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Drawing utilities

Drawing utilities

It would be fantastic having a suitable drawing envirament. It´s a mess having a 3D model in Fusion but have to go to Solidworks to get a proper plan because you CAN´T MAKE A SKETCH ON A DRAWING IN FUSION 360!!! 

I´m a loyal user of Fusion and I know very well its capabilities, but I also know its limitations and this is one of them. I hope you can make something better than Solidworks and become the greatest program.

18 Comments
falteceurope
Participant

I use inventor or AutoCAD if I need to sketch on drawings when model geometry is not available. This is a pain in the proverbial butt.

I believe the drawing environment in Fusion 360 is not getting enough development.

The title block editing environment could be expanded as the functionality looks to be nearly there. 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Yeah, I know what you are saying. It's a pain in the ass. I prefer SolidWorks instead, because the default thickness of lines is correct, so you don't have to extend your suffering. 

I agree with you that the possible solution is extend the sketch mode and palette to the drawing environment. That's what SolidWorks do. 

 

Anyway, we need a quick solution, because it's a joke. You can create a entirely functional product in Fusion, but you can't make proper drawings of it. I mean, you can't do the last step (if we consider that the last step is this. I think the future is a Fusion 360 software with the same functionalities as Revit, but applied for products).

mmilleratticus
Advocate

It would be nice to have in the Drawing environment:

  1. Pint preview option as well
  2. Print window to print a section of the drawing LARGE for the older crowd with old eyes

 

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

@Anonymous I couldn't agree with you more. I love what the Fusion 360 Team is doing in the 3D Modeling workspace, as well as the other workspaces within Fusion. However, the drawing environment is lacking to say the least. I originally started a project with Fusion 360. However, I had to scrap the design, and start designing in Autodesk Inventor, when I realized Fusion 360 did not have weldment callouts. As an entrepreneur, I need this functionality to produce adequate engineering drawings. To me, it just feels like Fusion 360 is an incomplete tool, because the drawing environment is lacking. Sadly, competitors like Onshape, have made significant improvements in their drawing environment, so much so, that it is preferable over Fusions. Please Fusion 360 Team, let's get it together and put more emphasis in the drawing environment. 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Just disregard me, this should go into a sketch related post not a drawing one.

 

I am trying to design a fan blade and this is what I find myself doing, requiring 3 sketches for what should be 1 that should be copy pasted to the 'top' location, then all the vertical lines? Manually looking at the degrees box, i dont know how to copy a line in sketch and then rotate and place it 10 degrees away from the other? How would you design a complex fan blade?

 

How do you 'throw down' points in 3d like your taking a leak at the toilet? This one point now right click now click move now grab a UI axis instead of using the absolute position(Which seems to be 'missin').

Fusion 360 Fan blade work.png

 

lemelman
Collaborator

I've produced lots of drawings in another CAD system, and feel as if I've got my hands tied behind my back when I document a 3D model by creating 2D drawings in Fusion.

We need a way to distinguish dimension data from drawing data, such as different line weights and colours for descriptive data such as dimensions etc.

Detail parts work pretty well, but the way the enlarged detail is identified is not always very obvious. Surrounding it with a circle with a connecting line would help.

View breaks of parts too long to fit on the page is essential.

It should be possible to create lines and circles etc on a drawing.

I love Fusion's 3D environment, but am disappointed with it's 2D drawings.

mmilleratticus
Advocate
I agree the 2D utilities tie the user's hands behind back at best and can be described as an afterthought to the entire package at worst. From what I see virtually all the developers are young and are defining what is "useful" and what is "not". It is frustrating to hear that what we have done routinely with other platforms for years is not a priority in Fusion. And some left handed method of defining joints or some other modeling method is really "better" than some other platform. Fusion is good, not great it is headed in the right direction. It combines the right combination of tools. As it grows and evolves there needs to be someone who will draw the short straw and purge the derelict help videos and files that clutter the results when searching for help. It's shaping up that Fusion is a good resource but unless they get to work in the punchlist of nuisance issues that seasoned users from other platforms complain about all the time, it will not be the only software in the toolkit that it is advertised to be.
Anonymous
Not applicable

When will the F360 development team finally put some time into the 2d environment.  It is so far behind other applications that it renders F360 useless as a commercial modelling and drafting tool for me.  There is no point spending time drawing up a model, developing it, rendering it if I can't then communicate the design to clients, fabricators and fitters.  I have waited for over a year for some progress on this but am thinking I'll just cut my losses and look for an alternative piece of software - I don't want to do this, because I can see that 'when' the 2d environment is overhauled, F360 will be a very powerful and well priced piece of software.  For now, for me, its just not worth spending the time modelling anything up as I can't then communicate the design effectively.

 

Below is a list of topics I pulled from the first 2 pages of the 'drawings' ideas board (https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/idb-p/125/label-name/drawings), so it's by no means an exhaustive list.

 

Every single one is asking for improvements to be made to the drafting environment to improve functionality - as far as Im aware, all of these are issues that are still not resolved (some of them date back to 2016 and are duplicated in subsequent posts)!

 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/2d-drawing-improvements/idi-p/8632714

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/2d-drawing-space-needs-to-be-stronger/idi-p/85...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/insert-vector-graphics-into-2d-drawing/idi-p/8...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/drawing-geometry-in-drawings/idi-p/8672779

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/basic-functionality-of-drawings-environment/id...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/drawing-tools-should-catch-up-with-every-cad-p...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/improving-the-drawing-workspace-fusion-360/idi...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/drawing-utilities/idi-p/8366543

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/features-needed-in-2d-drawings/idi-p/8103137

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/please-upgrade-the-title-block-for-the-technic...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/sketch-option-in-drawings/idi-p/8050608

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/add-some-missing-drawing-features-like-in-inve...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/extend-titleblock-attribute-types-for-auto-pop...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/more-text-height-options-for-annotations/idi-p...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/control-of-line-weights-in-drawing-mode/idi-p/...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/support-for-showing-sketches-in-the-drawing-en...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/sketching-use-different-colors-for-different-l...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/basic-drawing-tools-in-drawing/idi-p/7997884

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/creating-drawings-different-layers-or-colors-f...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/dimensions-angled-to-horizontal-vertical/idi-p...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/drawing-environment-improvements/idi-p/7916292

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/allow-free-hand-sketching-in-drawing-layouts/i...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/weld-symbols-in-fusion-360-drawings/idi-p/5722...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/changing-line-weight-and-font-size/idi-p/58831...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/2d-drawings-need-more-options-for-dimensions/i...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/in-sketch-mode-make-lines-in-current-sketch-th...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/request-to-bring-sketch-option-into-fusion-360...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/2d-drawings-need-improvement/idi-p/6017568

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/sketching-on-2d-drawing/idi-p/8417362

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/dimension-colour-change-in-a-2d-drawing/idi-p/...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/drawing-manually-add-different-colors-thicknes...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/sketch-into-2d-drawing/idi-p/7423099

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/better-drawing-function/idi-p/6341578

mmilleratticus
Advocate

I'd like to add another to this by saying that MANY users who live and die by their software platform will run from Fusion 360 because saving $5k/yr is not worth the risk of coming up against unsolvable problems.  Fusion takes users polling information to fix/add features.  BUT!  If many POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS see the glaring voids in the software and chose another platform, is Fusion letting the "tail wag the dog" and redirecting them to continue to be a mediocre design platform?  

 

To me Fusion has become a secondary software and not my primary platform.  Hobbyist...heck yeah.  Secondary for professional, maybe.  Primary when a FULL featured design platform is needed?  Not for a long time if ever from the looks of what Sam shows us above.

Anonymous
Not applicable

@mmilleratticus  - you have nailed it!  Im dropping my investigations into Fusion and will cancel my subscription once it runs out this year.  I'm now pursuing other more expensive, but more capable software that will actually allow me to communicate my designs effectively on paper.  I just can't wait around for Fusion to sort out something that is actually so key to the design process - THE DRAWING!  

 

Every company has their own drafting styles and ways of setting things out but Fusion completely overlooks this and locks you into having to work within a ridiculously tight framework - 1 colour, 3 font sizes etc; styling so limited that drawings produced by my company will look exactly the same as those produced by our competitors (should they be using F360)!

 

Fusion is miles ahead of my current setup in many ways but sadly lacking in some fundamentals and, for that reason, I just can't adopt it.  Gutted as  I really like Fusion as a product but I don't get the sense that drafting is even really on the development teams radar.  Items in the list above have been unresolved (or resolved but unsatisfactorily) for 2+ years...

mmilleratticus
Advocate
I'm keeping mine but I am using it less and less for anything other than machining. At the price point it's still a bargain.
So, this conversation begs the questions for Fusion: Are you going to fix this or watch as users like SAM slowly return to proven platforms? AND what happens as the other platforms respond in kind to the idea Fusion has presented? Fusion 360 if the first to provide the perfect concept BUT certainly not the last.
squee45
Contributor

I have tried to embrace Fusion360, coming from solid works, but this drawing package is not even hot garbage, its the equivalent of using MS Paint as photo editing software, yeah you can make it work, but its going to take longer, require you to do stupid workarounds, and make it painful if you have to make further changes. I am actively pushing to move the company away from fusion despite its usefulness, power in the 3d modeling environment, and low cost. Frankly the lack of a competent drawing package is likely costing my company more in the long run than the obscene cost of a solid works seat per year.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Yup - I just don't get it. I can't adopt this software for professional work in its current state.
mmilleratticus
Advocate

OKAY...

 

I've being using Fusion for a while now.  I've gotten used to many of the things I have complained about and found work-arounds for many others.  It's now my go to tool for pretty much everything including drawings (cough). 

 

Many of my major complaints from last winter I can't even remember any more.  This is true to the point where my Solidworks, Mastercam and Gibbs skills are diminishing tot eh point where I probably will abandon them completely. 

 

I've just completed three weeks of learning the Generative Design during the free month of December.  Followed up with CAM work to make one of the resulting designs. 

 

Sure there are things it does poorly.  But before I belly ache about what is doesn't do well, I consider the business decisions that go into the progression of this software.  What is going to make them competitive and profitable?  I don't care anymore what it doesn't do well.  That simple decision to let them do their job so I can do mine has liberated me to think other than "this is the way it should be".  Now I think about making really awesome designs instead of find flaws in a comprehensive product that is a bargain at any price.

 

I challenge anyone to find a package at any price that can do everything that this software does effortlessly.  Wait, let me save you the trouble of looking....it does not exist.  Fusion 360 is the only CAD/CAM software on my desktop now.

 

My sympathies to those who chose a CAD/CAM product that costs 10x more and does 1/10 as much!  The math simply does not add up.  Yeah, yeah I know.  It doesn't "do" wire yet and some of the other machines (re above: business decisions on what to include and what to wait to include until later). 

 

 

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

I'm glad you were able to make it work mmiller8MGZQ but for others the software just doesn't meet basic needs. The drawing package is so bad I've switched to onshape to do most of my design work because I can make drawings that actually allow me to build the parts. Fusions ordinate dimensions don't work properly, the inability to distinguish line sizes and types makes reading a complex drawing a mess, it's a very slow environment, it isn't smooth, and it is frustrating to use. 

 

I really want to like Fusion 360 and I like a lot of what it can do, but find what it can't do backbreaking. I keep a copy on my desktop and use it to make some weird complex parts that Onshape can't do but then have to import the part into another package to make a drawing of it. Not everyone uses a CNC all the time and the tolerances have to be communicated to the fabricator even if they are using a CNC and the drawing is the best way to do that. 

mmilleratticus
Advocate

I've never heard of Onshape until now.  It's really interesting to me how each user's experience defines the software's capability to that person.  In the end if you can describe what you are doing or what you want, it works for you.  I'd be interested to see an objective review of the major software packages.  It's a "If I knew then, what I know now what path would I have taken kind of thing."  

 

Fusion 360 has a priority on the "whole picture" from what I can see.  Prints are what we use to describe what we need when we send something to a fab shop, machine shop etc.  I makes perfect sense the 2D print making capability is just plain ole' bad.  Why make a print when you can machine without leaving the software? 

 

Keep your feet moving and never stop learning.   

Anonymous
Not applicable

That is probably why Fusion does well in job shops where someone else has done the design and provided the models and the prints. 

 

I come from an automation background and prints were always far more important than the 3D models were and until the industry truly adopts model based definitions I think they will continue to be that way. Prints are a better way to communicate the individual tolerances of parts, for example alignment features on a pin insertion machine may need to have half a thousandths tolerance on the span and a 1 thou tolerance on diameter and the hole diameter on mating parts will be slightly different (one press fit while the other is a slip fit). Those tolerances would mean you need to ream the holes with the proper reamer and what to test for, the model by itself won't tell you that. 

 

Another example would be which features and dimensions are more important, if a pocket is just for weight savings than the wall thickness may be more important than the pocket size, but if something must slide through the pocket instead than the actual pocket size might be more important. You can have the same model but with two different functions the critical dimensions would be different and right now the print is the only good way to communicate that. 

 

I want to like Fusion and I occasionally try it again but the poor drawing package and other assorted performance issues/bugs keeps me from adopting it full time. 

Status changed to: Implemented

Hey @Anonymous - wanted to let you know that as of this week's Fusion 360 update we've added basic sketch tools into the Drawings workspace, along with copy/paste abilities for sketches and text. Check out the What's New here and feel free to send over any questions or feedback to Fusion.Drawings@autodesk.com.

 

Per some of the comments below, we recognize we have a ways to go with the Drawings workspace in Fusion 360, and are heads down focused on closing many of these gaps this year. If you're interested in learning more about what's coming, check out the recent Drawings blog post or shoot the team an email at the above address. We appreciate your detailed feedback as we buckle down to deliver the features you all need to be successful.

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