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Introducing myself -- Hi, I'm Eric!

14 REPLIES 14
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Message 1 of 15
EricWilhelm
1461 Views, 14 Replies

Introducing myself -- Hi, I'm Eric!

Hi,

 

I'm a long time lurker, but first time poster here. 

 

Recently, I was invited to join Fusion 360 and I jumped at the opportunity. Currently, I'm leading Eagle, Fusion 360, Fusion Lifecycle, HSM, and Tinkercad. With Carl stepping down, I wanted to say hello.

 

I joined Autodesk with the acquisition of Instructables in 2011. You can see my Instructables here, including several that use Fusion 360. My favorite recent project is this Nautilus bookshelf -- Fusion 360 model here. While at Autodesk, I led the team that designed Autodesk's Pier 9 Creative Workshop and started Autodesk's hardware group, which designed and manufactured the Ember 3D printer -- open source Fusion 360 model of the printer here -- and Autodesk collaborative control for FDM 3D printing.

 

I met some of you at Autodesk University last year, and I look forward to getting to know more of you here on the forums and in person. 

 

Eric

 

 

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14 REPLIES 14
Message 2 of 15
bentwookie
in reply to: EricWilhelm

Nice to meet you Eric. Let me just take the opportunity to say to you and all the other Autodesk folks here, I think your involvement on the forums is pretty impressive. 

 

When I was just starting out with the product, one of you took the time to actually look at my file, figure out the issue I was having and screen cast how to get back on track. I used this as an example of how these forums should operate with my own employer. 

 

I'm sure it isn't always easy being on the front lines, but as a customer, it's greatly appreciated. 

Message 3 of 15

Hi Eric, welcome to the Fusion 360 Forum.

 

Eagle and Fusion 360. Interesting!

 

I've been fortunate enough too visit the Pier 9 facility together with some of the Fusion 360 team. What a dream environment for creative people. Rarely do I walk into a place, exchange words with a few people and feel immediately connected like I did in that facility. You deserve a 1000 Forum Kudos just for that!

Peter Doering
Message 4 of 15
JDMather
in reply to: EricWilhelm

"He has a Ph.D. from MIT in Mechanical Engineering."

 

Do you have any interest in professional design tools (for mechanisms, high speed machinery, robotics)?


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Message 5 of 15
Noah_Katz
in reply to: JDMather

Do you have any interest in professional design tools (for mechanisms, high speed machinery, robotics)?

 

I'm interested in this, too.

 

I'm new to F360, and while it seems to be great for motion analysis, I don't believe there's a way to analyze mechanisms for loads.

Message 6 of 15
dstevenslv
in reply to: EricWilhelm

It's good to see some execs post.  My question would be where are you guys going with F360 in terms of position in the market, functionality, etc?  

 

It's functional now as more or less a product design/modeling/rendering program with some sim and manufacturing capability.  I had a chance to grab Carl's ear a few years ago at Makerfaire and at the time he was indicating it wasn't going to be a replacement for Inventor. (at the time I was spending a lot of time in Techshop using Inventor)  F360 has come a long way since then but the question of exactly where it fits in the market is still unclear to me.  The marketing messaging that "design has changed, so should the tools" is all well and good but I'm not seeing any compelling real world examples of how Fusion is different is a justification for using the tool, particularly for a shop that already is using other tools.

 

The development over the last year appears to be unfocused and random.  The release cycles have been problematic often times introducing random weirdness.  I'm using F360 for open source projects so I have a lot of lattitude.  Things I can share source with others with F360 allowing them source level editing software at no cost.  My wife and I have a small batch shop but I still use SW because F360 doesn't do some of what I need.  I did keep my "day gig" which is a partnership between a couple of multibillion dollar multinationals, big users of ACAD and SW (we dominate live entertainment in Vegas).  To suggest F360 with the data lock in, forced release cycles and limited ability to work with systems not F360 would be a non starter.  In fact it could be career damaging.  I'm sure other large companies are in the same boat.

 

Where do you see F360 in a year?  In 5 years?

 

Dave

Message 7 of 15
O.Tan
in reply to: EricWilhelm

Hello @EricWilhelm!! 



Omar Tan
Malaysia
Mac Pro (Late 2013) | 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 | 12GB 1.8 GHz DDR3 ECC | Dual 2GB AMD FirePro D300
MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2016) | 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 | 16GB 2.1 GHz LPDDR3 | 4GB AMD RadeonPro 460
macOS Sierra, Windows 10

Message 8 of 15
Jacob_Squires
in reply to: EricWilhelm

Welcome Eric! Happy to have you. I agree with some others that the Fusion 360 team's involvement in the community, forums, gallery, Youtube, etc. just awesome! Thanks,  - Jacob S.

Message 9 of 15
LMD001
in reply to: EricWilhelm

 

 

@EricWilhelm

 

Hello Eric,

 

Very much welcome.

 

Had a look at the Nautilus Bookshelf, what a cool idea !

Nice to see that 3D modelling still starts with paper and pencil !

 

Best regards,

Ludo

Message 10 of 15
EricWilhelm
in reply to: JDMather


JDMather wrote:

 

Do you have any interest in professional design tools (for mechanisms, high speed machinery, robotics)?




Yes, I do. Tell me more about what you have in mind.

 

Eric

Message 11 of 15
EricWilhelm
in reply to: dstevenslv


@dstevenslv wrote:

 

 

Where do you see F360 in a year?  In 5 years?

 

 


 

Dave,

 

Currently, I have three goals for Fusion 360:

1) Deliver on our promise and make it reliable

2) Connect all the pieces together - Eagle, Lifecycle, etc...

3) Make the experiences across the pieces consistent and great

 

None of this is revolutionary from what we've already shared in the Fusion Roadmap or the Product Innovation Keynote at Autodesk University.  I agree that some of the development recently has been unfocused. There's a big opportunity for us to focus, and we'll do it.

 

Eric

Message 12 of 15
O.Tan
in reply to: EricWilhelm

@EricWilhelm, this will be painful to read but I personally agree with some of his points, especially no. 2, 5, and 6. I don't agree with no.9 as even supporting 2 OSes is hard enough, I can't imagine adding a 3rd, luckily Project Leopard is ongoing so hopefully that will work for those using Linux and Tablets.

 

http://www.matrixgarage.com/content/depth-review-autodesks-fusion-360

 

Recently I had very similar experience to point no.2 and 6: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/any-idea-when-will-the-missing-move-features...

 

And as I mentioned before in the forums, it seems too much emphasis is focused onto SIM when they're many other areas that seemed to be forgotten. Some of the features that is still in forever development hell that I can remember at the moment is:

1. Fusion Top Down Modelling is still poor, till today I can't "edit in context" (better if we can combine both DM and TL), instead I need to open and edit the file externally which means I lose any point of reference.

2. Drawings, nuff said. I mentioned before that SolidEdge is the gold standard when it comes to Drawings, so if there's a software that you guys want to have a target to beat, that'll be it.

3. Large assembly performance (I'm talking 1000+ components in an assembly)

 

Some other features that is mentioned but isn't popular in the forums but is available in other CAD softwares

1. Ability to animate chain/cable related stuffs in the model environment (Joints can't do this at the moment)

2. DM improvement, again look at SolidEdge, as it's also the gold standard at DM and implementing Hybrid Modelling (Synchronous Technology) 

3. Hole Wizard, the Hole tool in Fusion at the moment if I'm not mistaken is the same since Inventor Fusion! That's how old and untouched it is.

 

I guess part of the problem is cause Fusion is becoming this kind of general do-it-all kind of CAD and to be frank, depending on where you come from they're expectations of how the user expects the software to work. I still remember that they was some requests for Layers (like Photoshop) in Fusion cause that person comes from a designer background (who mainly use Photoshop and Illustrator). 

So the question is, what kind of 3D CAD software that Fusion wants to be? An industrial designer will probably have a different workflow and tool needs then a Mechanical Designer and to have the software to do both will be a super tough balancing act.

 

Also I come into Fusion because I have the impression that it's supposed to be a 3D CAD software that is to replace/compete with SolidWorks, SolidEdge, Inventor, Creo and etc. and not as a 3D Design Software like 3DSMax and the like, so if I'm wrong in this, let me know.



Omar Tan
Malaysia
Mac Pro (Late 2013) | 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 | 12GB 1.8 GHz DDR3 ECC | Dual 2GB AMD FirePro D300
MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2016) | 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 | 16GB 2.1 GHz LPDDR3 | 4GB AMD RadeonPro 460
macOS Sierra, Windows 10

Message 13 of 15
dstevenslv
in reply to: EricWilhelm


@EricWilhelm wrote:

 

None of this is revolutionary from what we've already shared in the Fusion Roadmap or the Product Innovation Keynote at Autodesk University.  I agree that some of the development recently has been unfocused. There's a big opportunity for us to focus, and we'll do it.

Eric


 

Thanks for the response.  My question isn't so much what is planned operationally or functionally with the product but rather how it will fit into the market for this sort of tool and more specifically where it will eventually fit into the Autodesk lineup.

Message 14 of 15
dstevenslv
in reply to: O.Tan


@O.Tan wrote:


So the question is, what kind of 3D CAD software that Fusion wants to be? An industrial designer will probably have a different workflow and tool needs then a Mechanical Designer and to have the software to do both will be a super tough balancing act.

 

Also I come into Fusion because I have the impression that it's supposed to be a 3D CAD software that is to replace/compete with SolidWorks, SolidEdge, Inventor, Creo and etc. and not as a 3D Design Software like 3DSMax and the like, so if I'm wrong in this, let me know.

 

 

Well said Omar.  Right now it appears to be a jack of all trades, though master of none.  I think that's good for some markets particularly makers, DIY, entry level, education.  I don't know how that's going to play for for profit shops that use tools like you mentioned.  As you note, designing something is one thing.  Getting solid info to build the part is another thing entirely.  

Message 15 of 15
Noah_Katz
in reply to: O.Tan

http://www.matrixgarage.com/content/depth-review-autodesks-fusion-360

 

He makes some good points about Ideastation.

 

I agree that problem areas should have priority over whiz-bang new features, unless the latter are only whiz-bang for F360 and what users have come to expect from previously used CAD s/w.

 

It's too easy to vote for every idea that sounds cool; there ought to be a weighting factor to favor what is more important to each person.

 

Perhaps a voting allowance where users get some number of votes per week or month and can spend them on as few or as many ideas as they like.

 

I'm a hobbyist but I also agree that paying users' votes should count more.

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