Fusion 360 personal use

Having not used my Fusion 360 account for a while due to work commitments

it became out of date ? I was requested to update to the latest version which I did. All seems well and I now have an up to date personal account with access to all my previous designs and learning samples.

I have a previous design already drawn in cad and have the cam also complete from a while ago, however I now realise that I need to edit the design slightly.

Fusion 360 now shows my CAD design as read only and will not allow me to edit. Is this standard for the latest version or have I done something wrong.

Fusion keeps leading me to the prices page and so I am assuming it is a restriction they have introduced. Can anyone advise please as my only other option as I see it is to redraw my original design from scratch hopefully with no mistakes.

Dave

If you open the Model and EXPORT a stp file to your computer and save under another name then IMPORT new named stp file it may show the original sketches, if not with the model loaded you can generate any number of new drawings from the model.

Emgee

The free subscription to Fusion now has a limit of 10 editable files at any time.

If you reach the limit of 10, then you have to make at least one of them read only to edit an earlier one. Do this from the data panel

This is mildly annoying, but is only really going to cause problems if you insist on having each component as a separate file.

Click the icon at the far top left which is a group of squares, this will open all your projects and show which are read only and which are editable, just change them around so you can edit the one you want.

NOTE that if you use features that are no longer accessable in the free version such as "steep & shallow" you won't be able to edit those and you will also have to split the code up for each tool if you had cone the CAM with more than one.

Not good to export and reimport as that only brings the part back and you have to do the CAM all over again.

I only use mine for a few parts at a time to create a working drawing. However you can turn the editability on and off for parts so as long as you don't have more than ten files open as editable it isn't a problem in a session. I assume it is a bit like how Vault worked, in that in a collaborative working environment more than one person could have a file on their computer but it was only editable by one person and other people could then regenerate the file to update it on their computer.

If you can't edit a file losing the CAM by Exporting and Importing is a small price to pay, as you say Jason only 10 minutes to do the CAM from the model.

Emgee

Thanks guys

That's todays job sorted.

All the help is very much appreciated.

Dave

Well, Ive tried to change things but to no avail.

I get the error message " READ ONLY YOU HAVE BASIC ACCESS TO THIS DOCUMENT.

I followed your advice Jason and also similar from the internet.

My editable folder is empty and my documents do not show the switcher which allows me to change from read only to editable.

Any suggestions anybody ?

Dave

Quote "Any suggestions anybody ?Dave"

Contact the Fusion 360 Team, I have always found them very helpful.

Brian

I have been on the forum and cannot get any answers as yet. As for contacting the Fusion 360 team directly for an answer I am struggling to find the contact to give a direct question to or to ask for advise.

Dave

If you can open the document there is also an option to make it readable, ringed in pink. You can also see the tab below each file where it can be switched and the 4 out of 10 files I have set as editable.

If all else fails turn off computer and restart incase F360 needs a reboot.

File-count limit:

I used Fusion 360 for only a few months and no longer have the exercises I created; but I did find you can save your drawings locally rather on Fusion's on-line server, its default setting.

That low limit didn't apply at the time, as far as I know; but if the location-option still exists would local saving get round the limit?

Is it possible to use Fusion off-line (with local drawing files)?

Sort of for a short time, but it's a cloud product really. Fusion has a limited off-line capability to cover network problems so users aren't dropped straight in the poo if the network fails. However, the length of time Fusion will carry on locally is limited. Sooner or later it stops working until reconnected and the local files are copied back into the cloud. The cloud is the master copy, not the local file.

Early on a ship's officer asked the Fusion forum if he could take Fusion to sea and they said it might work for up to a month - don't! Not sure how the current version behaves except I think it's fussier. Fusion have since added team support allowing several designers to work simultaneously on the same model and it's difficult to do that without being connected more or less permanently to the network. They've also tightened up the licence and I'm fairly sure it's not possible to start a Fusion session without an internet connection. To edit local files you have to activate the cloud, in which case it's not off-line.

Dave

I see. I think it offered that joint-working approach to professional users when I sampled it, oh, a good 5 or 6 years ago now. Long time in computing years. Ah well, it was just a thought!

' ' '

So effectively Fusion holds your drawings whether you know or give permission. It's difficult to see how Fusion attracts the commercial customers it is really after, given that glaring security hazard and the increasingly poor security of the Internet generally.

When I was trying it, I described it to the manager of our works IT section, who were charged with heavy security responsibilities.

When I said I could not imagine the design office in a company like ours using a CAD system that defaulted everything to the Internet, he laughed, and agreed wholeheartedly.

Commercial customers with security needs are more likely to fork out for Autodesk's other product rather than the economic "fusion" of several of their products with limited capability that is aimed at those not wanting to pay several times as much, cload storage is the cost you (don't) pay for the cheaper option of F360

It's such a shame for us hobbyists that Fusion is now so limited but I have continued to use it without too much detriment to what I have always used it for. Not sure how many of us in this community were using generative design tools to improve our models. If you are lucky enough to have a .ac.uk email address then you can also get a much more useful license that opens up some of the lost features of Fusion.

At work we use the Autodesk products FeatureCAM and Inventor. Although they're aimed at the commercial sector I find them a lot less intuitive and far less friendly to use. Have tried to import designs from Fusion to FeatureCAM several times and never successful.