A Few Bugs and Ideas

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01-01-2020
02:12 PM
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Hi all, I hope someone from Autodesk has the opportunity to read this. I thought I'd do my duty as a user using a free license and compile a report of things I think ought to be brought to the attention of the Fusion 360 team.
- 1. (high priority) When in the drawing workspace, sometimes when I use the mouse wheel to zoom in, and then zoom out, it will cause the problem shown below. You can see that the center line in the part stayed, as did the center marks and dimensions- the drawing stayed zoomed in it seems. I think this happens when I zoom in, then try to zoom out - the drawing view will stay zoomed in. Even closing and re-opening the file will not fix it. I ultimately found that the best way to restore the original is to 'hide' the body in the browser tab and then 'show'. This happens quite a lot and makes it very difficult to make drawings.
- 1.b. (low priority) - Fields like WEIGHT/MASS, material, revision, and drawing number should auto-populate from part data. If it says weight the figure needs to be pounds, ounces or Newtons... grams is mass and it should not be labeled as 'weight' in the standard drawing frame.
- 1.c. (medium priority) - Diameters in drawings do not always match the dimension in the design workspace. For example, I have a hole of diameter of .2501 inches on a simple prismatic part but on the drawing the diameter is reported as .2487 inches
- 1.d. (low priority) the standard drawing frame should have the representation for 1st angle or 3rd angle projection. (Added in on my custom drawing frame below)
- 2. (medium) I have had problems in the past with threads in Fusion 360. There is no real accommodation to create non-standard threads. In the past I just made my own modified XML file, but I've had problems with updates wiping that out and replacing the thread in my design with something similar without any notification. I think a good solution to this is to have, within the thread dialogue, an option for custom threads where the user can start with a thread form (ACME, trapezoidal, BSW, 60 deg, square, custom profile, etc...), have the option to modify fits, pitch etc. Similar to what is already in use with the hole dialogue, which is well made. Fusion's thread making is simple, and I'd actually prefer the slower but more comprehensive method most SW users are used to (profile - helix - sweep). But with a little more capability, the thread utility in Fusion 360 can be far more powerful than in other CAD programs.
- 3. (medium) The Fusion 360 G-code calculator should include a backlash (and wear) compensation option. I know this has been discussed before and none of the devs seemed interested because this feature is "better implemented at the G-code interpreter level" (which is 100% true). However, in my experience most people using Fusion 360 for CAM are hobbyists/small business/light industrial users. I work for a machine tool OEM and in big-league manufacturing, everyone is either using dedicated CAM software if they are diverse producers, or if they are high-volume single-part they are usually paying a lot of money for very skilled individuals to write and tune programs completely by hand. A lot of people in the market for a $400/yr do-everything CAD/CAM program are running home shops and they have the machines they have... with the G-Code interpreters they came with. That means machines have backlash and wear, and people like that (like me...) value the option to compensate for those inadequacies. If the G-Code interpreter doesn't have backlash and wear comp, that opens that position of 'value added' to be taken by Fusion 360 in a market section they are poised to dominate. Basically for the end user, with this feature, switching to Fusion 360 can extend the useful life of old machinery.
As great as a shiny UI is, I hope to see stability and software capability based updates in the future. Overall I'm a huge fan of Fusion 360, recommend it to my friends, and I think the developers have done a great job getting it to where it is today.