Karina Harper
Learn best practices on how to organize your Fusion files, links, and components with expert tips from Karina Harper, Fusion QA Engineer.
Are you feeling overwhelmed by files, links, and components in Fusion? You’re not alone—this is one of the most common questions for both new and experienced designers. Organizing your projects well from the beginning can make your workflow more efficient and your large designs easier to manage. Let’s break down my best practices for keeping your Fusion workspace clean and scalable.
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Understanding bodies vs. components
It’s important to understand the difference between bodies and components before organizing your design. A body is a single, discrete part—think of it as a “chunk” of geometry. Bodies are great for modeling simple parts, but as soon as you need to show assembly, motion, or group parts together, it’s time to use components.
Components are like containers: they might represent parts of a machine that move relative to each other, or subassemblies you’ll use elsewhere. You’ll hear about two types of components in Fusion:
- Internal components: managed within your current design file.
- External components: saved as separate files, which you insert into other designs as linked parts.youtube
Best practices for saving parts and assemblies
Let’s use a bicycle as an example. Should you save each part as its own file? For maximum flexibility and performance, the answer is yes! Here’s how I suggest you structure your designs:
- Save each major part (for example, the wheels, frame, pedals) as its own Fusion design file.
- Create an assembly file where you insert these as linked components (sometimes called XREFs or external references).
- This approach lets you edit each part independently and then update the assembly as needed, keeping individual files clean and lightweight.youtube
Bringing parts into new projects
To insert parts from one project into another without affecting your original files, use Insert > Insert Into Current Design from the Data Panel. This brings in your design as a linked component. When you right-click a component and choose “Edit in Place,” you’ll update the original file, and those changes can flow back into your assemblies.youtube
Sometimes, you want to break the link, making the assembly’s copy independent. You can do this anytime by right-clicking and selecting “Break Link.” Your component now becomes a stand-alone part, and you’re free to edit its features within your current file.youtube
Derive vs. insert: Two ways to reference
Fusion gives you two main ways to reference geometry across designs:
- Insert (XREF): Inserts a reference to another file. Changes require editing the original.
- Derive: Brings in a copy that still has some connection to the source but can be independently modified in your assembly. You get the best of both worlds: your derived part can have its own new features, while you can still update geometry if the source file changes.youtube
Distributed assemblies = better performance
For large projects, distributed assemblies—breaking up your design into smaller, linked files—are essential for performance. Don’t keep everything in a single file! If you stuff too many features in one timeline, Fusion will eventually slow down. Keep assemblies lean by linking out to external parts and only converting bodies to components as needed.youtube
Fusion files, links, and components: The Fusion organization recipe
- Use bodies for simple geometry.
- Convert to components when you need motion or grouping.
- Save major parts as separate design files, and use assemblies with linked components.
- Use derive when you want a modified but updateable copy.
- Break links when you need an independent version.
- Always structure large projects as distributed assemblies for peak performance.
Happy designing!