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One Secret You Must Know In Fusion 360

Jun 08, 2020

 

One mental trick that can make things way less complicated and make you better at Fusion 360 coming up.

Hey, this is Tyler Beck with tech and espresso. Today, we're talking about one mental trick you can do that can make you better at CAD modeling. It's all about removing the perceived complexity or making it simpler, and then starting to build it. I'm going to run through a bunch of examples. So stick with me. So a few years ago, I was at a Solidworks conference and this model was what I needed to make. And they were timing us. It was a big competition model. Mania is what they call it. And when I first looked at this, I thought, okay, I can do this. This is easy. This is an extruded and extrude maybe, and then a sweep or a loft. And I was very comfortable with sweeps and lofts and doing, you know, complex geometry.

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And as you look at this, it kind of tapers from one profile to another, but this might have been a rail that it uses, but then also a guide curve on this side. And I got to working on it. I basically ran out of time. It didn't get everything done. And later I learned that the way to do this was to do a simple sketch and extrude it, do another sketch, extruded sketch, and extrude. These then come in and you can make your cuts. And here's the big one. This is still not that intimidating to me. Had I viewed the model this way, I would have been able to break it down. That that's an extruded. That's an extruded. That's an extrude with holes, not that complicated, but it's the fill it's for some reason, these finishing fillets throw me off and I add complexity in my mind.

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So the big takeaway is try to use extrudes and revolves as much as possible. I've seen so many new users gravitate towards the sweep and the loft making things harder than it should. And it's something I still do. The other thing to think about. Break things down into solid chunks and multiple extrusions, then chop away and cut at it and put your finishing touches like fillets. And chamfers the next one. Even this one, the first time I looked at it, I was completely overwhelmed. And for new beginners, this is a pretty great exercise because it's using a bunch of different solids, then cuts then finishing. So when you chunk it down, this is not intimidating. So you do this solid, another solid that shares area. Don't be afraid to do an extrude and then add an extrude to that same area. Then another, if you try to do this in one feature, it's impossible, right?

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It's so hard. But when you break it down into three steps, it's not hard at all. It's teaching yourself how to break these things into simple, solid chunks. Then you can start making the cuts. I still think these cuts are way too early. We should do those cuts later, right? And that's why I have shared geometry. Do all my cuts, maybe at the end, if possible, but doing this simple extrusion or rectangular and then a circle. And then coming back to do my cuts, then coming in to do my fillets. Look at these two models. Is this one intimidating, it's a P shape. You extrude that, do a whole, add a little block with some holes. That's not hard, but this one is way more intimidating to me. It's these fillets and finishing features that throw me off. So try to remove that complexity. If you can remove all the rounded finishing features and then try to look at it as solid shapes that you can extrude and revolve before you start jumping into sweeps and lofts. So, Hey, if you're looking for some tips and Fusion 360 checkup, this series I created for you or, or this 23 tips that all beginners should learn, hope that's helpful. See in the next video.

 

 

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