I am reposting this request from my original post in the "General Discussion" forum about PMI and MBD, The reason I have more than one idea in the same post is because they all tie together in having Fusion 360 compatible with a LOTAR based system such as the one I am developing. I will also split out and post the individual ideas contained in this post to allow voting on them separately in addition to this collection of ideas for use in a specialized system.
From what I have seen, Fusion 360 is a fantastic product with lots of potential as it matures. I work for a large aerospace company and we are moving toward MBD (Model Based Definition). One of our aircraft programs is already using MBD, another program is using Solid Models with Minimally Dimensioned Drawings, and most of our production and legacy programs use Engineering Drawings sometimes supported by Solid Models with the drawings being the master design data passed on to Manufacturing. Here are a few things I would like to see incorporated into Fusion 360 to enable it to potentially serve as a viewing, interrogating, editing, and creation tool for the 3D models in this type of system:
- MBD with full standard dimensioning and GD&T functionality.
- Ability to create associative engineering drawings from a standard model or assembly, and from MBD data, especially if standard associative 2D drawings can be automatically or semi-automatically generated from the MBD data (some suppliers still require standard 2D drawings), and the ability to save/export the drawings in an open neutral format (e.g. IGES and vector PDF).
- Ability to store the models and possibly drawings in local systems (file systems, PDM, or Cloud), since company and government regulations require us to store, manage, and secure ETD (Electronic Type Design) Data on-site and not on another company's system (Cloud or otherwise).
- Ability to generate additional Physical/Mass Properties of a model (e.g. to be used for Manufacturing, Quality Inspection, CAE, and model integrity validation purposes when importing to or exporting from Fusion 360). In addition to the physical properties already calculated by Fusion 360, Moments of Inertia and Center of Gravity (Center of Mass) should also be included. Also, the ability to export all physical properties to a textual format that can be imported into a database, or compared to physical properties from original model already stored in system database to validate design integrity of any derivative models.
- A less expensive read-only or restricted version of Fusion 360 for commercial use, except that it would still include the ability to import 3D models from other CAD systems such as Catia V5 (as Fusion 360 currently does) and from neutral file formats such as STEP AP 203, AP 203ed2, AP 214, and AP 242. There are already low cost and no cost CAD products from well known CAD Vendors that provide this type of limited functionality, and one no-cost CAD system version even lets you open and save models and assemblies (neutral format) that have no more than 60 components. This type of viewing, interrogating, and restricted editing of CAD parts and assemblies would be primarily for downstream non-design users of the data. An option then, in Fusion 360, to upgrade to the fully enabled version would be a good idea too, for suppliers and engineers that used Fusion 360 to access models from PDM type systems, but needed their own fully functional copy of the software for design, analysis, and manufacturing purposes.
- Ability to import and export an entire STEP (AP 203, AP 203ed2, AP 214, or AP 242) top assembly, with the top assembly and each component and sub-assembly being a separate STEP file contained in the same directory, would be invaluable to integrate with a PDM type system that stores all assembly components (parts and sub-assemblies) as separate STEP files (i.e. LOTAR based systems).
- Support for compressed STEP format (.stpz) models would greatly reduce file storage and network transport requirements.
- Ability to heal and/or stitch imported models into valid solids.
BTW, the Feature Recognition and Direct Modeling capabilities are very impressive, even on dumb BREP models in neutral formats exported from old explicit CAD systems.
