Manufacturing Toolbox

Fusion 360: New Year, New Resolutions -- Links and Videos.

The year 2016 was phenomenal for our cloud solutions, particularly for Fusion 360.
Our customers are experiencing first-hand the value the cloud brings for their customers i.e.: collaboration.

With that in mind -- and to welcome 2017 -- I've decided to create a 'New Year, New Resolutions' series based on Fusion 360.

Here's are short -- 2 min -- clips with useful links to learn more about each subjects.

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Fusion 360: How to get it?


Useful link: Fusion 360 Overview

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Fusion 360: What about my files?

Useful link: Learn From The Experts - Manage Data

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Fusion 360: The different modeling techniques

Useful Links:
Learn From The Experts - Model
Learn From The Experts - Sculpt
Learn From The Experts - Patch (Surfaces)

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Fusion 360: Who needs “Assembly” files?

Useful link: Learn From The Experts - About bodies and components

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Fusion 360: Additive Manufacturing and Subtractive Manufacturing 

Useful link: Learn From The Experts -CAM/Concepts

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Fusion 360: SIM for the masses (with Nastran and the Cloud) 

Useful link: Learn From The Experts - Simulation/Concepts

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Fusion 360: Rendering and Animations

Useful links:
Learn From The Experts - Render/Concepts
Learn From The Experts - Animate/Concepts

Great examples from the Gallery

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Fusion 360: Now, that’s what I call Collaboration.

Useful link: Learn From The Experts - Data Management Overview

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Fusion 360: Adding Fusion 360 information to my process (Fusion Lifecycle)

Useful link: Fusion Lifecycle Community - PLM

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Fusion 360: Your own API customization

Useful links:
Python: https://www.python.org/
Codecademy: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python - Thanks to Patrick Rainsberry
Michael Aubry Tutorial: Getting Started with Python Scripting and the Fusion API - Follow Michael on Twitter
Learn From The Experts: Welcome to the Fusion API (Application Programming Interface)

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You would like to know more about something, feel free to get in touch with us.

Thanks.

It's as Easy as Ctrl+C Ctrl+V…

The three most commonly used commands in any software are Copy and Paste, so much so that they are also universal hot keys or keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C & Ctrl+V. It shouldn't surprise anyone that a Powerful Tool like Fusion 360 can use these keys to such power.

 

I was recently Showing off Fusion 360 to an Industrial Design group. They shared with us that one of their pains and frustrations  was their inability to create design Iterations quickly. I thought to myself, "I couldn't have set me up any better myself, it's like they knew where I was going." Right on our website it states that using Fusion you can "Quickly iterate on design ideas with sculpting tools to explore form and modeling tools to create finishing features." So when I went into demo mode I figured I would show them the power of T-Spline and our Freeform modeling & Sculpting tools. To my surprise it wasn't all the cool Direct edits, Bridges, and Boundary fill commands that wowed this customer: It was a simple copy and paste of some existing complex surfaces. They had used about every CAD tool under the sun and what they were most impressed with was how easy

I could get to the start of a new variance of a current idea. So I'd say that we proved to them, on that day, that Fusion - indeed - can solve their Ideation problems pretty quickly.

 

Check out this quick video tip and  try it yourself.

 

 

I promise this time coping won't get you in trouble with your teacher!

 

-Travis @travis36evans

Let's keep it in motion…

 

Sir Isaac Newton's law of motion states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion. So the real question I had was: How to get it into motion?

 

I want to discuss motion as it relates to Fusion 360. If you haven't tried it yet, I challenge you. One thing you will notice is that it is different.

If you've used a traditional CAD system there are ways we do things that are a little different. One of those is mates and constraints. We call them Joints and they enable motion rather than limiting motion - like you've seen in traditional CAD systems.

For example: if I want something to slide amongst another part/component, I simply add a “Slider” joint.

Another example would be: if I have a ball joint, then I assign it as ball joint. If you want a good overview of Joints check out this video…

 

 

 

Welcome back. Now that you know everything about “Joints”, here’s what we can do with them: we can Drive 'em, Lock 'em, Animate 'em, and one of my favorites Render those motions. 

 

 

Let me explain all of those with a video. As the canvas for highlighting these joint examples, I’ll be using a custom 1982 International bus I'm converting into a RV/tailgater. So let's take a look…

 

 

In summary:

• Drive Joints allows you to manually move your component through its range of motion.
• Edit Joints Limits allows you to specify the range your component can move.
• Locking Joints, does just that locks a joint so you can test the other ranges of motion it can have or just minimize the motion.
• Animating Joints give you a nice preview of the Joints motion.
• Animate model animates your joint but also takes into account the relationships your components has with other surrounding components and those components come a long for the ride in the animation.
• Motion studies allow you to analyze the kinematic motion based on a joint or joints.  You can also use these studies to create animated renderings.

So thank you Sir Isaac Newton for your Fusion 360 motion tips.

- Travis @travis36evans

 

We can't compare apples here!

A few weeks ago, I was with a great friend and a great mentor of mine.
Our discussions are great and, sometimes, can be animated. We talk about our families, sports and, of course, business.

What is shared between us stays between us but I felt I had to grab this opportunity to share a discussion we had about Fusion 360.

My friend is well aware of what's going on in the "CAD" world. This is by design.

He reads, watch, listen, to everything "CAD". He is very curious about Fusion 360 but he didn't get it.

"Inconceivable!"

He kept telling me about how the pricing ($300/year) is inconceivable.
His argument was that it's detrimental to the value of all the other CAD out there.

Fair but misguided point. There's no other platform like it out there!

My friend is comparing an apple to a blue apple.

We all know you can compare an old fruit to this magnificent "new" fruit?

"incomparable!"

What's out there are tools. CAD tools mind you. Coupled with other tools, they become "solutions".
Fusion 360 is the nucleus of a platform. You read that right:  A platform.

The Product Innovation Platform is there to help you Design (CAD/CAE). Make (CAM). Use (IoT).

As many of you already know, with Fusion 360 you can quickly iterate on design ideas with sculpting tools to explore form and modeling tools to create finishing features. A little hidden gem is that with Fusion 360 you are - just to mention a few - leveraging the computing power of the Cloud (Simulation, Rendering, etc.), collaborating like never before ("Public" link, Markups, Live Review, etc.) and all that on your platform of choice (Mac, PC, Android, iOS, etc.)

Did I mention it was $300/year?

It's not just another CAD tool. We started from scratch and came up with what will be the basis of What's Next.

We are still investing and continuously developing our Core Solutions. We recognize that they are extremely valuable for a majority of our customers. With that said, I think Fusion 360 as its place within your workflow.

Experience it for yourself, try Fusion 360 today!

Remember Unix?

 

Remember the time when 3D CAD rhymed with Unix? When UX (User Experience) didn't matter? When icons where non-existent?
This time is not that "ancient". In the late 90's/early 2000's we experienced a revolution: 3D CAD was coming to our Windows PCs. Windows 95 mind you.

Imagine the possibilities. The vast majority of computers were running Windows. Users knew Windows. It was the best of both world: We could use an OS that we knew and do our jobs. Crazy!
When, a few years later (laptop were powerful enough), the possibilities were endless.

 

 What's next?

Cloud it is. I know what you're thinking: "Mention Cloud one more time and I'm out!". I won't. Promise.

The 90's and early 2000's are long gone. No more Unix or Windows (No more Mc Hammer, Marky Mark, American Gladiators, Grunge... but that's for another post)
We use, right now (look around), at least two OSs: OS X and/or iOS and/or Windows and/or Android and/or Linux. With that, there's a great chance you are using Box and/or Dropbox and/or iCloud and/or etc...
Why do we use all thoses OSs?: We have to? Ease of use? Mobility?
What's the main reason we use those C***d (I promised) repository? Collaboration

And Autodesk in this?

Like the revolution we experienced about two decades ago, times are changing and, this time, Autodesk is leading the way. Far ahead. We call it the Future Of Making Things.
People are starting to realized that there's a shift: demand is changing, production is changing and products are changing as well. For example: Customers want to know where it is manufacture, if it's made with sustainable materials; companies are using more and more 3D Printers and we have more and more products (lights, thermostats, etc.) that are "connected" (Internet of Things).

Two great solutions (really just one) that fit exactly into this are: Fusion 360 and A360

 

 

Fusion 360

This CAD/CAE/CAM (yes, you read that right) tool is simply wonderful.
It's been around since 2012 (Inventor Fusion was the name back then) meaning it's a mature solution.
With that said, here's a list of the possibilities:

Design

• Freeform modeling (and sculpting)
• Solid modeling
• Parametric modeling
• Data Translation
• Assembly modeling

Simulation & Presentation

• Joint and motion studies
• Animation
• Rendering
• Simulation and testing

and, of course, there's way more than this.

Collaboration

The greatest benefit, if you ask me, of using Fusion is collaboration. All the files used in Fusion are stores in A360 (If Dropbox and Facebook had a baby, it would be A360).

A360 is a file repository with viewing, comments, markups tools integrated. A CAD neophyte could collaborate easily with A360. You don't have to be an expert to view and manipulate files inside A360. This is why I love this. I hate when  hear others saying they have "full collaboration" in their system when, in reality, that what it is: In their system.

How are you going to be able to exchange with Procurement, Project Managers, Suppliers, Customers is they have to know how to use a CAD system?
A360 resolves that. No need to know CAD:  Just send a shared link to the collaborators and they will be able to view, spin, measure, comment the project. How easy is this?

It's so easy that, if you go on Autodesk.com and you scroll down, you will see that we integrated a 'Viewer'. That 'Viewer' is, in fact, A360.
(Jamie Scherer wrote about it here: Gene Kelly, Jamie Scherer and A360)

"With the maturity of Fusion 360 and A360, it's never been easier to take part in a revolution."

Take a tour of Fusion 360 and start using it today.

As always, feel free to reach out if you want to learn more.

 

 

 

 

 

Let them take it for a test drive…

Now days people want what they want and if you can't give it to them, then they will go elsewhere to get it. I'm in the middle of planning a Kitchen remodel, and believe me, what my wife wants she gets. I've been on numerous peoples websites trying to configure  my kitchen. Working at Autodesk I have many tools I could use to layout out my house.

I first took a test drive in homestyler. I laid out my kitchen and decided on the layout I liked.  I could have picked manufacture specific pieces for the cabinets and appliances but at this point I didn't know who I wanted to buy my cabinets from. But it helped me get an idea on the styles I liked.

But I wasn't happy with just my kitchen, so I modeled my whole house in AutoCAD, the Architecture version (AutoCAD Architecture). I'm a Manufacturing guy and that version came in Factory Design Suite, so I already had it installed.  Inventor is my tool of choice so AutoCAD was a stretch for me.  I proceeded to roll up my sleeves and grabbed a tape measure laying out my house. AutoCAD Architecture had some nice tools, like the Tool Catalog, where you can search for content like cabinets and appliances both in 2D and 3D blocks. So I took a stab with that. Side note: I have since modeled my house in Inventor too.

Then my wife and I decided that we were going to buy our cabinets from Ikea, so I took a spin on their website. To my amazement they had an online configurator tool called the Ikea Home Planner. I could layout my entire kitchen and at the end it would output an Items List or BOM (bill of Material) with all of my accessories and everything I would need to put the kitchen together how I configured it. I knew when I was done what the cost would be. That is what people want, to be able to configure their product and take a test drive. This solidified that I would be buying my cabinets from Ikea. 

So why am I telling you about my Kitchen remodel Test Drive? (Audience goes silent while Autodesk Inventor and Configurator 360 enter Stage Right). That's right, using Inventors rules based design engine (iLogic) and Autodesk Configurator 360  you can give your customers a similar experience with their "Test Drive" of your products.

Let me show you under the hood…

 

First you would use Inventor and iLogic to design your product. What options it has and what parts can be configured. In this example the width, style (does it have doors or drawers), drawer configuration, and color are all options the customer can pick. For those not familiar with iLogic, think If I do "x" then "y" will happen.

 

 

Then how those cabinets are put together in a Room is also up to the customer, it is configured to order. The room would need to be customized to meet the customers requirement. I Would all the Cabinets, Appliances, and the room with their corresponding rules in Inventor. Then the last step before I turn it loose to the customer is defining how each component would connect to another component.  Once I've got that I upload to Configurator 360 and turn my customers loose on their test drive.

 

(click on the image above to see a video of Configurator 360 in Action)

 

These types of configurators typically have taken a lot of time and money to deploy. But I'm inviting you to take a test drive an watch my short video showing you my Kitchen Cabinet configurator that I was able to make in a few days. That's counting the building of the Cabinets from scratch in Inventor. 

 

Want to see more about how the cabinet comes to life? Check out these Autodesk Screencasts videos.

Cabinet Demo: File Review -  http://autode.sk/1njKvn0

Cabinet Demo: Defining Configurator 360 Connectors- http://autode.sk/1njMFTp

Cabinet Demo: Configurator 360 File upload & working with drag and drop accessories - http://autode.sk/1njOsYP

Want an example you can test drive? Take a look at the Autodesk Sample Catalog  or the Trailer site example.  They don't have the drag and drop features I show in my video but it's a starting point. 

 

I've also got to give a shout out to one of our partners, KETIV Technologies out of Brea, California. I recently presented on this topic in one of their Autodesk Virtual Academy (AVA) sessions. The goal of AVA is to give you a flexible learning experience for the Autodesk community. I love the fact they are hosting these sessions and providing tips & tricks and driving the awareness of the power of Autodesk technology. You can see the full presentation on iLogic and Configurator 360 on the KETIV YouTube Channel . If you like what you see subscribe to their YouTube channel or sign up for future AVA events here. 

 

So don't let your customers test drive someone else's product, let them test drive yours. So here are the Keys…

 

 -Travis @travis36evans

Let's share the Snowpark

Once Upon A Time

I started snowboarding in the mid-90's.Way back.
Way back when you needed a "license" to prove that you could "ride that thing" in order to get access to the mountain.

In the mid-90's, snowboarding was the thing. Nothing cooler. It was a tough time for skiers.
A rivalry was boiling up. If you were shredding the slopes you couldn't hang out with the poles.
The half-pipe was ours. OURS!

Yo! Not Cool!

Dude! This is Rad!

 

But, then again

Who were we to judge? Why was it cool to ride a snowboard and passé to ski?
Is it scientifically proven that people with snowboards have waaayyyyy more fun than people on skis?

I'm now… older… and I ski and, guess what, I'm having a blast!
Yeah I know...

-"Hi! My name is Marc. I snowboard and I ski…"
-*whispers*

This entire intro reminds me of CAD. Yes, our CAD solutions that we cherish and love.
I used to work in the SolidWorks channel and I am now a happy, fulfilled technical specialist for Autodesk and I love my job.

-*whispers*

What else is out there?

A lot of SolidWorks users wrongfully think that they have to settle with what Dassault has to offer. But it's wrong.
There's a wide variety of tools that Autodesk provide that are either integrated within SolidWorks or that will simply accept SolidWorks files without compromises.

Just try to do that with a snowboard…

For example, with our 2016 release, we introduced the AnyCAD technology:

"Data collaboration struggles are common, AnyCAD technology inside Inventor 2016 eliminates these struggles.
AnyCAD allows you to associatively leverage 3D CAD data from other sources without file translation."

 

Same thing with our Data Management solution, Vault, which is also AnyCAD ready.

The greatest Simulation solution out there, Nastran In-CAD, is embedded inside Inventor but, also, directly inside SolidWorks as well.

"Nastran In-CAD (originally developed for NASA) is a well-known,
powerful and reliable solver with a rich history of accurate solutions and advanced simulations capabilities
that integrates directly inside Inventor and SolidWorks"

 

 

Wait. There's more...

Here’s a list of Autodesk solutions that are fully integrated in SolidWorks or fully associated with SolidWorks files:

CAD

-Inventor
-Fusion 360
-Factory Design
-Alias (Surfacing)

Simulation

-Nastran In-CAD
-Autodesk CFD
-Autodesk Simulation Mechanical
-Moldflow

Presentation

-Inventor Publisher
-3ds Max

CAM

-HSM
-Delcam

Data Management

-Vault

… and many, many more

As you see, you don’t have to stick with your snowboarding pals.
Experience what is available out there to give you a better experience and, at the same time, making you benefit from it.

Feel free to reach out to learn more about the solutions that we have to offer that would improve you productivity.

Guest Author - Marc B. Sauro

I wanted to give a quick introduction for a guest post author, Marc B. Sauro. 

Marc B.Sauro is a Technical Specialist at Autodesk. Marc works closely with Autodesk's Channel Partners and Territory sales groups in the Manufacturing Industry in North America (mostly in Canada). Marc joined Autodesk in October of 2014.

Marc has a diversified experience in multiple CAD/PDM software applications, as well as project management experience in the automotive industry.

Here is Marc's mug shot....before and after the start of a Canadian winter.

                  

Make sure to follow Marc on twitter (@marcbsauro). 

 

Special thanks to Marc for posting to the MFG Toolbox!

-lw

Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi bobbidi boo…

Who said it's Impossible, for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage. I'd have to disagree with that and side with Rogers & Hammerstein's Fairy Godmothers and say "Impossible things are happening every day." Part of the reason is with two daughter in the house we get wrapped up in the Magic of Disney, the other part probably has to do with the fact that I've made the impossible happen growing a 872lb. Pumpkin and seen bigger pumpkins reach almost a Ton.

So now you're probably asking yourself what do Giant pumpkins and Disney magic have to with Manufacturing? Disney's Fairy Godmother said it best, "The thingmabob that does the job is bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!" So read on if you want to what to see what bibbidi-bobbidi-boo magic Autodesk has to offer…

I think it's Magic, or at least it feels like it. I'm talking about taking a photo, or better said a series of photos, and turn them into a Machined Part. What makes this possible? What is the magical software of combination of software's? Have you heard of Reality Computing. Taking scan data (point clouds or photos) and transforming the real world into as-built 3D data. But historically that data has just been for reference in the 3D CAD solutions. What people want to do with it is use that data for manufacturing or reverse engineering… (The fariry Godmother waves her magical wand and Autodesk Memento enters stage right.)

Autodesk Memento is an end-to-end solution for converting any captured reality input (photos or scans) into high definition 3D meshes that can be cleaned up, fixed, and optimized for the Web, mobile or 3D printing/fabrication.
Memento is part of Autodesk’s Reality Computing portfolio and is great companion to ReCap. So if you have a suite you have ReCap, many of you probably haven't used it. Well, I'm here today to show you why you should think about using Reality Computing.

How do we do it:

1) Start with a series of photo Graphs. No we are leaving you alone in this process. Autodesk has a webinar recording you can watch for some tips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=425&v=WLXqNXOWLLo

2) Upload you Photos into Autodesk Memento an it will then; upload it the photo to the cloud, notify you when its down, and give you a 3D mesh of your object. No, there is nothing for you to buy yet at this point. You can download Memento for free from the Memento page. https://memento.autodesk.com/try-memento.

 

3) You can choose to Clean up the mesh, I didn't and I only used 30 photos for my example. Part of the best practices that you will learn is the more photos you use the better your Mesh model will be.

4) This next step is the missing link. We have other reality computing technologies, like Recap and 123D Catch, but neither of them could give me an output in a CAD format I could manipulate. The output option you will wants is OBJ (Quads).

5) Now we need to get that OBJ file into Fusion 360. Fusion 360 is our cloud based 3D CAD/CAM tool. Many of you have it as part of your Subscription benefit with Product Design suite. If you don't have it sign up here. http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview

Fusion360 is based heavily on our T-Spline technology. It allows you to Sculpt you surfaces to create some very complex surfaces not easily created with traditional 3D parametric CAD modeling tools. It also comes with a feature set to edit those curves and to convert mesh data, like the OBJ (Quads) data we obtained from Memento, into T-splines surface or solid.

7) Once we have a T-spline surface, we'll need to do some inspection to made sure we have a closed surface, if your purpose is to turn it into a 3D solid body. Depending on the quality of mesh, remember the more photos you use the better your mesh output will be from Memento, that will determine how much editing you will want to do to your surfaces inside of Fusion360. With this model I only need to fill one hole in my surfaces to make it a water tight solid. Here are a few of my favorites Fusion Command you should get to know just in general for modeling/Editing T-Splines bodies in Fusion 360.
a. Edit form
b. Weld Vertices
c. Merge Edge
d. Delete (Face or Edge)
e. Fill hole
f. Bridge
g. Create Face
h. Subdivide
i. Repair Body

8) Once any holes in the body are filled we have ourselves a 3D solid body. The we can set up our CAM tool paths right inside of Fusion 360 embedded CAM environment.

 

Impossible you say, for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a 3D Capture... Challenge excepted! 

 

I invite you to try it out and give me some feedback because "It will do magic believe it or not…Bibbidi Bobbidi boo!"

 

-Travis @travis36evans

1.21 gigawatts! Great Scott!

Every year for the last 5 years or so my family participates in a 25 mile bike ride on Antelope Island located in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. The bike ride is titled "Antelope by Moonlight". The ride starts at 10 pm and people are encouraged to dress up and decorate their bikes. The last 3 years we have participated in the costume contest.   We won last year with a "Despicable Me" theme. I wanted to up the ante this year and the bike ride had a theme of Back to the future to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of the film and since 2015 was the Year Marty and DOC travel to in the second film. Like I said, If you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style? That's what I set off to do, turn my bike trailer into a time machine capable of hitting 88 MPH and "If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit." Though it never hit 88 MPG, I think I nailed it when it came to style. 

Why does this matter to you? Well the design of my Delorean Bike trailer started off in Fusion 360. Check out my design on the Fusion360 Gallery.  https://fusion360.autodesk.com/projects/delorean-_bike-trailer.

If you haven't yet tried Fusion360, the Freeform modeling is "Heavy"! As I was discussing my design with some of my Fusion360 Colleagues, getting some modeling tips, they said you really should create an Instructable once you build it. If you haven't heard of Instructables then this post is your chance. 

Instructables, it's a community of makers. You build, bake, and create amazing things, then share your projects and ideas with the world. It's boils down to 3 steps:

1. Make something and document the process as you go.
2. Create a new Instructable that explains what you made with text, images, video, and files.
3. Publish your project to the web.

  

Here are a few things I found to be pretty "Heavy" when I was creating my Instructable on my Delorean Bike trailer. (check it out) http://www.instructables.com/id/Back-to-the-Future-Bike-Trailer/ 

1. It has an App for your IOS, Android, and Windows devices. I don't know about you but every project I create in shot with photos form my iPhone. You can also start in on your tablet or smart phone and finish it on your computer.
2. You can tie it to your Autodesk ID.
3. The DIY (Do it yourself) posts are categorized and in groups. Things like technology, crafts, food,& costumes to name few.
4. You can create a customized feed bases on you interest and get email updates based on those interests.
5. Easy searching for project ideas.
6. There are always contest you can enter.  http://www.instructables.com/contest

So for all you makers out there share your ideas or get inspired by other using Autodesk Instructables.

Good night,future boy!

 

- Travis @travis36evans