First Fusion Project - complete newbie

[Pshupe]

Good morning everyone.  I am starting this project in Fusion 360.  I have a small CNC machine that I would like to machine guitars.  I have been doing this just using AutoCAD mainly, exporting to an older version Vcarve Pro and CUT3D.  It works OK but the 3D machining is problematic and also ramps or planes on a slightly different angle from horizontal are equally problematic.  So here we go.  I have almost no experience so I will be asking a lot of questions and really appreciate any advice.

So I am still starting in AutoCAD for now and creating Splines, Plines and lines to represent 2d outlines for my project.  I make all the lines on different layers, so hopefully I can utilize this to help with modeling in Fusion.  Here is a snap shot of what I have so far in AutoCAD, which I will be importing into Fusion to either use the outline directly or sketch splines on top of.

This will probably be the first question.  Is it better to use the lines from something like this dwg file or create native in Fusion over top of this and then dumping this file?  Thanks guys.  I'm going to experiment to see how this comes into Fusion and I'm sure I will be posting other questions very soon. 😉

Regards Peter.

[Pshupe]

I just realized this is probably in the wrong spot.  Can I move or delete this thread?  It should be in the design area.  Sorry.

Regards Peter.

[LibertyMachine]

Second welcome to the Forums!

One thing I want to start off with, and this is mainly to help you receive the best answer possible in this shortest time, and also to maintain the separation of the topics;

The CAM forum (this one) is mainly geared towards the production of G-Code and related topics such as fixturing, clamping, clever use of tools, so on and so forth.

The Design Forum is where one would spend there time for asking all things related to the modeling and importing of drawings.

Now that that's out of the way!

Fusion (to my knowledge) doesn't really do much with layers. It may put them onto separate sketches, but I can't speak to that a lot, as it's been a long time since I've used AutoCad, and the same goes for my customers.

My one piece of advice, and this might be hard to hear; Forget what you know about AutoCad. There is very little that is similar.

---EDIT---

And don't worry if you post in the wrong section. The Expert Elites can notify the moderator to move threads, which I've already done

[Pshupe]

Thanks - I think I must have figured out the wrong forum while you were typing! 😉  Can a moderator move this or can I delete it from here and post again in Design?  Yeah, I wish I could forget everything I know about AutoCAD some days!    I have already noticed the lack of similarities, unfortunately.

Regards Peter.

[Pshupe]

Thanks.  I'll keep posting in this thread then and hopefully it gets moved soon.

First question - I managed to import my 2d cad into a Fusion.  Now I want to use the faces and extrude them.  So I went to create and extrude and selected the outline of the body.  It was selected fine and I managed to extrude it with an offset of 1.72" and all seemed fine.

So my next thought is great I want to extrude and subtract the cavity.  Now when I made the cavity extrusion the same height it showed up thinner than the body object?  I thought that was strange and went to the front view and checked the thickness by using the Inspect - Measure tool from the top edge to the bottom edge and this is what I get?

 

Why when I extrude and place 1.72", do I get 1.858" when I measure?  Please advise.  Thanks. 

Regards Peter.

[Pshupe]

I figured it out.  Sorry for the quick trigger finger.  The object I was picking to measure was farther forward in the negative Y direction so it was not a straight vertical dimension.  Thanks.

Regards Peter.

[Pshupe]

Next up - basic User Interface question.  So because I had that problem with the measure tool, I wanted to update that imported design.  I changed the CAD file and right clicked on the file on the left hand panel.  What is that panel called?  I imported a new version of that file and the image updated in that panel. 

Great.  But now how do I get the updated file into my project?  I can't delete the file and I can't just delete the lines in the imported file either.  Is this essentially like a linked or Xreffed file?  It does not seem like that is the way it works.  Please advise.  Thanks.

Regards Peter.

[LibertyMachine]

I'm in the middle of a setup on one of my mills, so I can't respond in a manner that does any justice. However, I will just strongly suggest YouTube videos on Modeling. Diving into this software right off the bat is going to lead to some serious frustration, especially working on a 3D model such as a guitar. There are no shortage of the videos, and Fusion360 even has IT'S OWN Channel

They have a great "for beginners" series that goes through a lot of Fusion specific concepts. As I suggested earlier on, the "Fusion way" is not quite the same as any other software out there. While there are similarities, there are more differences than not

[Pshupe]

Will do.  Thanks.

[Pshupe]

Watched a couple of videos and voila! -

Very powerful.  I'm used to Revit and it's parametric modeling tools.  Very similar in concept but radically different in process. I'm pretty impressed so far.  I'll keep plugging away. Still have loads to do but most of these will be straight cuts.

Cheers Peter.

[Pshupe]

So I think I've figured out the sketching and push and pull.  There is only one more thing I need to look into for this particular modeling exercise.  I need to slope the neck mortise.  Back to youtube! 😉   Here is my progress so far.

Cheers Peter.

[Pshupe]

Hey Guys I'm still plugging away here.  I was searching for some video tutorials on sloping objects.  Now I might be missing a Fusion term because it's not coming up with anything useful.  I've watched a bunch of videos and they have been really helpful.  This specific project's design is pretty much complete, but I need to angle the neck pocket.  Can someone suggest a tutorial, or at least the correct terminology to use when I search?  I  assume it has something to do with rotating the origin point, but my pocket is also tapered, so I'm not sure whether I could just push pull a plane from the X axis.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Regards Peter.

[LibertyMachine]

Try searching for these terms:

Draft Angle

Loft

[TheCADWhisperer]

Draft Help

[Pshupe]

Figured it out.  Thanks.  That's not a very intuitive name for what it does.  Draft?  Weird.  That's all I need though.  I'm done with Design now, so I can slip over to CAM and see if I can get this thing cut out of some wood.  Thanks again.

Cheers Peter.