This is the first of a three-part tutorial series for those looking to learn Fusion 360. We will keep it short and to the point, helping you learn and practice useful skills while having the opportunity to make fun objects that you can actually use. These objects can be 3D printed, laser cut, or CNC’ed. Whenever possible, I will encourage you to use parametric modeling problem-solving skills that will make your models cleaner.
Let’s first go over the nature of Fusion 360 as well as its pros and cons. Fusion 360 is a CAD program like SOLIDWORKS or Inventor. It is somewhat cloud based and lets you access files from anywhere. The program also packs in a suite of excellent additional work environments for rendering, CNC, animation, form modeling, mesh editing, simulation, drawing and generative design. Fusion 360 may not be the best choice if you need to model complex large animation, like fully parametric engines or organic objects. Fusion 360 is best for those who are new to CAD and want a single powerful but easy-to-use program for prototyping or design. Fusion 360 is an extremely flexible program that is popular with startups, maker spaces and design studios. This is because it can handle significant process errors before it causes a problem. Larger manufacturing companies tend to use SOLIDWORKS, CATIA or other “enterprise” CAD programs because these programs can handle more complex parametric models more easily. These programs will generally take longer to learn.
Fusion 360’s workspace is my personal favorite of all the CAD programs I’ve tried. It is the shining star of the program and the extensions are the cherry on top. If this sounds like a good program for you to continue with, then let’s get started!
Although not explicitly needed, I cannot stress enough the importance of having a 3-button mouse. From here on, I will assume you are going to be using one. Without it, you will not be able to quickly navigate, scroll easily, or use certain tools fully. I have seen a rare few people manage to not use one with the software. You can also look into something like 3Dconnexion’s SpaceMouse.
There are some basic geometric terms that will be invaluable to you, so brush up on concepts like parallel and perpendicular. You should also consider keeping a ruler in front of you, or better yet, a caliper. These are both handy tools that will help you model.
This tutorial will begin with the Windows version of the program. I recommend this as it has fewer issues than the macOS version.
Let’s Go
On the main screen, we have a couple of useful sections that I am going to highlight below so that you know where to look. It’s not everything, but let’s cover it now so we can learn more about them later.
I reset my Fusion 360 and customizations so that it should look just like yours except for one thing. You see that hexagon shape in the center of the image above? That is called the origin and it is made up of the X, Y and Z axes. The orange planes are the cardinal planes, which you can specify by saying the XY plane, for example. You could do this for any plane combination. To hide or show the origin, you simply click the eye symbol next to the origin line in the object browser section.
The Browser Section is not very populated, so we will need to revisit it. Simply put, this is where you hide and show items in your document. The arrow marks hide and show the sections, while the eyes show the objects themselves. Everything from solids, construction geometry, sketches, etc., will all show up here in their respective sections and can be acted upon. If you ever lose something, you can find it here. Sometimes you need to select things here and not the model itself and vice versa. There are also a few settings you can find here to explore. The only important one for beginners to know is that under the document settings, you can change the units. I will be using metric units (mm). Remember, 25.4 mm is 1 inch.
The Tool List is a complex section that would take many articles to cover, even if we don’t consider the sections that we can’t see. The only thing you need to know about it right now is that to the very left is the Section tab. Currently, it’s marked as Design because we are in that tab. There are others, named Generative Design, Render, Animation, Simulation, Manufacture and Drawing. They are each complex and worthy of their own lesson or even series. You don’t need to touch them yet, but feel free to explore them at some point. In particular, the Render tab is useful for making quick images. You could also just use another rendering program like Blender or KeyShot, but Fusion’s rendering is convenient, easy and free.
The Parametric Timeline lets you time travel. Most programs limit you to undo and maybe redo. Fusion has that, but it also has this timeline, which saves every action you do in order, and more importantly, creates a linear relationship of actions one after the other. If you make edits earlier in the timeline, they will propagate forward to the end of the timeline. By moving the small vertical line forward and backward, you can revisit earlier points in the timeline of the model. Then you can move it to the end and see how these propagate. Ensuring that your model is designed so that making an early change won’t break it is a good skill and can save a lot of time. There are rare instances that you will shut off the timeline and destroy it, which enables direct modeling, but don’t do it unless you have a very good reason.
Try clicking on the View Cube and dragging it around with a left click on your mouse now. You will notice that the corners, edges and faces of the cube highlight when you hover over them. Clicking them will bring you to that cardinal view. Notice that the axes are marked and color coded here in the same direction as the origin. It’s a standard feature with Autodesk software. There are also arrows you can click to rotate your view and quite importantly, the Home tool, which brings you home and resets your view. If your camera ever gets messed up or ends up at an odd angle, just click Home to fix it.