would someone want to send a model on its own to Fusion, when it's fine in Inventor, I don't get it 😯

The use of this button for me, is to use CAM in Fusion, because Fusion CAM is getting quite a bit ahead of HSM.  CAM usually consists of an assembly, with fixtures, parts, stocks, clamps, and whatnot.  And I cannot send to Fusion with the button and keep the link to Inventor.

Please guide me on how to make this work, if it is indeed supposed to deal with assemblies, otherwise, could you tell me when this should be implemented?

Thanks a lot!

PS: within Fusion, the file sent from Inventor is named correctly in the file structure, but in the top bar, it is called "untitled*(1)".  If I want to save it, it is asking me for a new name, but I can see the file in the tree (file structure), and it has the correct name there.  It makes me worried that I have to rename it, and then it will lose the link.  Seems a bit odd there.  If you know what we are supposed to do once in Fusion, please let me know as well.

[ChrisMitchell01]

Yes, what you see is the current scope of this. Parts only. Think of the part being designed in Inventor & then all manufacturing related activities being done in Fusion, (overly simplistic I know). This is most definitely a first release & it will be further enhanced this year.

After you've named/saved the part in Fusion then the associativity for changes in Inventor should be preserved.

Thanks,
Chris

[DarthBane55]

Alright, thank you, will be waiting for assemblies to come.  Will test the naming thing, was not sure about that because the file is named correctly in the file structure, maybe we end up with 2 files then, because when I save with a new name it will do a duplicate, I guess I can delete the 1st one then.  Anyway, I'll play with that, thanks again.

[garin]

There was a strong desire to support assemblies but it made the project too large for 2022 so we opted to ship parts only for now and work on further enhancement. We would love to hear how you would use it and if there are other things you feel it needs to support. 

[DarthBane55]

@garin 

You asked for my usage of this function:

We have been using Inventor for many years, and have built all our CAM templates, fixtures, everything needed for CAM, in Inventor.  We don't really want to rebuild all that in Fusion, plus the CAD side is far superior in Inventor than Fusion, and also we use the Vault, so we do not want to switch to Fusion for CAD, but since the CAM side is only being actively developed in Fusion now, we don't want to fall behind in CAM, so we would build the CAM files in Inventor, and shoot them over to Fusion for CAM.  Like I said, these files are assemblies, containing the fixtures, parts, stocks, clamps, etc.  So if the function would support assemblies, it would benefit us greatly for this purpose.  Because we use Vault basic, we don't have the functionality between Inventor and Fusion that Vault pro provides.

So to sum it up, we use Inventor for CAD, build the setups etc (assemblies) in there, and use the button to go to Fusion, for CAM purposes only.  Any changes would be done in Inventor, and use the button again to update Fusion.  That would be the ideal situation for us at the moment.

[garin]

Great details, thanks for the feedback on why and how you would like to use Fusion 360 for CAM. 

I'm not surprised to see more than parts here. Great to understand bringing over things like  stock, clamps and I’m sure more than that. 

Thanks again!!

[andrew_faix]

Darth and I chatted offline and I showed him how he could derive his assembly into an Inventor part file, thus enabling the Send to Fusion command.  Sounded like it would be a good work-around for him.  @DarthBane55 , thanks again for chatting with me and please report back your experience with this proposed solution, good or bad.

[DarthBane55]

Hi Andrew, thanks again for the trick, and will keep you posted 😁