Fusion 360 Core Concepts

I decided recently to learn Fusion 360 to help with some custom optomechanical designs that I need in the lab. The following are my notes about its core concepts.

Assemblies

An assembly is a group of parts in one design file.

In CAD, there are two ways to create assemblies:

1. Bottom-up
   1. Create parts
   2. Add parts to the assembly
2. Top-down (used by Fusion 360)
   1. Start with an assembly
   2. Add parts to it

Bodies vs. components

Bodies

A body is a 3D shape used to add or remove components.

There are two core types:

1. Solid bodies
2. Surface bodies (denoted by a yellow face)

Other types include T-Splines (created in the Form environment) used to create freeform shapes, and mesh bodies.

Bodies must be of the same type to interact with one another.

Components

A component is a part or "container" used within an assembly.

Components can contain

• bodies
• construction planes
• sketches
• canvases
• origin planes
• other components (a.k.a. subassemblies)

Joints

Joints are how components are forced to stay together.

Guidelines

1. Always start an assembly with a new component
2. Always rename components and bodies right after creation

References

1. Bodies vs Components