F360 Discussion group ideas & enhancement requests - Please add them here! :)

[CarlFrischmuth]

Im starting a new thread specifically for discussion on things you would like to see in this discussion group, like Ideas that would make it better to use.

Its not really for discussion of fusion360 itself, its more about this discussion group and what could be done better, to capture all the things that need to be done to make it better in one place so peoples ideas and suggestions get seen and not buried in amongst other posts in non related threads.

The intent is to have a thread that is for:

- Sugesstions on better organization of the data and how its linked between the different areas within the Fusion360 site. liek sueful tip and tricks linked from the Learning tab etc.

- Suggestions of things that could be improved on, e.g. if you see something that could be made a lot better for all users e.g like video links wth better descriptions or  small previews or something like that..

- Wishlist ideas you may have that relate to functionality in other discussion forums (Autodesk related or not) you participate in thats missing here.

- Other things that would make this site more useful to your everyday endeavors related to using Fusion360. (e.g. Beer brewing techniques, although useful, are probably better discussed elsewhere)

Fee free to add to this or correct it etc..

Cheers

Carl

[Oceanconcepts]

Good move- and I'll add my suggestion here: 

That the truly wonderful videos explaining Fusion commands and also any images, be linked to directly from the command reference section in the Learn tab.  It's going to help a lot of new users to be able to see how to use something, the text explanations are a bit terse, and rely on knowing the terminology.  This could be a quick and dirty general categorization related to the commands, nothing fancy. 

Finding the explanation in the Forum threads is quite uncertain, particularly when you don't quite know what to look for, and will end up with a lot of questions being asked repeatedly when they are already answered in these videos. 

Ron

[stevie.d]

Yeah I'll chime in on this again as it has been a source of great frustration for me , while I appreciate we are in Public Beta and it's not the complete package, and, there are features still being added and modified:

I believe communication is King, the last few weeks using this software I have been left feeling very stupid after a session to the point that the mini projects I've been trying to realise are being let slide as the thoughts of grappling with the software = dread,

this is wrong, I know from experience of using design software from 2d graphics to 3d graphics software over the last 10-15 years that I can pick stuff up in a matter of hours to a weekend, batten down the hatches and OD on hands on tutorials and I'm solid,I have been left thinking this is not the product for me and opting out, then discovering something and thinking well maybe it is but wasting too much of my time in between.

I'm a designer, Live presentation/exhibition,Interior Architecture, Small simple products, so from a Revit, 3ds Max perspective, not Inventor, spent time with it and realised it's more than I would need for simple product modelling nor did I get a chance to try Inventor Fusion, so this is a new learning curve for me.

A fully functional help structure is not available at present, and while I understand this to a degree,I feel it is being left until the end, which I don't believe is a correct approach to teaching, this site as far as I know is the intended as the main source of help and information for Fusion 360 and should be viewed more as an extension of the application ,than a place,site forums and boards don't need slick coding to be successful they need people.

I think there should be a lot more emphasis on interaction i.e. short snippets of information on how to use the app being released at least once daily, doesn't have to be polished it's Beta we get it, think Indie here guys, garage attitude, so what if there's errors or it's obsolete information next week, it conveys honesty to your audience.

It too, should focus on simple commands in some instances, rather than this cool new feature or methodology, i.e. I'm still not sure how the move tool works fully (measure, re-orient,reanchor, the strange way the manipulator moves away from the body when you select its extrude rather than the body),

For the development I believe this results in my participation being counter productive because I can't tell you whether or not somethings broken, or, whether or not I like/dislike the feature, if I'm not sure how it fully works, so I'm less confident in raising an issue because a dozen or so threads or erroneous  bug reports that is just pilot error is just a waste of everyones time.

The product development team responding to issues,especially taking the time to video has been great and well appreciated, i.e. Jake Fowler took the time to respond to a problem I was a having, with a video, he addressed me by name, Personalisation: best way to foster a community spirit: if a new user watches the video and hears a fellow user being addressed (unless they too are called Stephen, then it might freak them out a bit) first thought might be "Wow these guys talk to their users" , Community!

While I appreciate the limitations of time with the team and I know some people are not as comfortable talking, definitely more content out there means people are going to keep coming back here searching for help, This is one of those times when Quanity over Quality is apt.

This can then extend to the community members , if I'm secure in my knowledge of a command or a tool I don't have a problem giving some time in a video to newer users. Heres a good example from Ben-Tommy Eriksen

"Teach a man to fish etc."

If i'm incorrect or miss something in my post other knowledgible members usually respond and add their opinions and thus,a dialogue ensues which generates more information and learning. Win!

I think experiential learning scenearios are good, if a new user sees a video posted by another member who was experiencing the same issue and solved the problem they will feel more comfortable in their learning realising that they are not the only ones who made that mistake, increasing their confidence.

The New headings of tips threads is great and I know that the videos I posted in the general section overlap in some parts but it's a good start and linking from the search or as many places as possible is good, there is nothing worse than typing into search and getting dead air.

I think as we go forward some links and threads will just automatically die as they become irrelevant but this will be reliant on good stewardship from users as well as Managers properly tagging posts and definetly putting them in the right categories always helps , I've just been posting everything I can find ,and will look at sorting them into the proper categories ,I don't mind continuing this I have a fair bit of time on my hands in this climate, and haven't viewed all the contentl fully just enough to get keywords for Tags and headings, but let me know if there's any other content that's out there or content that's not so good and should be deleted.