Autodesk

Intro to Digital Manufacturing with Autodesk Fusion 360

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Course 1 of 5 in the Specialization CAD and Digital Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is making a digital transformation, allowing companies to customize production through advances in machine learning, sustainable design, generative design, and collaboration, with integrated design and manufacturing processes. This course introduces innovations in CAD and digital manufacturing, speaking to the rapid changes taking place that are forever transforming the future of making. This course will also explore foundational concepts behind Autodesk® Fusion 360™ CAD/CAM. Fusion 360 is a cloud-based CAD/CAM tool for collaborative product development that combines industrial design, mechanical engineering, and machine tool programming into one software solution. Through a series of lectures and hands-on exercises, this course provides the core philosophy behind the software. By understanding how designs are both made and assembled, you'll learn to create better designs from the start. After completing this course, you will be able to: • Summarize an understanding of digital manufacturing, principles of sustainable design, and manufacturing processes. • Explain and discuss how trends such as generative design and machine learning are influencing innovation, and how things are made. • Demonstrate knowledge and skills in foundational concepts of Fusion 360 CAD/CAM software. • Practice design collaboration and file management best practices using Fusion 360 cloud-based features

From the lesson

Foundational Concepts

Build a foundational understanding of how Autodesk® Fusion 360™ can be used to design differently before starting your first model. This week introduces foundational concepts behind Fusion 360 and offers insight into how it compares with other technologies. You will also be guided on how to install the software and develop new software skills so you get started with a solid understanding of how designs are made and assembled in Fusion 360.

What is Fusion 360?3:45

Explain key differences in design workflow to Fusion 360 from Tinkercad2:36

Explain key differences in design workflow to Fusion 360 from Solidworks5:34

Meet the Instructors

Autodesk Education

When talking with a group of people about Fusion 360,

it's possible for someone to get the impression that

Fusion 360 attempts to be all things to all people.

This is an understandable perception because Fusion 360 does so much so well.

More than just doing CAD, CAM, and simulation,

Fusion 360 does them in a way that makes

transitioning from one environment to another seamless.

More importantly, people with experience at the tasks in

those environments will find that the workflows within them feel natural.

For the designer, Fusion 360 frees them from having

to work the way an engineering tool tells them they have to work.

Many 3D parametric CAD systems can create nearly any complex shape,

as long as you know what the shape is before you begin.

That is not design.

The Fusion 360 freeform modeling environment allows the designer to explore shapes,

to iterate, and to repeat until what appears on

the screen is what they were led to by their imagination.

That form, however, is not a dead end.

It can be edited with the solid modeling tools,

have tool paths made from it,

and if need be analyzed.

For engineering, Fusion 360 uses parametric solid modeling, leveraging sketches,

and parametric features in a way people with experience are used to,

but with the flexibility for model structure that is new and much more accessible.

User can explore ideas without having to know

exactly what the structure of the design is before they begin.

Fusion 360 is designed to construct complex designs in a single file,

along the sketch to be reused not only across

multiple features but across multiple component.

For years, people have asked

a parametric design software companies to make

a system that can truly leverage a layout sketch,

and Fusion 360 can do it.

Also for the engineer,

is a state of the art analysis tool built into Fusion 360.

When analyzing a new design,

there's no need for translation or moving the data around.

For analyzing designs from other systems,

Fusion 360 can import

standard neutral file formats as well as all of the major 3D CAD formats.

Fusion 360 offers tried and true tool path programming technology for the machinist.

Topaz can be developed directly from the model and remain

associated to any changes to the model for milling,

turning, drilling, and cutting.

The direct modeling capabilities inside a Fusion 360 will make it easy to

fix imported models from other design tools and prepare them for machining as well.

All of this is connected to the cloud so you can

collaborate with others and access your data from anywhere.

Data management is also integrated at the core so

that you know you're always working with the most current version of the component.

Collaborators can offer feedback including markups,

comments, and even live review sessions to help them share their expertise.

Even the options for computing are flexible.

Fusion 360 will run on Mac OS X, 64-bit Windows.

And design review sessions can be run from virtually any mobile device or

computer without the need for collaborators to have Fusion 360 installed.

The bottom line is, that Fusion 360 is a different kind of design,

engineering, and manufacturing software.

But to really understand it, you need to use it.

Since you have signed up for this course,

you are in a perfect position to discover just what makes Fusion 360 so special.