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tech:software_fusion_360

Fusion360 Tips, Tricks, Life Hacks. by Royce Edward Barber
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* Typical workflow… Draw a 2D sketch on a plane or face, starting at the origin point, then extrude that into 3D. Fusion360 likes the origin point and focuses its camera on it.
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* Define the basic interface…
* Thin toolbar at the top.
* Fat toolbar at the top.
* Tabs for open projects.
* Save panel on the left side.
* Floating browser tree.
* Optional history buttons at the bottom.
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What the basic modes are for…
* Model is your home, it lets you draw 2D and 3D objects.
* Patch helps you make non-thick walls to be water tight so there are no glitches.
* SheetMetal is
* Render is for pretty art, it allows you to add smart photo textures, shiny effects, shadows, and a realistic view. Rendering using your computer, can slow it to a crawl and crash open apps. So cloud rendering frees up your screen.
* Animation lets you articulate a model, adding basic movement of parts.
* Drawing is _

* Simulation is a real-world torture test of thermals, fractures, weight, bending, impacts, and more.

* Mesh is usually only available if you disable History in the Browser gear icon.
* CAM sends your model to a CNC carving/cutting/engraving machine.
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Making a Texture… When making an image texture, Emissivity means the texture becomes a light bulb. Tiling means the texture will be repeated more than once. Advanced Highlight Control is simple, it just means a colored shine in the lower areas, which is great for a weathered effect. Translucency means see-through. When setting a bump texture (they call it Relief Pattern), it should be the same dimensions as the main texture, so it lines up, and all it means is a shiny-gloss over your main image. To set a custom texture image, you go to the Render mode and click the color wheel icon, then drag an image to the nearby big white box called “In This Design”, then rightclick the texture, Edit, Advanced, make the window taller, and click an image name to change the image.
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Changing the background image is a bit strange, go to Render mode then click the lamp next to the color wheel, and you can select a lighting environment which comes with a background, or use a lighting environment you downloaded, or use a solid color background, or make a 3D box and place it under your image to make a temporary background. You'll notice two tabs, Settings and EnvironmentLibrary. In settings, up high is the Brightness, and a button called Position which lets you modify where the background is. FocalLength is further down, it's finicky and is a fish-eye effect.

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Formats… STL is ok for sending to a 3D printer but I would not use STL to transfer mesh data to a CAD app. Use OBJ or similar because this allows individual part remaining individual.
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* Fusion360 is a cloud app, running partly on your computer and partly on Autodesk's computer. What your computer is great at, it's allowed to do, but what your computer can't handle, Autodesk's computer manages that. When you go to Offline mode, your computer will have a bit more work to do, and there are a few glitches in the offline mode. Some cloud tools and model translation is only legally allowed to be used on Autodesk computers, so with the cloud you can use some of those tools.
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* Constraints are a needed torture… Getting used to constraints was hard for me, because my sketch nodes kept locking down and displaying alien-like glyphs. Constraint symbols tell each line or object what the rules are, and the limitations, so two objects can be locked down to a certain size or distance. A constraint is smart, so you can make a car tire larger without enlarging the bolts in it.
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* Similar Software: Sketchup is easier to learn, but not quite as stable and not nearly as many features as Fusion 360. Autodesk Inventor is even more difficult to learn than Fusion 360, and is more of a industry CAD program for sending a product to a factory.
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Internet Resources for Fusion360

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* Search YouTube, Facebook, and Google for Fusion 360.
* YouTube: Lars Christensen makes tutorials; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo29kn3d9ziFUZGZ50VKvWA
* Official Website: http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview
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* More soon!

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tech/software_fusion_360.txt · Last modified: 2017/11/19 04:46 by reb