Creating Sheet Metal Flat Patterns That Can Be Used with the Autodesk Fusion 350 Arrange Command

The Fusion 360 Nesting Utility did a nice job of arranging sheet metal flat patterns for cutting in the manufacturing environment.  When the Nesting Utility became a paid extension some wanted to use the Arrange command to accomplish the same task but quickly found out that the Arrange command would not recognize flat patterns.  This video will show a method of creating sheet metal flat patterns for use with the Arrange command. This process can be used on both sheet metal bodies and components.

NOTE: The Arrange command is not available in Autodesk Fusion 360 with a Personal license.

The Autodesk Fusion 360 Align Tool, Try it Instead of the Move/Copy Tool

When you are thinking about moving components around in an assembly and you start to select the Move/Copy tool, select the Align tool instead, you will be pleasantly surprised.  The Align tool can be used on a variety of entities from sketches, faces and edges to construction features such as work planes and axis.  You can use it to place components without picking up your calculator.  In this video I go over a few of the many uses of the Align tool.

Removing Undeletable Files from Autodesk Fusion 360

Note:  This process only works if you are using Team Storage instead of Single-User Storage.  

 Anyone that has worked with Autodesk Fusion 360 probably has a growing list of files that you want to delete but the application either tells you that the file is in use, and it is not, or it is referenced by some assembly that does not exist.  You try every trick in the book to delete it but it refuses.  In this very short video I will show you a very simple method of removing these stubborn files from your Fusion Data Panel.

Bending Solid Bodies with Autodesk Fusion 360

Autodesk Fusion 360 does not have a Bend command but with the help of a couple of sheet metal tools you can quickly bend most solid bodies.  The process is basically the same for flat and round bodies with one added step for round bodies to hide the sheet metal flange used in bending.  In the video I cover the process for both flat and round bodies.

Organizing Your Fusion 360 Assembly By Dragging Components

 After you have finished your Autodesk Fusion 360 assembly model, often you may realize that your components need to be organized into sub-assemblies.  This may seem like a task you should have done as your were creating your assembly and may seem impossible to re-organize now.  This video will show you have to perform this task with ease and also present some other benefits of using this method.

 

Milestones - Capturing Design History in a Fusion Team Environment

When working on designs, in a team environment, it is important to have the ability to lock a design at a certain revision level to prevent change but also to have to ability to move forward with the design for other uses or other customers.  This is where Fusion 360 Milestones becomes such a very valuable tool.  In this video I will illustrate how Milestones are used to lock down a Fusion 360 design for shipment but give the ability to move forward with assembly design changes.  At any time the Milestone can be opened in a read-only state for proof of shipment design.

Arranging Sheet Metal Flat Patterns in the Autodesk Fusion 360 Manufacturing Environment

Many Fusion 360 assembly contain multiple sheet metal components and their flat patterns.  In this video I will show a workflow to place all of these flat patterns into a single assembly, then use the new Fusion 360 Arrange command to position them on a single sheet in the manufacturing environment.  Once arranged, applying cutting toolpaths is a quick process.  I want to point out that the Arrange command is not available to users of a Fusion 360 Personal License.