topic Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere? in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

fishtruk — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 18:48:25 GMT

Hello,

I started in AutoCad 12 20 years ago. Is there a retro facility in Fusion so I can sketch in that environment? the snapping and Everything made so much sense and after almost 2 years of intelligent hacking I've learned little in Fusion. Does anyone else have this issue? With the old AutoCAD I could just sit for a minute and parse all kinds of things out about a problem that the calculator and trig tables got thrown out.

Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

HughesTooling — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 20:52:51 GMT

If you are just going to swim against the tide and try and make Fusion work like AutoCad you'll get no where fast, well apart from frustrated. I used AutoCAD Lt 95 then Rhino and the sketching in solid modeling programs is just different. I still use Rhino but I'd rather use parametric sketching in Fusion than the dumb sketches in Rhino or AutoCad. Fusion's not likely to change much as it works pretty much like any other solid modeler so really your only choice is to unlearn AutoCAD and learn Fusion, well or give up on Fusion.

Have you gone through the basic training on sketching. http://help.autodesk.com/view/NINVFUS/ENU/?guid=GUID-5E1FD01F-A66E-4E94-9D70-58CD55D3BF0C

Mark

Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

fishtruk — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 22:05:01 GMT

Thanks for the link.

Being the design team, engineer, customer contact and machinist leaves little time to stop it all and learn. I'm not complaining, just thought there might be a clickbox so I could work in an absolute workspace, type L0,1 @Anonymous<270 and such. snap settings aren't obvious as they were in the old program. kinda hard to find.

Do I want to go back to Autocad 12? hardly! I don't believe I ever did any 3D work with that!

Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

HughesTooling — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 16:12:29 GMT

@fishtruk wrote:

Thanks for the link.

Being the design team, engineer, customer contact and machinist leaves little time to stop it all and learn. I'm not complaining, just thought there might be a clickbox so I could work in an absolute workspace, type L0,1 @Anonymous<270 and such. snap settings aren't obvious as they were in the old program. kinda hard to find.

Do I want to go back to Autocad 12? hardly! I don't believe I ever did any 3D work with that!

From what you said above I think part of the problem is you're trying to draw the part finished in one go. The advice I was given is don't fuss trying to draw accurately straight off, quickly sketch the shape without dimensions then add the constrains and dimensions. Done this way you add all the dimensions in one go and it's quicker than trying to add them as you go.

You get feedback for line lengths and angles so just use them as a rough guide to outline the shape somewhere close the the right size and shape.

Mark

Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

mbostonsprint — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 19:28:02 GMT

Just my 2 cents worth: I have much the same background and circumstances, started with R12 and have had Acad ever since (currently running 2013 version) for an all-purpose design tool and problem-solver. Autocad 3D seems pretty cumbersome, and I never learned that at all; it'll be on my bucket list... I find the sketching function in Fusion to be a bit obtuse at times, and I use Fusion for 3D design modeling, not for figuring out trig problems. I have Acad on my shop computer for that purpose. Much quicker and easier, in my opinion.

The sketching in Fusion is meant to be the input into the 3D modeling process, as I see it, so I just accept that and try to do enough of it to absorb the on-the-fly training that comes with using it. I think it is non-intuitive in some respects, and the behavior is somewhat squirrely when you are going back and forth between creating 3D features in a model and tryng to sketch geometry in 2D to use as basis for construction, but it is similar to other 3D modeling programs in that respect, as Mark notes in this thread.

Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

HughesTooling — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 20:09:42 GMT

@mbostonsprint wrote:

J I use Fusion for 3D design modeling, not for figuring out trig problems. I have Acad on my shop computer for that purpose. Much quicker and easier, in my opinion.

With practice you will find the sketcher in Fusion is a more powerful at solving problems than AutoCAD\Rhino. A while ago someone was trying to solve a problem on the Rhino forum, the best the big brains on the forum could come up with was a brute force script to get as close as possible. I made a fully parametric sketch that gave the answer in a few minutes, for me the difficult bit was understanding the question the sketch was easy.

Here's the link to my answer in the Rhino forum, scroll to the top for the question.

Mark

Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

daniel_lyall — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 21:39:02 GMT

as @HughesTooling just wack out the drawing, and demention and constain after you have the shape, it takes practise but once's you have the hang of it some thing's can be done in seconds.

what the best 2D drawing program can not do.

I did a screen cast of someone's youtube vid how they did it tock minutes, how I did it it was 45 seconds.

you just need to keep at it, onces you get the hang of it you will look back and say why did I not try this before.

allso one of the benifits of fusion is if you have a part done, and someone else wonts that part made for them with a small change all you have to do is save as make the change and done or if that part is needed in another modle you just insert it in to the modle.

and depending on what you make quite often you only have to draw the part once's and useing paramaters you can make that part over and over again at diffrent sizes just by useing save as and changeing paramaters.

I am doing a series of youtube vids on cabint makeing so far I have done 7 useing the same modle all I have done is save as change paramaters or add paramaters and I have done 4 diffrent version of the same thing, fusion is just that good once's you get the hang of it.

Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

fishtruk — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 21:57:41 GMT

mboston, yes we're from the same bolt of cloth. Although I had some programs with CAM built in, I used R12 right up until I needed Windows 7. Autocad stopped working then and there after XP left me. I did find another VERY similar drawing program and have and use it now.

When I started with Fusion I had to keep productive and my shortest course was to draw in this unnamed program and then upload in fusion for the CAM action. I DO admit I haven't done all the homework I should (Mars has 25 hours in a day?? maybe relocate ???).

In another post asking about the Orbit settings and such I found there was a clickbox to emulate Solidworks. That is a competitor's program?? My initial question was hoping there was an emulator clickbox for what I longed for.

I'll be looking at Mark's videos now. Here's what he posted... http://help.autodesk.com/view/NINVFUS/ENU/?guid=GUID-5E1FD01F-A66E-4E94-9D70-58CD55D3BF0C

Thaks!

Re: Retro version of Autocad in here somewhere?

mfeathers — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 15:07:21 GMT

Man... I started with AutoCAD 2.5, used it up hill in the snow both ways. Had been drawing on computers probably 4-5 years prior to that.

Seriously though, I'd been working with Draftsight here for a while and when we got Fusion I was trying to import old stuff as a starting point for models. Out of frustration I just gave in to doing it all in Fusion and I find it so much faster. I was a hotkey maniac in ACAD/Draftsight wouldn't even look at the keyboard my hands just knew where to go. Haven't really bothered to learn the few hotkeys Fusion has. Don't miss them.

If you're ever up for a real challenge try some of the electronics CAD packages like Eagle... those are challenging interfaces.