File Strategy? - Burning up my 10 File limit on F360

I am sure that there is a smarter way.

I’m new to Fusion360 but have have had some limited success creating parts and cutting them out on my CrossFirePRO. It’s been a real gamechanger.

The problem is that I am just doing “quick and dirty” drawings in the ADMIN Project and quickly filling up the 10 file limit there… the options for “New Folder” or “New Project” are greyed-out which I assume is because I’m just using the free version of F360. Still, there must be a way to organize myself in a way where I am constantly forced to just delete or purge old drawings so that I’m not always up against the 10 file limit?

From an organizational standpoint, it would be really helpful to have a few folders or at least nested directories for similar files depending on what I’m doing… and I’d like to be able to easily find and delete old/incorrect versions of drawings once I finally get them fixed and finalized. I just stumbled across the post showing how to find the hidden “F” and “Q” Folders where local copies of all my files are actually stored, so I should be able to clean up the mess I’ve created there.

If anyone has a good system that is helping them to stay organized, and/or avoid the 10 file limitation of the free version, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks!

-TM

I don’t use Fusion, but the 10 file limit is only for active projects. My understanding is that you can make them inactive and just swap files between being active and inactive to stay under the 10 active file limit.

Edit: the proper terminology is “editable” and “read only”. You can make your files “read only” to free up space in your 10 document limit. In order to make a “read only” file editable, you’ll have to have space in your 10 document limit. You can do that by making another file “read only”.

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Thanks! I do recall seeing that option… and I think I played with it a bit.

Initially, I had no idea where my local files were actually being saved and it appeared that my data was being lost or hidden by F360 when I would look for a specific file.

My next challenge: Figuring out how to get back from an “extruded” view of my part to the “dimensioned” view. Often times, I will cut a part out… then realize I want to refine one of the dimensions, but since I’ve already moved from “DESIGN” to “MANUFACTURE” to build the G-code file all I seem to have left is an onscreen view of my part as a solid body, but only about 5% of the time can I get lucky and manage to find the original dimensioned drawing to make my edits on.

One step at a time… I’m having a TON of fun with this new tool though!!!

-TM

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@ds690 is right all you have to do is click on read only and it will free up a spot. You aren’t limited to the number of read only files you can have and, provided you don’t have 10 active files you can reactivate a file at any time.

You will see all the sketches listed on the left of the screen you can click on the sketch and select the eye to open the view. If you want to make changes you will need to select edit sketch. I’m on my phone or I would post some screen shots for visual aids.

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Hey Thanks!

All I need are some clues here and there!!! I’ll dig in a little deeper and see if I can figure it out!!

-TM

Once you are in the design work space there are 3 areas to access “edit sketch”

1 On the left as @72Pony said

2 on the very bottom on the history bar by right clicking and selecting “edit sketch” on the sketch you would like to edit from the menu that appears.

3 By right clicking on a piece of sketch geometry and then selecting “edit sketch” from the menu then appears.

This is a important point to be aware of.

The eye icon toggles on and off the visibility of that line item. This comes in handy for many things in Fusion 360.

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I don’t save anything with Fusion 360, If you right click on the sketch you can save as a DXF on your computer. But I don’t use Fusion 360 for post.

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confused by your comment that you don’t save anything in fusion? maybe explain why?

Yes you can only have 10 editable project so you just change them to read only and your not limited anymore.

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i do post with different software. Also, the cloud is just someone else’s computer. and the ten file thing and if i have no internet connection how do i get it.

Save a *.f3d file to your computer and use fusion in offline mode. the one catch is it has to talk to the mother ship once every two weeks via internet. You could tether to your phone internet if you had no access to internet.

SheetCAM is great software.

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but if i save it as a dxf then i can use anything to open it. i get lag issues every once in a while. could be problem on my end and things won’t move. i save as dxf and kill it and reopen and all is usually good. just find it a lot easier to have a ton of revisions local and maybe keep the final there as a back up. that seems to be my file strategy.

i hate the lag and spinning beach ball. it’s not built for poor connections. i really wish they would offer a lighter local version i’ve grown accustomed to it for cad. but i don’t need all the 3d stuff. kind of like a jeep with an atlas lockers and 38” to get groceries.

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Another thing you can do is have multiple sketches in a single file. Click on New Sketch (#1) and in the dialog tree you will see the new sketch show up at location #2. Double click on the sketch name and you can rename it. All of these sketches are in the same single file and only count as one.

Edit: This can get a little messy but if you use the “eye” and turn things on and off then it is manageable.

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@Gogo

Suggestion was save it as an .f3d file. Then when you click on it to open and don’t have an internet connection, Fusion will open it and notify you that you are working off-line.

Now you are speaking my language!!

-TM

@TinWhisperer

Seems the April update took the off-line option away. I tried and because the new log in procedure is web based, it’s a dead end. It says you must be logged in to Autodesk before you can access F360.

Do you know of any work around?

I am not sure.

I just checked the Autodesk forum and there are some rumblings.

Either they made a mistake with the update or there nailing the lid of the coffin down for offline mode.

I almost never work in online mode anymore. I use to transmit my internet through the powerline to my shop but now i have wifi all the way from the house. ( which is handy to have all the shop systems and house systems on the same network )

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Somebody smarter than me convinced me to start saving all my sketches in .DXF, this solved the 10 file limit for me.

It is ten active files. so you could have 1000’s of inactive files that you could toggle active or inactive.

IMO *.F3D would be a better choice since it would have all the other data still attached to it.

If a file is totally finished and you plan one using SheetCAM then *.DXF would be fine.

If you planned on modifying or editing later a *.f3d would be a better choice

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What other data? Asking for a friend…

Canvas, Assemblies, Multi sketches and bodies and tool info and CAM templates, sheet metal bend data, Material data, any renderings or animations. Constraints in the sketch are maintained for easy future editing. Any Derived entities from other documents… etc.

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