@CLmoss
Fusion sketch engine uses a solver to adjust sketches like when you add a length dimension and change the value it scales the line.
A dimension can also be shared. A square can have one dimension for an edge and that dimension once changed will be used for all
other 3 edges.
In Rhino Alias or such you cannot do this. You maybe have the ability to set the length of a line because it treats a line as an object.
but the rest has all to be done by hand via common tools like move scale rotate trim extend and such.
Also the term CAD is I find to day quite used in the wrong context and often used to give justification to their cause.
CAD sounds so industrial standard but guess what even SketchUp can be considered CAD as a computer aids me in my design.
The main difference is how Fusion works vs lets say Rhino.
In Rhino you can create 3D freeform curves and from those curves create surfaces and use typical NURBS modeling tools to manually
create the 3D model you want.
In Fusion follows more the idea of 2D sketches that can be constrained and offers surface and solid modeling tools where everything if
logical can be parameterized and is stored in a design step by step (timeline).
Technically speaking Rhino follows more a workflow of philosophy designers use and Fusion rather follows an ideology engineers use.
Some people see it this way - but even that I found out dated.
The freedom of Rhino to sketch in 3D where ever I want is liberating considering that Fusion is incredible weak at it.
Because in Rhino there is no timeline or construction history I can simply model where ever and when ever I want.
There is no feature relationship I need to be aware of to prevent feature references to break.
The down side is when you want to edit a design you kinda have to manually remove parts, untrim surfaces, resurface, trim again stirtch and and and.
Fusion on the other side with the more 2D sketch modeling feature based approach only offers usable 2D sketches however unlike Rhino offers
me to create interactively reacting sketches that I can deform or influence and with the ability to also adjust parameters of modeling features I can change
the design rather via adjusting values than deleting parts and modeling it again.
However that power also means you have to be very careful about where and when do adjust the timeline.
One of the major advantages of apps like Fusion is how the surface modeling tools in general work. Direct Modeling in something like Fusion is amazing
with heal functions and such. For example in Fusion you can select a filleted edge delete the fillet and you will get back the original sharp edge you filleted.
In Rhino you will open the surface because you just removed the fillet surface.
Alias in that area is kinda a hybrid.
If offers a construction history with full 3D sketches and very powerful surfacing tools that defeat Rhino hands down. A fillet edge can be adjusted when ever needed
and the surfacing command can be even removed - giving you back the original untrimmed surfaces. There is also no strikt top down (timeline step by step) requriement
when you can adjust surfaces. But Alias comes with its own share of problems (class a surfacing is hard - Alias offers 0 solid tools).
3D software and how you can work today matured and expanded in the past 15 years in amazing ways. However there are still too many old school / traditionally thinking folks
out there that claim it aint the industry standard and thus revolt against innovation.
What makes Fusion so great is not the tools (in that regards it just offers typical tools everybody else offers to (and better)) but how the software ties all the tools and environments
together and provides from my point of view a superb collaborative tool. Collaboration via the cloud that is really an area where Fusion is pretty stella at!
Claas Kuhnen
Faculty Industrial Design – Wayne State Universit
Chair Interior Design – Wayne State University
Owner studioKuhnen – product : interface : design
