HOW TO CAD: Fusion 360 CAD Beginner Tutorial

[@PapaGleb]

I have tried to learn fusion a number of times and watched plenty of videos yet I walked away with a lot more from your video than I have before. Thank you for this video and would love if you made more. Maybe a level up with each video from beginner to expert and in between.

[@GoughCustom]

Very glad to hear that mate! I think approaching Fusion in a structured way helps to make it a lot easier to learn... It's a very complicated program! The next video will cover making a knife in Fusion will will definitely use some more advanced concepts! After that video you should have all the tools you need to tackle just about anything! You will still likely end up watching separate tutorials on specific tools, but you will at least know what to do next!

[@PapaGleb]

@@GoughCustom can’t wait!!!

[@kbi4739]

same.... he goes just the right speed. i only had to rewind a couple of times unlike all these other youtubers who don't explain much as they go along at fast paced speeds. nice!!! than kyou

[@ribasthiago]

YES I've been waiting for this THANK YOU

[@GoughCustom]

You're very welcome mate!

[@sheilas8969]

Thank you for this video. Your instructions are clear and very helpful. Choosing to do the lego brick was genius. It has everything for a beginner. Looking forward to more.

[@williamscott7629]

Great video sir. I have also watched several tutorials about fusion and found yours to be one of the most helpful and easy to follow. Thank you for your time

[@DaddyKBuss3]

This is the best tutorial I have seen yet. Very clear and concise instructions. Thank you very much!

[@jeriktelorian273]

Excellent tutorial; you do a great job of covering the basics with a why/how angle. Not only did I learn some functions, I feel confident exploring more of the software on my own.

[@HouseMadeUS]

Learned something today. Nice work Aaron! ⚡️⚡️⚡️

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks very much Brian! Glad the video was helpful man!

[@sudo_nym]

Boom! 🤜🏻⚡️🤛🏻

[@TorSkywalker]

I just needed to create some simple designs for 3D printing and had some good experience with Blender so I figured I should try Fusion 360 to learn something new and because it's the better suited software for the job. I was a little bit lost at the beginning but this tutorial explained every feature I needed so far and was very well done! This helped immensely and saved me a lot of time, thank you so much!

[@mattybrookes1]

Excellent as ever Aaron. I’ve been waiting for something like this, thank you.

[@GoughCustom]

My pleasure Matt! I will be trying to release the next one soon!

[@mattybrookes1]

@@GoughCustom excellent, I look forward to seeing it! Thanks Aaron.

[@grandmastersreaction1267]

This is exactly what I needed mate. Thanks a bunch! Can’t wait for more Fusion360 content.

[@GoughCustom]

Cheers mate! Still working on the next video but it should be coming soon!

[@anrmanufacturingltd4436]

A great starter video for anyone just starting out in Fusion 360. It is great to see people like yourself so passionate about manufacturing.

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks very much mate! Will have a more advanced fusion video coming soon!

[@MrE.]

Thank you for such a clear concise venture into Fusion!

[@JoeC92]

I've watched a lot on fusion videos and this is by far the best Aaron. Straight to the point not a bunch of rambling on. That pattern feature took me forever to get the hang of because the videos I watched on it just went so deep into it they just made it confusing.

[@GoughCustom]

Hey Joe! Really glad to hear I hit the sweet spot mate! It's hard to know where that is because Fusion is such a deep program... I'll keep diving in over the next couple of videos!

[@henrig4409]

Amazing and clear run through of the structure of the software, this definitely breaks the first barrier for someone that never used it tk understand the way of Fusion. Just enjoyable to watch as you explain it so nicely. Looking forward to the next installment.

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks Henri!!

[@chrisdevilliers5940]

Thank you for this. Started playing around on Fusion a couple of weeks ago and have been mostly frustrated. This is helping alot. Cant wait for the knife design video.

[@GoughCustom]

Really glad to hear that Chris!!

[@R3M4iN]

Thank you so much for starting to make these kinds of videos! 🙏 Love from Sweden! 🇸🇪❤️

[@GoughCustom]

No worries at all Daniel! Hope it was helpful mate!

[@pjhalchemy]

Great first 360 object Aaron and your instructions were great! After 30+yrs of ACAD (4years teaching) and 6mo of SW head banging, I got 360 a while ago to see if the old dog could get through it but did not find it intuitive to all the other experience I had and put it down after a month or so. With you at the teaching helm I'm willing to have another go because I've got a ton I'd still like to do. Looking forward to your classes! Hope the patreon sign up helps! Thanks always for your wonderful work!

[@GoughCustom]

Hey PJ! Awesome mate, well I hope this little series that I'm starting here will be helpful for you! I really like Fusion, though I'm sure you know that whatever you're most familiar with always makes the most sense! Hopefully you'll find some processes that you like and start making stuff with it! Thanks very much for your support on Patreon, every little bit helps! And please let me know if you ever have any questions!

[@JavierGarcia-xz5vl]

Thank you for the very informative video!!

[@BrandonHaynesGolf]

This was very helpful thank you. I’m just getting started with 360. I appreciate it.

[@GoughCustom]

Really glad the video was helpful!

[@johnsaunders6510]

Very good tutorial. Thanks.

[@umop3plsdn3dlus]

That is absolutely amazing, that just today I downloaded FreeCad and attempted to teach myself. Looks like I have another tutorial to follow!

[@GoughCustom]

Really glad you liked the video mate, hope it was helpful!

[@sudo_nym]

What an incredible piece of software. I’ve no need for this, but to go from zero to a final design of a relatively complex design in less than 20 minutes, is very cool. Cheers Aaron! 🤜🏻⚡️🤛🏻

[@GoughCustom]

I know right! Pretty amazing what we have access to these days!

[@drop_table_music]

Well done! Thanks for the info!

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks for watching mate, hope the video was helpful!

[@cho4d]

this is a super duper excellent quick start tutorial thank you!

[@GoughCustom]

You are very welcome 'cho4d' (🤣🤣🤣) glad it was helpful!

[@secretagb]

Nicely done!

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks for watching!

[@Alex.P_10]

Thank you so much for this! I have to get a part of a vacuum cleaner 3D printer since I cannot buy it anymore, and was think how to go about designing/sketching it for the 3D printing company. This helps a lot.

[@GoughCustom]

Nice Alex! Best of luck with the design mate!

[@dscrive]

I used autocad and inventer a lot though college, but haven't touched an Autodesk product in years, this video has jogged a bunch of memories which makes me confident that I'll be able to pick fusion 360 up in just a couple of hours of playing with it. I just got a 3d printer which is why I'm interested in it now.

[@kriss667]

I also used inventor for several years of university and picking fusion 5 years later feels like I did not even have had that break.

[@dscrive]

@@kriss667 that's great to know! I was mentally thinking "why select from the menus when there is a single key command to do that?" Haha

[@GoughCustom]

I'm sure you will pick it up fast! Just for reference the reason I use menus in the video is just to help people learn the commands by exposing them to the names of the command and the menu position repeatedly... I use pretty much all keyboard shortcuts when working on my stuff, but I think doing that in the video would have made it very confusing!

[@MidnightMaker]

Dude, love these videos and your podcast. I'm actually a CNC operator for a high-end cabinet shop in Seattle. I'm looking forward to your next Fusion 360 video. Keep up the good work!

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks man! Really glad you're enjoying the videos and the podcast! I would love to see some photos of the machines you run and some workpieces if you can share! You can send them to the podcast instagram account or my email: [e-mail]

[@eliasvaldez2282]

Really enjoyed the video! More please :)

[@GoughCustom]

Thank-you Elias! The next one should be coming soon!

[@ChopKnives]

I feel seen. Thank you Aaron.

[@GoughCustom]

No worries at all Craig! Next video will set you up!

[@waylonmtz]

This is great! THANK YOU!

[@GoughCustom]

No worries Waylon! Hope it's helpful!

[@kunlegrant369]

AWESOME 😎👍 THANKS FOR SHARING MR GOUGE

[@GoughCustom]

You're very welcome mate!

[@AaronEngineering]

Nice work Azza. I remember way back when you were one of the early adopters of Fusion360. This was was even before me. I agree with you. It’s an awesome CAD program. Luckily for me I get it for free under an Educational license. Cheers 🍻. Aaron

[@GoughCustom]

Cheers Az! :)

[@TimPiggott]

Really helpful. Thank you!

[@GoughCustom]

You're very welcome Tim! Glad it was helpful!

[@zulkarnianz4507]

both thumbs up great video

[@nickwhitney1534]

Thank you.👍🏻

[@mv2442]

Thank you, I make knives without a CNC but I still use Fusion for sketches that I print and glue on to the steel. And the fusion is super useful i can print 1 to 1, there is couple tricks I have picked up that will be very useful.

[@GoughCustom]

Nice! Yeah it's interesting that a lot of people don't realize that you don't need to be using CNC or 3D printing for CAD to be useful! Glad the video was helpful!

[@star_waffle1616]

you are a wonderful person.

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks Mr Star Waffle!

[@danieldashevsky2354]

Thanks for this video! I just downloaded the free Fusion 360 a drew up plans for a jig that I've been meaning to make for a while now.

[@GoughCustom]

Awesome Daniel! Glad to hear it was helpful!

[@khankhalidwahidkhalid19]

Helpful video.

[@GoughCustom]

Very glad to hear that mate!

[@fieteferrum3441]

Just like in math classes, from a lego brick in homework to building a knife from start to finish in exams 🙈 great video, I wanted to learn how to use fusion for some time now, I think I will finally start to use it.

[@GoughCustom]

Glad the video was helpful mate! hopefully the next video will clear up the knife-specific stuff!

[@LetsPrepTogether]

Great tutorial! I wanted to start Fusion for a while now. This is a great reference for a noob like me 😁

[@GoughCustom]

Glad it was helpful mate! I will be releasing some more Fusion content in the future hopefully!

[@LetsPrepTogether]

@@GoughCustom cheers I'll be looking forward to that

[@BalticBlades]

I spy with my little eye a sneak peak of the S ground kitchen knife!

[@HouseMadeUS]

Right!? Very cool Easter egg!

[@BalticBlades]

@@HouseMadeUS I've tried to guess the third thing, but man, I have no idea what that is.. maybe a early prototype of a thing that turn off his compressor :D

[@GoughCustom]

@@BalticBlades haha if I had to make something that complicated to turn off the compressor I think I'd have to throw in the towel lol... That third thing is the design for a robotic sandblasting cabinet that I'm working on! Hopefully that will become reality soon because I'm tired of sandblasting! I have already been 3D printing parts for it! I'm glad you caught the sneak peek! I thought about putting in some footage of the folder I'm working on, but I thought that might still be a bit far away :) I am working on the fixtures for the kitchen knife this week, they are nearly finished!

[@BalticBlades]

@@GoughCustom oh I've hear you mention some more stuff about the kitchen knives in your XYZ The CNC Podcast... and that's a RADIO tease everybody, go listen! Btw looked in to Carve King, King of Carving... sadly it's in the other side of the pond. But now I have an idea on what to look for in a cnc router, thanks! This (and the next one) video will be super handy when I get the router!

[@GoughCustom]

@@BalticBlades bummer about the Carve King, I hope you find something really good soon!

[@Coeus3D]

Great tutorial! I'd like to make this lego brick into a little storage or gift box with a hinged lid. Is that possible?

[@nicknick-ht5dv]

Thanks 😊

[@GoughCustom]

You're very welcome mate!

[@nickmartin1688]

Its great to see such a pragmatic approach to learning Fusion. I'd really like to see some tips on drawing bevels in the future - the only videos out there are a bit basic and didn't help me much

[@GoughCustom]

Cheers Nick! I will be releasing the 'how to design a knife' video hopefully within a couple of weeks, juggling a lot of stuff at the moment lol

[@nickmartin1688]

@@GoughCustom Awesome!

[@boblombardi9397]

Thank You

[@GoughCustom]

You're welcome!

[@forgeworks3176]

the video was really nice and simple looking forward to see the knife drawing tutorial

[@GoughCustom]

Cheers mate! Glad it was helpful!

[@dead_dove1327]

Please make more videos dude, they're really interesting!

[@GoughCustom]

Really glad you are enjoying them mate! I have a few more videos in various stages of production!

[@charlesroberts9675]

Thank You.

[@GoughCustom]

You're very welcome Charles! I hope it was helpful!

[@davidroan9652]

Hey Aaron, in my searches on youtube referencing CNC thus far, your videos are amazing. I've been looking for a good reference on the essential end mills for CNCing fixed blades. I see arrays of end mills on makers' ATCs, but have a feeling there is a smaller essential list, similar to grinding belts. I'm curious how you would boil this down to maybe 4 to purchase immediately - For example if I was to guess - A beefy profiling cutter, a refined profiling cutter, a rough beveling end mill, and a fine bevel finishing end mill.

[@GoughCustom]

Hey David! Really glad my videos have been helpful! Unfortunately there's not really an 'essentials' list because every knife is different, and therefore the tooling needed will change a lot. For instance nearly all of the work on my Resolute knives is done with a single type of endmill (www.maritool.com/product_info.php?products_id=19329) they make this endmill custom for me but lots of other knifemakers have started using it... I use 2 of the same tool in my ATC, one tool is the roughing tool and one is the finisher. Once the finisher is no longer fresh it gets swapped into the rougher slot and the roughing tool is discarded and a new endmill inserted into the finishing slot. That endmill is used for high-feed roughing, side milling, 3D profiling of the bevel and so on. I also use a smaller 3/16" diameter version of the same tool to cut the lanyard hole and the choil. A 3/32" diameter endmill with .2" length of cut is used to helically bore the pin-holes. A 45º chamfer mill is used to deburr the top of holes and to engrave my logo, and a .120" diameter lollipop endmill is used to deburr the backside of holes and pockets. Hope that's helpful mate! -Aaron

[@wellhattedgent4253]

Thank you I just started knife designing but have no clue how to use fusion.

[@GoughCustom]

No worries mate! Learning CAD is a complicated process but I will break it down as much as I can! The next video should really help you out!

[@wellhattedgent4253]

@@GoughCustom can’t wait for it!

[@paydonkniepkamp7146]

I recently watched your file beveling jig video and since the video was old I figured I’d be better off commenting here. I was just curious as to how to make sure plunge lines line up on each side of the knife? Love your content!

[@GoughCustom]

Hey Paydon! I try to answer all my comments, but as you can see sometimes I am pretty slow given everything else I have to keep up on! The best way to get the plunge line symmetrical is to make sure that your setup is perfectly symmetrical around the center-line of the jig when you flip the blade... So if the point is 1" from the center when you're doing the first side, make sure that measurement is exactly the same when clamping the blade down for the second side!

[@griftopherhitchens9926]

Hey Aaron, let me know if you ever do in-person tutorials or workshops. I'm in Toronto.

[@GoughCustom]

Hey mate! I don't at the moment, but I will definitely keep that in mind for the future!

[@chrisearp2605]

What resources did you use/would you recommend in learning more fusion 360 for manufacturing/CNC applications? Yeah dude, your fusion video is the best/easiest to follow of ANY I’ve found. If you did a beginner to expert series I think your channel would blow up!

[@GoughCustom]

I'm glad the video was helpful Chris! Honestly I have been using Fusion for a long time and it was mainly just trying to make things and then using google whenever I had an issue... I will definitely keep that video idea in mind for the future!

[@KingVerdejo]

Hi mate, this is a good and really well paced tutorial. I'm just starting out with 3D design and a lot of tutorials are either too slow or too fast. For me, this was just right. I like to give feedback so things can be even better and the only thing I could think of is.... what is an inch? :D I'm all metric mentally, I had to work hard to go back to inches! I think most of the world is now on metric so to widen your reach, go metric. Discuss.. :D

[@TheSimpsoys]

I've learned Blender for making 3D assets in games, but I find it's not ideal for making models for 3D printing. Since I've been with Blender for so long, other programs felt way too foreign for me to learn. Thank you for this straight forward tutorial!

[@GoughCustom]

No worries at all Ray, I hope it's helpful!

[@TrPrecisionMachining]

good video

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks mate! Hope it was helpful!

[@DCT_Aaron_Engineering]

Good tutorial Aaron. Hey, are you going to machine a set of LEGO blocks mate. I scaled some up a couple of years ago and machined them out of billet aluminium. I was surprised how well they came out and actually snapped together. Cheers 🍻. Aaron.

[@GoughCustom]

Hey Az! I am going to do a CAM tutorial in the future so maybe the lego brick would be a good subject for that, good idea!

[@zaenbaker1427]

Thanks Aaron, this is great, I followed along. as a Sketchup user interested in moving to Fusion, I have a few questions: Q1: is this brick as you've drawn it "Manifold" (all edges and faces are sealed, it can be sliced for 3d printing)? when you created the nubs, you just added a drawing on the plane of the top of the basic brick body, does that combine with the Brick's drawing, or is it just another drawing that is very close but separate. Q2: when you constrained the first nub to be .75/.75 from the edges, and then patterned it to create the other nubs by just dragging them, how do you constrain those as well? Thanks so much, I've been a subscriber for years!

[@GoughCustom]

Hey Zane! Great questions! 1) All solids created in fusion are manifold be default, so they will slice & print fine! You have to work kinda hard in Fusion to make an object that is not manifold! 1.5) When you create a sketch on a surface and then extrude from that sketch, by default it will be joined to the body that you made the sketch on. However when extruding there are options to handle it differently. The extrude modes are 'join', 'new body', 'new component' and 'cut'. 2) The pattern of nubs is not constrained the same way the first nub is. Basically you would 'constrain' the nubs by changing the spacing that's used to make the pattern. You can enter dimensions for the spacing (or 'extents') as finely toleranced as you like! Hope this is helpful! -A

[@bertkooijmans4769]

Hmm so sketches js the way to go haha i was struggling. Maybe its an idea to make a tutorial to make spherical and cone shapes and so on? Im not being negative or anything but your the only recent and really helpfull tutorial i see on youtube. So just wanna say thanks:)

[@GoughCustom]

Hey Bert! You're very welcome mate, I am glad the video was helpful! Interesting idea to do the 'basic shapes' tutorial, I will look into that!

[@matthewlyon9340]

Hello, Great video. Just a suggestion, but at 6:22 your menu changes and you make no mention of why it does that or how the user can do that. which leaves me stuck at that point and unable to move on in the video. :(

[@YanDoroshenko]

Have you tried FreeCAD? It worked pretty well for the [very basic] stuff I needed, so I'm curious whether it's ready for commercial use.

[@GoughCustom]

I tried it (only for a few minutes) very recently, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me coming from Fusion and Solidworks. I'm sure that would change if I spent more time with it... One of the biggest things about Fusion that stops me from moving to something else is the integrated CAM system for programming a CNC machine, that is something I make use of every day and very few other CAD packages come with decent CAM integration unfortunately...

[@YanDoroshenko]

@@GoughCustom That's more or less what I expected, the fancy stuff having CNC compatibility that the simpler tools lack.

[@GoughCustom]

@@YanDoroshenko the models that FreeCAD produces will still be compatible with 3D printers and with CNC programming software, the issue is just that it doesn't have any CNC programming capabilities built-in, whereas fusion has very advanced capabilities built-in and well integrated!

[@YungassPadawan]

Great video! But seriously how do you have time to do things like this? You’ve gotta be one of the busiest person on this land mass

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks mate! I actually used to be much busier than I am at the moment, which is a good thing! I've been trying to take more time to relax and to give myself time off to do new stuff, like this video for instance! It is definitely hard working out how to get everything done, it's something I'm still improving on!

[@platoscavealum902]

👍

[@HalfInsaneOutdoorGuy]

Hey Aaron (may I call you that?) why are there no youtube reviews of your knives? I"m putting away money to buy one, and would like to give it a full youtube reivew on my channel, is that ok with you?

[@GoughCustom]

You are very welcome to mate! There are a few unboxings and so on, but the main reason there are no reviews specifically is because I don't pay for them or give away free knives... Most people who do lots of 'reviews' on KZbin are either getting the products for free or getting paid to make the 'review', it's unfortunately a bit scammy sometimes!

[@rachelmello1735]

At 7min, nothing I can do will let me at a dimension and move the circle. Create -> Sketch Dimension; [Select objects to dimension] click center of the circle; [Select Objects to dimension] click top line of the box; [Select location for dimension] and then no matter where I click, the circle moves to the top line of the box and I have no text entry field. What am I doing wrong?

[@1337BlueBird]

Im using fusion360 for 3 years now and still want listening this video just because of the qualiy

[@GoughCustom]

Thanks man! :) Hope it was helpful in some way! I will be releasing the next CAD video soon!

[@georgesvan]

Have you tried Inventor?

[@GoughCustom]

I haven't yet, no! Honestly I think the pricing makes it not worth it for my uses... This was a similar issue I had with Solidworks back when I started learning CAD. The price just makes it not worth it unless you're doing a LOT of CAD work and making a bunch of money off it... Fusion is definitely the sweet spot for me I think! In the past I have used Sketchup, Vectric, Solidworks and then I finally settled on Fusion. I have also tried, but not extensively used Rhino and FreeCAD...

[@georgesvan]

@@GoughCustom Thankyou for your reply...

[@GoughCustom]

@@georgesvan Of course!

[@mobgma]

One thing I wish you could easily do is take a 2D drawing via pdf and turn it into 3D. Or even an image some how?

[@GoughCustom]

If you can get the 2D drawing in DXF format, then that's fairly easy! You might be able to convert the PDF into DXF and then progress from there... PDF is not a very useful format for this kind of thing unfortunately!

[@kunlegrant369]

I MEAN MR GOUGH😊

[@GoughCustom]

No worries!

[@bigpete4227]

I can’t operate an abacus mate. Given an upvote but I’ll check back another time.

[@GoughCustom]

Haha well Abacuses (Abaci?) are pretty complicated to use, so I get that! No worries mate! I will be doing another 2 videos on Fusion, then doing other stuff!

[@diogo.cichocki]

Goodbye, Solid Works. No need to crack you anymore.

[@GoughCustom]

Hooray!

[@YanDoroshenko]

How the hell are you able to get tight tolerances with inches and the rest of the imperial nonsense?

[@GoughCustom]

Ha! Yeah metric definitely makes more sense, I've just gotten used to imperial being over here in Canada where all the tooling and steel is imperial... We talk in thousandths ('thou' == 0.001" == 0.025mm) and ten-thousandths ('tenths') == 0.0001" == 0.0025mm). Funnily enough I actually program my CNCs in metric because I can get a little more resolution that way (0.0001" vs 0.001mm). Honestly 'decimal imperial' is not that bad at all, but the drills and threads are stupid. Metric is definitely better!

[@0GreatMerlin]

Thanks for the video. A clear tutorial, well done. The sad thing is though, I liked the older versions of this program when it was still AutoCad. The reason being that you could do the entire design using just the keyboard, it's so much faster than doing it with the mouse. But the kiddies like the mouse.

[@PratyushTewari]

I am facially beginning to understand fusion

[@GoughCustom]

I am glad the video was helpful!!

[@_nom_]

Tinkercad brings my PC to it's knees. 😅 Autodesk writes bad software.