PDF User Manual for Fusion 360 [Ultimate]

[Anonymous]

Is there, or could I suggest, a PDF User Manual for Fusion360. The easiest way to learn is to have a printed document by ones side, so that you can read and type at the same time. The video instructions provided are first class but it can be very distracting if you are flitting between the two continuously and makes for slow progress.

Thank You.

LJ

[Filipe_Cuango]

@TimeraAutodesk I would like to access a playlist of youtube videos. The link provided is no longer available. The same goes for the link to download material in zip file

[brian.cho]

Hi Timera

It says the link to the zip file containing files is restricted in access.    How can I get access to those files?

[Anonymous]

hello could you please send me this ?

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Remember that fusion has evolved rapidly and older documents irritate more than they help.
Rather use this way

and the forum for specific questions.

günther

[Anonymous]

Yes, these pdf's look useful.  There's a huge gap between starting on a new CAD system and achieving any degree of proficiency on it.  The video tutorials are useful and supply bits of knowledge and skills.  Autodesk is missing two essential pieces of documentation that you owe your customers, however.  These two pieces are 1. A COMPLETE TECHNICAL REFERENCE documenting all (OK, most) of the intended user command sequences to achieve anything in Fusion 360.  2. A written FUSION 360 TUTORIAL that walks the new user through common actions.

I know that it's actual work to write and maintain these documents but they are really a fundamental obligation to your users and a sorely needed output.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Have you tried to follow the path I suggested in #144?

günther

[Inspections_JCH]

Gunther, you may be satisfied with major global corporations that are
off-loading their support to their user community. I expect a higher
standard including a PDF that is searchable, updated, and maintained by the
software authors. And to answer your question, yes I tried that path. Have
you? I find that path a sink hole of time spent on videos that are linear
and have no index. Tell us about your success with that path? You may be in
love with it because you have never experience written documentation.

[brian.cho]

Hi

I tried accessing the zip file and myhub to get the material but I get a message saying my access is unauthorized.

[TheCADWhisperer]

---

@Inspections_JCH wrote:
 I expect a higher standard...

---

I have two very simple questions.

Q1. How much are you paying for Fusion 360?

Q2. Are you willing to >>pay additional for documentation<<?

[TheCADWhisperer]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I know that it's actual work to write and maintain these documents but they are really a fundamental obligation to your users and a sorely needed output.

---

Authors create documentation for Fusion 360.  >>See it here.<<

[g-andresen]

Hi,

If you can't think of anything better than to respond with insults, then you'd better refrain from commenting.

günther

[Anonymous]

Guenther,

What we are asking is for is adequate documentation of the software tool called Fusion 360.  This tool is vital to engineers doing design work.  An engineer's concentration is on the design of systems that our customers expect to be professional and to work as advertised.  We can't spend the majority of our time searching for the mystery sequence of commands that will finally allow the next step of our modeling to be accomplished.  

Engineering is a discipline that requires adequate documentation of its tools.  We understand that Fusion 360 is a work in progress that benefits from upgrades.  What is sorely needed is some discipline in rolling out changes and documenting what these changes are for the users.  Many of us paid money for this tool and also understand that there are software professionals laboring to produce working code.  I would pay some additional money to autodesk to support an increased number of tech writers providing disciplined and organized documentation updates.  The various tutorial books and videos are helpful but are, in the end, a scattershot approach to learning Fusion 360.  A good user Guide would list the full scope of commands and functions and provide the global view of the CAD program.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Then you will see whether you have made this concern more heard through your choice of words towards me.

günther

[Inspections_JCH]

Your reply above is very well written; Much better than I could write. I am intrigued by the idea that authors of paper books could ever assemble their manuscripts by simply decoding videos and user community forum discussions or reverse engineering the software, and then market their paper products in a static form. My bookshelf is full of softcover paper user manuals for a variety of software including an Autodesk product from years past. Their table of contents and indexed are the key to their success. But how do we know that independent authors actually got it right? Or complete?

The value of on-line documentation will be determined by how well it is indexed, cross-referenced, and updated.

[len_whitehead]

I'd like to point out that the Fusion Product Documentation is an online resource available from the Fusion 360 Product Center, and is updated with every release of the product.

You can find it using this link: https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-1C665B4D-7BF7-4FDF-98B0-AA7EE12B5AC2

This content contains a large number of tutorials (here is an example), workflow and concept descriptions, and reference information. The content is primarily text-based, and is a resource for learning about Fusion 360 functionality.

Because of the rapid release cadence of Fusion, it is not realistic to print this content. This site is, however, searchable, and is updated continuously by the Fusion Documentation team.  The site contains details covering the full range of commands and functions and also provides the high level view of Fusion 360.

[Inspections_JCH]

Thanks for these two questions. I have searched the Autodesk site for Fusion 360 and I do not see any mention that there are two or more different levels of documentation for different subscription price levels. What is the additional cost to get the documentation we are all discussing here?

And on your second question, I followed the link that you offered and I did not see any documentation that is authored by Autodesk. I really believe that we are discusing what Autodesk offers, not what third party authors are publishing.

[daniel_lyall]

@g-andresen Don't reply man people can be left to dig their own hole.

@Inspections_JCHhttps://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/pricing

[Inspections_JCH]

@len_whiteheadI appreciate your direct link to the Fusion 360 documentation. You wrote that the documentation is primarily text based. So I though I would try my hand at searching this documentation to gain an understanding of what a "Rigid Group" is. A search led me to a video tutorial entitles "06 Rigid Group". And the associated PDF document is entitled "06 Assemblies". Further search within this text based document does not return any description or definition of what a "Rigid Group" is. Most users today are happy to search the Autodesk Fusion 360 documentation themselves before they ask for help. I too will continue to search for knowledge.

Must I return to take a remedial internet online search training class?

I am quite sure that given enough time and effort I would very like return with numerous examples of things that are either not found by text based searches of the Fusion 360 documentation or they exist in no other form than video tutorials.

[daniel_lyall]

https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-8C0983EF-B3B3-4518-937A-C4F7E57E442E

Rigid Groups

Instead of creating multiple Rigid Joints, you can create a Rigid Group to constrain multiple bodies to each other, with no movement relative to each other. The Rigid Group function locks the relative position of the selected components. When you move or apply joints to the components, they are treated as a single object.

If you can not find the answer just ask.

[davebYYPCU]

Did you miss this part?  Little digging from Lens link.

Rigid Group is part of Assembly