Ok guys. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time learning and liking Sketchup. This weekend has been dedicated to learning Fusion 360. So far…not loving this. Why do the tutorials NOT take you step by step through EVERYTHING. They state something BRAND NEW and then leave you hanging. Even Google isn’t really helpful in getting this figured out.
In step 5, it asks you to do the following:
5. Add three constraints to the scissor blade profile:
Symmetric constraint - the two inner flat edges of the scissor blades.
Equal constraint - the bottom of the scissor blade profile and the left side of the rectangular body.
Coincident constraint - the center points of these same two arcs.
note the amount of explanation given, only the equal constraint has been explained at all. The other two have not been mentioned yet, and this is the level of explanation they give to allow you to “learn”. Completely not helpful.
When you click the symmetric tool, and then click the two curved surfaces, it won’t make them symmetrical. When you attempt to select the equal sign tool for the two half circles, you can’t select them both. When you do the coincidental tool (who picked THAT name), it won’t let you choose both pieces to match them up.
I’m quickly getting fed up with this tool and wondering how anyone is supposed to learn how to model things in Fusion 360. There are almost NO articles or youtube videos that I’ve found that help with the tutorial lessons so I’m flying nearly blind with terrible instructions trying to learn a program that is supposed to be fantastic. I really want to like it, but right now I simply can’t get around the difficulty of this tool for new beginners.
Is there a better set of tutorials that I can use to learn this tool? ones that are actually helpful?
I will give you that the provided tutorials are pretty bad and there are no better ones that I know of.
My method of learning has been Youtube, lots of great videos by both the F360 guys and others, and the way I learn most programs; poking around and experimenting.
Also, the pop-up help is very helpful to me. When you click to do a task, for most things you get a dialog box. Click the (i) and you will get info about using this function.
Finally, don’t hesitate to use their forums, search and then if you don’t find a solution ask. they are quite good about someone answering.
F360 does have a higher learning curve than Sketchup but the day you can do something in it that was all but impossible in Sketchup you will start to love it.
And in the end, always use the tool that works for you! I love f360 but if in the end, you can get what you want done quicker and better in Sketchup, by all means, use it and forget about how we get all emotional over f360.
Fusion 360 is pretty great. It’s fantastic for the price, IMO.
The way constraints and joints (“joints” are basically constraints, but for objects) leaves a lot to be desired. It’s both heartening and discouraging to see people like John at NYCCNC struggle with the unintuitive UI. Heartening because it’s refreshing to see it isn’t just me struggling (he’s been using it for a couple years now, I’d guess) but discouraging because it looks like some of these quirks are design decisions rather than oversights.
SolidWorks has plenty of (what I consider to be) stupid little quirks as well. Sometimes when I run into something I’ll find threads on the internet from many years ago where people are complaining about the same thing.
I’m struggling through myself. I’ve used S/U for years and prefer it for now. Try this and see. https://youtu.be/A5bc9c3S12g
I’m actually working in CNC machining at the moment (firearms) and they rave on fusion. Perhaps I just haven’t adjusted to the taste of the kool-aid yet. Ha
I’m with you. Can be very frustrating. I took the F360 tutorial on Lynda.com and had the same problem–one of the chapters didn’t pick up exactly where the previous one had left off and I wasted a long time figuring out what the missing steps were. They were probably obvious to the instructor but they sure weren’t to me. Also, the example problem was very strange and not practical, which made it hard to engage. The only time I gave poor feedback for a course on Lynda.com.
I got serious with leaning Fusion 360 today too. It has easily been 15 years since I was a designer but I found that I was up and running quickly. Constraints were different, but once I saw how they were doing it I’m a fan. Their new take on sketches is pretty cool too. There are things that will take a couple of more days to become second nature but this software is definitely worth learning. Don’t get discouraged, their training seems aimed at MicroStation users and trying to get them to switch.
I’m starting to do some designs that will probably end up free on the forums since I’m doing the hobbiest license. We’ll see how well I learned then.
Constraints/joints look like they’ll be much easier to use, it is just different than the three constraints we’ve been using since the nineties.
I always smile when people talk about intuitive software. Ted Nelson made the case that if email was intuitive we’d finish typing, put the letter in an envelope, then lick the screen to seal it before sending. It’s all in what you learn.
I’ve been having the same sort of struggles. A simple bookshelf cubby took me two days of youtube and I still couldn’t tell you what I did to make it. I’ll get there eventually.
That’s what I used. When y’all get done with those, there’s another series that kind of reinforces the stuff in that one…same concepts, slightly different applications.
I watched each vid a couple of times during workouts to imprint them in my mind, and came back after a couple weeks of poking around in the software to watch one last time. it’s a lot to pick up.
Hey, I discovered this guy last night. He is great for the advanced beginner such as myself. It is almost as if he has been looking over my shoulder because he is all about better workflow. If you are brand new do some walkthrough tutorials first but after you think you have it watch these and you will learn a lot.
I could use some more to go through. I got through those 7 without TOO much difficulty (he still assumes some stuff). I’m itching to make things :-), and make things that WORK
I just watched the Lars Christensen video. It’s about the best getting started video I have seen for Fusion 360 (and I have watched several). I think this would be a very good place to get started.
When y’all get done with those, there’s another series that kind of reinforces the stuff in that one…same concepts, slightly different applications.