Fusion Training

Autodesk publishes a full self-paced training collection for Fusion covering everything from the basics to advanced workflows. That collection is huge, so this page picks out the lessons most relevant to what we actually build at UPrep. See the Autodesk software page for how to get access to Fusion itself. Design and Fabrication students should also see Fusion in This Class for files, units, and handoff.

Introduction to Fusion

Autodesk's Introduction to Fusion curated series. Start here if you've never opened Fusion before — it covers the interface and the basics before you touch any modeling tools.

• Introduction to Fusion
• Explore the Fusion user interface
• Use the Fusion Marking menu
• Use the Fusion Toolbox
• Transitioning from Tinkercad to Fusion

Get Started with Modeling

Autodesk's Get Started with Modeling curated series. Follow this once you're comfortable with the interface — it walks through sketching and building your first 3D models.

• Components and bodies
• About sketching in Fusion
• Fusion sketch constraints
• Extrude solid bodies
• Modify solid bodies with Press Pull
• Add fillets to solid bodies

Assemblies and Joints

Once a project is more than one part, you need components that move (or stay put) relative to each other. Fusion's Joint tools define that motion. Autodesk's reference documentation is the place to start:

• As-built joints — for components already positioned where you want them, which is the usual case when you've modeled everything in place.
• Adding Joints and As-built Joints to components — a full guided activity assembling a camera stand, covering rigid, revolute, slider, and ball joints.
• Duplicate components with their joints — for repeated hardware, so you place a joint once instead of twenty times.

Exporting for the CNC, printers, and cutters

Getting a design out of Fusion in the format a machine wants:

• Export sketch as DXF — for the CNC router and the vinyl/cardstock cutters.
• How to export a 3D model to DXF — when what you want to cut is the outline of a solid body rather than an existing sketch.
• Mesh export and 3D print a design — for 3MF and STL files headed to Bambu Studio.

For which format goes to which machine, and the export mistakes that cost machine time, see Exporting Your Design.

Designing to Cut and Score Cardboard (2D → 3D)

Sheet metal designs in Fusion are useful for anything you bend or score and then fold from flat into a 3D shape. The following are part of Autodesk's Sheet Metal with Fusion curated series. Designs can be cut by hand, with the Silhouette Cameos, or the laser cutter by exporting DXF files into the appropriate software.

• Creating a sheet metal component
• Using rules in sheet metal
  • You'll need to set up cardboard as a material type yourself, and this video covers how to do that.