Fusion 360. All I can say is WOW!!!

Technical Ted

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After looking for a free CAD program to start playing with, and after a suggestion here on this site, I started playing with Fusion 360, made by AutoDesk and free for enthusiasts. There is definitely a learning curve, but after going though several youTube videos and examples, I made my first CAD design... a collet I use on my milling machine.

Now, for simple sketch type drawings I may stick with DraftSight, but I think where Fusion 360 will really shine is in design work where you are designing an assembly.

Now all I have to do is come up with a project!

collet.jpg

Have fun!
Ted
 
That is one awesome drawing. I tried Fusion after my computer failed to accept my 15 year old copy of Auto Cad, but the learning curve and the pretty pictures were not my goal, I wanted drafting, like Auto Cad, so I chose DraftSight, it does all I want.
But for those designing assemblies, Fusion360 is probably far superior.

March 11! Bugger! DraftSight has stopped working. I guess my free sample time expired. Now to see aobut getting free AutoCAD. That's what I wanted anyway. DraftSight really is a poor copy.
 
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That is one awesome drawing. I tried Fusion after my computer failed to accept my 15 year old copy of Auto Cad, but the learning curve and the pretty pictures were not my goal, I wanted drafting, like Auto Cad, so I chose DraftSight, it does all I want.
But for those designing assemblies, Fusion360 is probably far superior.

I agree. For 2D drawings DraftSight is far better. Fusion 360 is lacking in that area currently. They may add functionality in the future, but right now, I find the 2D drawing capabilities in Fusion 360 weak.

As you said, the advantage IMO of a 3D CAD program is its' use in assemblies or other projects where you want to "see" a concept and/or design. For example, I've toyed with the idea of designing and building a tool post grinder for my South Bend 15" lathe. What I could do with Fusion 360 is start with a rough lathe object with the correct center swing, cross feed travel, compound travel and height, etc. etc. Then, build the grinder on top of the compound and it would be easy to determine the height to put it on the lathe's center, what size to make things, etc. I could play with things until I liked the way they looked, print out some rough drawings of the main parts and go from there... I don't know if I'll ever do this project or not, but that's the type of thing that comes to my mind when I think of uses for a 3D CAD program in a home hobby shop.

Hey, I'm retired and this is a hobby! :) I have almost as much fun making the computer generated drawings and pictures and I do making the parts in my shop! Also, I feel as we get older, we need to use our brains or lose them.... so learning a new software package that is challenging like this one can do wonders for helping to keep my mind young!

YMMV,
Ted
 
I am with Technical Ted with respect to being retired. A copy of Turbocad 20 was given to me by a generous member of this forum and is challenging my learning capabilities but it does let me produce 2d drawings that go to the hobby shop Haven't conquered 3d at this time . One feature I really like is dividing a circle, after selecting the icon put in the number of divisions and the circle diameter, pushing the enter button yields the object on the screen that can be printed and used as a template.
Have a good day
Ray
 
Having used 3d CAD for many years, the one thing I can say is the difference between Cad and 3D Modelling can be a huge hurdle. The two are completely different mindsets. I'm just starting to use Fusion 360 at work for drawing cabinets. Depending on the application 3d can be a huge asset. Drawing 3 views of a cabinet can be time consuming and you can make mistakes in one view or another very easily. Modeling in 3d lets me confirm part sizes, create a cut list, and generate multi view drawings with cut away views quickly - I know I will get faster as I get some practice. I'm using parametric design which lets me adjust the size very easily.

cabinet example.PNG
 

Attachments

  • COMMERCIAL 301 MODIFIED v1 Drawing v3.pdf
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Having used 3d CAD for many years, the one thing I can say is the difference between Cad and 3D Modelling can be a huge hurdle. The two are completely different mindsets. I'm just starting to use Fusion 360 at work for drawing cabinets. Depending on the application 3d can be a huge asset. Drawing 3 views of a cabinet can be time consuming and you can make mistakes in one view or another very easily. Modeling in 3d lets me confirm part sizes, create a cut list, and generate multi view drawings with cut away views quickly - I know I will get faster as I get some practice. I'm using parametric design which lets me adjust the size very easily.
Here is a clip of the pdf so you don't have to download it to open it....

Cabinet drawing.PNG
 
Dan, very nice!

One function in Fusion 360 that I want to learn for the stuff I'm going to be using it for are the Inspect functions. I saw a YouTube video where a guy was using it for checking and modifying his design based on interferences that displayed when he was moving some of his jointed components around... very interesting! Much better than having to make alterations to the parts during actual physical assembly...

Like I said, I'm retired and I'm playing! And this is a great toy! Much better than computer games! :)

Ted
 
Just finishing my first assembly type project in Fusion 360. I drew up a Parker 6" linear slide I got when they shutdown a factory I worked at. I've got a couple of projects kicking around in my mind for what I might use it for now that I have the time (retired) and thought it would be a great task to put into CAD format. I don't really care about the internals; only the mounting of the stationary and movable bases, travel length and overall dimensions, so I didn't completely finish off everything i.e. I didn't add real bearings or ball screw nut. But, I did import a ball screw, screws and a coupling from McMaster Carr. You can't really tell in the video, but the ball screw and coupling are moving along with the slide, turning in the correct direction and scaled to move at the correct pitch distance! Neat stuff!

Anyways, I did a quick, rough video render at low resolution to keep file size down and posted it here... Just thought I'd share so you can see some of the powerful features of Fusion 360!

Have fun!
Ted
 

Attachments

  • Parker 6 in Linear Slide.mp4
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