Tutorials for you, courtesy of me.
I teach High School Drafting (and Metal, and Mechanics, and Math). I used to focus in 2D with AutoCAD, but statistically very few of the students are actually going to pursue Drafting as a career.
Today, anyone can get a cheap 3D printer - why not learn how to use it?
Enter Fusion360 (yeah, I know there are many others)
I uploaded my entire course to my website, figured you folks might find it useful:
Thanks , i need to spend some time learning Fusion , hopefully this will make it easier :)
Also uploaded RevIt tutorials and very basic AutoCAD for Architecture (find the links under SUBJECTS -> DRAFTING, but they won't help for 3D printing.
I assume the 3d CNC would just use Fusion 360 ?
I can post direct from Fusion360 into a .cnc file that my Plasma table can read (my machine runs files off a thumb drive).
You can also print direct to your 3D printer from Fusion360.
anything on Adobe Illustrator ?
Never used it, sorry.
This is exactly what I've been looking for. Would love to get back into drafting and no longer have access to my student account on Autodesk for Autocad. I picked up a Creality 3D printer and want to dust off the cobwebs from my drafting chops.
Bookmarking for further learning
How does fusion360 compare to solidworks. I have solidworks and am trying to learn it as it's very powerful and the industry standard but I can't find great tutorials like this. WIll the basics transfer over?
I have not used Solidworks, but I did come from Inventor and Pro/Engineer and Rhino3D.
My take on it is: if you can learn one, you can learn any - they all basically do the same thing.
I found Fusion MUCH more user-friendly and intuitive, but the others may be in a similar place too.
Thanks for posting those! When I get to a (relative) lull in the projects, I'll plug that into my continued attempts to get functional on Fusion 360!
I do like the addition of "if you dimension to hidden lines, I’m going to punch you in the hidden line"
I learned Solidworks in high school and college and have worked with Solidworks extensively in college design and professionally for a couple years. It is a bit of a challenge to switch from Solidworks to Fusion360. Not a 100% relearn, but definitely a lot of adjustment. I have successfully made a few 2d and 3d parts in Fusion360 and even gone from 2d CAD to finished laser cut steel parts. The thing that seems most different between the two ecosystems is assemblies. I have made some large and complex assemblies in Solidworks, so to me now it seems intuitive and straightforward. It is definitely going to take some learning and playing to get any sort of assembly done in Fusion360.
enginehelp said:I have solidworks and am trying to learn it as it's very powerful and the industry standard but I can't find great tutorials like this. WIll the basics transfer over?
1) Basic tutorials like shown above are almost always included in any Solidworks-level CAD software and higher.
2) Yes, they will carry over as long as you are moving to another parametric modeler. There are a few oddballs out there though. And there are non-parametric modelers like Rhino, Blender, etc. which will feel totaly different. For engineering type design Solidworks is probably the best starting point as it is one of the most widely accepted and has a large userbase that is active online. https://www.reddit.com/r/SolidWorks/ That said, if you are a small company/want to play in your garage, Fusion 360 is currently dominating that market (because free*)
I read through some of the sample material and its pretty good. One comment I found interesting though:
All Manufacturing and Fabrication industries depend on Drafting. Without Drafting, nothing can be manufactured.
This is becoming increasingly untrue. I don't want to suggest its something people shouldn't learn - its hugely valuable, but many companies , especially in R&D, are moving away from traditional drafting. There is a huge push for PMI and other solutions.
99% of what I design is made directly from a 3d file. I will dimension some critical stuff, but we have default tolerances for non-critical stuff so we don't have to waste all that time putting dimensions on th part.
Related question: Do you have any CAD-puzzles that you use in your classes?
In my statement to my students, I am intending to group 2D and 3D design as Drafting. That may be a mistake on my part.
My main intent is to spark an interest and enthusiasm in kids to pursue it as a career. If I can do that - I win.
SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:In my statement to my students, I am intending to group 2D and 3D design as Drafting. That may be a mistake on my part.
My main intent is to spark an interest and enthusiasm in kids to pursue it as a career. If I can do that - I win.
Great. Thank you for your efforts. The world needs more people skilled at CAD and who understand people who are skilled at CAD :)
For CAD puzzles, I need to create puzzles that kids cannot just google and find the solution. I'm not creative enough to come up with them out of the blue.
I have some I can share with you. I'll send a pm your way.
I know that I'm late to the party but "Bravo" on your post and tutorials. I also come from an engineering/drafting background and I recieved my mechanical drafting certificate back in 1980 when dinosaurs still ruled the earth. I've since expanded into 3d modelling and am currently using Creo 4.0 for work (contract worker for Caterpillar). I've also had the pleasure and the honor to teach 2D Drafting and 3D modelling at my local junior college as adjunct faculty. I personally prefer Creo but a licensed seat is extremely expensive beyond the free academic version (which only lasts for one year). AutoDesk Inventor used to be more accessible through free licenses but I guess they no longer do that. Anyway, best wishes on your outreach!
I originally used Rhino3D.
Then we got a sweet educational package on Pro/Engineer wherein I could have 30 free seats, and the kids could get their own copy - at the time, AutoDesk was a $4000/year lease. This was just a couple years before Pro/E changed to Creo. These tutorials were originally for Pro/E 3.?, and I re-wrote them for 4.0 or 5.0 or whatever it was that I had.
Then AutoDesk put together a much better educational package (free for kids, too), and I re-wrote the tutorials for Inventor.
Then I decided to give Fusion a go, and really found it a whole lot more intuitive, especially for kids. Inventor might be more powerful, but Fusion was more enjoyable to learn. So I re-wrote the tutorials for Fusion.
californiamilleghia said:anything on Adobe Illustrator ?
(I know this is a year old, but it never really got answered)
Note that Illustrator is basically the same concept as the sketching tool in Fusion. You can also use it to output drawings that can be used as sketches in Fusion - that's how I did the bellmouths I designed a while back. You can also use Illustrator to do drawings for a 2D machine like a plasma cutter or a laser engraver.
I use Illustrator as part of my 3D design workflow fairly often, because I have a high level of familiarity with it. But it's only the first step. You can do everything in Fusion if you want, but you can't do everything for 3D in Illustrator.
If anyone needs SolidWorks help, feel free to PM me- I use it for a living.
If I wanted to design something to send to some one else's CNC machine , might be machine shop down the road or one of the online places, is Fusion360 the correct tool for that job? Basically I would like to start learning how to design the part to be made. But don't want to buy a cnc machine.
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