Fusion 360 User Interface - 2020 for the 16 Beginners Tutorials

The Fusion 360 user interface has changed as of May 2019 and my 16 beginners tutorials are looking a little dated. This video will update the tutorials so that you can more easily follow along.
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You only need to know where at most half a dozen tools have been moved to and most of them are in plain sight, just in a different place, mostly on the tool bars at the top of your window. Here I show you where those tools are and also demonstrate how to change two key preferences that will help your modeling.
There's a link in the description below to a handy 11 page document on the new UI published by Autodesk, the owners of Fusion in May of 2019 when the changes happened. Copy and paste this link into your browser:-
docs.google.com/document/d/1L...
Here's a link to a detailed 34 minute livestream from Brad Tallis of Fusion 360 on the new UI which was streamed on 23rd April 2019. BTW I like to watch all of Brad's stuff.
Search this phrase in KZbin's search bar:-
360 LIVE: Old vs. New UI

[@hereandgoneagain704]

Glad to see you back keep making great content!

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Thanks KW, I'm encouraged.

[@nickweidlich7371]

I wanted to say thanks! I appreciate the videos being short and easy to follow.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Glad you like them!

[@youzrnaim]

Thank you for providing clear and concise content. Your videos are very helpful!

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Glad you like them! Keep in touch and keep learning.

[@mattthomas1369]

Im glad you clarified this as I had some of the issues but I was able to figure it out, thanks.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Matt I need to revise the tutorials asap.

[@mattthomas1369]

@@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360 Its all good I figured it out the constraints are on the top now ie tangent, colinear etc.

[@garrymacdonald5576]

I just found your "16" videos, and this video is a great tool for the update. Thanks so much for putting these together

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Welcome Garry, let me know if I can help you with any of these.

[@garrymacdonald5576]

@@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360 Thank you, I will probably be in touch!

[@betto64]

Yes, there is a little bit different! Thank you so much!

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

You're welcome!

[@Zougama]

thank you Arnold, having 0 background you series rly helped me to design my kid's ridable car new gearbox. Thank you !

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

That is awesome!

[@clacketyclack]

Hi Arnold, glad to see you’re making some more content. Looking forward for more tutorials. I’d also like to see some more stuff on fostering a potential engineer. My son is 4 but he’s showing some signs of logical and methodical thinking.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Noted! I've been thinking about this, I intend to make some videos along this line but in the meantime I might just mention that I'll be featuring Bonnie Roske's materials using Sketchup. She has some great stuff for a range of ages. I did a quick search and didn't turn her up this time but will in future.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Anthony, if you search for 3Dvinci Bonnie's website comes up. I just can't put a link here in YT comments.

[@JThuss1]

Thank you so much

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

You're most welcome Annie, as for plasma cutters, I've yet to make content for these CNC tools but routers, laser cutters and others have a lot in common and Fusion 360 is one of the best programs for hobbyists, teachers and others. It has a whole CAM side and its free and is also capable enough for industrial use.

[@anthonydendle4768]

More great information and video content thanks heaps again we are lucky to have people like yourself using your valuable time to help others 👍😊

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

My pleasure Anthony, I'm delighted that you find these helpful, I will get around to offering some things for sale eventually but I intend to make it worthwhile for anyone even if they don't actually spend money. By the way, how are you planning to make use of Fusion 360 when you get good at it?

[@anthonydendle4768]

@@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360 at the moment I have ordered a 3D printer for my son to make things like dash panels in ABS plastics for switches etc but hope to eventually buy him a CNC to cut and shape aluminium as he likes working and tinkering with hands on stuff. I used to be in RAEME in ADF so think hes following in my footsteps

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

@@anthonydendle4768 Did you know my brother Nicholas? Your son has an advantage over thousands of other aspiring engineers. You're his secret weapon!

[@ericlauryssen6451]

thanks for the update

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Good on you eric!

[@dr-onestuffido]

Spot on again, thank you

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

You are so welcome

[@evansmott461]

I'm a retired shipwright. I design and build various tiny home modules. I design in 2D CAD with QCAD but am investigating 3D modelling to show those interested a way of envisioning the concepts. I've had trouble finding a 3D CAD programme with decent tutorials. Yours seem to fit the bill. Well done

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Thanks Evans, and welcome to the channel. I'd love to see the boats you've worked on, I used to devour 'Wooden Boat' magazine and I have a strongback in my shed ready for a strip planked canoe - one of these days. I've also taken a bit of an interest in tiny houses, here in Australia you can skip around the building regulations if your tiny is on wheels. I'm designing mine in Sketchup, I did spend some years as an architectural draftsman and brought 3D to the local architects practise and so that got me up to speed with Sketchup but Fusion 360 can do it too, especially joints, mechanical details and plumbing. It looks like QCAD is what they call an Autocad 'work-alike' since it uses the DWG file format. That's going to give you an advantage over a lot of learners who are coming to Fusion without any CAD experience. I think you'll find good use for all the software you've touched.

[@RobFishYT]

Hello Professor. Just picked up Fusion360. Finished your 16 part tutorial today. Hope you got more intermediate and advanced lessons coming. Guess I have to rummage through other youtube tutorials for now. Thanks!

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Fantastic! Keep going, and yes, I was working on a new one this afternoon. Not sure I can keep you fully occupied at my current production rate but there is plenty of good material out there.

[@RobFishYT]

@@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360 I really enjoy your discussions on engineering. Videos on process flow and producing our own industry standard mechanical drawings would be fantastic! Thanks again.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Rob, I always look forward to teaching drafting topics and we'll get to some of that pretty soon. Be careful about pressing my button on process flow, if you're referring to the Toyota Production System I tend to get a bit long winded, its a subject I really like, but there are a few things to cover before we get to that one.

[@donaldhollingsworth3875]

I'm glad to see you back Mr. Rowntree. I look forward to more of your tutorials. They are very well made. Your first series was a great help in understanding on how to use a CAD program. One question I have is: are you going to go into the process of creating a blueprint of a part including how to include all the dimensions & notes required to have a part made from a part a person created in Fusion 360 & if a person didn't what multiple pages ? Like taking the file to a local print shop capable of producing blueprints on say 20" X 25" or 24" X 36" paper ( I just pulled these paper dimensions out of thin air & do not account what the true sizes of paper a local print shop can run in their plotter)?

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Thanks Donald, I certainly do plan to demonstrate how to produce a drawing in Fusion 360 on standard sized papers. You'll be able to print it at home or if you want larger sizes you can get them printed at your local print shop. The idea is to be able to communicate with others such as 3D print services or CNC shops.

[@paulmitchell2005]

Thank you very much for your excellent, well organized and presented series of introductory Fusion 360 tutorials. Between your series and Vladimir's beginner series at Desktop Makes I feel confident to begin my own 3D designs. I have tried TinkerCAD but it didn't suit my needs. FreeCAD seemed clunky/buggy (although it may have been due to my lack of experience with the tool). Thus far Fusion 360 fits the bill. I'm a retired engineer and am learning CAD for use in personal projects - hopefully Autodesk doesn't drop the free version as their commercial price is cost prohibitive for my kind of projects.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

You're most welcome Paul. I'm sure TinkerCAD is good software but I'm delighted that you're finding Fusion and my tutorials useful. And yes, I'm confident that the Personal Use version will be ideal for at least a few years or unless there is a broad and sweeping change of personel at Autodesk.

[@nanookmacy]

Hi Arnold, Awesome vids. Are you thinking of doing more complex objects? These 16 have been great. Appropriate them Thanks

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

That's the plan! The current series is working up to the basics of bottom up design and then top down design. They'll all be on the simplest possible examples but I've got some more complex videos under construction.

[@DixonWangYF]

Thanks for your beginner series tutorials! I wonder if there is any way to add custom constrain tools to the sketch palette on the side? I notice, in the new version, all the constrain tools are on the top toolbar. I kind of like how you had them in the sketch palette in the tutorials but have not found a way of doing so.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

I haven't found a way either, Dixon, but I think you'll find that the new layout works OK and you'll be familiar enough soon that it won't bother you so much.

[@zakey9662]

TQVM

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Thanks Mohd, you're most welcome

[@I_Do_Not_Know_What_I_am_Doing]

I'm sorry, having trouble here. Create the rectangle, then hit the 'D' Key (?) to switch into isometric view. I have tried all the long 'E' ending letters: e, d, g, p, z, v, b (assume you would say Zed). None switch view. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Should I just skip to Tutorial one where more is explained?

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Yes Allan, I mentioned the "e" key which drops you out of 'sketch' mode and back to feature mode. If that keyboard shortcut didn't work, then do it the long way: click on "FINISH SKETCH" the button on the far right of your upper toolbar. Then click on the Extrude tool, the second button from the left, next to the Create Sketch button. (And be sure to set those two preferences mentioned in the video). This Update video is designed to supplement the tutorials, I think you'll find that the more of them you work through the more you'll understand. I hope that I can also help you if you're stuck.

[@queenslander62]

thankyou ! now we are on the same page.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

I think we've got quite a bit in common!

[@queenslander62]

Arnold Rowntree including a similar time zone !!

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

That's right! But I've got climate envy.

[@TheRitchieLeeShow]

Yes thanks for all of your fusion 360 stuff. When ever I open F360 on my 4-5 year old laptop I want it to look exactly like your screen, I go nuts. Also thinking about a new laptop, $1200, $1800, $2400? I'm going to hold off on a new laptop. I really want to learn F360 for a plasma machine, I don't yet own, or have access to.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Richard, I can't advise on a laptop, I only run Fusion 360 on a desktop although I find a really cheap convertible Chromebook useful with its pen interface for a lot of other jobs. I'm glad you found this video about the UI update, but do remember that I'm recording a 24" monitor running at 1080p for all my videos. Your laptop (whichever one) will need a good graphics card to keep up. That's a great plan for the plasma cutter and I'm pretty sure you'll think of a few other uses for your new skill given some time.

[@sergioferreira766]

Great videos Arnold. These helped me tremendously to get up and running. I am already designing parts for my Workbee CNC. Thank you! I do have one small glitch. When I click a plane or face, it does not automatically turn to face me. This makes it difficult to draw on planes or faces at a custom angle. (Tutorial 14) How do I set Fusion to turn the plane to face me when I click it? Keep up the good work!

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Glad to help! About that glitch, there is a setting in Preferences which might help. You get to preferences by clicking on your photo in the top right of the screen. In the preferences dialog click on Design which is two lines down from General in the left panel. Then look for 'Auto look at sketch' about half way down the page in the main panel. Tick that and see how it goes. I just took a look at Workbee CNC, they look good, I might just be following your lead here.

[@sergioferreira766]

Great thing about the "Workbee" platform is that it is open source, so there are a few places you can get the kit. You can also customise the unit on purchase. I got the 1000x 15000 bed with lead screws, a 2.2 kw head and a MACH3 controller. Should be good for aluminium. Takes a while to put together, but it helps if I need to fix it or upgrade it any time. You can also use it to build another CNC if need be ;-) Great way to learn CNC hardware. BTW, I tried your suggestion for 'Auto look at sketch'. Thanks for that. It was already ticked. I unticked it and re-ticked it just in case. I did press "Apply" when doing these steps. Still not working. A bit baffling. I will probably uninstall the program and re-install it. Good luck with the CNC hardware project!

[@showwild]

Hi Arnold, I am loving your clear and simple beginners guide to CAD drawing with Fusion 360. (you should yo a FUSION 360 for DUMMIES Book). have you done, or could you do, some CAM machining of your 16 Basic CAD drawings, ie simple profiling machining, hole machining (Drilling, Boring, Pocketing). Thanks for all you have done to help us beginners Regards Steven Wylie

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Thanks for your kind words Steven. CAM is on my to do list but I'll need to learn myself before trying to teach. Next in my plans is a nifty angle on 3D printing along with 2D drawings in Fusion 360. I'll keep an eye out for an opportunity for a book. Thanks for the feedback.

[@kup1954]

I like your style, but I'm really struggling here in late September 2020. I am trying to move on from Tinkercad. I have a background in graphic design, but this is way different. Have there been any changes since you made this vid? The planes did not come up as shown, and when I finally got one and drew the rectangle, hitting "e" didn't change a thing. Finally, I found out that manoeuvring the cube in the top right corner gave me a 3D view. Now I just need to find out where to type in the measurements of the object. Ahh, the menus are contextual, like in MS Office. I hate that, when the tools are not always to be found in the same place. The "Create" roll down menu only displays "Sketch dimension" when in sketch mode, but in "Solid" it's something different all together. 3.12 You might have mentioned that. This is going to take more than a few hours, hopefully the rest of the lessons will go easier now. Thank you for this update, hope to see more.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

kup, there have been no major changes since the Update video, take it slowly, you're right, this is way different than graphic design software. There is a workflow that will come with a bit more experience, a two step sketch/feature routine that will quickly become second nature. There are a few preference settings that will govern the behaviour of re-orienting the view but you've found some workarounds which seem to be allowing you to move forward. So long as you can work through the 16 you'll have a sense of accomplishment and then a second browse through the 16 will no doubt reveal some answers.

[@BeaverTrade]

Hi Arnold... Im still having an issue with the 15mm hole. Trying to use the concentric tool gives me an error every time.

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Sorry Matt, just remind me where that was happening?

[@pgcroc8484]

Hi Arnold. At 2.43 where you selected a plane where it then faced towards you. This does not happen to me. I still get an isometric view. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Thanks. Pete

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Yes Pete, go to 1:56, did you set these two preferences?

[@pgcroc8484]

@@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360 I did but I have just noticed that the 'Allow 3D sketching of lines .....' was also enabled. I disabled this and now it works OK like your video. (I did not enable this). Thanks. Pete

[@stankua9126]

Thank you I was going to ask the same question, my plane doesn’t change also when click on

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Thanks for letting me know Pete, I'm making a list of these effects of various pref settings.

[@aztecwarrior7373]

What software do you use?

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Apart from Fusion 360 I'm using Cura for a slicer for 3D printing. For simulation I like Simscale which is a web ap with a great free plan for learners. I use Paraview for simulation post-processing and when I get around to CNC I'll survey what's out there. I'm not sure what extras are needed beyond Fusion 360 yet. When I need 2D vector graphics my personal favourite is Illustrator.

[@ralger]

at 3:07 you say hit, p, e, t,g, or d key ?

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Yes Rick, that's e for Extrude. Pardon me, I'm being a bit fast and loose here and in my mind I'm thinking of those who have already had a try at following along with the first few tutorials. If you start on the 16 basic tutorials and refer to the resources in this video when you need to in order to see where a few items have been moved to I think you'll get going. One other thing that will save some frustration and confusion is to check on a couple of preferences, see 1:55 in this video. Let me know how you go.

[@ralger]

Ok thanks for the clarification , I’m slowly making my way through two and three now. Thanks for all the hard work and keeping the material in bite size pieces too👍😊

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Good on you Rick, let me know if you need any help. (Start a new comment since I don't get notifications down here in the threads)

[@-Jantje]

please create new youtube video of Fusion 360 with the new interface 👍

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

Jantje, you read my mind! I'll get started on that when I've got some current projects out of the way.

[@frankbarlow3154]

Another 1000 hours and then I will start to learn how to convert to g code .

[@ArnoldRowntreeTeachesFusion360]

You've got the right approach to timescales Frank. Actually by then you'll know all about the manufacturing tools built into Fusion 360