Very New User with 2 Questions: Learning Resources and How to Position Objects

[Anonymous]

I am very new to 3d Printing and the design aspect of the process.  In other words, I have no background or familiarity with CAD design or modeling.

After a fair amount of research, Fusion 360 seems to be the most popular application for the design aspect and I have been trying to get a feel for it the last few days.  Unfortunately, I am not getting very far.  I can typically pick up new software at a basic level very quickly, but these design applications are a different beast.  Here is an example:

I modeled a very simple object this weekend comprising of 2 rectangles and a hole - a wide rectangle centered on top of a more narrow rectangle and then a hole passing through both.  The hole was easy - very straight-forward and intuitive.  But I could never figure out how to easily place on object on top of another object and center them.  

So first question:  How is this easily accomplished?  There has got to be some easy way to place an object on top of another object, centered on a specific point?

Second question:  I have accepted that I am going to to need to do some traditional "learning" to figure out the Fusion 360 application. Unfortunately, every video I have watched assumes the viewer already knows at least a little about CAD and/or Fusion.  This results in my missing and not understanding very basic actions.  Can anyone recommend a book or video series that is essentially a "Dummies Guide to Fusion 360?"

Thanks in advance!

[michaelpgeyer]

Hi Bunger,

There is a comprehensive set of learning material for new users you can find here: http://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/ENU/Fusion-GetStarted/files/GUID-CC9A8E39-356C-43EA-9EDD-0E9C1321... 

Let us know if this is useful.

Mike

[Discussion_Admin]

Welcome to the fusion community in addition to Mike's great suggestion above feel free to post any questions you have here in the community even our Expert Elites were new at using a program at one time or another.

Oh and I highly recommend using the search feature first someone else may have already had the same question our "marked as a solution threads" have a green check by the title.

Thanks
Discussion_Admin

[TheCADWhisperer]

You would probably get more complete response over here

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/sketching-sculpting-modeling-and/bd-p/123

Can you attach the file of what you have completed so far?

[Discussion_Admin]

For anyone else searching or following this topic please see a continuation of this conversation here

Thanks
Discussion_Admin

[keqingsong]

Hey bunger,

Thank you for reaching out. The Align command lets you align bodies based faces, edges, and corners. Refer to the gif as an example. Knowing this, there are many ways you can accomplish the same result in Fusion 360. The best way to get started is to go through the in-product tutorials. You can access it  by going to the (?) icon at the top right corner and click on Step-by-step tutorials. Let me know if this helps!