I am 45 seconds in and I already have to thumbs up this video. I like the way he went directly to the final part first, then I like the way he did the next 30 seconds about the rectangle and how he added it to his toolbar. Very nice. He's good at explaining things in a quick and direct way where he enables you to teach yourself on your own. It is like a quick start video and that is exactly what people need. Great job.
Discovered Fusion 360 by watching your Fusion Friday tutorials. I've been teaching/using various CAD and 3D modeling software for many years ... Fusion 360 is truly a remarkable piece of software! Organic modeling with T-splines combined with parametric CAD and CAM ...NICE! Thanks for all of your videos ... I've learned a lot ! Cheers
I learned by watching his videos as well. I would look at MasterCAM and said to myself "there has to be an easier way" I have no desire to get a degree in MasterCAM. I did a Fusion trial (initially used it for 3D printing) dove into the CAM, it's easy easier and understandable. I just ordered a next wave automation cnc shark HD4 for my home shop. I'm like a kid in a toy store! I have code to post and 3 hours per part on machining (I will be adjusting feeds and speeds to go faster depending on material) I finally broke down and learned the software because I was so tired of paying machine shops thousands and thousands to do 4 parts. So I figure about 4 to 6 parts on my HD4 and it will have paid for itself! Also ordering a water cooled spindle for noise and longevity. love your channel, John! keep up the great work!
This tutorial is head and shoulders above many of the other CAD tutorials on line. Perfectly paced, just the right content, would love to see more Fusion 360 videos with advancing complexity from you. Really enjoy your videos.
Great work with continuing to share the next gen CAD / CAM love. A key difference between Onshape & Fusion 360 is F360 started life as Online only. It ran inside it's own browser. It became clear an offline version was needed and Fusion 360 2.0 was born.
Thanks for the tutorial. I have been learning Fusion 360 to replace eMachineShop (very easy to use free 2.5D CAD) as my design tool for bass guitars. AutoDesk now allows hobbyists, students, and startups making less than 100k to use it free, indefinitely. I sell like 2 or 3 basses per year mostly to support the hobby, so it's a fantastic free tool for what I need. It's a lot easier to use than I thought it would be, thanks to your tutorial.
I have been using Fusion 360 for just as hobby and wanting to learn more on 3D cam. I know you mention you dont like to go slow and ramble on, I agree with the ramble on, but slowing down a bit would help people like me, where it takes time for me to focus on what your doing. Keep these Fusion 360 tutorials coming, as I think they are in demand and I thank you for doing the first.
The ability to play your history bar (or whatever its called) at the bottom i can see handy when you are trying to find where you edited a part. Like when you had to go back to your hole and change its diameter. on more complex parts that might be completed over days it might not be as simple to find when you made a change. On another note. your youtube channel is amazing, i have spent quite alot of time watching things being milled etc. i dont think it will ever get old. i love the fact you share so much of what you do and better still HOW you accomplished it. You explain things in a way thats easy to understand. I started off mildly interested in machining (CNC Milling) and now all i want to do is make stuff :) im not even sure what i want to make but id be happy simply making stuff. So in short, thankyou for the effort you put in.
Great video. I've been using Fusion 360 CAD and CAM for about a year in my home shop and I must say that it's the absolute best option for hobbyists. (I'm not in a position to speak as a professional) As you mention it's not perfect but it is constantly and rapidly improving. As it is cloud-based the new features and improvements automatically gets pushed out the the users. Here are the main point which makes Fusion 360 a great choice: - Free full features version for private use. - Professional grade CAD and CAM in a single package - Very easy to use - Improves very rapidly as it is cloud-based - Support for MAC - Autodesk has a proven track record withing CAD/CAD and are not out of business in 6 months.
NYC CNC Sure, no problem. I should be able share some of my models with you directly in Fusion. That could be cool to try. It's pretty simple parts I have been designing, most of them as part of doing a CNC conversion of my RF45 clone mill.
Hi John, yet another great video on Fusion. I've tried a solid works i hate it. I'm an AutoCAD guy. It's so much easier to do tasks in AutoCAD 2015 vs solid works (I did a trial of it, did about 20 min in it and wanted to put my fist through the monitor). Fusion is incredible! I LOVE that I can do solids in model and then head over to CAM and do my cut paths and send it on over to the CNC. and it's affordable!! It doesn't cost 9k a seat! MAKE THE FUTURE!!
Currently a Rhino user, the loss of T-Splines killed it for me. I've been advise to come over to Fusion 360, and this video sealed the deal, thank you !
Thanks for the great tutorial. The vendor showed me all the neat free form stuff, which was cool, but when I got home I realized I had no idea how to start a part.
John, just wanted to say thank you for posting these incredible videos. You don't have to do this, but you do. I applaud you for this. this takes away from other things in your life.... This work your doing is helping others... MAKE THE FUTURE! CHEERS, JOHN. 👍👍👍
Hooooly cow. Just what the doctor ordered. Never was a big fan of the Solidworks/HSM Works combo (mostly because it's over-complicated for what I need and waaaaaay too expensive).. This is JUST perfect and I'm really looking forward to see the upcoming tutorials. Awesome, John!
I was also a complete beginner 1 year ago. started out with 2D wire frame in AutoCAD 2015 (got a half hour course from a friend's wife) it was tough but stepped up to 3D wire frame (love to learn new things, keeps the mind aroused) now working in Fusion and bought my first CNC to get some stuff done. You can do it! baby steps!
Nice video John and thanks for putting that up. I use Fusion myself and like it. As a Mac user it was a game changer. You showed a few things I don't normally use but liked the way you did them. Another very good thing about Fusion is the support. The team there are very responsive to suggestions for improvement and an answer when you get stuck on something is generally only an hour or two away via their forum.
I'm a retired MasterCam user. I learned on the DOS based 4.2 MasterCam 3x software. I loved it. I would like to have a home CNC mill to make hobby pieces. This looks interesting. I designed with the CAD and it was easy. I won't be doing production just one or two pieces.
Hi and thanks for sharing, im New too both CAD and cam, but been playing around with fusion 360 for a while now. Love the tutorial, you keep it intresting, short and informative. Looking forward for more tutorials like this. Well thanks again, keep it up:-)
The pace of progress the Fusion 360 Team at Autodesk is improving the product is really impressive. I had also moved from Solidworks/HSMExpress over to Fusion back in November and really struggled the first couple of months with learning and becoming frustrated with the new workflow and the "Timeline". Finally got over the hump with how sketches, bodies and components work together and separately and also how to "Activate" and Show/Hide just the feature(s) I'm currently interested in and thus shrinking the Timeline down to a minimum clutter that shows just the immediate elements that I am wanting to edit. Great stuff John. It's a really exciting product.
NYC CNC I have spent a lot of time with F360, but have so much more to learn. I saw one part in this video where you can really speed up your designing. Rather than create construction lines, like I often have done to find the center for placing a circle or hole within a square/box, try using "3-Point Circle". You just select the mid-point of three sides of your square (or rectangle) and finish the circle, then select the "Sketch Dimension" tool to redefine the circle to the size you want within that square ... super fast.
Yet another outstanding video John! I've been forcing myself to learn Fusion 360 for a couple of months now. I think it is similar to Sketchup in some ways, and the learning curve doesn't seem to be as steep as some other packages I've tried in the past. Anxiously awaiting future F360 videos (but please don't shortchange us on the Tormach, Arduino, DIY and other misc videos!). Keep up the great work!
IDK if anyone has explained it yet but right now Fusion 360 standard is fully capable of 3 axis machining which at first was not the case you only got 3 axis machining with the 360 Ultimate package at first. I believe it was in July that they aligned the two and then proceeded to add Mill turn and 5 axis machining capabilities to the Ultimate package along with some other more business oriented aspects. I'm not sure if its still going on but they did a special price of $25 for your first year of Fusion 360 around black Friday. That is when I purchased it for My business and I truly love it. for the cost which to hobbyist students and start ups the best part is its FREEEEE. and you cant beat free and you will not find a better product out there with the capabilities this offers for the price range. I have looked into upgrading our outdated cad/cam software that unfortunately was a basic 2.5 axis software that was really limited(it ran on windows XP, enough said). Just being able to create adaptive tool paths is worth it with the increase in productivity and less wear on machines and tools.Also the Offline feature does now work!With the constant updates and amazing features that keep being added, and for the price that isent going to be out of date or replaced next week. If you haven't tried it I would deff suggest it don't be scared off thinking its junk cause its either free or very cheap in comparison it is amazing!
I love tutorials, always have and the tempo in these vids you are doing is perfect. I can feel my beard grow watching some tutorials... and in the end I didnt learn much. Love these, keep 'em commin'!
Such a good Introduction! Hats of to you, everything is tops from audio/video to the small tutorial part to the explaining of software and competition. I thought I'd just download fusion as a student for the benefit of it and since It might be good to know it in future work. This tutorial sort of explained everything I wanted to know from my beginners perspective.
liked for the fast yet informative initiative! I'm just getting interested in CNC but your channel ID really helping me learn and not seem so daunting.
Hi John I think you are right Fusion 360 will be a game changer, occasional users, hobbyists and small shops now have access to an affordable and capable CAD/CAM system. I've been using Ironcad for years and find it very efficient in developing my lighting designs and like you've said it costs me $AU1K per year to maintain. Like you I go from designing to manufacturing of my all products, so I'm not using CAD/CAM every day, I also use Sprutcam and because I'm an occasional user it becomes a pain if you forget a small step during a setup, Fusions CAM seems a hell of a lot more intuitive. Please keep up your great work, looking forward to more on Fusion 360. PS is Fusion capable of 4th axis work? Best regards Ralph
Thanks for this video. I am trying to talk my work into getting a small CNC mill for making cut-outs for screens etc in plastic boxes. Being able to teach myself CAD and CAM in my own time will increase the chances of getting one.
If you don't already have a gaming mouse, and/or a keypad such as the Logitech G13; I highly recommend getting one or both. The ability to macro dozens of keys to perform all sorts of functions is awesome. Personally use a Razer Naga 2014 and a Logitech G13 to effortlessly command the software program.
I see you have the same problem as me, Coming from solidworks the pan and zoom is a little weird, One of the things you can do to make it easier is go to ->Preferences ->General-> Then scroll down to pan,zoom orbit shortcuts and change the dropdown box to solidworks and then your not so messed up when switching between software packages.
Hello, Just a quick tip: You can do math in the smart dimension box. Just type it in like in a calculator. If you are impressed by Fusion you should try Autodesk Inventor. For me it's the best Cad software out there. Keep up the great videos.
Awesome stuff John, Fusion 360 looks perfect for what I need. Not that you really need CAD for a DIY CNC Plasma cutter but it will help me with design and assembly of other parts I'll need. I'm sure I'll rewatch this tutorial several times to get a better understanding of it. Thanks!
i love watching your vids but sometimes i feel you go a little to quick for the beginners like me and the sound is a little low and i find it a bit hard to hear clearly but man are you full of info for the hungry mind thanks for your time mate cheers
Great demo John. I agree mate, definitely a game changer. I had the NZ and Aus Autodesk guys at my school last week conducting a industry HSM training session and got a preview of Fusion 360. As an educator we're spoilt, as all Autodesk products are now free to schools. Makes you wonder if SW will come around. Like you, we paid $6K AUD for a school licence, plus the service fee every year. Might have to switch to inventor? Cheers Aaron
NYC CNC Something to consider is the market cap between Autodesk ($12b) and DDS ($17b), it's probably why DDS doesn't feel the need to change their sales model. Autodesk also has a long standing history of working with educators so it's more in their culture and easy to take it forward. Also, thank you so much for this quick tut, I'm new to CAM (but not Autodesk products) and grabbed Fusion 360 to start learning!
This is coming in late, but I just wanted to say thanks and I'd certainly like to see more Fusion cad/cam videos. It struck me as odd that had to do the math to align that pocket, so after a little playing around I ended up going with sketching two centre lines, one on the pocket sketch and one on the part, converting them to layout lines, then constraining them to be collinear. You are probably aware of this approach but I thought I'd put it down for anybody else that was scratching their head. Travis.
Brother, this is an amazing and simple tutorial! It's possible make everything with this tool, more CNC or 3D print! The next step is buy one of two and make the dreams make actuals! Very thanks!! Is a "Like" sure!
This is a great video, I'm just looking at the different options to set up a little workshop and this stuff is one of the things I'm looking into :) thanks a lot!
NYC CNC Well, at the moment having a workshop is just an idea (that has been in my mind for years and never actually took the time to proper develop as I had been too busy studying engineering [yeah I guess it's linked at least haha]). The workshop would be mainly for kitchen products and large wooden cameras :)
Nice. I am just trying to learn how to model in CAD and found Onshape a week ago. When I progress to a point where it would be worth buying a cad/cam package Fusion360 looks like the way to go. Its hard to be totally free when your just learning so I'm playing with Onshape, no software to install is nice too.
Excellent video !! .. Thank you so very much for sharing. I've heard about Fusion 360 some time ago and I decided to investigate it at some point. It seems to be a lovely piece of software, easy to use even for beginners like myself, too used to hand drawing all my parts.
oh.. very interesting. thank you for this. I was looking some time now for a clear an wel explained tutorial. the facebook group "I like to make things" brought me here :)
Great video. Glad to see you got into Fusion. It does have some issues at this point in time but nothing major and I agree it's the best thing for your money hands down if you need CAD and CAM. Like you said, Autodesk is a large well established company that is capable of steamrolling ahead with this software. This is their "flagship" CAD/CAM now so I would guess this software is just going to get better with time. I also think it's going to continue to go up in price so now is the time to get into it. I think it's going to be a HUGE player in CAD/CAM software very soon. I am not even sure if you can get if for the $300 a year anymore, I think it has alread gone to $1200 across the board minus the hobby/student version. We got in at the $300/year and I'm glad we did.
Solid Edge has had the feature playback ability for many years. It is especially useful when modifying a part you didn't originally design or you designed several years ago. Possibly not so important with 20 items in the tree by when there's 100 features in the tree it is a quick way the understand the model and the original designer's thought process.
Great video and great topic like you said this is a game changer and good to know that Autodesk has this at an affordable price too. So my vote is yes more videos on Fusion 360.
Hi John, at last cheap real cad/cam, I have downloaded fusion 360 and am sure I will by it, it's different from wot I am used to using which was cambam which I think is still a great program and I think everyone should try it, now fusion 360 all I can say is it great and looks great, I bet the guys who own soildworks are quaking in their boots with all the cheap good cad cam programs that are coming out now eh, thanks daniel
Great channel you got here.Have you ever tried a Space Mouse from 3d Connexion? I purchased a Space Mouse Pro a month or so ago and it works awesome with Fusion 360. They have several different versions priced from around $70 to $300+.The Space Mouse got ride of any and all problems I had manipulating 3d parts. Fusion 360 rocks!!! We replaced an older version of Mastercam with it back in Nov. 2014 and now all I use Mastercam for is engraveing and RS232 communications. Fusion doesn't offer RS232 or single line engraving (yet). I think you are right Onshape and Fusion are going to change the CAD/CAM world ...for the better. Althought cloud based software won't be secure enough for some companys. Thank you for all the great videos,looking forward to the next Fusion 360 tutorial.
NYC CNC No worrys bro it's all good. I'm horrible with a keyboard so it was pretty sweet when I found out about 3d mice.The content you cover here and how you cover it is awesome ,it must be a ton of work not sure how you do it.Keep on keepin on.
NYC CNC If you are only using it to model parts for machining, it's probably a little expensive (Like Solid Works). If you design things and need the analysis part of Inventor it's great.
Nice work John and thanks for providing a good peek under the hood of this package. I have to say that wow this Vid took me back a few years. Sincerely watching this made me appreciate Rhinoceros 5.0, Sprut and Vectric software more than I have in the recent past. I don't say this to discredit your POV, because you certainly speak for the majority of folks that are coming up and wanting to advance. Oh yeah and I also respect the hell out of you for what you have been able to do in such a short period of time (even if you are an Ohio guy :-)). Once upon a time I tried to use "Alibre Pro" and thought that it was not intuitive, inefficient and lacked free form. This was even though it seemed to have parametric function which was awesome. I long since moved on to other packages. I can use Solid Works, and don't mind it as much because it actually performs, but I still find it non-intuitive to the average Joe's way of thinking about drawing/design. The Fusion 360 is not what I would call "New Maker" friendly. For instance there are clicks required to get working within a construction plane that you want to develop is anal "Engineering" think on the route to a functional model. It's funny that I say this because I think in hardcore engineer a LOT. I lost the constraints of thought on how to make the model 5 years ago when I moved to Rhino and was challenged to think more of, "how do I undo that hole after the fact when I want to change its diameter" vs. being constrained by the software interface. I guess it comes down to how you think and what you had been exposed to. As an old school autoCAD guy it was an unfamiliar yet amazing feeling to be open to the Rhino way. Along the same grain Sprut used to piss me off too because there was NO guidance besides Eric's RUclips videos and guys posting on forums. I remember yelling, "Just FACE THE PART DAMNIT" at the waterline function LOL. The dongle also made me want to implant the entire package up someone's nether region at times- especially when it failed on me. Now that I understand it it isn't too bad. Actually I can really appreciate the fact that once you understand how SPRUT thinks that you are allowed an amazing amount of freedom in your approach to machining a part. For the price you get a ton of high end functionality that a small shop could never afford otherwise. Quite frankly for the new person that is living in 2D and simple 3D designs the Vectric software programs are stupid easy to understand and you can even run some very refined 2.5D cam in the packages that on a local machine for very little money! Oh yeah and their on-line tutorials and help documentation are geared towards the laymen....even the vocabulary is stupid easy to understand if you don't have a masters degree in the cartesian coordinate system I steer many this way because the learning curve is so shallow as well as the price point. Seriously though Cut 2D, Cut 3D and the newly changed VCarve Pro 8.0 are mighty nice for the dollar and they seem to evolve in leaps and bounds at every major revision vs. fixing bugs or adding two or three new functions (sound familiar). Speaking of Revision I recently upgraded my elderly VCarve Pro 6.5 to 8.0. This was a 2 revision upgrade for me. I had been living in Sprut 7.0 happily (I own 2 licenses of Sprut) but a dongle failure made me question if I needed to have another 3/4 axis package under my belt. Mind you I hadn't paid Vectric a dime in 3.5 years when I called in for an upgrade to their latest and greatest. When they told me that it would be $150 to get a fresh install of VCarve 8.0 Professional I started laughing! Mind you that it supports 2D and 3D as well as some 4th axis work and I originally had paid $620 for the program. I had over $3k into my Sprut investment and I was looking at dropping $1250 just to get to version 9.0 (even though 8.0 barely had a life). At any rate the cloud model access from anywhere and any machine is definitely an advantage. I just don't feel that Autodesk has tapped into the minds of non-engineering types that have "Zed" CAD/CAM experience and just want to make things with their newly purchased CNC XYZ router, printer, mill or turning center. Some company not owned by legacy thinking is going to get it even more right and allow a hellacious disruption within this category. 3D printing "slicer" programs are on the cusp right now, but until a digital machinist gets deep into the code we are going to be stuck with the fragmented options that both you and I present. Respectfully submitted to "THE MAN"! Doug P. in MI
Fusion 360 has all files cached locally. If the connection is down you are still able to work. It is actually free for hobbyists! You can register for the free version inside the software. If you have problems with rotation try shift-click with the middle mouse button to set a rotation pivot-point. The Activity-History on the bottom is not there to see how a person built up the part. You can edit each step or change order and therefore change your results. It's Autodesks approach to parametrized modelling. If you deactivate the history they call it direct modelling.
@11:50, you mention that the scrolling is a bit weird. Don't forget to go out of perspective view, which is the Fusion 360 default. It makes for some wack scrolling for sure! Great video though, well put together.
I've been getting into this. Can't beat the free trial run. Such a great program for the non-professional. I should be testing with my CNC plasma table soon. It will be awesome to be able to use one program for almost anything.
NYC CNC Somewhat. I used a Precision Plasma gantry and the CandCNC electronics package. I built the frame and set everything up. The electronics package (Mach3 with their hardware) has full height control, which is nice. I'm running with a Powermax 85 and it's great so far. It would be nice to be able to do the CAM for the plasma through Fusion, but I'll be happy being able to grab the .dxf file and post with Sheetcam. It looks like you can basically go into the drawing mode and grab the .dxf file for a specific face and save. I should have some more time soon to see how it works. Thanks for the videos, they have all been helpful. I have been teaching myself about CNC and the plasma was my first experiment, knowing that I wanted to get into full CNC machining. Fusion really opens up options to people like me that can't afford Solidworks to get just to try and learn. I like the fact that Fusion should be useful on my plasma table, as well as giving me the power of a full CAD/CAM system that I can learn and apply to a CNC mill at some point, or even just part design.
Thanks for doing these tutorials ! I hope you make a crap ton of them. It really helps! What are you using for a post processor in Fusion with PathPilot? Thanks again!!
Love following your videos.. Thanks for the time to do them. I'm new to CNC and CAM. Please can you tell me, will fusion know what tool you should use or select and at what speed it should be set at? I assume that you have to tell it the material you're milling? Thank you
I would love to see further vids on this as I am making a 1m x 1m cutting surface 3 axis cnc ( following your other series ) for my setup, I have a selectable speed cutter with 1.8hp behind it so the series as well as your other are the bomb.
If the view system works as in other Autodesk software i think you can resolve the weird view orbit by right clicking the "ViewCube" and selecting "Keep Scene Upright". That option should be directly in the pop-up menu or in a "Configure..." menu item.
+NYC CNC There is an option in Preferences in the dropdown menu b clicking your login name. Select General at the top and toward the bottom of that page is "Pan, Zoom, Orbit shortcuts" and you can set it to work like SolidWorks.
Looks good. Kindof like good sketch up. I use a 2011 version of AlphaCam for work and it's atrocious for modeling in 3d. Lucking most everything we cut only needs to be modeled in 2d.
To clarify, for the time being until Autodesk say otherwise, Fusion 360 ulitmate is free to use for anyone and everyone earning less than $100k a year. Standard version which now has all the features of ultimate is available for $300/year. Ultimate is $1200/year, but for most people standard will be more than enough. Going forward ultimate will get 5 axis and other goodies. Anyone that puts Fusion 360 down clearly haven't tried it, yes it isn't the "Best" cad software but you can do most things and it always being updated so new features are added all the time. I like the cloud part, as it means I always have my files to work on as long as I have the internet. And it accepts most cad file types, I've uploaded solidworks models to fusion no problem.
The difference between the two F360 editions from a CAM standpoint currently, is the $300 per year product doesn't include multi-axis and mill/turn. From June 7th 2015' that is
Well you see... that is why a 3D mouse is just awesome.. the way the model jumped around when you moved it around while trying to find the right camera angle...
The playback on the modeling could be really helpful to me as a beginner because as I have virtually no experience... This would be a review. Plus of the little things that could consume me during the process that I might otherwise forget, I could have a very objective reminder of ignorant time wasters. It could very well change things from " Bear with me, this is just the way I do it. " into "I already have it done".
What a great video, i want to try Fusion 360, i use autocad 2014 for modeling and Woowop 5.0 for machining, by the way i run a Weeke machine. My question is, is fusion 360 compatible with Weeke machines?
F360 is great if you are new to CAD. I work in Inventor and F360 is hard to learn after many years in inv. I hate their assembly tool, importing CAD format takes long time, project geometry is bull. Rendering is great! But hey if you are a hobyist or a startup it's free and you get CAM. And if you start using 360 directly it would be easier to learn. Btw there is a "Print now button" for 3D printers :D
Great video. I too have been using Onshape from it's beginning beta version and I love it but I want to do some machining. They don't have Cam yet and they don't have capability to do drawings and I just don't want to wait. I switched over to Fusion 360 Ultimate for 'FREE'. If you are a hobbyist, business makes less than $100,000.00 a year, student, or a teacher it is FREE (that's 3D Cad). I love it but am frustrated with the same things you spoke about. Best thing going right now.
NYC CNC Good idea. I absolutely hate having to hold down the SHIFT key to move around the part. I don't like to have to use both hands to do a simple thing like that. How about "Hold down scroll wheel" for rotating the part, "Hold down left and right buttons" for scrolling screen, at least some way where I can do it all with my right hand.
William Hardin There is an option in Preferences in the dropdown menu by clicking your login name. Select General at the top and toward the bottom of that page is "Pan, Zoom, Orbit shortcuts" and you can set it to work like SolidWorks.
for the price of f360 i could manually draw my designs , buy a machinaries handbook to calculate feeds and speeds , heck for a few years worth of subscription i could even get myself a decent lathe/milling machine . good deal if your a student , but for the hobby home shop its really expensive.
NYC CNC It is made by Autodesk --> www.123dapp.com/design It is good for simple 3D designs and is a great way to get into CAD. you can export straight to STL then onto your 3D printer CAM software which speeds the process up.
thehaytch Fusion 360 is much more sophisticated than 123D Design and in the File-Menu you can also select "3D Print" and you can select a body to create a mesh of. You can even configure to automatically start your slicer.
I gave Fusion 360 a go last night, it looks and feels good, somewhere between 123D and Autocad. 123d is a great intro to cad and if Autodesk is smart market it to primary schools and kids to learn their cad...it's all about brand recognition...iphone anyone? I tried to save the fusion file locally but could not figure it out also what typpe of file does it save, ie .dwg?
thehaytch There is no local saving like in older software. You always save to the cloud, but internally the software caches the file locally. You can also share your designs through GradCAD directly out of Fusion. There the files have the extension f3d but you're also able to generate STEP-files to share with a broader community.
I'm really happy for your good work. Dear respected sir, I need your help. I can do 3D design and generate G-code for it. But to 2D drawing from Sketching, I can not generate my G-code. Please could you help me to generate G-code from 2D sketching? I will be grateful to you.
For somebody just starting in CAD/CAM and CNC Fusion 360 is the best thing since sliced bread. Is it perfect? No. But for the price it is head and shoulders better than anything else out there. Fusion want your business, and they have mine. I have recommended 360 to numerous friends, most of whom are just getting into CNC [you have to share some of the blame here John ;-) ]. No it is not SolidWorks, but hell hobbyists having to pay 5K [don't even ask what it costs downunder, but it is one hell of a lot more than that] plus the yearly fee is just unrealistic. Fusion are going after this market big time and good on them. With CNC and 3D printing coming of age for the home/hobby/inventor they will be the go to package. Industry professionals will stay with SolidWorks and good luck to them, but for us small guys it will be Fusion 360 all the way. Yes it is a bit clunky to learn. But SolidWorks is no walk in the park either. You certainly have to get your head around the CAM workflow, but after 4 weeks on Fusion I can pretty confidently plan a part, and using sketching, seemlessly update that part when and if I need to. Thanks Fusion 360. You have let me access the world of CNC for a reasonable price. Thanks Jeff P.S. also check out the Fusion 360 Tutorials on RUclips. They are very informative: ruclips.net/channel/UCiMwMz3RMbW5mbx0iDcRQ2g
I learn something new every time I watch a video even if its one I have watched before. The more I use the software the more I seem to catch from watching the videos. I do have a question I hope some one can answer. I keep drawing all the features in 2d then trying to extrude them. the problem is I do not yet know how to get multiple extrusion height/depth from fusion. As soon as I extrude once I loose the 2d sketch where I have already drawn The feature I want extruded to a separate height. I have done it once or twice after hours of playing with it but I want an explanation or maybe a video. I have more than once gone back and drawn the feature a second time onto a now extruded surface and then performed the extrude/ push pull task.
Nice video. Def must try it out. The funniest thing is that all of the cam software companies buy the algorithms from Moduleworks. And make a few minor tweaks. A large machine shop near me swears by One CNC. Its pretty cheap also. I use BObCAM. Few dislikes with it but its prob no worse or better than most other packages. .
NYC CNC Yes sales push hard. I am on V4 Mill and Lathe for SW. Its working well for me. Seems to have advanced a lot from V24 days. I do like the price point at which I purchased as no maintenance required but I think them days are gone now. I have been considering making the move to One CNC however based on the comments I keep hearing about it and price point is really good
NYC CNC I actually like the way the 3d mouse works in CAD, hate the way it moves around in Sprut. Just downloaded the trial or Fusion 360 and watched a bunch of videos. Looks like a winner for me. Thanks for all your great videos! and i'm looking forward to seeing more Fusion360 tips :)
haha thanks for the great tutorial. I think you have a bit of a negative attitude on "gimmicky" or basically things that make it more accessible to the "non-machinists" like using the mouse drag just makes sense. It's not exactly classic practice, but like you said at the end, everything is changing. That's my only pick. It seemed a bit elitist to a noob like me. But thank you so very much for this video, I'm not trying to be a douche.
Liked your video. Did you know that you can let Fusion 360 do the math? So when you type a dimension, you can say for instance: 250 + (400/2). I think that's really cool. F360 also remembers the calculation for you, so when you re-edit your dimension, the calculation you typed is already there! It also works in Edgecam, and maybe many other CAD/CAM software? Cheers from the Netherlands!
Veterans can get Solidworks for $20 a year, so would you recommend learning Solidworks or Fusion 360 for the CAD? Then assuming you use Solidworks for the CAD is HSMworks or Fusion 360 better for CAM?
I followed along and made a very similar part to what you did in this video and when it was calculating the tool path it took my computer like 5 minutes to do the one that seemed to take your computer like 3 or 4 seconds. I have a 2015 mac desktop with 8 gigs of ram and it is a clean and generally fast computer. Am I doing something wrong that would make it take a long time?
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I am 45 seconds in and I already have to thumbs up this video. I like the way he went directly to the final part first, then I like the way he did the next 30 seconds about the rectangle and how he added it to his toolbar. Very nice. He's good at explaining things in a quick and direct way where he enables you to teach yourself on your own. It is like a quick start video and that is exactly what people need. Great job.
Discovered Fusion 360 by watching your Fusion Friday tutorials. I've been teaching/using various CAD and 3D modeling software for many years ... Fusion 360 is truly a remarkable piece of software! Organic modeling with T-splines combined with parametric CAD and CAM ...NICE!
Thanks for all of your videos ... I've learned a lot !
Cheers
I learned by watching his videos as well. I would look at MasterCAM and said to myself "there has to be an easier way" I have no desire to get a degree in MasterCAM. I did a Fusion trial (initially used it for 3D printing) dove into the CAM, it's easy easier and understandable. I just ordered a next wave automation cnc shark HD4 for my home shop. I'm like a kid in a toy store! I have code to post and 3 hours per part on machining (I will be adjusting feeds and speeds to go faster depending on material)
I finally broke down and learned the software because I was so tired of paying machine shops thousands and thousands to do 4 parts. So I figure about 4 to 6 parts on my HD4 and it will have paid for itself!
Also ordering a water cooled spindle for noise and longevity.
love your channel, John! keep up the great work!
This tutorial is head and shoulders above many of the other CAD tutorials on line. Perfectly paced, just the right content, would love to see more Fusion 360 videos with advancing complexity from you. Really enjoy your videos.
Great work with continuing to share the next gen CAD / CAM love. A key difference between Onshape & Fusion 360 is F360 started life as Online only. It ran inside it's own browser. It became clear an offline version was needed and Fusion 360 2.0 was born.
Thanks for the tutorial. I have been learning Fusion 360 to replace eMachineShop (very easy to use free 2.5D CAD) as my design tool for bass guitars. AutoDesk now allows hobbyists, students, and startups making less than 100k to use it free, indefinitely. I sell like 2 or 3 basses per year mostly to support the hobby, so it's a fantastic free tool for what I need.
It's a lot easier to use than I thought it would be, thanks to your tutorial.
I have been using Fusion 360 for just as hobby and wanting to learn more on 3D cam. I know you mention you dont like to go slow and ramble on, I agree with the ramble on, but slowing down a bit would help people like me, where it takes time for me to focus on what your doing. Keep these Fusion 360 tutorials coming, as I think they are in demand and I thank you for doing the first.
The ability to play your history bar (or whatever its called) at the bottom i can see handy when you are trying to find where you edited a part. Like when you had to go back to your hole and change its diameter. on more complex parts that might be completed over days it might not be as simple to find when you made a change.
On another note. your youtube channel is amazing, i have spent quite alot of time watching things being milled etc. i dont think it will ever get old. i love the fact you share so much of what you do and better still HOW you accomplished it. You explain things in a way thats easy to understand. I started off mildly interested in machining (CNC Milling) and now all i want to do is make stuff :) im not even sure what i want to make but id be happy simply making stuff.
So in short, thankyou for the effort you put in.
Great video. I've been using Fusion 360 CAD and CAM for about a year in my home shop and I must say that it's the absolute best option for hobbyists. (I'm not in a position to speak as a professional) As you mention it's not perfect but it is constantly and rapidly improving. As it is cloud-based the new features and improvements automatically gets pushed out the the users. Here are the main point which makes Fusion 360 a great choice:
- Free full features version for private use.
- Professional grade CAD and CAM in a single package
- Very easy to use
- Improves very rapidly as it is cloud-based
- Support for MAC
- Autodesk has a proven track record withing CAD/CAD and are not out of business in 6 months.
NYC CNC Sure, no problem. I should be able share some of my models with you directly in Fusion. That could be cool to try.
It's pretty simple parts I have been designing, most of them as part of doing a CNC conversion of my RF45 clone mill.
Hi John, yet another great video on Fusion. I've tried a solid works i hate it. I'm an AutoCAD guy. It's so much easier to do tasks in AutoCAD 2015 vs solid works (I did a trial of it, did about 20 min in it and wanted to put my fist through the monitor). Fusion is incredible! I LOVE that I can do solids in model and then head over to CAM and do my cut paths and send it on over to the CNC. and it's affordable!! It doesn't cost 9k a seat! MAKE THE FUTURE!!
Currently a Rhino user, the loss of T-Splines killed it for me. I've been advise to come over to Fusion 360, and this video sealed the deal, thank you !
Thanks for the great tutorial. The vendor showed me all the neat free form stuff, which was cool, but when I got home I realized I had no idea how to start a part.
John, just wanted to say thank you for posting these incredible videos. You don't have to do this, but you do. I applaud you for this. this takes away from other things in your life....
This work your doing is helping others...
MAKE THE FUTURE!
CHEERS, JOHN. 👍👍👍
more of these Fusion tutorials please! picked up loads of little tricks from watching this
Hooooly cow. Just what the doctor ordered. Never was a big fan of the Solidworks/HSM Works combo (mostly because it's over-complicated for what I need and waaaaaay too expensive).. This is JUST perfect and I'm really looking forward to see the upcoming tutorials. Awesome, John!
I am a complete beginner in this cad, I am a Instrument Maker, but strictly manual, but I like what you are doing here!!!!
I was also a complete beginner 1 year ago. started out with 2D wire frame in AutoCAD 2015 (got a half hour course from a friend's wife) it was tough but stepped up to 3D wire frame (love to learn new things, keeps the mind aroused) now working in Fusion and bought my first CNC to get some stuff done. You can do it! baby steps!
Nice video John and thanks for putting that up. I use Fusion myself and like it. As a Mac user it was a game changer. You showed a few things I don't normally use but liked the way you did them.
Another very good thing about Fusion is the support. The team there are very responsive to suggestions for improvement and an answer when you get stuck on something is generally only an hour or two away via their forum.
I'm a retired MasterCam user. I learned on the DOS based 4.2 MasterCam 3x software. I loved it. I would like to have a home CNC mill to make hobby pieces. This looks interesting. I designed with the CAD and it was easy. I won't be doing production just one or two pieces.
I really enjoyed this tutorial. No fluff just jumped right into it. I'm going to try it tonight!
Hi and thanks for sharing, im New too both CAD and cam, but been playing around with fusion 360 for a while now. Love the tutorial, you keep it intresting, short and informative. Looking forward for more tutorials like this. Well thanks again, keep it up:-)
The pace of progress the Fusion 360 Team at Autodesk is improving the product is really impressive. I had also moved from Solidworks/HSMExpress over to Fusion back in November and really struggled the first couple of months with learning and becoming frustrated with the new workflow and the "Timeline". Finally got over the hump with how sketches, bodies and components work together and separately and also how to "Activate" and Show/Hide just the feature(s) I'm currently interested in and thus shrinking the Timeline down to a minimum clutter that shows just the immediate elements that I am wanting to edit. Great stuff John. It's a really exciting product.
NYC CNC I have spent a lot of time with F360, but have so much more to learn. I saw one part in this video where you can really speed up your designing. Rather than create construction lines, like I often have done to find the center for placing a circle or hole within a square/box, try using "3-Point Circle". You just select the mid-point of three sides of your square (or rectangle) and finish the circle, then select the "Sketch Dimension" tool to redefine the circle to the size you want within that square ... super fast.
Yet another outstanding video John! I've been forcing myself to learn Fusion 360 for a couple of months now. I think it is similar to Sketchup in some ways, and the learning curve doesn't seem to be as steep as some other packages I've tried in the past. Anxiously awaiting future F360 videos (but please don't shortchange us on the Tormach, Arduino, DIY and other misc videos!). Keep up the great work!
Keep up the good work, John. Trying to get my son into Fusion and these videos are really helping us out.
IDK if anyone has explained it yet but right now Fusion 360 standard is fully capable of 3 axis machining which at first was not the case you only got 3 axis machining with the 360 Ultimate package at first. I believe it was in July that they aligned the two and then proceeded to add Mill turn and 5 axis machining capabilities to the Ultimate package along with some other more business oriented aspects. I'm not sure if its still going on but they did a special price of $25 for your first year of Fusion 360 around black Friday. That is when I purchased it for My business and I truly love it. for the cost which to hobbyist students and start ups the best part is its FREEEEE. and you cant beat free and you will not find a better product out there with the capabilities this offers for the price range. I have looked into upgrading our outdated cad/cam software that unfortunately was a basic 2.5 axis software that was really limited(it ran on windows XP, enough said). Just being able to create adaptive tool paths is worth it with the increase in productivity and less wear on machines and tools.Also the Offline feature does now work!With the constant updates and amazing features that keep being added, and for the price that isent going to be out of date or replaced next week. If you haven't tried it I would deff suggest it don't be scared off thinking its junk cause its either free or very cheap in comparison it is amazing!
I love tutorials, always have and the tempo in these vids you are doing is perfect. I can feel my beard grow watching some tutorials... and in the end I didnt learn much. Love these, keep 'em commin'!
Such a good Introduction! Hats of to you, everything is tops from audio/video to the small tutorial part to the explaining of software and competition. I thought I'd just download fusion as a student for the benefit of it and since It might be good to know it in future work. This tutorial sort of explained everything I wanted to know from my beginners perspective.
Thanks John you cleared up many questions I had about these programs. I am a novice learning it my own. I have SolidWorks so, thanks again.
liked for the fast yet informative initiative! I'm just getting interested in CNC but your channel ID really helping me learn and not seem so daunting.
Hey John FYI in the preferences you can change the Pan Zoom and Orbit Shortcuts to Solidworks under General
Hi John
I think you are right Fusion 360 will be a game changer, occasional users, hobbyists and small shops now have access to an affordable and capable CAD/CAM system.
I've been using Ironcad for years and find it very efficient in developing my lighting designs and like you've said it costs me $AU1K per year to maintain. Like you I go from designing to manufacturing of my all products, so I'm not using CAD/CAM every day, I also use Sprutcam and because I'm an occasional user it becomes a pain if you forget a small step during a setup, Fusions CAM seems a hell of a lot more intuitive.
Please keep up your great work, looking forward to more on Fusion 360.
PS is Fusion capable of 4th axis work?
Best regards
Ralph
Thanks for this video. I am trying to talk my work into getting a small CNC mill for making cut-outs for screens etc in plastic boxes. Being able to teach myself CAD and CAM in my own time will increase the chances of getting one.
Really glad to see this vid; thanks John. I really liked OnShape for modeling, but the CAM integration with Fusion 360 is really hard to beat.
If you don't already have a gaming mouse, and/or a keypad such as the Logitech G13; I highly recommend getting one or both. The ability to macro dozens of keys to perform all sorts of functions is awesome. Personally use a Razer Naga 2014 and a Logitech G13 to effortlessly command the software program.
I see you have the same problem as me, Coming from solidworks the pan and zoom is a little weird, One of the things you can do to make it easier is go to ->Preferences ->General-> Then scroll down to pan,zoom orbit shortcuts and change the dropdown box to solidworks and then your not so messed up when switching between software packages.
Hello,
Just a quick tip: You can do math in the smart dimension box. Just type it in like in a calculator. If you are impressed by Fusion you should try Autodesk Inventor. For me it's the best Cad software out there. Keep up the great videos.
Awesome stuff John, Fusion 360 looks perfect for what I need. Not that you really need CAD for a DIY CNC Plasma cutter but it will help me with design and assembly of other parts I'll need. I'm sure I'll rewatch this tutorial several times to get a better understanding of it. Thanks!
NYC CNC Very good point, I can see the advantages and with 3 kids under two, I only get nights to plan things out without distraction.
John, thanks for this tutorial and your views on Fusion 360. Very helpful. Please make some more
i love watching your vids but sometimes i feel you go a little to quick for the beginners like me and the sound is a little low and i find it a bit hard to hear clearly but man are you full of info for the hungry mind thanks for your time mate cheers
Great demo John. I agree mate, definitely a game changer. I had the NZ and Aus Autodesk guys at my school last week conducting a industry HSM training session and got a preview of Fusion 360. As an educator we're spoilt, as all Autodesk products are now free to schools. Makes you wonder if SW will come around. Like you, we paid $6K AUD for a school licence, plus the service fee every year. Might have to switch to inventor? Cheers Aaron
NYC CNC Something to consider is the market cap between Autodesk ($12b) and DDS ($17b), it's probably why DDS doesn't feel the need to change their sales model. Autodesk also has a long standing history of working with educators so it's more in their culture and easy to take it forward. Also, thank you so much for this quick tut, I'm new to CAM (but not Autodesk products) and grabbed Fusion 360 to start learning!
This is coming in late, but I just wanted to say thanks and I'd certainly like to see more Fusion cad/cam videos.
It struck me as odd that had to do the math to align that pocket, so after a little playing around I ended up going with sketching two centre lines, one on the pocket sketch and one on the part, converting them to layout lines, then constraining them to be collinear. You are probably aware of this approach but I thought I'd put it down for anybody else that was scratching their head.
Travis.
Nice comment about fusion 360. I'll start using learning about it and use it. Thank you.
Brother, this is an amazing and simple tutorial! It's possible make everything with this tool, more CNC or 3D print! The next step is buy one of two and make the dreams make actuals! Very thanks!! Is a "Like" sure!
Looking forward to these Fusion 360 videos John, thanks for the tutorial!
This is a great video, I'm just looking at the different options to set up a little workshop and this stuff is one of the things I'm looking into :) thanks a lot!
NYC CNC Well, at the moment having a workshop is just an idea (that has been in my mind for years and never actually took the time to proper develop as I had been too busy studying engineering [yeah I guess it's linked at least haha]). The workshop would be mainly for kitchen products and large wooden cameras :)
Thank-you!! I just finished modelling the part with you. Great instruction.
Love the video. Learning more each day. Your idea of cheep is a lot different than mine.
+Thomas Harrell Fusion 360 is now free to students, enthusiast and companies making less than $100kUS, at least in the US, sounds pretty cheap to me.
+Stuart Grant Yeah I was looking at the company price. Free is real hard to beat.
thanks for this tutorial. im in the process of finishing up my homemade cnc mill and still finding the bet cad/cam setup. trying this out.
Nice. I am just trying to learn how to model in CAD and found Onshape a week ago. When I progress to a point where it would be worth buying a cad/cam package Fusion360 looks like the way to go. Its hard to be totally free when your just learning so I'm playing with Onshape, no software to install is nice too.
Excellent video !! .. Thank you so very much for sharing.
I've heard about Fusion 360 some time ago and I decided to investigate it at some point.
It seems to be a lovely piece of software, easy to use even for beginners like myself, too used to hand drawing all my parts.
oh.. very interesting. thank you for this.
I was looking some time now for a clear an wel explained tutorial. the facebook group "I like to make things" brought me here :)
Great video. Glad to see you got into Fusion. It does have some issues at this point in time but nothing major and I agree it's the best thing for your money hands down if you need CAD and CAM. Like you said, Autodesk is a large well established company that is capable of steamrolling ahead with this software. This is their "flagship" CAD/CAM now so I would guess this software is just going to get better with time. I also think it's going to continue to go up in price so now is the time to get into it. I think it's going to be a HUGE player in CAD/CAM software very soon. I am not even sure if you can get if for the $300 a year anymore, I think it has alread gone to $1200 across the board minus the hobby/student version. We got in at the $300/year and I'm glad we did.
Solid Edge has had the feature playback ability for many years. It is especially useful when modifying a part you didn't originally design or you designed several years ago. Possibly not so important with 20 items in the tree by when there's 100 features in the tree it is a quick way the understand the model and the original designer's thought process.
I need to find these short cuts, just started using it and some of the things you do I'm like... oh dang, wish I knew that little shortcut
You might not like long videos, BUT! You go thru that so fast I can't keep track of what you're clicking on.
Great video and great topic like you said this is a game changer and good to know that Autodesk has this at an affordable price too. So my vote is yes more videos on Fusion 360.
Hi John, at last cheap real cad/cam, I have downloaded fusion 360 and am sure I will by it, it's different from wot I am used to using which was cambam which I think is still a great program and I think everyone should try it, now fusion 360 all I can say is it great and looks great, I bet the guys who own soildworks are quaking in their boots with all the cheap good cad cam programs that are coming out now eh, thanks daniel
Great channel you got here.Have you ever tried a Space Mouse from 3d Connexion? I purchased a Space Mouse Pro a month or so ago and it works awesome with Fusion 360. They have several different versions priced from around $70 to $300+.The Space Mouse got ride of any and all problems I had manipulating 3d parts.
Fusion 360 rocks!!! We replaced an older version of Mastercam with it back in Nov. 2014 and now all I use Mastercam for is engraveing and RS232 communications. Fusion doesn't offer RS232 or single line engraving (yet). I think you are right Onshape and Fusion are going to change the CAD/CAM world ...for the better. Althought cloud based software won't be secure enough for some companys.
Thank you for all the great videos,looking forward to the next Fusion 360 tutorial.
NYC CNC WOW! Sorry I mentioned it.
NYC CNC No worrys bro it's all good. I'm horrible with a keyboard so it was pretty sweet when I found out about 3d mice.The content you cover here and how you cover it is awesome ,it must be a ton of work not sure how you do it.Keep on keepin on.
Also, you can access the McMaster Carr catalogue to import fasteners by clicking on the Insert menu.
I have used Inventor (which is the professional version of Fusion) for years. It's my favorite modeling software.
NYC CNC If you are only using it to model parts for machining, it's probably a little expensive (Like Solid Works). If you design things and need the analysis part of Inventor it's great.
Nice work John and thanks for providing a good peek under the hood of this package. I have to say that wow this Vid took me back a few years. Sincerely watching this made me appreciate Rhinoceros 5.0, Sprut and Vectric software more than I have in the recent past. I don't say this to discredit your POV, because you certainly speak for the majority of folks that are coming up and wanting to advance. Oh yeah and I also respect the hell out of you for what you have been able to do in such a short period of time (even if you are an Ohio guy :-)).
Once upon a time I tried to use "Alibre Pro" and thought that it was not intuitive, inefficient and lacked free form. This was even though it seemed to have parametric function which was awesome. I long since moved on to other packages. I can use Solid Works, and don't mind it as much because it actually performs, but I still find it non-intuitive to the average Joe's way of thinking about drawing/design.
The Fusion 360 is not what I would call "New Maker" friendly. For instance there are clicks required to get working within a construction plane that you want to develop is anal "Engineering" think on the route to a functional model. It's funny that I say this because I think in hardcore engineer a LOT. I lost the constraints of thought on how to make the model 5 years ago when I moved to Rhino and was challenged to think more of, "how do I undo that hole after the fact when I want to change its diameter" vs. being constrained by the software interface. I guess it comes down to how you think and what you had been exposed to.
As an old school autoCAD guy it was an unfamiliar yet amazing feeling to be open to the Rhino way. Along the same grain Sprut used to piss me off too because there was NO guidance besides Eric's RUclips videos and guys posting on forums. I remember yelling, "Just FACE THE PART DAMNIT" at the waterline function LOL. The dongle also made me want to implant the entire package up someone's nether region at times- especially when it failed on me. Now that I understand it it isn't too bad. Actually I can really appreciate the fact that once you understand how SPRUT thinks that you are allowed an amazing amount of freedom in your approach to machining a part. For the price you get a ton of high end functionality that a small shop could never afford otherwise.
Quite frankly for the new person that is living in 2D and simple 3D designs the Vectric software programs are stupid easy to understand and you can even run some very refined 2.5D cam in the packages that on a local machine for very little money! Oh yeah and their on-line tutorials and help documentation are geared towards the laymen....even the vocabulary is stupid easy to understand if you don't have a masters degree in the cartesian coordinate system I steer many this way because the learning curve is so shallow as well as the price point. Seriously though Cut 2D, Cut 3D and the newly changed VCarve Pro 8.0 are mighty nice for the dollar and they seem to evolve in leaps and bounds at every major revision vs. fixing bugs or adding two or three new functions (sound familiar).
Speaking of Revision I recently upgraded my elderly VCarve Pro 6.5 to 8.0. This was a 2 revision upgrade for me. I had been living in Sprut 7.0 happily (I own 2 licenses of Sprut) but a dongle failure made me question if I needed to have another 3/4 axis package under my belt. Mind you I hadn't paid Vectric a dime in 3.5 years when I called in for an upgrade to their latest and greatest. When they told me that it would be $150 to get a fresh install of VCarve 8.0 Professional I started laughing! Mind you that it supports 2D and 3D as well as some 4th axis work and I originally had paid $620 for the program. I had over $3k into my Sprut investment and I was looking at dropping $1250 just to get to version 9.0 (even though 8.0 barely had a life).
At any rate the cloud model access from anywhere and any machine is definitely an advantage. I just don't feel that Autodesk has tapped into the minds of non-engineering types that have "Zed" CAD/CAM experience and just want to make things with their newly purchased CNC XYZ router, printer, mill or turning center. Some company not owned by legacy thinking is going to get it even more right and allow a hellacious disruption within this category. 3D printing "slicer" programs are on the cusp right now, but until a digital machinist gets deep into the code we are going to be stuck with the fragmented options that both you and I present. Respectfully submitted to "THE MAN"! Doug P. in MI
Doug P Sorry for the ramblings and "spellins" Yoda, but it has been a long week here LOL!
Fusion 360 has all files cached locally. If the connection is down you are still able to work. It is actually free for hobbyists! You can register for the free version inside the software.
If you have problems with rotation try shift-click with the middle mouse button to set a rotation pivot-point.
The Activity-History on the bottom is not there to see how a person built up the part. You can edit each step or change order and therefore change your results. It's Autodesks approach to parametrized modelling. If you deactivate the history they call it direct modelling.
@11:50, you mention that the scrolling is a bit weird. Don't forget to go out of perspective view, which is the Fusion 360 default. It makes for some wack scrolling for sure! Great video though, well put together.
I've been getting into this. Can't beat the free trial run. Such a great program for the non-professional. I should be testing with my CNC plasma table soon. It will be awesome to be able to use one program for almost anything.
NYC CNC Somewhat. I used a Precision Plasma gantry and the CandCNC electronics package. I built the frame and set everything up. The electronics package (Mach3 with their hardware) has full height control, which is nice. I'm running with a Powermax 85 and it's great so far. It would be nice to be able to do the CAM for the plasma through Fusion, but I'll be happy being able to grab the .dxf file and post with Sheetcam. It looks like you can basically go into the drawing mode and grab the .dxf file for a specific face and save. I should have some more time soon to see how it works. Thanks for the videos, they have all been helpful. I have been teaching myself about CNC and the plasma was my first experiment, knowing that I wanted to get into full CNC machining. Fusion really opens up options to people like me that can't afford Solidworks to get just to try and learn. I like the fact that Fusion should be useful on my plasma table, as well as giving me the power of a full CAD/CAM system that I can learn and apply to a CNC mill at some point, or even just part design.
Thanks for doing these tutorials ! I hope you make a crap ton of them. It really helps! What are you using for a post processor in Fusion with PathPilot? Thanks again!!
Love following your videos.. Thanks for the time to do them. I'm new to CNC and CAM. Please can you tell me, will fusion know what tool you should use or select and at what speed it should be set at? I assume that you have to tell it the material you're milling? Thank you
Great video, so can you export the cam g-code directly to mach3 ??? If so this is awesome!!!
I would love to see further vids on this as I am making a 1m x 1m cutting surface 3 axis cnc ( following your other series ) for my setup, I have a selectable speed cutter with 1.8hp behind it so the series as well as your other are the bomb.
NYC CNC No 1 meter x 1 meter 3 for by 3 foot or there abouts, single m for meter. 😊
If the view system works as in other Autodesk software i think you can resolve the weird view orbit by right clicking the "ViewCube" and selecting "Keep Scene Upright". That option should be directly in the pop-up menu or in a "Configure..." menu item.
+NYC CNC There is an option in Preferences in the dropdown menu b clicking your login name. Select General at the top and toward the bottom of that page is "Pan, Zoom, Orbit shortcuts" and you can set it to work like SolidWorks.
Thank you NYC CNC Awesome tutorial.
Looks good. Kindof like good sketch up. I use a 2011 version of AlphaCam for work and it's atrocious for modeling in 3d. Lucking most everything we cut only needs to be modeled in 2d.
To clarify, for the time being until Autodesk say otherwise, Fusion 360 ulitmate is free to use for anyone and everyone earning less than $100k a year.
Standard version which now has all the features of ultimate is available for $300/year.
Ultimate is $1200/year, but for most people standard will be more than enough. Going forward ultimate will get 5 axis and other goodies.
Anyone that puts Fusion 360 down clearly haven't tried it, yes it isn't the "Best" cad software but you can do most things and it always being updated so new features are added all the time.
I like the cloud part, as it means I always have my files to work on as long as I have the internet. And it accepts most cad file types, I've uploaded solidworks models to fusion no problem.
The difference between the two F360 editions from a CAM standpoint currently, is the $300 per year product doesn't include multi-axis and mill/turn. From June 7th 2015' that is
Well you see... that is why a 3D mouse is just awesome.. the way the model jumped around when you moved it around while trying to find the right camera angle...
The tricky part for me is remembering to set the surface depth "-" for milling purposes.
Great tutorial. Looking forward to seeing more
The playback on the modeling could be really helpful to me as a beginner because as I have virtually no experience... This would be a review. Plus of the little things that could consume me during the process that I might otherwise forget, I could have a very objective reminder of ignorant time wasters. It could very well change things from " Bear with me, this is just the way I do it. " into "I already have it done".
What a great video, i want to try Fusion 360, i use autocad 2014 for modeling and Woowop 5.0 for machining, by the way i run a Weeke machine. My question is, is fusion 360 compatible with Weeke machines?
That design tree would be useful in a education environment, it looks like that is why they put that in.
F360 is great if you are new to CAD. I work in Inventor and F360 is hard to learn after many years in inv. I hate their assembly tool, importing CAD format takes long time, project geometry is bull. Rendering is great! But hey if you are a hobyist or a startup it's free and you get CAM. And if you start using 360 directly it would be easier to learn. Btw there is a "Print now button" for 3D printers :D
Hi can you make a tutorial about tolerance...e.g. for shaft and bearing fit-up.. how to do it in cad...thanks...
Great video. I too have been using Onshape from it's beginning beta version and I love it but I want to do some machining. They don't have Cam yet and they don't have capability to do drawings and I just don't want to wait. I switched over to Fusion 360 Ultimate for 'FREE'. If you are a hobbyist, business makes less than $100,000.00 a year, student, or a teacher it is FREE (that's 3D Cad). I love it but am frustrated with the same things you spoke about. Best thing going right now.
NYC CNC Good idea. I absolutely hate having to hold down the SHIFT key to move around the part. I don't like to have to use both hands to do a simple thing like that. How about "Hold down scroll wheel" for rotating the part, "Hold down left and right buttons" for scrolling screen, at least some way where I can do it all with my right hand.
William Hardin There is an option in Preferences in the dropdown menu by clicking your login name. Select General at the top and toward the bottom of that page is "Pan, Zoom, Orbit shortcuts" and you can set it to work like SolidWorks.
MrAtalon Thanks, I'll check it out later today.
Awesome! Just putting in my vote for more Fusion 360 vids!!! :)
for the price of f360 i could manually draw my designs , buy a machinaries handbook to calculate feeds and speeds , heck for a few years worth of subscription i could even get myself a decent lathe/milling machine . good deal if your a student , but for the hobby home shop its really expensive.
Setting it up now! It looks a bit like 123D Design which was good for basic 3D printing. Cant wait to give it a go...
Thanks John
NYC CNC
It is made by Autodesk --> www.123dapp.com/design
It is good for simple 3D designs and is a great way to get into CAD. you can export straight to STL then onto your 3D printer CAM software which speeds the process up.
thehaytch Fusion 360 is much more sophisticated than 123D Design and in the File-Menu you can also select "3D Print" and you can select a body to create a mesh of. You can even configure to automatically start your slicer.
I gave Fusion 360 a go last night, it looks and feels good, somewhere between 123D and Autocad. 123d is a great intro to cad and if Autodesk is smart market it to primary schools and kids to learn their cad...it's all about brand recognition...iphone anyone?
I tried to save the fusion file locally but could not figure it out also what typpe of file does it save, ie .dwg?
thehaytch There is no local saving like in older software. You always save to the cloud, but internally the software caches the file locally. You can also share your designs through GradCAD directly out of Fusion. There the files have the extension f3d but you're also able to generate STEP-files to share with a broader community.
Best tutorial by far!
I'm really happy for your good work.
Dear respected sir, I need your help. I can do 3D design and generate G-code for it. But to 2D drawing from Sketching, I can not generate my G-code. Please could you help me to generate G-code from 2D sketching? I will be grateful to you.
Actually when entering numbers you can have Fusion do the calculations for you. e.g. put in 1.5-0.8 75/2
For somebody just starting in CAD/CAM and CNC Fusion 360 is the best thing since sliced bread. Is it perfect? No. But for the price it is head and shoulders better than anything else out there. Fusion want your business, and they have mine. I have recommended 360 to numerous friends, most of whom are just getting into CNC [you have to share some of the blame here John ;-) ].
No it is not SolidWorks, but hell hobbyists having to pay 5K [don't even ask what it costs downunder, but it is one hell of a lot more than that] plus the yearly fee is just unrealistic. Fusion are going after this market big time and good on them. With CNC and 3D printing coming of age for the home/hobby/inventor they will be the go to package. Industry professionals will stay with SolidWorks and good luck to them, but for us small guys it will be Fusion 360 all the way.
Yes it is a bit clunky to learn. But SolidWorks is no walk in the park either. You certainly have to get your head around the CAM workflow, but after 4 weeks on Fusion I can pretty confidently plan a part, and using sketching, seemlessly update that part when and if I need to.
Thanks Fusion 360. You have let me access the world of CNC for a reasonable price.
Thanks
Jeff
P.S. also check out the Fusion 360 Tutorials on RUclips. They are very informative: ruclips.net/channel/UCiMwMz3RMbW5mbx0iDcRQ2g
very insightful. thank you for the post.
I learn something new every time I watch a video even if its one I have watched before. The more I use the software the more I seem to catch from watching the videos.
I do have a question I hope some one can answer. I keep drawing all the features in 2d then trying to extrude them. the problem is I do not yet know how to get multiple extrusion height/depth from fusion. As soon as I extrude once I loose the 2d sketch where I have already drawn The feature I want extruded to a separate height. I have done it once or twice after hours of playing with it but I want an explanation or maybe a video. I have more than once gone back and drawn the feature a second time onto a now extruded surface and then performed the extrude/ push pull task.
Nice video. Def must try it out. The funniest thing is that all of the cam software companies buy the algorithms from Moduleworks. And make a few minor tweaks. A large machine shop near me swears by One CNC. Its pretty cheap also. I use BObCAM. Few dislikes with it but its prob no worse or better than most other packages. .
NYC CNC Yes sales push hard. I am on V4 Mill and Lathe for SW. Its working well for me. Seems to have advanced a lot from V24 days. I do like the price point at which I purchased as no maintenance required but I think them days are gone now. I have been considering making the move to One CNC however based on the comments I keep hearing about it and price point is really good
Would be nice if you made a fusion360 multiaxis tutorial.
Thanks learning a lot.
Have you thought about getting a 3Dconnexion 3D mouse? Might be a little easier to move around. I love my spacemouse pro!
NYC CNC I actually like the way the 3d mouse works in CAD, hate the way it moves around in Sprut. Just downloaded the trial or Fusion 360 and watched a bunch of videos. Looks like a winner for me. Thanks for all your great videos! and i'm looking forward to seeing more Fusion360 tips :)
haha thanks for the great tutorial.
I think you have a bit of a negative attitude on "gimmicky" or basically things that make it more accessible to the "non-machinists" like using the mouse drag just makes sense. It's not exactly classic practice, but like you said at the end, everything is changing.
That's my only pick. It seemed a bit elitist to a noob like me. But thank you so very much for this video, I'm not trying to be a douche.
Fusion (the complete package) is completely free on an educational/hobby license isn't it?
Liked your video. Did you know that you can let Fusion 360 do the math? So when you type a dimension, you can say for instance: 250 + (400/2). I think that's really cool. F360 also remembers the calculation for you, so when you re-edit your dimension, the calculation you typed is already there! It also works in Edgecam, and maybe many other CAD/CAM software? Cheers from the Netherlands!
Cool, didn't know that! Thanks.
Great video, thanks!
Veterans can get Solidworks for $20 a year, so would you recommend learning Solidworks or Fusion 360 for the CAD? Then assuming you use Solidworks for the CAD is HSMworks or Fusion 360 better for CAM?
I followed along and made a very similar part to what you did in this video and when it was calculating the tool path it took my computer like 5 minutes to do the one that seemed to take your computer like 3 or 4 seconds. I have a 2015 mac desktop with 8 gigs of ram and it is a clean and generally fast computer. Am I doing something wrong that would make it take a long time?