The 10 Editable File Situation with Fusion 360....

[Sumner]

I was asked the following in a PM ....

"I'm using the hobby license for Fusion 360.  As it has a limitation of 10 projects is there a way to delete a project to make room for others?"

.... and thought I'd answer it here as I came across this when they implemented it and was confused about it also.  Maybe this will also help someone else.

As you save the document you are working on you .....



...... will see the number of document you have saved go up until it reaches 10 when you won't be able to save any more.  This doesn't mean you can't  have more than 10 prints you are working on.  You can change some to 'read only' and then at a later date if needed make them 'editable' again.

I'll explain what I do in a moment but here is the rest of the story on how to move on and continue saving and editing documents.



When I reach 10 or before that I take a moment to mark all the ones they have in their list as 'read only' and that frees up 10 more that I can save and I save often.



Fusion lets you set up, I think, as many folders and projects on their servers as you want and I don't know if there is any limit to how many files they will save there.  Above you can see some of mine and you get that screen when you save a file you are working on.  A couple times I've gone there to retreive a file to continue working on it but don't really use their storage.

I like having control over my work so save all that I'm working on to my computer also.  It just takes a second to do this.  I set up folders for any project that I'm going to work on my computer also.  As I go along and want to save it (often) I will use the 'save' option and save the file to their site.  Then immediately I go back and use the 'export' option just below the 'save' option and the file will be saved/exported to my computer.  I do this for the .f3d files as I'm working on the print and then also for the .stl final print files.  There are a number of formats available to use with the 'export' option.

When I go back to a project I open Fusion and .....



...... use the 'open from my computer' option to go back to whatever I was working on.

This all works well for me and except for the extra 'save' step and taking 30 seconds to make documents 'read-only' is about the way I use any other program on the computer.  I also have a USB hard drive attached to the computer and usually will save what I'm working on a couple times a day to it also.  Yes, call me paranoid.

One other option I've starter using that only takes a second is after using 'export' I go back and further below that is 'Capture Image'.  I use that to also capture an image of the print at its current state with the same file name on my computer.  This saves a lot of time later trying figure out where you are on a design by the file name alone.  Click on it and you see where you were.

I save often and have options that way to easily go back to any point on a project or to use where I was at that step or another project. 

Sumner

[nkalanaga]

When I first saw this thread, I read it as "The 10 Edible File"...  3D-printed bacon, anyone?

[Rivet Miscounter]

Good tip.   I was well along the path of learning Fusion 360 because their initial "hobby license" seemed to finally get it right...but when they implemented the 10 file rule I abandoned it.   I guess I misunderstood it as a "10 and Done" type of thing.

I miss the days when I was on the quasi-creative side of IT and had access to all the cool apps.   I just can't justify paying exorbitant dollars for a hobby project.   Even this "rotating 10 files" concept is a big pain in the arse.   In this age of cloud computing and NFT's, there has to be some way of making this work better.

I get it if I was selling items for-profit...which ideally I would eventually do, and happily pay the piper.   But just to learn the software and churn out a few test cases it would be nice if they'd adopt the drug dealer business model....first one/few is free, then the price goes up.

[RBrodzinsky]

I haven’t had any issues with being limited to 10 “live” files at a time.  Anytime I create a new drawing, I always save the Fusion360 format to my hard drive, whenever I export the STL file, using the same name.  If I have to revisit a drawing which has moved off their server, it is easy to simply open from my PC, and I simply edit and re-save.  After any major design work, once I am happy with the objects, I tend to clean out the “live” files, leaving only the newest three on the server.

My hard drive is backed up to multiple locations, so that isn’t an issue, either.

[Sumner]

.....  Even this "rotating 10 files" concept is a big pain in the arse.   In this age of cloud computing and NFT's, there has to be some way of making this work better....

It isn't that big a deal.  I might be on Fusion for 5-6 hours and save pretty frequent and clearing out the 10 files might take 30 seconds.  Small price to pay to use software that cost others $500 a year. 

Sure they could do something about it but there has to be some incentive for someone to actually buy it I guess.  At this point I might spend $500 a year to use it (if I had to) as I'm addicted to it and it would still be cheaper than cigarettes' or booze  .  I did bite the bullet and spent $1100 for a new computer so that I'd have something quite a bit faster than what I was using,

Sumner
 

[Rivet Miscounter]

It isn't that big a deal.  I might be on Fusion for 5-6 hours and save pretty frequent and clearing out the 10 files might take 30 seconds.  Small price to pay to use software that cost others $500 a year. 

Sure they could do something about it but there has to be some incentive for someone to actually buy it I guess.  At this point I might spend $500 a year to use it as I'm addicted to it and it would still be cheaper than cigarettes' or booze  .  I did bite the bullet and spent $1100 for a new computer so that I'd have something quite a bit faster than what I was using,

Sumner

Yep, all good points.   I guess it just felt like I got the rug pulled and also that eventually they'd do away with the functionality altogether...been down that road too many times.   And the thing is, I was actually considering doing just what you did and plunking down the money.   Anyway, I pretty much agree with you and glad to hear that the files are "renewable".   I already use the "cigarettes or booze" excuse for buying too many trains.       Guess the software subscription will be necessary to keep me away from the casinos.

I'm also in the same boat PC-wise...intend to build one but I can't afford the insane prices for a video card right now so I'm holding off.   I actually have a line on a used video card (that is barely adequate, but it's free) so I'm thinking about moving forward anyway...so we'll see.  I've been researching motherboards/procs so it's definitely sooner than later.