Fusion 360 | CAD Design Projects - Part 2: Beyond Basics: A Step-by-Step Guide to Advanced 3D designs

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© 2024

Author and Editor: M.Eng. Johannes Wild

Author Reference: A94689H39927F

Email: [email protected]

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Chapter 1 | Introduction

Thank you very much for selecting this book!

Would you like to take your CAD design skills and knowledge to the next level using Autodesk's Fusion 360? Then you've come to the right place!

Please note: This book is the sequel to the book Fusion 360 | CAD Design Projects Part 1 (ISBN: 9798774278442) and the basic book Fusion 360 | Step by Step (ISBN: 9798452605355). If you are completely new to Fusion 360, you should work through these two books first. Further information on these books can also be found on the last pages of this book. The basics of using Fusion 360 are not repeated in this advanced guide.

On the other hand, if you already have experience using Fusion 360 or have the books mentioned, you can now look forward to implementing more complex projects. In this way, you can further improve your skills in building 3D models. As you may already know, I am a professional engineer (M.Eng.), and in my design books I try to teach you how to use the necessary software and relevant background knowledge in a simple and fun way.

In this book, we are going to design four great projects. These projects are more complex and detailed than in the previous books. But don't worry, we will work through these projects together and step-by-step. This will help you become even more comfortable in using the features of Fusion 360, as well as learn new approaches for designing your own 3D models. The didactic approach varies from project to project in order to provide as many approaches as possible. In addition, the more guided practice projects you have completed, the better you will get at working on individual projects.

In short, this is what you will learn in this course:

As you probably know, Fusion 360 from Autodesk lets you not only design, but also simulate, render, animate, and more. However, this course is specifically intended for advanced CAD design. You will find separate courses for the other topics over time. The focus of this course is therefore on advanced design with Fusion 360!

If you don't have the program yet, you can download Fusion 360 as a private user with a hobby license for FREE!

Here is the download link:

https://www.autodesk.de/products/fusion-360/personal-form

And now it's time to get started! We start with the first project, in which we will try to design a computer mouse.

Chapter 2 | 3D Modeling Project 1: Computer Mouse

We start this course by designing a 3D model of a computer mouse. The CAD model should look like this:

2.1 The Top Surface of the Computer Mouse

When designing the computer mouse, we start with a curved surface that will represent the top of the mouse. After we have created this surface, we will draw the side contour of the mouse and then the bottom surface of the computer mouse as well as the other elements.

For the curved surface, we start the first sketch of our CAD project. This can be done, for example, by right-clicking on the x-y plane ②, which we can find in the structure tree (browser) ① of a new design file. After selecting the command Create Sketch ③, the sketch is created on the desired plane. Alternatively, you can of course also select the command in the top menu bar in the Solid tab and then click on one of the displayed planes.

We draw three points on this plane to create the first contour for the curved surface. To draw the points, we use the command Point ②, which we can find in the tab Sketch ① and in the menu section Create ③. If the command is not yet available in the menu bar, we need to open the menu section Create ③ and can activate the option Pin to Toolbar by clicking on the three small vertical dots ④. You can also do this with other frequently used commands.

We place the three points in the area to the right of the coordinate origin ① and dimension the points using the command Sketch Dimension ② as shown. We need a dimension in the x-direction and a dimension in the y-direction to fully define the points. For the point ③, which is located at the bottom right, we only use a dimension in the x-direction, as we define the y-position with the condition Horizontal/Vertical ④. We do this by selecting the point ③ and the coordinate origin ① (multiple selection by holding down the CTRL key) and then clicking on the