Workaround for Saving Fusion 360 Projects with Linked Components
One of the nicest features of Fusion 360 is the ability to bring in components from other designs via a link into your current design. Then if the linked component gets updated, you can easily get the latest version for your project which imports that item. I’ve been building up a collection of designs of electronic parts that I use in my projects such as Adafruit Feather boards, sets of header pins, and other discrete components such as IR receivers and jacks and plugs. After laying out all of the components in Fusion 360, it is then much easier to build a 3D printing enclosure around those components. It also allows you to create really nice looking renderings of the project when writing tutorials.
Unfortunately when it comes time to share my open source designs with the world, it’s very difficult to save these Fusion 360 designs to my hard drive to later be uploaded to GitHub or Thingiverse. Fusion 360 stores its files in the cloud under your account most of the time. It does have the ability to save a design to your hard drive but not if that design contains linked components. If you try breaking the links it can create reference errors especially if the linked components themselves contain linked subcomponents.
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One of the nicest features of Fusion 360 is the ability to bring in components from other designs via a link into your current design. Then if the linked component gets updated, you can easily get the latest version for your project which imports that item. I’ve been building up a collection of designs of electronic parts that I use in my projects such as Adafruit Feather boards, sets of header pins, and other discrete components such as IR receivers and jacks and plugs. After laying out all of the components in Fusion 360, it is then much easier to build a 3D printing enclosure around those components. It also allows you to create really nice looking renderings of the project when writing tutorials.