topic Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

ajithramachandran69 — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 06:04:06 GMT

Hello there, This is Ajith

I've been working in Fusion 360 for the past 2 years and also have some experience in 3D printing. My concern in Fusion 360 is that it doesn't have Engineering PLA material of its own in Fusion 360 Material library as it is mostly used for 3D printing. and there are few article that tells to create new material manual which I think is a bit hectic procedure. Kindly add these material as soon as possible as we can use them for simulation and other purposes. Hope this forum post graps your attention. Thank you.

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

TheCADWhisperer — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 06:58:42 GMT

What trouble are you having in adding your own material properties?

What type of Analysis do you need to run on anisotropic layered 3D printing?

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

ajithramachandran69 — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 07:19:05 GMT

I'm currently facing issue in proper material properties. I've attempted to add custom PLA material as per the article but I'm not sure that the property sticks to the original one. I've current working on static stress analysis on 3D printing filaments. I also need materials like PETG, PVS/HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene). Can you tell me how to find the appropriate material properties.

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

jhackney1972 — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 16:35:40 GMT

Try this website to search for your materials and the properties you need.

@jhackney1972 - This reply has been edited by the moderation team as the legacy links were no longer valid

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

ajithramachandran69 — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 14:47:36 GMT

That works but There are a lot of material properties to explore it seems. Hope this will take time. Anyways Thank you for your support @jhackney1972

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

9718660 — Fri, 16 May 2025 14:05:53 GMT

Use this file and follow the instructions from the link below.
(make sure to extract the file from the zip folder)
GitHub - alecGraves/Fusion360PrinterMaterials: 3D-Printed Materials for Autodesk Fusion360 -- Printed PLA, PETG, ABS, PC, PolyMax PC

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

ajithramachandran69 — Fri, 16 May 2025 14:57:42 GMT

Thank you @9718660. Let me try that steps and update the status soon.

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

henderh — Fri, 16 May 2025 22:43:25 GMT

Hi @ajithramachandran69,

As the @TheCADWhisperer mentioned, are you after anisotropic material behavior simulation? If you're using static stress, please keep in mind Fusion Simulation assumes isotropic material properties.

Many properties available in the material definition aren't actually supported in a simulation study, as the Material Browser is a shared Autodesk component. For example, there may be an Autodesk product that requires the Damping Ratio property value. However, Fusion's Event Simulation doesn't use it (nor does Inventor's Dynamic Simulation). There are other damping methods like Raleigh (or Coulomb respectively) that can yield more accurate results, and used instead.

The necessary properties for LSS are:

Density (needed for gravity, automatic point mass calculations, etc)
Young's Modulus (we need to know the 'spring stiffness')
Poisson's Ratio (we need to know if it behaves like a cork that doesn't flatten out while compressed, or like gold that easily does)

The Shear Modulus is 4th property needed, which is calculated by the solver using the Young's Modulus and Poisson's ratio values. We check the value defined for Shear Modulus in the material property definition is consistent with the calculation:

G=E/2(1+Nu)
- Where E is Young's Modulus, and Nu is Poisson's ratio

While we do support Yield Stress and Ultimate Strength values in the Safety Factor calculation, they're not necessary to solve the Displacement > Strain > Stress FEM calculations.

^^ Short story long, I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't have to spend a lot of time defining an inordinate number of thermophysical properties for a Linear Static Stress study type.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions, comments or suggestions.

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

henderh — Sat, 17 May 2025 01:34:00 GMT

@ajithramachandran69,

I just realized that Engineering PLA (polylactic acid) is biodegradable. Having this aspect, it might increase the chances of adding the material to both the Fusion Material library, and the Fusion Injection Molding library (Autodesk Moldflow technology).

If you have a certain manufacturer and specification sheet in mind, I'll be happy pass the info along to our decision makers for a future enhancement consideration.

Thank you,

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

wersy — Sat, 17 May 2025 06:45:18 GMT

Printed parts cannot be calculated. These are not the usual anisotropic characteristics.

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

g-andresen — Sat, 17 May 2025 09:59:18 GMT

Hi,

How meaningful can a simulation be if print parameters such as print direction, layer adhesion etc. are not taken into account?

günther

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

wersy — Sat, 17 May 2025 10:23:50 GMT

@g-andresen schrieb:
Hi,
How meaningful can a simulation be if print parameters such as print direction, layer adhesion etc. are not taken into account?

günther

And what's more, the direction of printing varies...

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

henderh — Tue, 20 May 2025 23:36:14 GMT

Hi @wersy and @g-andresen,

Thank you for adding the fact(s) that a linear static solver is nowhere near capable of solving such a multi-faceted simulation problem.

I agree 100% and next time I'll be sure to include any caveat info in my reply. Furthermore, one of our best SME's (who happens to be a Developer) shared your same concerns. Infill volume considerations, etc. were also discussed.

Although Fusion Sim can't handle anisotropic material simulation (and definitely cannot predict the structural behavior resulting from the 3D print layering manufacturing process) it may be able to simulate a very, very specific load case.

I could be totally wrong my proposed theory, and it didn't give me confidence when our SME didn't seem convinced this could work reliably.

Assumptions:

There is no infill material
The shape of the geometry is a simple prismatic shape
The print layering direction is along the prismatic axis
The structure is loaded only in compression along the prismatic axis

If all they are after is the small displacement result value, it might be somewhat in the ballpark to real-life. Anything more complicated won't have a significant chance of providing anything close to being accurate.

The level of simulation technology required would be similar to 3D composites simulation. IIRC, instead of some material properties being a constant value it required a 'multi-dimensional' tensor matrix format, accounting for the differing layer direction vs loading direction behaviors, etc.

Best regards,

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

wersy — Wed, 21 May 2025 07:38:37 GMT

In short, printed parts are not suitable for loading. Most likely only to compressive load in the Z direction.
It does not matter whether they are prismatic or not.
If at all, then only for private use at your own risk.
The simplest thing is to print it yourself and do a load test.
This will also give you an insight into printing.

Regards

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

wersy — Fri, 23 May 2025 08:29:27 GMT

Just for information, how PLA reacts even at low temperatures.
When they were building printers with printed parts, a friend had one of these printers in the trunk of his car.
The car stood in the sun for a while. When he wanted to get the printer out, he saw that the structure had collapsed.
This means that the PLA had already formed by its own weight oft he printer.

It was this type of printer

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

anuj_abhiwan — Fri, 23 May 2025 11:35:35 GMT

To add Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360’s Material Library: Open Fusion 360 and go to the Materials panel. Click Create New Material or Add Material. Enter the material name, e.g., "Engineering PLA." Input the key properties like: Density Tensile Strength Elastic Modulus Poisson’s Ratio Thermal properties (if needed) Save the new material. Apply it to your design as needed. If you need exact PLA engineering data, you can find specs from material datasheets or manufacturers to input accurate values.

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

henderh — Fri, 23 May 2025 19:13:35 GMT

Hi @anuj_abhiwan,

It has been concluded that even if the correct material properties are entered, the Fusion simulation results of a 3D printed part won't be accurate due to the many variables inherent in the additive manufacturing process.

I suppose the results could be very accurate if you're simulating just the Engineering PLA filament strand itself in a tensile test (I presume I'll be corrected soon if I'm mistaken).

Best regards,

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

avi_pars — Mon, 26 May 2025 16:40:46 GMT

It would be amazing if we could have PLA for plastic rules (or at least have the option of a custom material being added here...

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

wersy — Tue, 27 May 2025 06:02:29 GMT

@henderh schrieb:
Hi @anuj_abhiwan,

It has been concluded that even if the correct material properties are entered, the Fusion simulation results of a 3D printed part won't be accurate due to the many variables inherent in the additive manufacturing process.

I suppose the results could be very accurate if you're simulating just the Engineering PLA filament strand itself in a tensile test (I presume I'll be corrected soon if I'm mistaken).

Best regards,

What would have been achieved by testing a PLA strand?
Nevertheless, the inhomogeneity of a printed part remains.

Re: Adding Engineering PLA material to Fusion 360 Material Library

9718660 — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 18:17:40 GMT

Glad I could help