How to sign up for Preview Technology (ARCHIVED)

[promm]

Thank you for your interest in helping us develop the tools for the future of design to manufacturing.  Technology previews gather customer feedback around business goal/objectives that the new functionality intends to solve, while the development approaches release.  Each preview will start with a small group of users invited, and we’ll continue to expand based off feedback and community interest.  The information you provide will be used to ensure we’re reaching our target audience, gathering feedback from diverse backgrounds and experience levels.

Please respond to this thread with the following details and you’ll be added to the list of users we pull from with each new preview:

• Previous CAD experience.
• What do you typically model / design?
• What about the technology preview got your interest?
• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?

This part is important - there is no guarantee that the models you make now will function properly once the preview technology is fully released.  Please consider this when utilizing your time testing this functionality.

[Anonymous]

. Previous CAD experience.

I am using AutoCAD software only to design sheet metal parts since last 15
years.

. What do you typically model / design?

I am sheet metal fabrication business and engaged in manufacturing Control
Panels, Machine Enclosures, Acoustic ( Sound Proof) Enclosures, Girder
Casting Structures for flyovers and overhead bridges, Lamp Covers and other
sheet metal components.



. What about the technology preview got your interest?

Creating 2D model in AutoCad requires lot off imagination and thinking.

If Any part having multiple bends then it's become more difficult. For
production it require development (unfold size) & Notching has to be done at
corners of tray/panels.

Whereas 3D modelling with fusion 360 life will be more easy if we add
development feature.



. How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed
will improve your workflow?

1)Creating 3D model well before actual production will help customers to
visualise there finished product in advance which will increase the chances
of getting more orders.

e.g. control panel is assembly of left panel, right panel ,top panel, bottom
panel, front door and back door. With fusion 360 I can create all 6 panels
independently and can assemble it. Which will give clear idea to customer
how it will look? From front,back,top,bottom, Left and right side. And many
more



2) Also advance feature like development of sheet metal part ( unfold view)
will save our time in calculating it.

e.g. to manufacture formed C section of size 100 x 200 x 100mm out of 2mm
thick sheet of length 500 mm require 392 mm x 500 mm x 2 mm thk size sheet.

When we will create 3D model of that C section and clicking unfold view it
will show me directly plain sheet ( with holes if any ) of size 392 x 500 x
2 mm. no need t calculate it again and this will help correct sizing without
manual errors and with folding lines. Easy for production.



Awaiting your valuable reply



With best regards

Abhijeet

[Anonymous]

• Previous CAD experience.
  
  • Autocad 20+ years, Sketchup Pro 5 years, Solidworks limited use
• What do you typically model / design?
  • Electro-mechanical assemblies, Electrical Panels, Sheet metal components and enclosure
• What about the technology preview got your interest?
  • Sheet metal design and Eagle PCB (8 Years)
  • Product Rendering
• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?
  • Sheet Metal - Currently we work with 3 vendors for our sheet metal fabrication.  Currently our drawings have to be recreated in their CAD/CAM systems
  • Looking to go from idea, creating parts, to manufacturing in less steps.  This will help in time and rev control.

[Adrian.Ha]

• Previous CAD experience.

For sheet metal I use Solid Edge. Experience 7 years.  

• What do you typically model / design?

Enclosures for musical instruments, electric cabinets and industrial test equipment. Mostly made out of sheet metal.

• What about the technology preview got your interest?

Sheet metal.

• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?

If Fusion 360 will include proper sheet metal, then it has everything I need. 

[MattH_Work]

• Previous CAD experience.

15 Years with Inventor.

MDT & AutoCAD prior to that

• What do you typically model / design?

10 Years working for VAR, use Inventor for everything our customers use it for

• What about the technology preview got your interest?

Sheet metal & PCB

• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?

We have a PCB design department, the mechanical side of the business help with the design of enclosures for the boards

Matt Hutchinson

Senior Application Engineer

Quadra Solutions Ltd

www.quadrasol.co.uk

[etremoderne]

• Previous CAD experience.I'm using Fusion 360 already as Early Adopter. Previous I used ProEngineer.
• What do you typically model / design?Lighting & furniture design
• What about the technology preview got your interest?
• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?Fusion 360 has made a big evolution and is becoming more and more interesting, but the one part I really missed (and need) is the sheetmetal function. in lighting design a lot of sheetmetal is used. At this moment I can send only a 2D unfolding, I would prefer to draw it in 3D and then make an accurate unfolding.So for me (and many others I suppose), that would be a big advantage.

Please add me the beta preview.Thanks a lot!

Kind regards

Philippe

[kolakidd]

• Previous CAD experience.

I have limited experience in CAD, Fusion 360 is the first package I have worked with, and have already sent some designs into production both in 3d printing and metal fabrication. I have about 15 years experience in 3D Design, and about 20 in 2D Design.

• What do you typically model / design?

I'm a designer, hobbyist and maker, I model for personal use and for members of my local maker community.

• What about the technology preview got your interest?

I'm working on a sheet metal project right now, and would love to do the complete design in Fusion 360

• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?

It will give me more confidence in the design submitted to the fabrication supplier, it will also cut down the rather laborious communications with them. They have already expressed interest in the package I use, because of the thoroughness and clarity of the documentation you can get out of Fusion 360.

[Anonymous]

• Previous CAD experience.

I have some experience in CAD but mainly 2D,  Fusion 360 is the first full package I have worked with but have used trial versions of solid works and used sketch up. I have been using fusion 360 for a few months now and think I have got the hang of designing in 3D but without the fold/unfold it makes sheet metal work difficult 

• What do you typically model / design?

I'm a hobbyist designer and mainly design in sheet metal items such as electronics enclosures and mounting brackets

• What about the technology preview got your interest?

I usually work in sheet metal the sheet metal tools would be an advantage to my designs

• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?

At this time I use CAD (Cardboard aided Design) then flatten the design and draw it out in 2D CAD. Being able to design enclosures in 360 and outputting a file for the company I use for laser cutting would save a lot of time   

[starrs2002]

• Previous CAD experience.
  Catia V5, Autocad Mechanical, and Solidworks
• What do you typically model / design?
  Various types of tooling for the aerospace industry. Specializing in sheet metal form dies. 
• What about the technology preview got your interest?
  I'm curious to see how much time it will save when developing flat patterns for sheet metal parts.
• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?
  I believe that this feature will reduce design time and eliminate some of the labor required to make the end part.

[d.bandiera]

• Previous CAD experience.
  SolidWorks 1998-2011 2011-2017 Inventor, Catia IMA, Alias, Alias Speedform, Rhino, Maya

• What do you Typically model / design?
  in the past part for automotive design and mechanical part.
  lately parts and components of all kinds, especially for Faschion accessories like jewelry, glasses, shoes.

• What about the technology preview got your interest?
  right now I'm very interested in designe in browser capabilities

• How do you believe the feature / function That is being Previewed will improve your workflow?
  work anywhere

[JBerns]

Mike,

Has the information on how to access the Sheet Metal preview technology been shared yet?

I have seen many users signing-up, but no other info, unless I missed it.

Thanks for your time. I look forward to your reply.

Regards,

Jerry

[admaiora]

Yes, i was wondering that too.

@promm  which is the process and timeline between the request and the preview acceptation?

[promm]

@admaiora & @JBerns,

Thank you for your interest is sheet metal.  I have added you and the people on this thread to my list of users who are willing to spend some time using the new sheet metal functionality.  Each week I will be adding more people from my list to our limited preview based off of the current testers feedback.  Once you get added you will receive an email giving more details.

Cheers,

Mike Prom

[Anonymous]

I was wondering the same thing. 


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[JBerns]

Thanks, Mike.

I look forward to your email.

Regards,

Jerry

[martinhansdk]

• Previous CAD experience.

I've been using Fusion 360 for 9 month now. Before that I used FreeCAD. I have used eagle for ECAD for some years.

• What do you typically model / design?

Currently I am designing a research submarine, but I have also designed a helmet for a costume and a cake. Upcoming project will be a toy traffic light made in sheet metal.

• What about the technology preview got your interest?

I will need both the sheet metal feature and ECAD integration for the toy traffic light. The submarine will have many sheet metal parts.

• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?

Sheet metal will allow us to produce many parts for the submarine in a simple and affordable way. ECAD integration will help avoid the usual mistakes in enclosure design and PCB layout.

Thanks,

Martin

[Anonymous]

• Previous CAD experience.
  • I've been doing CAD for 15 years and have used Autodesk Inventor for most of that, but transitioned to Fusion 360 2 years ago.  I've also used SolidWorks quite a bit and had stints of NX, ProE.  I have also used various simulation softwares of all kinds.
• What do you typically model / design?
  • Usually tech prototypes, although sometimes higher quantities.
• What about the technology preview got your interest?
  • I have been in dire need for a sheet metal tool since beginning using Fusion 360 (I'm trying to use it as my exclusive CAD tool).
• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow
  • Right now, I use all kinds of crazy, silly workarounds and spend lots of time on the phone trying to clarify with fabrication shops.  I'm used to using the sheet metal tools in Inventor, so I can't wait to use the tools in Fusion 360.  It seriously can't come soon enough.  [INSERT SHAMELESS PLEADING AND GROVELING HERE]
    

[martin_fountain]

• Previous CAD experience.
• 10 years using ShipConstructor Modeling based from autocad.  I have been teaching myself Autodesk Inventor on my free time also.
• What do you typically model / design?
• i typically design sheet metal parts to be cut out on my cnc plasma table.  mostly automotive aftermarket pieces dealing with suspensions.
• What about the technology preview got your interest?
• i like being able to draw bent sheetmetal parts and have the flat design so i can don't have to figure it out long hand any more.
• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?
• it will save me time being able to have automatic flat patterns of the sheetmetal parts that i can cutout on my cnc plasma table.

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'd love to preview the Sheet Metal features please!

• Previous CAD experience.
• 13 years with Sketchup/V-Ray/Maxwell/Keyshot for off-road equipment, custom furniture & architectural design, 10 years with Solidworks on the job (mechanical design), about a year of light experience with Inventor Fusion, which paved the way for my recent subscription to Fusion 360.
• What do you typically model / design?
  • Off-road vehicle products, custom furniture design & manufacturing plans, home renovation design & plans.
• What about the technology preview got your interest?
  • I'm interested in the previews for the same reason I was enticed by A360- the ability to model/sculpt, animate, simulate, render, and create assembly drawings all in the same application. The Previews add functionality that I intend to actually use quite heavily, specifically Sheet Metal design. I expect I'll be a long-time user of F360 as it eliminates my current use of multiple applications for the various aspects of product design, and because the interface is quite natural to me compared to other CAD options- I'd like to start working with Preview material early so that I can gain as much experience with the products as possible, while providing useful information about how well it works.
• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?
  • My current process of designing sheet metal components for projects is imprecise and laborious- I basically model from scratch using basic extrusion to form geometry, often having to start over when getting into problems that render the design impractical to fabricate. I imagine that the Sheet Metal preview will offer me a lot more efficiency (understanding that not everything will be perfect- don't worry, I'm a patient tester!) with the type of time-saving features that the rest of F360 contains.

Please sign me up soon!!!

[Anonymous]

• Previous CAD experience.I've been using Fusion360 for 2 years as well as librecad to design automotive parts.
• What about the technology preview got your interestI do a fair amount of sheet metal fabrication, I built a 5'x10' cnc plasma table and would really like to put it to better use.
• How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?Right now I'm out sourcing everything that has to be bent in a press brake.  I have all of the equipment to bring this work in house, just no software to make it happen.

[janne.parssinen]

Hi, I am very interested in taking part in testing the Sheet Metal functionality

-Previous CAD experience.
As an industrial design student I have acquired some CAD experience. In the past I've used Rhinoceros and CREO, but now I feel like I've found the software best suitable for me with F360. I've been using Fusion for over a year now for all my design needs.

-What do you typically model / design?
I typically model prototypes of industrial design models I have designed. The models I do vary a lot in material, scale and also in the context of use. They can be simply sketches to move forward with design, used to visualize the solution or more detailed to study the construction of the object.

-What about the technology preview got your interest?
I've had to go through some pretty weird workflows to design with sheetmetal or other foldable materials. For example I could've used this tool extensively on a job where I had to do cardboard package design for a product. Also in the near future I may have another project designing a metal cabinet and the tool could be useful when thinking about the details.

-How do you believe the feature / function that is being previewed will improve your workflow?
I will need to use pen and paper and other 2D ways of designing less. Moving to the 3D world can be done earlier. I believe manufacturing 2d files are easily accessible too. 

____

Janne Pärssinen

www.janneparssinen.com