Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

whunter — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 11:32:31 GMT

I recently completed a smallish design project for the fabrication of 200 welded items (using F360 only, mostly CAD and rendering, and one FEA).

Here are some of my findings:

1) CUSTOM UNITS FOR DISPLAYING PROPERTIES IN MODEL FILE (when clicking RMB on a selected model)

I'd like to see separate settings for model and drawing units, e.g., I don't want to read the mass of something that weighs 219 kg in grams (for example, as 219015.36 g). SOLIDWORKS and Inventor has this option.

2) MULTIPLE SHEETS

For drawings, please.

3) LINKED PROPERTIES (LIKE MASS, PARAMETERS)

Ability to link to dimension values and other parameters from the drawing environment. For example, I'd like to show the dimensions of a plate (or anything else) in the Parts List, like RECT TUBING <d1> x <d2> x <my_length> and it displays as RECT TUBING 200 x 100 x 1350. Or the mass of something in the Title Block.

4) PARTS LIST FONT, TITLE BLOCK FONT: CAPS OR NO CAPS OR MIXED CASE

The ability to control this, for example, an option that ALL Parts List text is upper case (Caps), not a mixture.

5) CHAMFER DIMS, VIRTUAL SHARPS, WELDING SYMBOLS

For the drawing environment, please add these. I guess this will probably happen at some point.

6) DETAIL VIEW OF SECTIONS

Cannot do detail views of sections! Essential to have this, e.g., to show circlip groove dimensions.

7) OPACITY AND COLOUR CONTROL OF PARTS AND ASSEMBLIES IN DRAWINGS

To hide certain parts or assemblies.

8) DEFAULT NAMING SCHEME BETWEEN PARTS, ASSEMBLIES, DRAWINGS

I'd like to set up a naming scheme for models and drawings per project, and/or a default for all projects. Example: If I name a file ASSY - WHEEL v4 then the drawing of that assembly should be DRWG - WHEEL REV 1, or it simply needs to get the properties from the model file so that I don't need to name things twice.

9) AUTO CREATION OF PDFs AND DXFs IN BACKGROUND (CLOUD)

I'd like an option that F360 automatically saves PDFs and DXFs of my drawings in the background (back-ups basically) so that they're always up to date and I don't have to go and save them each time. A filename naming scheme will be useful here too.

10) AUTO NUMBERING ACCORDING TO A USER DEFINED SCHEME FOR PARTS AND ASSEMBLIES

See point 8 above. There needs to be some sort of intelligence between the model version numbers and the drawing revision numbers, I'd like to set the drawing revision number of a part in the that file's model environment, and the drawing should pick it up and automatically create a new drawing file.

11) MOVING VIEWS CAN BE SLOW OR DOESN'T WORK

Perhaps it's just my NVIDIA Quadro 16GB graphic card? Not sure...

12) SETTING THE CASE OF ANNOTATIONS IN PARTS LISTS, TITLE BLOCKS, ETC.

As per point 4 above.

13) IF A VIEW IS MOVED, LEADER TEXT AND BALLOONS DOESN'T MOVE WITH IT

Very annoying behaviour, please fix this.

14) UNITS FROM MODEL PROPERTIES DOESN'T HONOR UNIT VALUE DISPLAY SETTING IN PREFERENCES

15) DRAWING AUTO-UPDATE OPTION

If a model changed, just update the drawing automatically. Why would I not want to update it?

16) LINEAR DIAMETER OPTION (WITHOUT HAVING TO MANUALLY ENTER THE DIAM SYMBOL)

17) DIAM SYSMBOL SHOULD BE IN FRONT OF DIM BY DEFAULT

And if I do need to add the diameter symbol manually, F360 should know to add it to the FRONT of dimension.

18) ABSENCE OF REVISION BLOCK OR REVISION TRIANGLE

Please add. as per Inventor.

19) SQUASHING/STRETCHING OF FONTS IN TITLE BLOCK UGLY

Maybe I just need to get used to this, but it looks terrible.

20) DRAWING ENVIRONMENT SHOULD HAVE MECHANISM FOR CONTROLING REVISION NUMBERS OF DRAWINGS.

I suppose this is a duplicate of point 8 above, but some basic version control would be welcome, perhaps based on a simple set of rules that can be defined per project by the user?

21) WHEN ACTIVATING A COMPONENT, GREY OUT IRRELEVANT FEATURES IN TIMELINE, OR COLLAPSE THEM COMPLETELY.

I often struggle to find the relevant features in the timeline for an active competent, especially if it's a large assembly.

22) DIAM AND RADIUS DIMENSIONS SHOULD HAVE THE OPTION OF A HORIZONTAL LEADER BASELINE

23) ACTIVATION OF TOP ITEM IN BROWSER TREE A PAIN, YOU HAVE TO SCROLL TO THE TOP EVERYTIME (OR OFTEN).

Please give us a shortcut to do this, or a RMB click option in the browser, e.g., "Activate Top", or something like that.

24) SCROLL BAR ON LEFT OF BROWSER TOO NARROW

Please make it a bit wider, it's too narrow to quickly grab and drag in order to scroll.

Other than that, great software. Once the drawing environment is sorted out, sheet metal and weldments (in SOLIDWORKS parlance, called frames in Autodesk iirc) are added, I see little point of using Inventor or SOLIDWORKS anymore.

Thanks,

William

Re: Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

TimeraAutodesk — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 00:14:10 GMT

Hi @whunter,

Thanks so much for taking the time to put together this list of feedback on Fusion, it's very valuable and we take it seriously.

Regarding the feedback on the Drawings workspace, I'm happy to report that many of the items on your list are already on our current roadmap. If you haven't taken a look at my recent blog post on Drawings, I encourage you to. It will give you info on our current state, and plans for the future, including an up-to-date roadmap: http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/2d-drawings-check-roadmap/. As the product manager for the drawings workspace, I will personally make sure that the additional drawings-related ideas you've outlined here get documented internally for future prioritization.

For any additional feature requests, I'd also encourage you to utilize the Fusion 360 IdeaStation. The IdeaStation is where our users can post their ideas, get support from the community, and the Fusion team can report back the status on the ideas.

Best,

Timera

Re: Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

whunter — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 08:30:42 GMT

Thanks for the reply, I had a look at your blog and it looks very promising and will certainly address most, if not all, of my current needs.

Re: Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

TimeraAutodesk — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 17:39:37 GMT

Hi @whunter, Just checking in to make sure you're aware that last month we added multi-sheet functionality to the Drawings workspace, and as of last night we added in the ability to detail section views - both of which were on your list. To read in more detail about the update, check out the What's New blog here: http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/april-19-2017-update-whats-new/

Enjoy!
Timera

Re: Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

TimeraAutodesk — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 00:37:01 GMT

Hey @whunter - just checking back in on this post of yours to let you know that we released a virtual sharp feature last week in the Drawings workspace as well. You can find it under the Geometry tab of the ribbon toolbar. Let us know what you think!

Best,

Timera

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Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

Re: Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

Re: Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

Re: Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job

Re: Feedback: my experience using F360 for a real engineering job