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I hope this is close to appropriate for this thread, apologies if not. Anyone have any tips for taking good reference photos of parts to be used as a projection canvas in Fusion 360 (or any other CAD I guess)? Other than just being right on top of the part, I always feel like I’ve got some weird perspective skew. Just wondering if there are any best practices, ideal setup, etc exists. I’m just using my iPhone but if there’s a recommended lens setup I can definitely pop my DSLR out.
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Apr 15, 2022 18:56
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 00:19 |
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Honestly? I didn't even consider flatbed scanner. Most of my stuff just needs rough dimensioning and that is probably the outright best way to do it. I can add a handful of rulers alongside as well. Perfect, thanks! I'm trying to DIY a rotopax adapter for a non-rotopax box, and I kind of posted this before I realized the easiest way is to just caliper the absolute extents of the rotopax mounting handle as you said, add a few mm for slop and call it a day since everything is friction fit and compresses down. This is what I came up with in 30 minutes of trying to remember how to use F360. The calibration thing was genius and I was hoping something like that existed. Still have to add slots in the middle of the body to secure the bolts coming in from the bottom but I've gotta hit up home depot to see what I have access to. Then it's a quick export and a few hours in the resin printer to prototype. I only made it this weird shape because I have a rectangular small-ish resin vat. The easier (but maybe not ideal, since it would be excessively bulky) solution would have been to just print this as a circle.  For reference, this is trying to emulate the center of a rotopax canister:  except I want to use it to mount a pelican case knockoff to my bike. Plan is just to cut a small slot in the bottom of the case, print this out and screw this in from underneath, and then it can mount using my existing rotopax mount. I'll probably add some kind of rubber gasket to keep the super obvious moisture out but by no means do I intent to make this splashproof. The way it's mounted on my bike is upright, at least, and in an area where the bike would need to be under water to actually have any significant moisture ingress. Definitely a risk, but a decent trade-off IMO  e: for clarity, I have zero industrial design experience. This is very much an amateur first attempt. I am very very very likely making some really boneheaded design decisions that I'll discover after my first trial print, and if not then then definitely subsequently when I mount it on my bike and something fractures from stress. Definitely my attempt at minimizing bulk but not so much that it's overly fragile or thin in ways that make sense to my amateur design sensibilities. Stay tuned 
some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Apr 16, 2022 |
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Apr 16, 2022 01:47
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It’s mounted inside inside a closed case — if it gets a lot of UV exposure I’m pretty sure I’ve got bigger problems 
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Apr 16, 2022 20:43
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Ok, all valid points. I’ll reconsider.
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Apr 16, 2022 23:04
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Hey hole wizards, I continually forget where the cool kids talk about Fusion 360 so hopefully this isn’t too far off base. What is the F360 workflow to accomplish something like this:  The origin shape is beyond simple, but when I press the inner edge inward, it curves with a convex shape rather than concave. Which makes sense based on what I’m asking it to do, but I’m not sure what a proper way to get a convex “fillet” would be. Or even if that’s the right terminology. I’m one of those “3 times a year” F360 users, only pulling it out when I want to whip up something quick to 3D print that is easy in my head, but turns into a full day of frustration when I’m not immediately good at this complex application that people spend their careers mastering 
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Jun 6, 2022 17:06
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I simplified the example but in my ideal scenario the “hole” isn’t in the centre, which I probably should have mentioned, so revolving would be more difficult. I did pick up on the inside edge fillet thing after you mentioned it, and got exactly what I needed by doing a primary perimeter sketch, extruding it up the thickness of my base, offsetting the exterior and extruding that up the total height I needed, then filleting the joining internal edge. I probably butchered the terminology but thanks for putting me on the right path.
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Jun 6, 2022 17:36
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I'm just curious whether anyone uses Fusion for simple 2D engineering blueprinting? My use of CAD right now is super simple and mostly so I can create 2D blueprints to mark up with a scribe tool so I can take a piece of aluminum to a machine shop and cut out the right holes in the right places. If you think about it, my set of CAD functionality probably peaked with like, 1990-era AutoCAD. I don't want to ditch Fusion just because it's "overkill" for my needs, mainly because the more I use it the more muscle memory I build up for when/if I need to do actual 3D CAD, but I am having some trouble figuring out a good export process to get a usable PDF that I can print out, throw in my bag, and whip out at the drill press. I know Fusion has "capture image" functionality, but somehow I can never get the settings right. Either the dimension markings are like, 120pt font, or sometimes they're microscopic, or other times I have a hard time figuring out how to size or fit a larger piece so it's both clean, doesn't need a microscope to decipher, or stitched together from five different PDFs. Is there any functionality to add an engineering blueprint border/information plate/etc? Answer may be that Fusion is just the wrong tool for the job and that making it a good 2D tool would put it too close to AutoCAD for Autodesk's liking, but I don't think they offer a "personal edition" for that and I'm not terribly interested for paying for a license I'd use maybe once a month if that. In the end I can't even DWG or DXF export unless I pony up for the paid version of Fusion, so even if I wanted to switch I'd be unable to backport my library of designs without handing Autodesk a few more bucks. e: And when I say simple 2D, I mean stuff like this:  Apologies if that makes any actual engineer types cringe over style best practices. No training here, just mocking up dimensions/etc enough to make sense to me when I'm sitting in front of a drill press with a set of callipers and a hole punch  e2: Also any rumours or roadmaps for when Autodesk gives us a native Apple Silicon build? I gather Macs aren't ideal or desired for CAD in actual industry, but I'm not really about to go buy another computer just for this. It runs /mostly/ fine on AS for me, certainly not enough that I actually have a problem with Rosetta, but I can't help hope... some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Jan 13, 2023 |
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Jan 13, 2023 13:21
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Oh huh. If it does I haven't found that functionality, but that's exactly what I'm looking for... Will noodle around some more, thanks! e: Oh gently caress are you serious, there's a whole "DRAWING -> FROM DESIGN" in the dropdown I just somehow missed! Thank you <3 e2: ahahahha  Well as long as I can take a sufficiently high resolution screenshot I think this will still be an OK solution! I'll make it work, thanks! Maybe I ought to go take a night course so I can qualify for some of that sweet sweet Autodesk Education licensing.. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Jan 13, 2023 |
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Jan 13, 2023 13:46
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DWG is paywalled but I can export an individual sketch as a DXF so could be an option, but honestly I think just screenshotting this is probably enough to get me what I need, so that is enough to keep me on Fusion. I really appreciate the tip! If I had to pay for one product I'd just find a way to score Fusion vs Autocad or learn a new app.
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Jan 13, 2023 15:39
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I know Mac is the redheaded stepchild for Fusion360 and basically all Autodesk CAD products, but I was shocked at just how much better and responsive my beater 2015 Dell XPS shitbook is at this thing. It has the graphics power of a soggy lemon and it's still a hundred time smoother than my M1Pro. Guess I know which laptop to pull out for Fusion I guess.
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Jan 15, 2023 22:58
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I am really excited to try onshape tbh, this specific project I want to knock out for monday just doesn't really allow me to sit down and re-learn all the muscle memory I've developed in Fusion. I think I do see the writing on the wall though, either the Mac gets the dump for CAD or I'm packing in Autodesk for now. And honestly maybe a mix of the two. I like Fusion and it's running well enough on this craptop that I don't mind pulling it out the two or three times that I need to hack away at something, and my Mac is my preferred platform for literally everything else so I'm probably making a way bigger deal of this than it has to be. Maybe I grab something like onshape to practice in my spare time, or if I have something I don't really have pressure to get to a machine shop I can take my time and learn the ins and outs. And the fact that I can run onshape on my iPad Pro with the pencil is a huge bonus.
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Jan 15, 2023 23:16
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Kind of a livejournal post but I guess I really just wanted to express how happy I've been with OnShape after taking a bit of time to learn it. After a lot of frustration with how sluggish and lackluster Fusion felt on my fat expensive MacBook, OnShare really just feels like a breath of fresh air. At this point I don't remember how much of my issue with Fusion is perceived or real but I've kind of moved my focus away from it entirely at this point.
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Jun 9, 2023 15:02
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I’ll give fusion another look once we get a native Apple Silicon build, but I am literally beachballing for 30 seconds at a time over random things just pulling up my old files to reference while trying to transition to onshape. Maybe it knows what I’m trying to do and is making it as painful as possible out of spite 
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Jun 12, 2023 10:37
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You know honestly I didn’t even think of actually exporting. I was mainly using this as an excuse to refine some designs I did in OnShape and practice the tool. They’re all super simple designs that I could re-create about as quickly as it seemed to take Fusion to actually think about opening up files or updating the screen :P .. anything more complex and I think exporting would have made more sense.
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Jun 12, 2023 20:36
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I have an OpenSCAD question. If I want to create a cylinder with a chamfered TOP, is there an operation I can apply to just the top face, or am I limited to creating two overlapping cylinders like code:This is with maybe two hours in OpenSCAD so maybe I'm missing something ridiculously obvious. Just wanted to try OpenSCAD but I'm not married to it. I've spent two hours trying to figure this out when I could have done it in like 30 seconds in onshape or something. I like the idea of checking this into github for others to consume so I don't necessarily want to move to another tool. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 15, 2024 19:44
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Sorry I should have rephrased. I use Onshape whenever I want to knock something out quickly. This is kind of an excuse to just dig into the weird difficult thing to see what it's all about. To update on my own question, I found the BOSL2 library which actually has a chamfered cylinder function so I presume that's really the only way to get it done without being super hacky like I was above. I really really like the IDEA of design as code, as janky as OpenSCAD feels like it is for any SERIOUS work. e: on the other hand I just instantiated a module inside of itself by accident and crashed the whole app so that's pretty great
some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 15, 2024 22:40
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 00:19 |
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A+, thanks! <3 For some reason it didn’t even occur to me to rotate/ex a 2D. That’s also really good, though I love being able to tweak the diameter etc parametrically so super thankful for your example.
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Feb 16, 2024 03:54
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