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

[Anonymous]

xpost from General questions

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!

side note:  I have watched some of the videos below, but am still perplexed with simple things like placing an object centered on top of another object

[sachlene.singh]

There are quite a few places that you can get access to some learning resources. I would recommend that you start with the Step by Step tutorials built right within Fusion. You can access them by click on the Help menu and going to Step by Step tutorials

The next level of tutorials which go quite a bit indepth can be access on the learning page of the website (fusion360.autodesk.com) here: http://fusion360.autodesk.com/resources

Additionally, this is how I would model two rectangles that are centered with respect to one another. There are several ways to do this and you could always use the parametric capabilities in Fusion, but this is the simplest way I could think of. I hope this helps.

http://autode.sk/1LzFFZ6

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info and screencast!

How would I stack and center objects if I had already created them as 3D objects? In other words, what method would I use to perform that function after-the-fact?

[CGPM]

This is by far the best learning material I found for Fusion.  It flows very nicely and is oriented to mechanical design vs free form.  When you get done with the 8 hours of courses you will know enough to start really learning Fusion.  It is free for the first month or two.  https://myigetit.com/Library/Topics/69?name=Autodesk_Fusion_360

[kellings]

You could turn the bodies into components by right clicking on the body and choose "create component from body". Do this for both bodies and then right click on one of the rectangles and ground it. 

Start the joint command found on the assemble panel and select the center of the face of the non grounded component. And then select the center of the face of the grounded component. The non grounded component will then move into position.