[CLOSED] Edit in Place Tech Preview: Feedback and Discussion

[helfenj]

Hello Feedback Hub,

A public Tech Preview is now in Fusion 360 called Edit in Place (EIP). EIP enables the ability for users to edit an external reference (XREF) from within the context of the parent assembly and make associative links between a parent assembly and an XREF. EIP is intended to smooth the process of making small changes to an XREF without leaving the parent assembly and to improve concurrency within Fusion workflows.

EIP Benefits

• Streamline Workflows - Reduce or eliminate the need to open an XREF in its own tab to make edits. 
• In-Context Editing - Editing from within a larger assembly provides a better context and understanding of related and surrounding components.
• Assembly Associations - Enables associative referencing of assembly geometry from within the XREF via Derived Assembly Contexts.

Share your feedback in this thread

Share what you like, dislike, any surprises you encountered, or areas of improvement related to Electronic Cooling workflows, example projects, or online help materials.

We encourage you to upload a video of your screen, take screenshots at key moments, or other documents to share feedback.  

Topics may include:

• Understanding the terminology
• Entering EIP
• Actions performed while EIP is active
• Exiting EIP

Learn more about the Edit in Place Preview on the Fusion 360 blog.

Thanks,

John Helfen

Fusion 360 Product Manager

[Frans.Hessels]

A wonderful feature.

When using Edit in Place just to inspect the position of a linked component and no changes are made or no editing is done I am missing the possibility to cancel or dismiss the Edit in Place command without Fusion 360 calculates the whole setup again which may take a lot of time. 

[robpicinic]

There are some nice updates this time around........but Edit-n-place? Wagging finger - ref Mr. Babu in Seinfeld

Nice try guys! BUT, this is not all that useful at this time for me. I use a lot of sub-assemblies, and this would be super useful if I could edit my sub-assemblies as well. Love the sentiment, but not a valid workflow for me in a production environment. (I expected something more like Inventor)

I expected to edit everything from single components to sub-assemblies referenced into a top level assembly. Only single parts at this time. Well I will live with this for now, but need to edit sub-assemblies. Hopefully in next update of edit-n-place!

Also, I don't see the changes made saving back to the original model while I'm in edit-n-place.  This should be available right away. Not just forcing me to jump out of the edit, then saving the entire model. I suppose I will have to live with this as well for now.

BTW......I get you can have the option to opt out of the changes before saving back, but at least give us the option while I'm in the ref model edit mode.

While testing this edit-n-place, I had the ref models open in the background. I saved the changes after editing the in-place edits and expected the changes to be reflected right away, or having the update tag available to update the open models, but only the note that I have not the latest file open. Hmmmmm. Not sure I like this, as I have to shut down the model and reopen to see the update. Can't we have the standard update icon and force the updates - If we want?

The good - Edit-n-place parts (finally)

The bad - Edit-n-place sub-assemblies are not available (I'll wait, but this needs to be addressed)

Like I said, I like the updates. This software rocks! A few things would be nice to have updated for real production usage. Overall - I'm a fan and love using Fusion 360. 

Keep the updates coming! Can't wait for some of the manufacturing updates as well. Real game changer. I can't see why people still use MasterCAM.

PS>> Any plans for updating the drafting environment soon? Would love to have more options for styles in the 2D environment. ........I know. This is not the right post to add this to the comments. 

[robpicinic]

WAIT a minute! Hold the phone!

I just noticed that I can edit-n-place SOME sub-assemblies. BUT not all!

What is the deal there?

I can't seem to understand what is going on. 

https://autode.sk/2Q4K9B7

[kgrunawalt]

Thanks for the feedback! You can edit subassemblies in place. If you mean you can’t create joints or insert components while in EIP, that is a current limitation of the preview. Your points about save/reopen are noted. I’m interested in your save workflow. Fusion assemblies reference specific versions of parts, so when part is changed, we assume assembly used to edit it in EIP should reference new version and get saved. But we recognize this isn’t convenient if multiple people are working on same assembly concurrently. Is that your situation?

local subassemblies (not inserted) don’t require EIP. Also, you need to return from EIP of one subassembly before EIPing another.

[robpicinic]

Here is a link to a video I created on some items not able to EIP. Some items seem not to follow the EIP rules.
https://autode.sk/2Q4K9B7 (BTW.....I did crash for some reason, but I don't seem to replicate the issue again)
I haven't thought about multi-person environment. That is an interesting point. I would like to have the ability to save while I'm EIP for sure. But, how can we manage the entire model with a potential of two or more individuals working on the same top-level assembly. I'm not sure this is a good idea.

Thanks for your reply.

[helfenj]

Hi Frans,

Thanks for the feedback. We have this on our list of improvements.

Thanks,

John

[Frans.Hessels]

Hi John,

Thank you. You and your colleges are doing a great job.

Greetings,

Frans

[helfenj]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your feedback. We understand that EIP may not be perfect for everyone's workflows, but appreciate hearing more about how you are using Fusion. Glad it may help with your part editing.

Is this a file you can share with us privately?

Understanding how you are building would help guide where we can improve.

Thanks,

John

[gautham_kattethota]

Hi, 

The reason Edit in Place is not available on some XRefs in your assembly is probably because they are Direct Models (non-parametric).  We are working on supporting them.

Gautham 

[robpicinic]

Ok...That is perfect.
Thank you for your help.
All is good now!
PS>> While working on other features being available with EIP. Why not add parameters to be referenced as well?
Would be great to have this power available.
[cid:image001.jpg@01D5F6CC.4DBB4EE0]

[robpicinic]

If you want access privately. I can send you a link.

But the file I use is a master file for my production.

Send me a private request via my email address - robpicinic.is@gmail.com

[matth]

The feature is not available when parent design is in direct modeling mode, i.e. 'Do not capture design history' mode. The XREF has a timeline, the parent model does not.

Sorry, this is duplicate feedback, as it has been addressed by another user.

[kgrunawalt]

Yes. Right now you can only EIP from a parametric assembly (with timeline) into a parametric model (with its own timeline). We don’t support direct models in the preview.

[helfenj]

Actually, if we can confirm a few things we may not need the file.

Can you confirm these are direct models?

Can you tell me more about how you are using them? (just basic context)

Are they imported parts or purposefully built direct models?

Thanks for the continued feedback.

John

[matth]

I have a few workflows where I use direct modeling:

• Imported files.
• When the design intent is changed and would require a restructuring of the timeline, often I will use direct modeling to expedite the concept model.
• I use direct modeling often to display a design scene where there are many linked models in context, often the linked models have timelines.

Generally speaking, I model first with timelines and only go direct if a change is significant or more flexibility is needed.

[robpicinic]

The parts/assemblies that cannot be EIP are translated models via step.
no historical/parametric geometry contained in models
But if I do capture history in the file.....and only just that. They are now eligible to EIP
So....a work around for sure.

[elafere]

Hi

I have a full assembly containing 6 xref, and nothing else.

Different components are related to each other by alignment, joints and rigid group between them.

When I go to render the full assembly, I get an error message:

"Your rendering could not be rendered because an error occurred."
DELETE RENDERING

Problem is with cloud rendering. If I use local rendering, error does not appear, and rendering is done without any problems.

It is not a problem of each xref individually, because I can render each one by itself separately.

I spent several hours trying to figure it out and finally find that I can't render my full assembly if I have an 'Assembly Context' between different components.

And trying to make reverse engineer, if I remove the 'Context' generated between components, the rendering works!

If you like, I can share my full assembly with you.

Due to the impossibility of automatically rendering with each saved version of my assembly if I use 'local rendering', and the fact of not using my computer resources, it would be very convenient to solve this problem to be able to use cloud rendering.

Thanks!! a lot

EIP is what I need!!

[gautham_kattethota]

Hi, 

Thanks for reporting the issue and identifying the culprit.  You are right, the cloud rendering is failing because the presence of assembly contexts.  I am able to reproduce the issue.  We will try to fix this issue soon.  Sorry for the inconvenience caused.  

Gautham

[Anonymous]

Good afternoon everyone.
My first impressions are awesome. Thanks for this wonderful update.
I really hope that this is the beginning of a full-fledged module for CFD.

Good work and good health.