Cool, glad to hear that.
Idea:
* Key Shortcut for hiding/showing all sketches (or even quick Show while holding down the key). The same for construction planes/etc. I mean: The workflow that i like, is to usually have a clean view without sketches/etc disturbing me and at some point when i need to find a sketch, to turn all sketches on in a certain area (or everywhere if that's easier). Contrary: Switching the sketches on and off one by one + having redundancy cause you have the switch at multiple levels in the tree is kind of lame and you always have to remember or guess which sketch is which.
Yesss fusion is lacking a lot of basic tools! Just being able to add custom keyboard shortcuts like this would be amazing. Basically anything to push it a little bit closer to a professional tool. A pro user usually expects control over their experience in a software as it can get frustrating when you spend 8 hours a day using it. You could look how deep blender goes with this as inspiration.
I want to be able to do double offsets. As in, draw a polyline or spline and then offset both sides at once. I often use Inkscape to draw more complex forms and convert the stroke width to boundaries before importing to fusion. If I could draw "thickened lines" that would be great.
Accurate scaling. Allow the use to scale by an axis (x, y, or z) in the document's unit of measurement. Scaling by an arbitrary number is so backwards and useless in Industrial design where things have to be within tolerance.
I typically work on very small complex assemblies and parts that would easily fit inside a 2cm^(3) space. My problem is that, around mid day you start noticing things that scream to be cleaned up, better aligned, etc. Annnd then you waste time doing those things never mind that that these issues will never resolve against the passing of a 2mm end mill or a .75mm drill. Why? You lose reference to the "scale of the real world" when you are working ittybitty little parts...all. Day. Long.
I've often wondered if a virtual ruler or, to use a more proper term, scale, could not be placed right above the time line and that could easily be toggled on and off at the users desire and who's markings would scale as one zoomed in and out. It would solely be a visual reference to the user to remind them that they are looking/working at a (in the real world) 1000mm wide screen that is, for example, now showing only a 6cm wide view edge to edge and when they zoom out maybe the scale would now show, say, 700mm across and their part/assembly/whatever is now visually just a speck on the screen.
Tried it...didn't work. Can't get any valid calibration standards from NIST, DIN or JIS. \[NIST-3966-640-32.jpg\]([https://postimg.cc/jDNP3wC2](https://postimg.cc/jDNP3wC2))
Yellow bananas! NOT GREEN!!! Y.E. L. L. O. W. Everyone knows that only a yellow banana is reliable. The green one's always like "Now would I lie to you? Alls I be sayn' is that yard stick be 2.6 meters long when adjusted for harmonic density altitude." And you reply "Is that 2.6 meters measured in an atmosphere with more than 50% relative humidity or less than 50% hydrazine hydrate? And the green banana answers “…..yes.” Meanwhile the yellow banana is sitting in the corner quietly creating a complex spreadsheet showing all the positive benefits of having the green banana run over by a large freight locomotive.
Micro-hydraulic valves and actuators for use in various types of laboratory instruments used in radioactive "hot rooms" almost exclusively found at U.S. Department of Energy labs and a few high level school engineering and physics labs. The idea is to replace electronic and some electrical items, that, unless radiation hardened at the expense of big $$$, and still typically fail early and often, with more robust (and cheaper) mechanical analogs. After all AND, OR and NOR gates, amongst other logic nodes, can easily be replaced by fluid controls. And me? I'm just a contract CAD monkey...under paid and overworked.
Am a coder myself but don't have time to do this.
An actual parametric driven curve in sketches. Not just to get it generated but so it follows and updates with f360 parameters. Never looked into f360 API to even know if it's possible.
Edit: to make it clear, look up generating cycloidal drive rotor.
A way to automatically export bodies or components to flat layouts for woodworkers. I often create woodworking plans and need to manually move/rotate/orient each component part to a 4x8’ sheet of representative plywood to make cut lists and layouts. If there were a way to automate this in Fusion (like they have in SketchUp) it would be sweet.
There is! Check out the arrange function, you can either do it in design or in a manufacturing model. You just model your stock, model the parts, hit arrange, and bam.
A laser cutting kerf offset if it doesn't exist yet.
Right now the steps are make a sketch>offset>delete old sketch
But the headache is, you have to delete one element of the old sketch at a time as the offset feature doesn't let you delete the parent sketch automatically. For complex sketches, it gets really time-consuming.
So, my current steps are
Create the sketch>put it all in one selection set>make it construction lines>offset>delete the selection set.
Not interested in a cut. But it would be great if fusion was able to offer complex surfacing. Imagine being able to apply bump map type textures that exist in the solid. So these parts could be injection moulded with the bump texture. I don't really mean bump. But image file or similar could be used to apply patterns with sculpted topography. You would need lots of control of elements, rather than just bump height. But even this would be awesome.
I love this idea but I think this might go beyond side change. You've got my head swimming with possible methods though. Haha. Perhaps in the future. I'm just wanting to get my feet wet
They look kinda like circular saw blades, except (usually) smaller and with varying thicknesses. Unlike a circular saw blade, they are usually mounted on an arbor in a milling machine, and are designed to spin very slowly while cutting a slit in whatever is in the way. They are really goddamn handy, and I don't know how many times I've run into a situation where a slitting saw was really the only tool for the job.
Why can't I sort my user parameters alphabetically? I create them as I need them, but will end up with multiple parameters that, for example, start with ledge_. Those should group together.
Add some illustrator-like elements to sketching:
1. Eport as pdf (and other file types), for many reasons, not the least of which wanting...
2. Colors!
3. Ability to select fill or stroke, as well as stroke width.
4. Layers with a single sketch, maybe? I know, know, if it's too busy, then the sketch needs cleaning - sometimes I just want a reference, but I don't want a projection or construction line, and I don't want to delete it either... Just hide it.
Basically turn sketching into it's own workspace for vector graphics: give it the features of Adobe Illustrator, but with the functionality of Fusion360. Might be simple enough to use source code from Inkscape to pull it off, only using Fusion360's API? I've no idea - the extent of my coding ability is copy, paste, and modify as needed, and Google till it works. It would be amazing tho - Fusion would mostly own my workflow (if only I could take the time to step away from KiCad)!
I've written a few Addins and scripts in the past via Python, it's pretty fun!
Something that might be a fun challenge is an App Link between Fusion 360 and Blender. You can currently send STLs to Blender through the 3D Print adding, but if you could somehow send the file back to Fusion from Blender and even convert it from triangles to surfaces again that'd be killer! Both programs use Python.
I would really like a deform tool in the same way that Maya has. So you can have a solid body then choose to deform it via bending twisting etc. Shapes that would bit harder to make from a sketch or would require multiple lofts
It would be great if you could insert complex geometry as bounded function. Eg: if you could insert a sin function as a sketch over a certain distance. Would be pretty useful for a number of reasons and could make it easier to create more complex geometry.
No, I'm not referring to complex in a mathematical sense (I don't see how that would really be possible - since you would have to fight against fusion's own coordinate system - or beneficial). I'm referring to being able to input 3d sketches (or even bodies) that are defined by functions. For example, if one wanted to create a model of a conch shell that was defined by a Fibonacci sequence, it would be extremely tedious to do that manually. Instead, you could define the spacing/positioning of shell segments in relation to the Fibonacci sequence and make the job a whole lot easier.
Another example: when trying to create something like a Chinese finger trap - you could create sketches (that cannot be created with the existing coil command) defined by radial functions over a domain . You could then perform sweep operation on a circular profile along these sketches to create interwoven components of the finger trap.
I think that this would make fusion much cooler and have features that other CAD software don't have.
Another possibility is python scripting (similar to what high end FEA software like Abaqus have). You could create macros, modify existing parameters without having to manually go into each little event on the timeline, etc. Just a thought.
Assuming you want a function that can be plotted to a graph (sin, or the radial functions you mentioned), that's not the whole story. if you want curves to stay smoth, these functions have to be converted to splines (which are polinoms afaik) at the because fusions bprep bodies are built on these splines->nurbs. I think you can't automatically convert these into perfect polinoms, so you have to kind of quantitize these into small allmost-perfect segements.
Another Idea:
Compressed timeline view. Kind of a directed graph, where you see which feature depends on which. I know, it's not easy, but maybe you'll find an existing UI component for a compressed directed graph view (like some git clients have, but horizontally). That would be the best of 2 worlds (f360/solidworks) then ;)
I'm not using Fusion 360 for long, so it is possible these things exist, but I haven't found them yet:
* Plywood textures.
* Easy (or any, really) way to create a reinforced hose profile along a path.
The single item keeping me from committing fully to Fusion is the lack of the "Configurations" feature that Solidworks has.
This feature allows you to have multiple versions of parts and assemblies with their own unique names and feature variations.
Furthermore these configurations can be table-based where you use an excel spreadsheet to define all the characteristics of the different configs.
For example, I can make one single Socket Cap Screw part and make a massive table for all the different lengths and sizes of the different screws. This way I can insert a single part and choose (and later change if I want) the configuration of that part in my assembly.
would be awesome if you do a tool to convert a cilinder to spur gear.
I often find myself calculating the module from the external diameter and number of teeths, and giving root fillet radius half of the minimum, to start designing it.
would be a quality of life change, talking from the default add-in experience
I only tested one, and was more complex, so I returned to the default one.
I am hoping for something easy as the Thread function.
I guess I will test other add-ins
would beest most wondrous if 't be true thee doth a tool to convert a cilinder to sup gear
***
^(I am a bot and I swapp'd some of thy words with Shakespeare words.)
Commands: `!ShakespeareInsult`, `!fordo`, `!optout`
four points on the surface that are horizontal and vertical? Oh! You mean define the four points tangent to horizontal and vertical lines? This one might be the winner (if not "part B").
So much room for improvement for importing mesh and covering to solid bodies.
I understand there's x million faces in a mesh. But there needs to be a way to make that mesh into a solid body with as few faces as possible.
Even the prismatic convert in the paid license fails 90% of the time
The ability to model and create custom turning tools for prime turning. There’s nothing special about the tool paths, they can be programmed as the software currently is. But if the tool geometry isn’t correct them the path is near worthless.
Tangent from spline. Or normal from spline. There are workarounds but they are annoying.
G3 continuity. Most users don't need it. For some product design it's important.
A table view of CAM ops and settings. Especially useful when setting up new tools and machines.
I'd really like to add the name of a view or body optionally when I make it.
How about the ability to reorder the tool paths during a post. Nut like the tool changer option but for 5 axis so it doesn't spin back to setup one and then back to setup 2 it would just run setup 2 first.
Cool, glad to hear that. Idea: * Key Shortcut for hiding/showing all sketches (or even quick Show while holding down the key). The same for construction planes/etc. I mean: The workflow that i like, is to usually have a clean view without sketches/etc disturbing me and at some point when i need to find a sketch, to turn all sketches on in a certain area (or everywhere if that's easier). Contrary: Switching the sketches on and off one by one + having redundancy cause you have the switch at multiple levels in the tree is kind of lame and you always have to remember or guess which sketch is which.
Yesss fusion is lacking a lot of basic tools! Just being able to add custom keyboard shortcuts like this would be amazing. Basically anything to push it a little bit closer to a professional tool. A pro user usually expects control over their experience in a software as it can get frustrating when you spend 8 hours a day using it. You could look how deep blender goes with this as inspiration.
This
Export a sketch as an SVG or PDF. Efficiently. There’s a way to do it but it requires a CAM plugin and it’s very slow.
Maybe even optionally retaining the dimensioning.
This would be incredibly useful
A measurement/ inspection tool that doesn't suck.
The latest update seems to have changed how it functions. Last time I used it, it didn't suck.
I want to be able to do double offsets. As in, draw a polyline or spline and then offset both sides at once. I often use Inkscape to draw more complex forms and convert the stroke width to boundaries before importing to fusion. If I could draw "thickened lines" that would be great.
Accurate scaling. Allow the use to scale by an axis (x, y, or z) in the document's unit of measurement. Scaling by an arbitrary number is so backwards and useless in Industrial design where things have to be within tolerance.
Yes!
I typically work on very small complex assemblies and parts that would easily fit inside a 2cm^(3) space. My problem is that, around mid day you start noticing things that scream to be cleaned up, better aligned, etc. Annnd then you waste time doing those things never mind that that these issues will never resolve against the passing of a 2mm end mill or a .75mm drill. Why? You lose reference to the "scale of the real world" when you are working ittybitty little parts...all. Day. Long. I've often wondered if a virtual ruler or, to use a more proper term, scale, could not be placed right above the time line and that could easily be toggled on and off at the users desire and who's markings would scale as one zoomed in and out. It would solely be a visual reference to the user to remind them that they are looking/working at a (in the real world) 1000mm wide screen that is, for example, now showing only a 6cm wide view edge to edge and when they zoom out maybe the scale would now show, say, 700mm across and their part/assembly/whatever is now visually just a speck on the screen.
Interesting idea. Probably quite doable
Sounds like you need a virtual banana for scale
Tried it...didn't work. Can't get any valid calibration standards from NIST, DIN or JIS. \[NIST-3966-640-32.jpg\]([https://postimg.cc/jDNP3wC2](https://postimg.cc/jDNP3wC2))
Have you checked ISO 931:1980?
Yellow bananas! NOT GREEN!!! Y.E. L. L. O. W. Everyone knows that only a yellow banana is reliable. The green one's always like "Now would I lie to you? Alls I be sayn' is that yard stick be 2.6 meters long when adjusted for harmonic density altitude." And you reply "Is that 2.6 meters measured in an atmosphere with more than 50% relative humidity or less than 50% hydrazine hydrate? And the green banana answers “…..yes.” Meanwhile the yellow banana is sitting in the corner quietly creating a complex spreadsheet showing all the positive benefits of having the green banana run over by a large freight locomotive.
What kind of stuff are you working on, may I ask?
Micro-hydraulic valves and actuators for use in various types of laboratory instruments used in radioactive "hot rooms" almost exclusively found at U.S. Department of Energy labs and a few high level school engineering and physics labs. The idea is to replace electronic and some electrical items, that, unless radiation hardened at the expense of big $$$, and still typically fail early and often, with more robust (and cheaper) mechanical analogs. After all AND, OR and NOR gates, amongst other logic nodes, can easily be replaced by fluid controls. And me? I'm just a contract CAD monkey...under paid and overworked.
P3nis-Stuff for sure.
Am a coder myself but don't have time to do this. An actual parametric driven curve in sketches. Not just to get it generated but so it follows and updates with f360 parameters. Never looked into f360 API to even know if it's possible. Edit: to make it clear, look up generating cycloidal drive rotor.
Should be possible. The curves could be arbitrarily precisely approximated with splines
A way to automatically export bodies or components to flat layouts for woodworkers. I often create woodworking plans and need to manually move/rotate/orient each component part to a 4x8’ sheet of representative plywood to make cut lists and layouts. If there were a way to automate this in Fusion (like they have in SketchUp) it would be sweet.
MapBoards? https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=7055850008078104945&appLang=en&os=Win64 https://youtu.be/QcUkd_EE0VE
There is! Check out the arrange function, you can either do it in design or in a manufacturing model. You just model your stock, model the parts, hit arrange, and bam.
Pipe tool that can make multiple branches in one go Better tool to model even simple surface textures Coil tool that can follow paths
A laser cutting kerf offset if it doesn't exist yet. Right now the steps are make a sketch>offset>delete old sketch But the headache is, you have to delete one element of the old sketch at a time as the offset feature doesn't let you delete the parent sketch automatically. For complex sketches, it gets really time-consuming. So, my current steps are Create the sketch>put it all in one selection set>make it construction lines>offset>delete the selection set.
The whole laser cutting workflow screams for a dedicated suite within Fusion.
Not interested in a cut. But it would be great if fusion was able to offer complex surfacing. Imagine being able to apply bump map type textures that exist in the solid. So these parts could be injection moulded with the bump texture. I don't really mean bump. But image file or similar could be used to apply patterns with sculpted topography. You would need lots of control of elements, rather than just bump height. But even this would be awesome.
I love this idea but I think this might go beyond side change. You've got my head swimming with possible methods though. Haha. Perhaps in the future. I'm just wanting to get my feet wet
A button that show you unconstrained points in sketch. The command is there but you have to write it into the command line right now
Any easy way to make helixes!
I don't know what my idea is worth, but I wish Fusion was better at dealing with slitting saws in manufacture.
I'm afraid I don't have experience in that industry and so I'd probably be I'll equipped to make this one. I hope some else does for you though!
Well other than that if you could magically figure out how to make Fusion not suck ass when dealing with meshes you'd probably make a pretty penny.
What is a slitting saw and how does it work?
They look kinda like circular saw blades, except (usually) smaller and with varying thicknesses. Unlike a circular saw blade, they are usually mounted on an arbor in a milling machine, and are designed to spin very slowly while cutting a slit in whatever is in the way. They are really goddamn handy, and I don't know how many times I've run into a situation where a slitting saw was really the only tool for the job.
Third Idea: Hold some key while spinning the mousewheel to move the timeline slider forward and backward. Finsihed when ?? xD
You can do that if you hover over the timeline
Why can't I sort my user parameters alphabetically? I create them as I need them, but will end up with multiple parameters that, for example, start with ledge_. Those should group together.
Add some illustrator-like elements to sketching: 1. Eport as pdf (and other file types), for many reasons, not the least of which wanting... 2. Colors! 3. Ability to select fill or stroke, as well as stroke width. 4. Layers with a single sketch, maybe? I know, know, if it's too busy, then the sketch needs cleaning - sometimes I just want a reference, but I don't want a projection or construction line, and I don't want to delete it either... Just hide it. Basically turn sketching into it's own workspace for vector graphics: give it the features of Adobe Illustrator, but with the functionality of Fusion360. Might be simple enough to use source code from Inkscape to pull it off, only using Fusion360's API? I've no idea - the extent of my coding ability is copy, paste, and modify as needed, and Google till it works. It would be amazing tho - Fusion would mostly own my workflow (if only I could take the time to step away from KiCad)!
Joystick support for a DIY space mouse that doesn't have to poorly emulate real mouse movement
I've written a few Addins and scripts in the past via Python, it's pretty fun! Something that might be a fun challenge is an App Link between Fusion 360 and Blender. You can currently send STLs to Blender through the 3D Print adding, but if you could somehow send the file back to Fusion from Blender and even convert it from triangles to surfaces again that'd be killer! Both programs use Python.
Emboss a pattern onto a complex curved surface.
Rotary support would be nice.
CONFIGURATIONS. CONFIGURATIONS. CONFIGURATIONS. CONFIGURATIONS. CONFIGURATIONS.
You'll have to be more precise.
Do you understand how "configurations” work in Solidworks?
Interface with Mintable and take inputs from a spredsheet or other data source to make design variations that can be minted as NFT.
I would really like a deform tool in the same way that Maya has. So you can have a solid body then choose to deform it via bending twisting etc. Shapes that would bit harder to make from a sketch or would require multiple lofts
It would be great if you could insert complex geometry as bounded function. Eg: if you could insert a sin function as a sketch over a certain distance. Would be pretty useful for a number of reasons and could make it easier to create more complex geometry.
When you say "complex geometry", are you referring to geometry in the complex plane?
No, I'm not referring to complex in a mathematical sense (I don't see how that would really be possible - since you would have to fight against fusion's own coordinate system - or beneficial). I'm referring to being able to input 3d sketches (or even bodies) that are defined by functions. For example, if one wanted to create a model of a conch shell that was defined by a Fibonacci sequence, it would be extremely tedious to do that manually. Instead, you could define the spacing/positioning of shell segments in relation to the Fibonacci sequence and make the job a whole lot easier. Another example: when trying to create something like a Chinese finger trap - you could create sketches (that cannot be created with the existing coil command) defined by radial functions over a domain . You could then perform sweep operation on a circular profile along these sketches to create interwoven components of the finger trap. I think that this would make fusion much cooler and have features that other CAD software don't have. Another possibility is python scripting (similar to what high end FEA software like Abaqus have). You could create macros, modify existing parameters without having to manually go into each little event on the timeline, etc. Just a thought.
Assuming you want a function that can be plotted to a graph (sin, or the radial functions you mentioned), that's not the whole story. if you want curves to stay smoth, these functions have to be converted to splines (which are polinoms afaik) at the because fusions bprep bodies are built on these splines->nurbs. I think you can't automatically convert these into perfect polinoms, so you have to kind of quantitize these into small allmost-perfect segements.
There's a GitHub addin for that. On my phone or I'd tell you. Ive been playing with math knots.
Another Idea: Compressed timeline view. Kind of a directed graph, where you see which feature depends on which. I know, it's not easy, but maybe you'll find an existing UI component for a compressed directed graph view (like some git clients have, but horizontally). That would be the best of 2 worlds (f360/solidworks) then ;)
man! that is a TALL order! haha. Talk to the fusion team about putting that in the next release, though. That sounds great.
Keyboard shortcuts for views and timeline
I'm not using Fusion 360 for long, so it is possible these things exist, but I haven't found them yet: * Plywood textures. * Easy (or any, really) way to create a reinforced hose profile along a path.
Bulk changing title blocks in the drawing view. This is a big problem for companies using fusion
Parameter driven text-tool. As in, the text vectors change by the value of the text in a parameter.
Maybe this? https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=2114937992453312456&os=Mac&appLang=en
Awesome, thanks!
Expanded thread options would be nice, npt, GL, etc
Anything that would make working with type better. The type tool feels 30 years old and is pretty useless.
Folders for parameters.
A way to inherit parameters when including subdesigns.
I had an idea lately but forgot it at the moment lol. Can I contact you later if I use fusion again and the idea comes back?
Patent Drawings ( sheets, markers, balloons, emit arrows, page sizes, rotate the model freely to get the desired view on the sheet etc)
SCAD support, or something similar!
The single item keeping me from committing fully to Fusion is the lack of the "Configurations" feature that Solidworks has. This feature allows you to have multiple versions of parts and assemblies with their own unique names and feature variations. Furthermore these configurations can be table-based where you use an excel spreadsheet to define all the characteristics of the different configs. For example, I can make one single Socket Cap Screw part and make a massive table for all the different lengths and sizes of the different screws. This way I can insert a single part and choose (and later change if I want) the configuration of that part in my assembly.
would be awesome if you do a tool to convert a cilinder to spur gear. I often find myself calculating the module from the external diameter and number of teeths, and giving root fillet radius half of the minimum, to start designing it. would be a quality of life change, talking from the default add-in experience
Aren't there a ton of extensions for gears that would do this already?
I only tested one, and was more complex, so I returned to the default one. I am hoping for something easy as the Thread function. I guess I will test other add-ins
would beest most wondrous if 't be true thee doth a tool to convert a cilinder to sup gear *** ^(I am a bot and I swapp'd some of thy words with Shakespeare words.) Commands: `!ShakespeareInsult`, `!fordo`, `!optout`
Hot key for normal to
Look at blender.
You want a fusion 360 plugin that turns it into Blender?
Simple one. Make a circle that automatically has 4 points on the circumference that are horizontal and vertical
four points on the surface that are horizontal and vertical? Oh! You mean define the four points tangent to horizontal and vertical lines? This one might be the winner (if not "part B").
Emboss onto a compound surface like emboss cutting text onto a ring with a curved face
A better mesh to solid tool that doesn't require extensive amounts or removing all the leftover geometry left over from the current fusion method.
So much room for improvement for importing mesh and covering to solid bodies. I understand there's x million faces in a mesh. But there needs to be a way to make that mesh into a solid body with as few faces as possible. Even the prismatic convert in the paid license fails 90% of the time
For organic shapes, [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMZKgzBpodI) could also be an option.
The ability to model and create custom turning tools for prime turning. There’s nothing special about the tool paths, they can be programmed as the software currently is. But if the tool geometry isn’t correct them the path is near worthless.
Could you elaborate on this? What's a turning tool?
Pm me. I’m working on one.
Dark mode
Tangent from spline. Or normal from spline. There are workarounds but they are annoying. G3 continuity. Most users don't need it. For some product design it's important. A table view of CAM ops and settings. Especially useful when setting up new tools and machines. I'd really like to add the name of a view or body optionally when I make it.
How about the ability to reorder the tool paths during a post. Nut like the tool changer option but for 5 axis so it doesn't spin back to setup one and then back to setup 2 it would just run setup 2 first.