Fusion 360 Questions

CodyMartin · May 29, 2018

Hey guys! I’m new to the page and have a few quick questions. I am currenty a CNC mill machinist in the aerospace/defense and medical industry. I am wanting to ease into the programming side of things to help me understand why programmers do some of the things they do and hopefully become a full time programmer in the future. I have experience in mastercam/solidworks at my part time job and my full time job uses NX. My question is, what’s is everyone’s opinion on Fusion 360 for educational purposes? Both of my employers will not let me sit at a computer and teach myself so I’m just going to do it on my own at home. Would fusion help me learn the basics of it and transfer what I learn from it to other software such as mastercam? Also, what type of labtop is recommended to run fusion. Thanks!

BugRobotics · May 29, 2018

Fusion CAD is not great if you're used to SolidWorks (sketching gets on my last nerve) but you can import models from SolidWorks so that's nice. CAM is just fine for 3-axis (and some limited 4-axis stuff). After you get a handle on work setups and toolpath strategies you can move that knowledge to other CAM systems. I'd say go for it because it won't cost you anything. You can run Fusion on most laptops (recommended specs are on Autodesk's website). Good luck!

CodyMartin · May 29, 2018

Thanks for the reply! Look forwarded to learning more about it.

DavidScott · May 29, 2018

I never learned Solidworks so I may not know better. I have been using Fusion for over 3 years now and love it for design and 3+1 milling. You can only learn so much without running the code you create. Doe NX not do educational licenses?

CodyMartin · May 29, 2018

I’m not sure about NX. I don’t have access to a computer with the software. I just run and edit NX programs on a HAAS. Mastercam does have an educational tutorial but the boss won’t let me get ahold of it because he don’t want me to learn it and leave.

BugRobotics · May 30, 2018

DavidScott said:
I never learned Solidworks so I may not know better.

I'm just complaining. I use SolidWorks daily so I'm used to the workflow. Fusion is great for the price and if you factor in the CAM it's a no brainer. I'm grandfathered in at the $300/year price for Ultimate and in my opinion there isn't a better deal out there for CAM by a long shot (unless you count HSMXpress). When the developers introduce the AnyCAD feature it'll be even a better deal.

csharp · May 30, 2018

BugRobotics said:
I'm just complaining. I use SolidWorks daily so I'm used to the workflow. Fusion is great for the price and if you factor in the CAM it's a no brainer. I'm grandfathered in at the $300/year price for Ultimate and in my opinion there isn't a better deal out there for CAM by a long shot (unless you count HSMXpress). When the developers introduce the AnyCAD feature it'll be even a better deal.

AnyCAD is already there. You need to use a Fusion Team Hub and the Autodesk Desktop connector. I tried it and it was okay. Had some issues and lost my post files a couple of times.

To the OP I agree Fusion CAM is awesome and while it may not meet all your needs yet it is very good at what it does. In the 2.5 axis, 3axis and 3+2 work flow it is hard to beat.

The cad side makes me want to pull my hair out. Like BugRobotics I have a SW background. I understand the different approach that Fusion is trying with the cad side. But there are too many missing features at this point IMO.

gregormarwick · May 30, 2018

Try NX CAM software free for 30-days

Not enough time to learn much beyond the basics, but maybe you can schedule some time during a holiday or something to get the most out of it?

DavidScott · May 30, 2018

CodyMartin said:
the boss won’t let me get ahold of it because he don’t want me to learn it and leave.

That sounds like it will be a big problem to you advancing. It also sounds like you need to find a different part-time job, one where you will be be able, and encouraged, to learn new skills.

gkoenig · May 30, 2018

gregormarwick said:
Try NX CAM software free for 30-days

Not enough time to learn much beyond the basics, but maybe you can schedule some time during a holiday or something to get the most out of it?

Nobody is learning NX CAM in 30 days. I forgot who said this, but giving someone a 30 day trial of NX software is like putting a random person in the seat of an F/A-18 and expecting them to fly. Not only is NX a highly complex piece of software, but the learning resources for it are stuck in a 1990s model of "Sign up for training!"

Fusion and SolidWorks have dozens of people throwing training videos on YouTube for free, ranging from beginner tutorial to very in-the-weeds nitty gritty details. Then you've got half a dozen useable forums where people are more than willing to help you out - NX forums are generally atrocious and ladened with the kinda corporate drone engineers who put all their ME degree acronyms in their signature line.

Mike1974 · May 30, 2018

gkoenig said:
Nobody is learning NX CAM in 30 days. I forgot who said this, but giving someone a 30 day trial of NX software is like putting a random person in the seat of an F/A-18 and expecting them to fly. Not only is NX a highly complex piece of software, but the learning resources for it are stuck in a 1990s model of "Sign up for training!"

Fusion and SolidWorks have dozens of people throwing training videos on YouTube for free, ranging from beginner tutorial to very in-the-weeds nitty gritty details. Then you've got half a dozen useable forums where people are more than willing to help you out - NX forums are generally atrocious and ladened with the kinda corporate drone engineers who put all their ME degree acronyms in their signature line.

Amen brother! I have been using it on and off for about 6 months with the last 3 months pretty much daily. I'm to the point where I can make assemblies, make toolpaths, create solids (all of which I am sure could be better/faster), but geez every day it seems I run into a dozen different head-scratchers! :cryin:

Just a little while ago I copied a toolpath and pasted it, changed the geo (within same part) and got a toolpath about 4" off the part. :crazy:

Co-worker helped me get it going, but the 'solution' made no sense to me so I am sure next time (and there will be a next time) it happens I will be banging my head in frustration.

CodyMartin · May 30, 2018

DavidScott said:
That sounds like it will be a big problem to you advancing. It also sounds like you need to find a different part-time job, one where you will be be able, and encouraged, to learn new skills.

i love my full time job and they always advance within. Unfortunately with me being new to that company and aerospace (my main experience in is medical), I’m on the bottom of the list for a new programmer position unless I can learn it on my own and prove it to them that I can do it.

DavidScott · May 30, 2018

Which is why I said part-time job, get one just for the experience. The part-time job never worked for me, I ended up getting a used VMC so I could learn how to run one.

rlockwood · Jun 1, 2018

gkoenig said:
Nobody is learning NX CAM in 30 days. I forgot who said this, but giving someone a 30 day trial of NX software is like putting a random person in the seat of an F/A-18 and expecting them to fly. Not only is NX a highly complex piece of software, but the learning resources for it are stuck in a 1990s model of "Sign up for training!"

Fusion and SolidWorks have dozens of people throwing training videos on YouTube for free, ranging from beginner tutorial to very in-the-weeds nitty gritty details. Then you've got half a dozen useable forums where people are more than willing to help you out - NX forums are generally atrocious and ladened with the kinda corporate drone engineers who put all their ME degree acronyms in their signature line.

This.. plus, Fusion and NX are architecturally ridiculously similar. Obviously, NX is about 10x more mature and capable, but essentially everything you would learn in Fusion would translate pretty well.

CGornet · Jun 4, 2018

You can't beat Fusion for the price and support. But it is still very new and has a ton of bugs and issues. The CAD side drives me crazy. Watch the CAM side of things as well, I recommend always running the sim because it can do buggy things and cause collisions if you aren't staying on top of it.

gregormarwick · Jun 4, 2018

gkoenig said:
Nobody is learning NX CAM in 30 days. I forgot who said this, but giving someone a 30 day trial of NX software is like putting a random person in the seat of an F/A-18 and expecting them to fly. Not only is NX a highly complex piece of software, but the learning resources for it are stuck in a 1990s model of "Sign up for training!"

Fusion and SolidWorks have dozens of people throwing training videos on YouTube for free, ranging from beginner tutorial to very in-the-weeds nitty gritty details. Then you've got half a dozen useable forums where people are more than willing to help you out - NX forums are generally atrocious and ladened with the kinda corporate drone engineers who put all their ME degree acronyms in their signature line.

I did say "the basics". NX is not so complicated that you can't do that in 30 days.

Being proficient in other cad/cam software before I started, I was able to do the basics in hours, rather than days.

For actual proficiency, 30 days is not enough time to learn ANY cam software - even F360.

Qwan · Jun 5, 2018

@OP
I think it's great you are doing this but at the same time I feel bad for you that your employer is in the dark ages about training people. Your management is ham stringing the company and don't even realize it.

Fusion 360 seems basic from the people I know who have used it and compared it against mid and upper end systems but considering cost I recommend trying it out for your purposes and look at changing software later if you should need to.

As for training and proficiency, pretty much any mid or upper end software have significant learning curves and you should not expect to be proficient at any software if you use it "on and off". This is why most employers looking for quality, skilled people require a fair amount of experience on current versions of software.

FYI, you mentioned editing your programs at the control. I am not sure how extensive you have to edit programs but other than the most simple things you should never do major editing at the control. Ever. If you do then ask your programmers to make it so.

Qwan · Jun 5, 2018

gkoenig said:
Nobody is learning NX CAM in 30 days. I forgot who said this, but giving someone a 30 day trial of NX software is like putting a random person in the seat of an F/A-18 and expecting them to fly. Not only is NX a highly complex piece of software, but the learning resources for it are stuck in a 1990s model of "Sign up for training!"...

Not sure where you got your information but there is a lot of training available; on-line or classroom based. The preferred way is on-line training, called Learning Advantage, is always up to date and is self paced but some companies use it in groups. It has a plethora of offering ranging from basic for new people to advanced for manufacturing, modeling, drafting, assemblies, simulation, etc-. It's very inexpensive and is the way to go IMO. If off or on site training is your gig, that is available too although the cost is much higher than Learning Advantage. Also the NX documentation is very good and much of it also has some how-to info as well. BTW all of our NX users had training initially but have generally never needed transition training.

I agree about the 30-day trial and I feel that applies for anything mid range to higher end. I recommend to everyone who uses a trial version to seek help from the user community and on-line resources otherwise they almost always end up stumbling through it and at the end of the trial have barely scratched the surface and are usually more frustrated than excited.

The point of training is to know how to use the software and be able to have it do what you want the first time. You shouldn't have to do trial and error to contain a path or something basic like translating an operation. That is a novice/untrained approach.

gkoenig · Jun 5, 2018

Qwan said:
Not sure where you got your information but there is a lot of training available; on-line or classroom based. The preferred way is on-line training, called Learning Advantage, is always up to date and is self paced but some companies use it in groups. It has a plethora of offering ranging from basic for new people to advanced for manufacturing, modeling, drafting, assemblies, simulation, etc-. It's very inexpensive and is the way to go IMO. If off or on site training is your gig, that is available too although the cost is much higher than Learning Advantage. Also the NX documentation is very good and much of it also has some how-to info as well. BTW all of our NX users had training initially but have generally never needed transition training.

Learning Advantage... just because it exists and is online doesn't mean it's any good. The Learning Advantage stuff I tried to get through during my NX trial was dry, boring, and generally awful.

By contrast, there are about a dozen folks making videos on YouTube that are amazingly well done. Hundreds more doing not so great videos. You can type any weird question about SolidWorks into the YT search box and probably learn how to do it with a video within about 10 minutes. The same is absolutely NOT true for NX.

dstryr · Jun 5, 2018

gkoenig said:
Learning Advantage... just because it exists and is online doesn't mean it's any good. The Learning Advantage stuff I tried to get through during my NX trial was dry, boring, and generally awful.

By contrast, there are about a dozen folks making videos on YouTube that are amazingly well done. Hundreds more doing not so great videos. You can type any weird question about SolidWorks into the YT search box and probably learn how to do it with a video within about 10 minutes. The same is absolutely NOT true for NX.

So your gripe is that the user base isn't huge and fan boi enough to spend our free time making free videos and rather spend with our family or making money? LOL

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