Documentation suggestion: visual glossary

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Often in Fusion 360 it seems like half the battle is knowing what kind of thing you need in order to get a command to operate on it.  Fusion uses lots of different terminology in tooltips and help text that is not always obvious (and sometimes even overloaded).  Also, Fusion uses lots of visual hints to convey different states that objects may be in.

I'd suggest that you add a visual glossary to the Fusion docs.

Here's some of the terms/visuals I've come across that were particularly confusing:

• Different kinds of points (iconography): plain circle, circle with dot, with x, red, green.  What does these mean?
• Different surface representations: BRep vs NURBS vs Mesh vs ...  What are these?  Maybe even a technical description of the datastructures?  Advantages/disadvantages of each?
• "Feature" vs "Base feature."  I think these are two totally different things.
• The hierarchy of objects: point, curve, chain, face, solid, etc.

Having both the textual description and a visual picture of what's being described would be really helpful!

See for instance Rhino's Objects documentation.

Thanks!

-c

[keqingsong]

Yes, we are working on this and will keep you posted when I have something to share. 

[keqingsong]

Hey there, we are continuously working on this. We have made improvements to our learning site so that you can hget high level basics and then drill down into command references if you need it. We will continue to update the content and make it more accessible and clear for users to digest. 

[Anonymous]

I would be happy with just a written glossary. I'm reading the documentation and then when I try what it says and that doesn't work or behave as described then I wonder if I really understood what was meant.

Here's an example. I've managed to upload some .STEP files of components I want to use in my design. Now I'm trying to figure out exactly how I get a component into the design project I'm working on.

First, the word document is used a lot but I'm not sure exactly what object(s) in the Fusion 360 world are classified as documents. Is a component in a folder in a project a document? Is a design a document? Is a sketch a document?

This page describes how to open a document, but my Fusion 360 does not seem to work the way this page says it should.

It says, 

• Double-click the document to open.

But when I double-click the folder it opens not in Fusion 360 but in my browser. What good is it open in my browser?

The next bullet says:

• In the Data Panel, locate the document to open, and right-click Open.

But when I right-click I get this: http://screencast.com/t/RWVWZljowN Not at all the same.

[Inspections_JCH]

Give DOCUMENTATION the status of being an equal part of the Fusion 360 product. As it is now, it feels like documentation has the status of a foster child waiting to be adopted.

Without solid documentation, Fusion 360 is half a product.

[Anonymous]

I am just beginning Cad. I would like to see a glossary of terms used in 360. Along same lines as gentleman above. A printable "dictionary" would be great.