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

Drawing out ideas

Usually, when you want to design a part from nothing, you will need to sketch out some general ideas of what you want. Using a pencil and paper is still a good practice to have when thinking up ideas. I typically use butcher block paper since I can make it any size I’d like and have plenty of space to draw on for any other random ideas.

You may ask yourself though “but I have this amazing Fusion 360 program to start my creation and draw in.” Yes, you could just jump right into Fusion 360 and start building, but there are times when you can get lost in a project and build yourself into a corner and not know how to get out of it easily. You could also start making your design and then realize midway through that your approach may not have been ideal and you may run into problems with parametric dimensions.

I’ve drawn up some ideas of some general examples to follow but you can do this as well on your own if you have a great idea. Try...