Assemblies

In Fusion, an Assembly is a collection of components that function as a single design. Any design that contains two or more components is considered an assembly.

You can create assemblies that leverage a variety of different strategies, based on the needs of your design. You may:

Create assemblies that consist of all internal components, all external components, or a mixture of both component types.
Define the structure and relationships in the assembly at the beginning of a project or as you evolve the design.
Take a top-down or bottom-up approach to the entire assembly, or vary your approach for specific components and subassemblies.
Work alone on a design or collaborate with other project members.
Collaborate concurrently or asynchronously with other project members.

Distributed designs

A distributed design is a design with one or more external components referenced into the assembly.

external components illustration

Distributed designs enable multiple project members to edit different components in the assembly at the same time. As each project member edits components in context, the entire assembly updates to reflect their changes. You can see who is editing each component, update component versions as project members save them, and ensure everyone is always working with the latest version of each component in the assembly.

distributed design example

Updates in the assembly

An Out-Of-Date icon displays in the following places when a project member saves a new version of the design or an external component in the assembly:

In the the Application bar
Next to the default component in the Browser
Next to an external component in the Browser

If a subcomponent nested within an external component is out-of-date, the Subcomponent Out-Of-Date icon displays next to the parent external component.

browser - components out-of-date

You can update the active design, external components, and derived features that are out-of-date, and out-of-sync assembly contexts all at once or individually.