Field Report: Is Fusion 360 Any Good?
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Nowadays, with modern consumer computer performance and accessibility to CAD software, learning CAD for people is really becoming a lot more accessible and it's probably easier than a lot of people think, at least to get the basics right.
We're here with Josh from Autodesk to discuss how accessible this functionality has become and how it can be used from the most basic equipment you may have at home to an expensive 5 axis CNC mill.
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Fusion 360 is relatively new compared to some other software, but it's definitely option that springs to mind when we're talking about accessibility and low cost.
Can you talk to us quickly a little bit about what Fusion 360 is and what functionality it has?
Fusion 360 is a full CAD2CAM software so you can take everything from design to simulation, to rendering, to actually making the component.
We have a manufacturing side, so the manufacturing workspace actually has the milling, the turning, the additive and the inspection as well and as well as fabrication.
We have all these workspaces that come in the base fusion.
But then we can add specialist areas which are in the extensions.
The extensions are on top of the base fusion, but most people don't need those areas, so those areas are only for specialist products.
So you need your simultaneous five axis.
That's when you need the manufacturing extension.
If you want to do tool patriming, that's when you need the manufacturing extension.
But for most job shops you only need the basic fusion.
With CAD software.
I think everyone's fairly familiar with it and they understand 3D modelling and the benefits around that in terms of planning out your design and then leading into manufacturing from there.
In terms of the accessibility of Fusion 360 roughly the cost, and then that's also including like a CAM package as well what would be the alternative method for people?
Would they need a completely separate CAM software?
So as Fusion is all in one, that's why we have all the different workspaces and it's easy straight from CAD to CAM.
It's a seamless workflow.
But many other CAM companies they only have their CAM software, so you have to add on a basic design software to then move it from one software to another.
So that's what makes Fusion really easy.
The ability to have everything inside one design file, have the 3D model itself, simulation and the CAM functionality all in one play sets, makes things a lot more simple.
So we also have an area called generative design, and generative design allows you to optimize your weight saving.
So you can have two and a half axis, five axis, three axis or additive and this allows you to save as much weight as you possibly can.
A lot of people think generative design is this organic, looking really hard to machine area, but if you do the three axis and two and a half axis work, it can really help you save weight over time.
So, yeah, so you can actually specify the manufacturing method, and the generative design takes it all into account with, of course, your space constraints.
It optimizes where the stress is.
It optimizes the material to make sure that you've got enough material in that place to make sure it's strong enough.
But it's actually going to give you a design that can be manufactured.
So they specifically give you a design that can be made with your manufacture method.
That's super interesting and really helpful, because a lot of the idea around that generative design stuff is it's difficult to manufacture.
So it's just another thing that can guide it to something that's really useful In terms of the CAM itself computer-aided manufacturing.
Can you just you did touch on it already, but can you just go into a little bit more detail explaining what the purpose of CAM is, getting to the kind of toolpath, being able to control the machine.
Yeah, so itself as a CAM package, we're talking about running a machine using software.
So that can be on a laser cutter, it could be 3D printing and it could be machining.
So the machining side, what it does is it creates a toolpath which then is used to post-process that which gives us code and that's what runs the machine.
So the machine is going to run through the certain lines of code and that's going to tell us the spindle speed, the rapid moves where we want it to cut.
So it's just to give it a general idea of what to do with the component.
So if you understand machining, you'll understand how to use the toolpath.
You then input all your parameters in there, so your speeds and feeds and all that kind of information.
So I think that's a really important thing is design for manufacturing.
People need to understand the manufacturing method while they're designing to make sure they're not designing a part that's going to be really difficult to make.
And on that point, one of the good things about Fusion is because it's in the same place as the manufacturer workspace.
I can go to an engineer, talk to him straight away.
He can go back into the design space, change that part of the component and then it will update automatically in the manufacturer workspace so that I can just regenerate my toolpaths and therefore it's the same design, so it can compete the same design.
I think that's a key thing with the design processes.
People think that you start with some measurements.
You model something, you get it manufactured.
There's always a fair amount of back and forth between it to make sure you get it right and optimize the design.
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So, in terms of the example that you guys have going here, you've got a throttle body I'm assuming from an individual throttle body setup that's being machined from billet aluminium on a Haas five axis mill.
This is clearly a pretty expensive piece of equipment, although not the most expensive.
In the grand scheme of things it's definitely out of reach from the home enthusiast and probably small workshops as well.
But your Fusion 360, the manufacturing workspace can do a lot more than that and this part in particular.
While you're designing it and Fusion 360, you could choose to 3D print it as well for prototyping method, to see if it fits spatial constraints, things like that, and see if it's really going to work before spending the money manufacturing the final part, fusion 360 you mentioned can do additive manufacturing.
Yeah, so the additive workspace allows you to slice so that you can use your program to create the 3D printed component.
So we have many in our bombing technology centre.
We have many machines which we test this out on.
So we use ultimakers, marked forward machines, and that's where we slice the component and then we create the 3D model.
Yeah, so slicing for those who aren't aware is basically usually an in-between stage between the CAD software and the 3D printer and it essentially slices the model into the layers as they have built up in the additive manufacturing method.
But a 3D printer and there's other machines as well that are home enthusiasts could definitely have access to that.
A CNC machines can computer controlled like a laser cutter, 2d cutting routing as well.
That can all be done with Fusion 360.
Yeah, so that's even in the base fusion.
So we have many different workspaces.
So we've got the milling, the turning, the fabrication, inspection, so they're all separate workspaces but they're all in the same area.
So it's really easy to just go from a sheet metal design, turn it around and then you can go into a milling operation.
So the 2D cutting is literally you're selecting a sketch or a part of a model and it's going to follow that line around.
So it's very, very simple to use and it's there straight away in Fusion.
It is quite a basic process for those more simple manufacturing methods and it can be done really quickly In terms of you mentioned the machines before and being able to have the machine in Fusion 360 of the model.
So how does that all work with the process of the setup of the manufacturing method in Fusion 360?
Yes.
So while you're creating your setup you have a choice to add a machine.
We have a machine library in Fusion 360 and that covers many, many different machines.
So we have companies like Haas, herko, mazak, matsura, and then we have many of those machines inside Fusion and that is also free.
So that comes with Fusion, with the post processes, so you're ready to go and complete a machine component.
So what we would do is we'd add the vices and any fixed string into the model and then we can add that part position on the machine.
So therefore, when we go to simulate it, it's in the right place and we use simulation to make sure we don't crash any of our machines.
We want to see if the tool's getting too close to the fixed string.
So make sure that we're all okay.
No one wants to damage a machine and if we can see it on the software before, that's going to help us save some time and some money.
Yeah, of course no one wants to crash one of these machines Fairly expensive and the associated repair cost and downtime is pretty major.
Yeah, definitely the rest of the process in the CAM workspace.
You've just talked about the setup using the fixtures and the jig and the machine.
To make sure you can simulate it all, what's the basic kind of process from there in terms of creating the toolpath?
So you have a workflow when you're machining a product.
So many people work differently but a normal way of working around a component is to make sure you have a roughing toolpath, a finishing toolpath, or you can have in between you can have semi finishing, rest roughing.
So there's many different processes when coming to machine or product which normally you would need the base knowledge of, because you can't just jump on the software and learn how to program it, because you need to know the loads of the tool, the speeds and feeds.
So there is a base knowledge which you need to have while programming.
Of course, but for a more simple manufacturing method like 2D cutting or something like that, it's basically the same process in terms of doing the setup, completing the operations and then looking at the simulation and then moving on to post process.
What does that look like?
What comes out of Fusion 360?
And then how do you use that for manufacturing?
Yeah, so depending on the machine you have, that will have a specific post processor and inside Fusion we have a post processor library which is available to everyone that has Fusion.
And this is specific.
As I said, it's specific for the machine.
When you produce the toolpath it's going to produce a G&M code and that's what drives the machines.
So once you post processed you're ready to go.
There's many ways of transferring the code over to a machine, so there's a network connection.
So some companies have their own applications to move it over.
Some people still use USB sticks.
It depends how and what you have available.
So the G code you mentioned is essentially the programming language that the computer understands and it's instructed the machine on the toolpath from where to go.
Yes, so it instructs it from anywhere, to the spindle speed, to the feed rate, to the tool changes.
So it has many lines of code.
So, for example, previously people had to do programming by hand.
Nowadays code has 60,000, 70,000 lines.
Depending on how long it is, it can go up to hundreds of thousands of lines of code.
So products like that would never be able to be done previously.
So I mean this is really the main point here is this is an all-inclusive package and it's very accessible to people.
So for those maybe who have been doing a bit of CAD or they're just getting started, they have the tools at their disposal to model their design, simulate it, generative design and manufacturing, if they do have some basic CNC machines.
But there's quite a high ceiling here in terms of like five-axis mills like this one here.
Yeah, so one way people can learn this is we have an Autodesk Fusion 360 YouTube channel where we post tips how to do any sort of operation, from design to manufacture.
But we also have a website called Self-Paced Learning and that takes you from absolute beginning.
So someone who's never even seen 3D modeling so be able to 3D model all the way through to manufacture.
So we've got videos on every single part of Fusion 360.
Sounds like a good thing to check out.
So if people do want to learn more about Autodesk and the work you do, where can they go?
They can just go onto the Autodesk website and they can follow any of the links that are on there so it can teach you about Inventor, Fusion 360, Feature Camp, whatever you want to learn, and we always know that YouTube's a great place to go.
Autodesk is really good at posting YouTube videos on how to learn.
So well.
Thank you very much for your time.
No problem.
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About this episode
Exploring the capabilities of Fusion 360, Josh from Autodesk highlights how this all-in-one CAD/CAM software has made design and manufacturing more accessible. The discussion covers its functionalities, including generative design for weight optimization and seamless integration of CAD and CAM processes. Listeners will learn about the importance of understanding manufacturing methods during design, the ease of simulating machining processes, and the benefits of using Fusion 360 for both simple and complex projects. The episode also touches on resources for learning and mastering the software.
Original notes
Autodesk Fusion 360 is still a 'new player' comparatively in the CAD/CAM software world, yet it is already more popular than man options that have been around for decades.
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During SEMA, Josh Reader of Autodesk gave us a quick run-through on some of the features that have helped Fusion 360 become so popular so quickly and helped us understand what some of the terms and workflows for CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) and CAD (computer-aided design) projects.
Some great key points for you here include clearing up misunderstandings on generative design and manufacturing, why simulation is used before running a project on a machine and the advantage of having software that is almost 'all in one' when it comes to iterative changes between you and your chosen machinist.
What is Fusion 360?
Briefly, Fusion 360 is a cloud-based 3D CAD/CAM solution for product (in our case, race car parts) development. It combines industrial and mechanical design, simulation, collaboration, and machining in a single package. It's an excellent option for makers who want to create their own designs or prototype parts with greater speed and efficiency. Although it may seem intimidating when people like Josh emphasize the importance of knowing what you're doing, remember that everyone starts from scratch. Even learning just one thing about CAD/CAM today is a valuable addition to your knowledge, which can be further expanded upon tomorrow. Over time, these incremental learnings accumulate to form a vast breadth of knowledge and experience. Remember, it all begins somewhere (and for 3D modelling that somewhere might be the HPA CAD course 😉).
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