NOTICE: Print Settings, Infill, and Support Panels no longer showing in toolbar

[thomas.stock]

In order to improve the user experience, we have simplified the print setting selection/edit workflow to remove duplicated steps and streamline the process.

This has allowed us to tidy up the toolbar, and hence remove some icons:

Now, print setting selection will only happen from the setup dialog. Note, this is also the case with the machine and editing.

Once selected, temporary edits can be made to this print setting by clicking “edit” on the item in the setup itself:

Don’t worry, no print setting parameters have been removed, and they can still all be found within the ‘Print Settings Editor’ dialog.

If you want to make saved changes to a print setting (or create a new one) this can be done through the print setting library only.

[Neal.polson]

New to 3d printing so this may be simple and I am just missing something. In the simplified panel I can't find any of the options for support volume and type. Cant view supports unless in simulation taking time to make adjustments and having to cancel out of menu definitely not as fluid as in your tutorial: Fusion 360 Additive support Structures. 

The steps to make changes now seem way less intuitive than your previous tutorials.  

[thomas.stock]

Hi @Neal.polson ,

Ah yes so I believe this is the YouTube video you are referring to: Tutorial: Fusion 360 Support Structures

This tutorial focusses more on the support options for Selective Laser Melting (SLM) manufacture. Currently in Fusion, the different additive technologies each have different support options available. Currently the support option for FFF is what you are seeing, and what is shown here in this YouTube video: 3D Printing with Fusion 360 FFF
(Please see at 8:00 mins)

Note, the FFF workspace in Fusion 360 has improved & updated a bit since that video, and now the FFF support option looks more like this:
 

As you've noticed correctly, the support is only generated and shown during the simulation of the toolpath. This is consistent across many of the most popular FFF/FDM slicers like Cura and PrusaSlicer etc.

However, we are looking to update the current FFF support options to similar to what you saw for SLM in the first video, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
 

[myerpaul]

Hi Thomas,

  Thanks for posting. It is helpful when the interface changes.

   However I am also confused by the new interface, with regards to supports.

   In the Print settings library, it identifies if supports are enabled. I can not find anywhere in the print settings to change this.  In your screenshots, there is a basic settings tab which has this, which does not seem to exist for me. The interface is quite different. Does this no longer apply?  

 There are other settings in the Print Settings library for supports, and I wonder if they are being applied. For instance, the overhang angle is in my XML export of the print settings , but I cannot set this through the print settings interface, and it comes up wrong when I go into the generate support interface. It seems to me all of the support settings should be configurable in the print settings library, including whether I want supports or not.

The next part of the workflow that confuses me is that I have to remember to manually generate supports. If I don't, my part may fail to print correctly. OK, some slicers work like this too, but most warn you if you need supports.  If it turns out my part does not need support, I get an error. 

If I do not generate supports, I get a warning about empty layers

I think this might be a bug discussed in another thread.

 Thanks for your help,

Paul

[thomas.stock]

Hi @myerpaul ,

Apologies for such a delayed response, I missed your reply!

Perhaps you have been able to answer you query since then, but if not, here you go:

Since the March 2022 update to Fusion 360, many things have changed, and I reccomend you see my post on the forums here explaining it all!

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-manufacture/fusion-360-fff-new-support-structures-print-se...

To summarise, (among other UI improvements etc) we have vastly improved Fusion 360's support solution - please see my video here detailing the new support workflow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XfIFmd6Fl4&t=2s&ab_channel=AutodeskFusion360

Note, with this workflow you will still see the following warning message - this is generated just to remind users that they have sliced with generating any supports. This is just a helpful reminder, and the print file can still be generated with no problems.

With regards to that "Error: Support is empty" error, I believe that is now fixed, and you shouldn't see it anymore!