Book Image

Improving CAD Designs with Autodesk Fusion 360

By : Kevin Michael Land
Book Image

Improving CAD Designs with Autodesk Fusion 360

By: Kevin Michael Land

Overview of this book

Autodesk Fusion 360 has become an indispensable tool for designers, tinkerers, and engineers worldwide thanks to its versatility that allows for large-scale assemblies and smaller, quick 3D prints. If you’ve faced challenges with learning Fusion 360, this book will help you overcome them and build the confidence to design your own projects, explaining step-by-step instructions and the purpose of each tool. In this book, you’ll dive into the design workspace and learn sketching fundamentals such as setting up a component, recognizing when a sketch is fully constrained, and parametrically flexing models. Through trial and error, you’ll work on multiple easy-to-build projects to create simple, useful items that can be quickly 3D printed for use around the house and then advance to much bigger projects that require joint connectivity and large assemblies. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to sketch fully parametric designs, translate them into 3D models, and create your own unique designs.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Part 1: Simple, Fun Projects for Around the Home
7
Part 2: Bicycle Water Bottle Holder Project
13
Part 3: FORM Modeling Techniques
17
Part 4: Working with 2D and 3D Scanned Images

Using surfaces to create the tealight

We will start out with a simple tealight candle for reference. We will create a component first to stick to Rule #1 (see Chapter 3) and then create the surface body, with a simple circle extrusion and a revolve for the candlelight. Let’s get started:

  1. Start a new design file, open the Data panel, and create a folder named Ch12 Tealight Ghost. Then, within the Chapter 12 folder, create a file and name it Tealight Ghost, and then set the units to millimeters.
  2. Create a component named tealight, then create a sketch on the XY plane, and add a circle with a diameter of 37.5 mm.
Figure 12.2 – Creating a tealight component and sketch

Figure 12.2 – Creating a tealight component and sketch

  1. Click on the SURFACE tab, then the CREATE dropdown, and then Extrude.
  2. Select the circle profile and set Distance to 12 mm. Note that the interior is empty. That is because surfaces have no mass, which means there is no weight to them. Think of them as a thin...