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

What are parametric dimensions?

After you have set up the rules for your 2D sketch, you will need to constrain it further with parametric dimensions. The tool to do this is located under the CREATE | Sketch Dimension option (as shown in Figure 2.19) or you can just use the D shortcut key on your keyboard.

Parametric dimensions allow you to control your 2D sketch with specific dimensions that are editable at any time by either double-clicking on the dimension text or by going into the Change Parameters tool:

Figure 2.19 – The Sketch Dimension tool

Figure 2.19 – The Sketch Dimension tool

Fully constraining your sketch

When you constrain or lock your sketch, your 2D sketch drawing will be fully locked down, and lines, arcs, and circles will all show as black instead of blue:

Figure 2.20 – Showing an unconstrained line; the black lines are constrained

A fully constrained sketch will only show fully black when all objects have constraints and dimensions allied to them...