A misunderstanding of the Fusion design process ?
I regularly see comments on forums from people who don’t want to use the free hobby licence for Fusion because of the ’10 open file restriction’. This suggests that perhaps they are used to conventional bottom-up CAD design whereas Fusion creates a powerful top-down architecture. (You can still use the bottom-up approach and this is probably why the confusion arises).
A bottom-up approach has each part of an intended assembly created in its own file and the individual parts are then brought together in an assembly file. This creates a 1+N count of files needed for an assembly where N is the number of parts involved. It also places a high demand on the creator to monitor and check linkages between the individual files.
A top-down approach starts with the assembly file and all the components are contained within that file. The file count is just 1. Clearly a top-down file could become enormous if there are lots of components but it is still one file. Unlike the bottom-up method, the linkages between the components are automatically updated.
One of the more helpful descriptions of the differences in the two techniques is the first 5 minutes of this video by Product Design Online.
The other big advantage of a top-down approach is the ability to have parametric modelling of the file. This uses a look up table of all the key parameters in a design. These parameters can be just a value or can be equation linked. They are represented in the design dimension values as text and equations. Once again Product Design Online has a good tutorial.
Although I have a paid licence to use Fusion I have never had an issue of needing anywhere near 10 projects open at anyone time but I might have had well in excess of 10 components active.
Links to similar or related post are listed below : –
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- Fusion Tips using 3D Connexions SpaceMouse
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- Upgrading to Windows 11
- Fusion Electronics Library Notes and Crib Sheet
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