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 a Scanned Image to Create a 3D Model

There are times when you may find something interesting online, such as a 3D model or a vehicle, and want to download it, but there are only pictures of the model online. This is where you will have to download the image, use it as a background image, and draw over the image to create a 3D model. We will learn how to use a photo of an online model (I have provided one for you) and then recreate it using Fusion 360. We will learn how to import it, scale it to the correct size, draw over the image, and recreate the 3D model. If you follow along with the tutorial video, be aware that some of the dimensions may not follow the book exactly, as the images were created at the time of writing.

In this chapter, we will cover the following main topics:

  • Inserting and calibrating a scanned image into Fusion 360
  • Adding sketch lines and dimensions
  • Creating a 3D model