Direct drive bowden extruder using Autodesk Fusion 360

[0110-m-p]

In my quest to pick a piece of CAD software to use at home, I have been designing something new in each one to learn it. This time I used Autodesk Fusion 360 after many recommendations to take an existing thingiverse extruder that I liked and modify it more to my tastes.

Here is the original design...
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:946461

Basic things I didn't like were the gap between inlet/outlet for the filament, the mounting feet were too thin, I wanted the lever plate to have an anti-crush tube to spin on, and wanted to change various profiles/diameters. Anyways, more than the design itself, I wanted to learn the capabilities of Fusion 360 and wanted to do so with an existing design with several parts to import and assemble.

So far I can safely say that it is by far the best free CAD program out there for assemblies and pretty damn powerful for everything else. One very neat feature that I used several times in this design is the ability to directly import parts from McMaster's catalog. It's going to be my go-to software for a little while until I learn it's limits. Anyways, here are some pictures...

[img]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/580/2103 ... 71a1_c.jpg[/img]

[img]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5703/210 ... e6e0_c.jpg[/img]

[img]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/774/2103 ... 3ec9_c.jpg[/img]

[bubbasnow]

So far I can safely say that it is by far the best free CAD program out there for assemblies and pretty damn powerful for everything else. One very neat feature that I used several times in this design is the ability to directly import parts from McMaster's catalog. It's going to be my go-to software for a little while until I learn it's limits. Anyways, here are some pictures...

not only that, they are pretty responsive with questions, videos, and if something doesn't work the way it should they seem to be pretty responsive in adding the capabilities.

[bvandiepenbos]

Have you tried Design Spark Mechanical?
I find it easy to use and very powerful.
http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/el ... mechanical

Imports .stp models from McMaster flawlessly
Imports .stl and does a decent job of converting mesh to something halfway editable.

Exports really nice clean .stl files for printing.

Limitations I have found;
-no export of .step or .iges
-dimensioning tools are poor and limited
-no 2d dimensioned drawings for manufacturing
-no sweep drawing tool

Other than that, I think it is fantastic. And it is FREE

[0110-m-p]

not only that, they are pretty responsive with questions, videos, and if something doesn't work the way it should they seem to be pretty responsive in adding the capabilities.

The one thing they need to fix is there support for high DPI monitors. My 3200x1800 13" display makes some icons microscopic.

Have you tried Design Spark Mechanical?
I find it easy to use and very powerful.
http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/el ... mechanical

Imports .stp models from McMaster flawlessly
Imports .stl and does a decent job of converting mesh to something halfway editable.

Exports really nice clean .stl files for printing.

Limitations I have found;
-no export of .step or .iges
-dimensioning tools are poor and limited
-no 2d dimensioned drawings for manufacturing
-no sweep drawing tool

Other than that, I think it is fantastic. And it is FREE

I have DSM as well and I really like it for editing STL's. The 4 limitations you just listed make it is a complete non-starter for me for any real design work though. I like to share most of my designs, so I really need STEP/IGES export. The other major one out of that list is the dimensioning/measuring tools...even Fusion 360 falls somewhat short what I really want.

For quick light designs I have really enjoyed using PTC Creo Elements/Direct and I actually prefer it to DSM (though only slightly). It is a bit more powerful than DSM, but shares similar flaws and adds a couple more.

Also, the importation of McMaster parts in Fusion 360 isn't manual importation...its a direct tool within Fusion 360. As far as I know (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), DSM only allows that with parts from Allied or RS Components.

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/f ... 9-htm.html

[bvandiepenbos]

Can 360 do sweeps?
Exporting .step?
Is it really free, or trial with limits of some sort?

I was considering the $600 add on for DSM which gives you .step export and 2d dimensioned drawings.
Thoughts?

I would be able to justify around that much for a good 3D cad program.
Any other programs I should consider?

[bubbasnow]

fusion is free for school/hobby use

[0110-m-p]

Can 360 do sweeps?
Exporting .step?
Is it really free, or trial with limits of some sort?

It is also considered free for start-up's making under $100k/yr. It is still cheap even when you have a paid copy ($300/yr).

Yes, it can export to .step and .iges and yes it can apparently also do sweeps (though I haven't tried yet).

[bot]

Fusion360 can do all that. The freeness is truly free. After a free year, simply ask again for another free year. Unless you make 100k+ a year in a sector using the software, it's free. And really good.

[0110-m-p]

Only negative so far to me is that I'm not in love with the GUI, but I am learning to deal with it.

Also wish it were easier to make a part in an assembly design and have that part be openable/editable outside the assembly without saving as a new component. Want it to automatically/always be a new component.

[bot]

Yeah, the workflow is sufficiently different from solidworks to make it very frustrating. That said, here is a series of videos that made me go "oh ok."

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... FTL5KAPZ4z

[0110-m-p]

Thanks for the link. I haven't used Solidworks in years because my company uses Creo, but I watched the first 4 videos last night anyway since they are very similar in technique. I learned a lot of what was talked about just by using the software, but definitely picked up a few tricks that should make me more efficient.

Biggest thing I think I need to do with Fusion 360 is break my mentality of designing parts and building assemblies separately. Just start doing everything in the same design. This is very hard to do after using Pro/E or Creo everyday for years.

[bot]

Actually, you can do that if you like. If the parts and "assembly" design are all in the same project, you can link the external designs in the assembly so that any changes made to the parts is propagated to the "assembly." I seem to prefer this method too because it seems to give more control over the origin of the individual parts. Perhaps when a new component is made in-place, the origin can be adjusted to be where we want it. I'll have to explore that.

[0110-m-p]

Actually, you can do that if you like. If the parts and "assembly" design are all in the same project, you can link the external designs in the assembly so that any changes made to the parts is propagated to the "assembly." I seem to prefer this method too because it seems to give more control over the origin of the individual parts. Perhaps when a new component is made in-place, the origin can be adjusted to be where we want it. I'll have to explore that.

This is the way that I'm currently doing it and find a few things frustrating. Mainly that I can't find a universal refresh models command so I have had to right click and hit "get latest" for each model I update. Not a huge problem, but annoying.

The other frustrating thing is that you can't modify the part in the assembly design file and have it propagate back to the individual part file (at least not that I have found). Seems like you have to save a copy and delete then old version.

[bot]

A couple things: There should be an "update all models" button at the top of the screen, no? It looks like an exclamation mark. I'll attach a photo of the button.

It does appear that if you link to external components, you can't edit them in the "assembly" file. This seems like the same behaviour as working in "assembly mode" in solidworks. I still haven't decided which method I prefer: separate components or all in one. I don't understand why you'd have to copy and delete the component unless you "break the link" which effectively makes it a new, separate component in your current design.


https://youtu.be/SesuUThyZsU watch this video from the series for a bit more info.

[Neptune]

any chance you'll share you design when you're done? I like the looks of the changes you've put into it...

[0110-m-p]

any chance you'll share you design when you're done? I like the looks of the changes you've put into it...

Definitely will be sharing it. Since this part needs to work perfectly in my opinion to be useful, I need to do some testing first. I'll probably have a final design along side the V3DR printer since that is the machine I'm designing this extruder for.

[0110-m-p]

It does appear that if you link, you can't edit them in the "assembly" file

This is what is most disappointing coming from Creo. I can right-click an object in Creo, select Activate, and that part is editable in the assembly file. This is extremely helpful for iterative design based around other assembly parts.

Take the following two screenshots. The first one shows right-clicking an external component, no option to activate. The second one is an internally referenced component and the activate option is available.

[bot]

Yeah, I totally understand that is a limitation on your workflow. They designed it (or added the parametric ability) with the intent of ALL the parts always being in one design file. It wasn't until June that they added the linking of files. Perhaps they will make the files editable in-assembly in the near future. Autodesk is quite receptive to user input.

[0110-m-p]

Yeah, I totally understand that is a limitation on your workflow. They designed it (or added the parametric ability) with the intent of ALL the parts always being in one design file. It wasn't until June that they added the linking of files. Perhaps they will make the files editable in-assembly in the near future. Autodesk is quite receptive to user input.

For my next design, I am going to step outside my comfort zone and use the software as designed with all components as part of the assembly file.

I've also started playing with OnShape (though I already don't like it as much as Fusion 360) and am on a 30-day trial with IronCAD 2015 and am looking into SpaceClaim Engineer as well. Both are a bit out of my price range, but I'm spoiled with powerful CAD at work so I feel I have to give everything a try before I commit to big designs in any pieces of MCAD software.

[0110-m-p]

Just uploaded the final design to Thingiverse. STEP files included for those who want to tinker with it...

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1132224


[img]http://thingiverse-production-new.s3.am ... atured.jpg[/img]

[bot]

How are you liking 360? Or did you switch to something else?

[0110-m-p]

How are you liking 360? Or did you switch to something else?

I am liking Fusion 360 well enough for the cost of free and would recommend it to any hobbyist. I also can now recommend OnShape, which is actually what I used to finished up this design (why the screen shots look different). Personally I think the two softwares are very different but equal at creating and assembling normal geometry. Fusion 360 has the advantage in direct editing, surface modeling, and CAM, but for normal CAD and drawing they are about equal. Speaking of drawings, they both suck pretty bad. Right now I'm using these two softwares about 50/50.

To be honest though, I'm underwhelmed by pretty much everything at this point since I've used Creo everyday at work for the past 4 years. I've been considering purchasing a "full featured" CAD program lately and have been going through 30-day trials like crazy the past couple of months. Unfortunately, I haven't found the right fit yet. I've done SpaceClaim, IronCAD, ZW3D, GeoMagic, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Fusion 360, and OnShape. I really liked IronCAD, but the performance is pitiful...chokes on even the smallest assemblies.

I am trying to get a trial of SolidWorks 2016 now, but it is unlikely I would purchase it because pricing (like Creo) is too expensive when all you do is personal/community projects and the occasional freelance job.

[bot]

Interesting. I'm finding 360 is good for my needs. I'm comparing it to my experience with SolidWorks, and actually liking it better than SolidWorks. It now comes with some limited ability to do FEA for static stress and modal frequencies.

In what areas are more advanced packages superior? You talk about the drawing abilities. As in, generating engineering drawings? Cause yeah, 360 is kinda annoying at that, but it works for my limited needs.

[0110-m-p]

For F360 and OnShape it's the little things...measurement tools are definitely lacking functionality, Fusion 360 can't export a STEP of distributed designs (have to unlink everything), I really don't like the way that mates are stored in their own tree (can't select a part and just edit the mates...have to find the mate in the tree which is a huge PITA. SpaceClaim/DSM got this bit right), F360 doesn't auto-update between designs that are shared (have to tell the assembly to update). It all seems minimal, but after a few hours of work it starts getting tiresome. I'm going to stick with F360 for a while though I think as I just can't justify the cost of a professional software for home use right now.

And yes, creating engineering drawings. Apparently Fusion 360 just put out an update that added GD&T symbols which is a HUGE improvement for me, so I'm looking forward to trying it out again.

Here is a link to the changes in today's update...
http://fusion360.autodesk.com/learning/ ... 06B36D160D

[bot]

Yeah I can definitely understand your problems. I've never had anything nicer really, but I can tell there is room for improvement.

Nice, I was wondering what they were updating. Caught me off guard and left me SOL for making progress on a project. Is it back up yet? Another huge downfall of the cloud system, though thankfully they've been good at keeping it quick and notifying us.