Cura Interaction with Autodesk Fusion 360

[SteveCox3D 85]

Would it be possible to change the Cura software in the way it interacts with Autodesk's Fusion 360 to the same way it did with 15.04?

 

What I mean specifically is that with 15.04 once I'd chosen to 3D print a part from Fusion 360 and automatically sent it to Cura it would open a new session if Cura wasn't already open.  After that if Cura was left open and further transfers were made it inserted the model into the same session.  With latest Cura each time I send a model to 3D print it opens up a brand new session even if there's one already open.  This adds time to the process because you have to wait for Cura to open up again.

 

When is this a problem?  When I'm optimising a design for 3D printing I check the layer stack in Cura, then go back into Fusion 360 and make modifications to make difficult areas easier to print, and then repeat the layer stack check.  It's not unusual for me to do three or four repeats of this to get to a final design for 3D printing, and opening a new Cura session each time makes this less efficient.

 

This is part of a Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) workflow that I teach as part of my Fusion 360 training activities.  I mentioned this to @ghostkeeper at the recent Community event when we had the software discussions on the Friday afternoon.  

[ghostkeeper 105]

When starting Cura with a system command, you can provide the option --single-instance. This will not launch a new instance of Cura if one is already open but instead re-use the old one (replacing the build plate with the newly loaded file if a file name is also provided).

 

I don't know exactly how Fusion 360 calls Cura with its "make button", but I'd expect it to be some sort of macro that calls Cura via a system command. It should add the --single-instance parameter to its call.

[SteveCox3D 85]

Thanks @ghostkeeper  I'm a bit confused though about where the system command is. When I use Cura 15.04 as the 3DP Utility it opens a single instance, but when I use 3.2.1 it doesn't.  

 

As I write this though I have maybe realised the difference.  When I use Cura 15.04,  that's already available as  pre-installed option in the default dropdown list, whereas I have to link Cura 3.2.1 as a "Custom" 3DP Utility.  There must be a different system command being used when it's installed from the pre-installed link compared to the custom generated link.

 

My apologies - it doesn't sound like Cura is the issue here. Once I understand it better I may need to post this request to the Fusion 360 IdeaStation instead.