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CAD Resources
Fusion 360 is a CAD tool that is created by Autodesk. It is free for educators, and students. Our team started to use Fusion 360 in 2020 and it was used to create mechanisms for the robot in a 3D space. This allowed the team to create parts that can be water jetted or 3d printed. You can learn more about Fusion 360 on their website
What is CAD?
CAD stands for Computer Aided Design. CAD software is software like Fusion 360, Soildworks, OnShape, etc.
When you open up Fusion 360, this is what you will see (pretend there is a photo here and things are nicely numbered and stuff)
1: Data panel. You can think of it as a file explore. All your files and folders are here. You can close and hide the panel by clicking on the box with circles near the save button to the upper top left hand corner.
2: Toolbar. It includes different types of tools that you will use when creating something in Fusion. You will find tools here such as: Sketch, Extrude
3: Browser. Like the data panel, it is also like a file explore with folders that have parts that can also have folders. In your browser you have different folders that appear before you do anything. These folders are:
- Origin: This is the center. It includes the X, Y, and Z planes
- Joints: This is where parts are together.
- Sketches: This can be seen as a drawing. It's a flat plane with lines on it. Sketches are how the designing process starts
On the left of each folder or part, you will notice an eyeball. Clicking on the eyeball will hide whatever is in the folder and clicking on it again will show it again. You For example, if you wanted to hide part1, you click on the eyeball and it will be hidden. If you wanted to bring it back, you will click on it again and it will appear.
4: Timeline: The timeline shows every action and every step you made on your project.
In Fusion 360 you can move the object around and see the different parts of your design. There are different ways to do this.
- When using a computer mouse, you can click on the scroll button and move the mouse around
- Shift and clicking the scroll button lets you rotate around your design
- You will notice that there is a cube on the upper right in your design space. You can click on the Top of the cube to see the top of your design, the bottom of the cube to see the bottom, etc. On the upper left of the cube, there is a house. Clicking on the house will bring the view back to the home (or default) view
If you want to see a video version of what was talked about below, the video I (Adriana) like to refer to is Team Small Robot's video . You can watch from 4:06-8:47 and ignore the fact that it's combat robotics not FIRST Robotics