Set-up modifications for teachers

[edcharlwood]

Does anyone have any useful set-up modifications they use to help students navigate F360?

So far I have : 

• Turn off the layout grid (so its easy to see at a glance when they are sketching as it turns back on)
• Turned on the Component Colour Swatch to visually connect parts of the timeline with components 
• Changed the default modelling orientation to "z-up" for 3D printing 
• Changed the "Pan, Zoom, Orbit shortcuts" to match Tinkercad 
• Turned on "auto project edges on reference"

: )

[kellings]

Hi @edcharlwood Do your students come from Tinkercad before they use Fusion? If they don't, you might consider not changing the default pan and orbit command as most tutorials on the internet are going to use Fusion defaults. If they come from Tinkercad then I can see that being a good choice. 

This is subjective, but here is how I generally advise users to set up their Fusion preferences. 

General

• Default orbit type --> Free orbit

Design

• Scale entire sketch at first dimension

Manufacture

• Enable cloud libraries
• Show operation time machining time

Unit Value and Display

• General Precision --> .12345
• Angular Precision --> .12
• Use scientific notation for big and small values --> disable 

Fusion settings outside of Preferences

Grid and Snap Settings

• Uncheck snap to grid
• Grid settings --> Fixed Grid (Spacing 5", minor subdivisions 5)

Sketch

Uncheck 3D sketch

Kevin

[edcharlwood]

Thank Kevin, that was fast!

I can see your point entirely about Tinkercad - short term pain for long term gain maybe…?

The other tips looks helpful - can you possibly; very briefly, explain your reasons for them?

Cheers,

Ed

[kellings · Accepted solution]

@edcharlwood Sure. No problem. Again, this is subjective, but I'll see if I can list my reasons. See my replies below in blue

General

• Default orbit type --> Free orbit

Constrained orbit only allows for orbit along 1 dominate axis. Generally when I work with new users, they find free orbit to be much easier once they get a very short presentation on how the orbit command works. 

Design

• Scale entire sketch at first dimension

I often encourage users to try to sketch close to the final size they want the object to be. Generally they sketch things far too small or too large. When this setting is off and they start to add dimensions, the sketch entities vastly change position and often change the shape or look of the sketch. When this setting is turned on, the entire sketch scales up or down based on that first dimension so there is a better chance when they add their dimensions, the sketch entities don't move to such an extreme. 

Manufacture

• Enable cloud libraries
• Show operation time machining time

I like to have tool libraries enabled for any computer a student logs into. Turning on operation time lets a user see how long a machining operation will take rather than having to run a full stock simulation. 

Unit Value and Display

• General Precision --> .12345
• Angular Precision --> .12
• Use scientific notation for big and small values --> disable 

***This one is for imperial users. Most fractional dimensions go down to the 32nd. So 1/32 is .03125 This setting allows the user to see all the decimal places to the 1/32 place. 

2 place degree precision is pretty precise. Anything more would be hard to even measure with measuring equipment. 

Students might handle scientific notation better than most. However, I often find that the majority of users I work with don't remember how to use scientific notation. Scientific notation display probably doesn't come up very often. For me, it's often for very small diameter tools in machining when it appears. 

Grid and Snap Settings

• Uncheck snap to grid
• Grid settings --> Fixed Grid (Spacing 5", minor subdivisions 5)

Snap to grid feels extremely comfortable to use for new users. However, I find very quickly this setting becomes a hinderance. Most of the time, sketches aren't going to be to the nearest snap setting, but this setting makes the entities snap to the grid. 

I use a fixed sized grid for the reasons I mention earlier where I encourage users to draw their sketch close to the size they want when they add the finished dimensions. Again for imperial, a 5" major grid with 5 subdivisions make it easier for the user to visualize the scale as they sketch. 

Sketch

Uncheck 3D sketch

I consider this to be a more advanced feature that new users won't need when starting. I'm a very experienced user with around 20 years of Inventor experience and I've been using Fusion since before it was officially a product. I turn on 3D sketch when I need it rather than having it on all the time. 3D sketch also busies the sketch because you get the coordinate system that appears as you sketch. 

Hopefully that helps. Feel free to ask as many questions as you like about this. 

[edcharlwood]

This was really helpful, thank you!

[o.briggs · Accepted solution]

Not directly setting, but I often show students the search feature and get them to add common tools into the search window for easy access. Often they don’t know what to add but getting them to do it and use it means they continue that trend once they do know the tools they use frequently! This is a really interesting topic, thank you! Potentially it could make a good blog post (once we finally get our blog up and running!