Book Image

3D Printing with Fusion 360

By : Sualp Ozel
Book Image

3D Printing with Fusion 360

By: Sualp Ozel

Overview of this book

As 3D printing gains traction, the demand for CAD experts in manufacturing grows. If you're a fan of Autodesk Fusion and crave hands-on experience with automated modeling, generative design, and the full potential of additive manufacturing, this book is your guide to elevating your design and 3D printing skills. In this book, you’ll learn how to open CAD or Mesh files in Fusion and expertly repair, edit, and prepare them for 3D printing. You’ll unlock the secrets of effective print preparation, learning about print settings, support structures, and part orientation. This book also highlights Fusion’s diverse preferences designed specifically for additive manufacturing. Subsequent chapters will guide you in choosing the right part orientation and position, as well as creating suitable support structures based on your chosen printing technology. You’ll simulate the printing process to detect and remedy common print failures associated with the metal powder bed fusion process. Finally, you’ll leverage templates and scripts to automate routine tasks around print preparation. By the end of this 3D printing book, you'll be armed with the knowledge and skills necessary to harness the power of Fusion for additive manufacturing, meeting the growing demand with confidence.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Design for Additive Manufacturing (DFAM) and Fusion 360
6
Part 2: Print Preparation – Creating an Additive Setup
10
Part 3: Print Preparation – Positioning Parts, Generating Supports, and Toolpaths
15
Part 4: Metal Printing, Process Simulation, and Automation

Volume and bar supports for FFF printing

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers can generally print parts with overhang angles of less than 45 degrees without needing support structures. If you want to print a part using an FFF printer, one of the first things to do is to try and find an orientation that will allow you to print that part with no support structures.

However, certain models cannot be printed without supports. This is because no matter which orientation you choose, certain parts will end up with down-skin surfaces with overhangs larger than 45 degrees that span distances larger than you can bridge with your 3D printer. In such cases, you will need to generate support structures using your CAD tool or your slicer. As Fusion 360 is both a CAD software and a slicer, you can generate support structures parametrically within the MANUFACTURE workspace for any additive setup.

In this section, we will talk about how to generate volume and bar supports for an additive...