@Anonymous wrote:
Dang! You make it look so easy! I hope to be that skilled some day. How long did it take for you to to get to this point?
Oh gosh... I've probably got about 200 hours worth screwing around in Fusion spread over almost three years. But to reach the level I demonstrated in that video should only take a beginner ten or fifteen hours I would think, with the first several spent just exploring Fusion's interface to learn what all tools are available, looking up beginner training videos, starting to practice simple beginner challenges, learning how to sketch properly to achieve the desired result, etc.
Your center cap is a useful example. I looked at the basic shapes, and decided, before I even began modeling, that I could do the whole thing with the Solid>Create>Revolve tool (with the understanding that the support webs would be tapered towards the center...if that isn't acceptable then I would have to add in another sketch and a Solid>Create>Extrude operation also). Then I decided that since it could all be Revolved, I could define all the shapes, and their relationships, in a single sketch...then when I got to Revolving stuff I could just set the angles appropriately in order to define the positions. I figured out that since I would end up with a pattern of 5, I would use a 72-degree total, dividing that into 30-degree tab, 6-degree space, 30-degree guide, and another 6-degree space...totaling that 72-degree range. I figured that would pattern five times around and result in evenly spaced gaps for everything. All this thinking/planning took about a minute, because it's a pretty easy little project, and all happened before I even opened Fusion up.
In my video I didn't show the actual sketching. That took me the longest, because I had to keep pausing and thinking about your picture and how each bit was related to each other bit. You can see that I fudged somewhat from your actual shape, just because I didn't pay that close attention that I would have if it were actually my own project. And obviously I didn't put much thought into how things might need to fled, which is why when I go back and try to flex some dimensions Fusion gives me errors. More forethought in that area would have prevented those errors and given proper flex results. Anyways...a few of those beginner hours should definitely be spend learning good sketching habits. Things like fully constraining, building in the flexing capability that's important, using symmetry around the Origin (you may have noticed I only sketched half of the section view...), etc.
The rest is just the mental ability to look at a complex shape and let your mind understand it in the context of modeling. This just comes with a little experience I think. I had many AHA moments on this forum when I would read another user's problem and watch a more experienced guy come in and show the easy way, and then I too would start seeing the easy way when I looked at my own project puzzles.
