Fusion 360 for a beginner

[Brian Hutchings]

Ron Gingers reply is spot on. It took me some time to realise this but once I'd grasped the concept, things became much easier.
Brian

 

[CNC-Joe]

Maybe some guys are having trouble on the difference between CAD and solid modeling. With fusion you dont want to draw LINES, you want to draw solid objects, like cubes and cylinders. You then manipulate the objects by doing things like extruding, cutting. It is very much like you do things in the shop- you start with solid objects and hack away at them until you get a part. Fusion has the one huge improvement over the shop in having the long needed 'putting on' tool.

Think Solid object, not lines and arcs.

Hi Ron, - Don't forget, though, with Fusion - go into Design, pick a plane to sketch on - sketch all of the lines, arc's, program in all of the dependancies (if any and you want to make it parametric), once the sketch is correct - exit sketch, and then extrude, extrude-cut, etc. In the end you want one body. Then jump over to Manufacture and start to lay out the mill or lathe parameters to cnc machine it. I love Fusion - it's super simple to work with.

 

[CNC-Joe]

Ikrestorer....yes you need to use the constraints, which can be a PIA, but down the road they are imperative. You using the "join" or "joint" function to put these together? I am sure there are many ways. Personally with what I do I split most of my drawings down one plane in the middle as I make casting plugs.

For example, I effed up some holes on these two parts, one not straight, one wrong drill for the tap, anyhow, human right? (I haven't been using 360 that long, maybe a year or two, so I know little, but somehow seem to be able to figure it out. That is one of the nice things, with the basics under your belt you can pretty much figure out how to get anything done.) So contacted the seller of the kit, no response. I am not one to wait around so in about a half hour I drew up one - printing now.
View attachment 113495
As you can see, well not so well, but it is a very complicated part. Yes, I drew on most of my knowledge of 360, but looking good on printer so far. Here is photo of drawing. Haven't figured out how to get into PDF yet, but down the road....LOL
View attachment 113496

How did you manage to get both the front and the back views at the same time?

 

[nealeb]

Hi Ron, - Don't forget, though, with Fusion - go into Design, pick a plane to sketch on - sketch all of the lines, arc's, program in all of the dependancies (if any and you want to make it parametric), once the sketch is correct - exit sketch, and then extrude, extrude-cut, etc. In the end you want one body. Then jump over to Manufacture and start to lay out the mill or lathe parameters to cnc machine it. I love Fusion - it's super simple to work with.

I'm with CNC-Joe here - Ron was right in saying that you forget all that line and curve nonsense and start thinking 3D shapes (and in fact, I go further - just forget all you ever learnt about 2D drafting and pretend that you are starting from scratch. It really is easier that way!) However, as Joe says, you get a whole lot more flexibility if you start with a sketch, extrude, etc. Takes a little bit more getting used to, but using just the 3D shapes is like sticking to using files when you are standing next to a fully-tooled vertical mill!

 

[Michael Rosenbauer]

Hello at all,
I didnt read the whole tread. I started with fusion by a tutorial at the web. Now I cant leave my hands from it.
But for sure to by a book for F360 is waisting money. Since the book is on the marked the next 3 versions of 360 are established and then happens what the starter of this thread descripes.

All in all F360 is the easiest CAD program I ever used.

 

[maybach_man]

Hi all...can you scan in a drawing and scale and trace?

 

[awake]

You can do that in FreeCAD, so I'm sure it can be done in Fusion360. Note that "trace" might mean different things in this context - it is possible to process a drawing through something like Inkscape to turn it from a bitmap into a vector drawing using Inkscape's tracing functions ... but unless the drawing is super simple and super clean, the chances are good the vector drawing will be full of teeny-tiny vectors. It is not the best result to try to work from if you are going to do any editing on it.

The other option is to set the scanned picture as a background, and then develop a sketch over it, tweaking curves and lines until it matches to your satisfaction. This produces a much cleaning set of vectors (sketch), but of course takes a lot more work.

Again, all of the above is based on the programs I know, in this case FreeCAD and Inkscape; it may be that Fusion360 can do it all in one step ... ?

 

[kquiggle]

Regarding the comment about not spending money on a book, I would second that. Going through hands-on tutorials is the best way to go, and really the easiest way to get started. I put off learning 3D CAD for a long time because I thought I would have to spend too much time climbing the learning curve, but once I got started (using OnShape online tutorials), I got the hand of it pretty quickly. I think I probably spent about 20 hours to get comfortable with the process. Of course I am still learning, and I in no way consider myself an expert, but even with that limited training I can now produce some pretty complex drawings. Another thing I found useful was to use 3D CAD for every project, no matter how simple - this is a good way to get more familiar with the software, and working on an actual project helps with the motivation.

On "tracing" a scanned in drawing: You can do this in OnShape. I have also done it with pictures of items that I wanted to turn into drawings, just to get the general outlines. What I have found more useful is to set up a second monitor on my computer - I have a blueprint on one monitor and the CAD program on the other. That way I can easily refer back and forth, and zoom into details if I need to.

 

[comstock-friend]

I'm now to the point that when drawing and/or doing tool paths in Fusion 360 that I just go ahead until something doesn't work, then Google the specific problem and usually a couple of videos or a F360 page pops up with an answer or insight. Couldn't figure why my 1/8" ball mill couldn't pocket my part last week in a 2D contour; Lars popped up with a video to try 3D and bang, it worked!

So it's just 'do it' until stumped and look for the answer to that problem.

John