Skeleton Modeling in Fusion 360

Tired of crazy webs of relationships? Need to collaborate with a few friends on an intricate project? Maybe you just want to exit your design with parts in their own containers.. Let's try to do a basic Skeleton Modeling workflow in Fusion360.

[@LittleCleetis]

I've been hunting for an video showing a good example of master modeling in Fusion 360... finally found it here! I come from SolidWorks with master modeling and have been hung up trying to get this to work in Fusion. Great tips, pros, cons etc. Thank you!

[@rlockwood2]

This workflow is pretty outdated and new tools like derive and edit in place fix many of the hiccups present here!

[@LittleCleetis]

@@rlockwood2 are you saying tools like derive and edit in place negate the need for master part creation altogether? Or they help avoid the cons that you describe in this video? If its the first... it might be time for a new video!

[@rlockwood2]

@@LittleCleetis somewhere between, I think the workflow can be the same as this video leveraging edit in place, but with a significant decrease in fragmentation. Look for a video series from Rob Cohee at Autodesk. He shows a much more modern approach to this problem (this video was intended in part to drive Adsk to a better solution, and eip/derive are it!)

[@LittleCleetis]

@@rlockwood2 Awesome, thanks for insights! Is this the series you are referring to? kzbin.info/aero/PLjd_BDiLGF7SeeSWRF-9dun2bXVkBlIFU

[@rlockwood2]

@@LittleCleetis that's the one, yep.

[@nyccnc]

Awesome video! Wish I had known about this technique back when we were designing some projects and products!

[@rlockwood2]

It's definitely something to keep in mind for projects with interrelated parts, collabs, or just generally forcing some discipline into your design.. I'm also really pleased with how lightweight each component winds up for CAM purposes.

[@393strokedcoupe]

NYC CNC Hey John, cool seeing you on a random video I've watched. Thanks for all you've done for the beginner CNC machinist. I have to agree with that Fusion 360 keynote speaker, that you sir have changed the way beginner machinist look towards starting up their own shops. I'm not there yet, but look forward to being so. Thanks bud!

[@vilts]

Pretty freakin' awesome, thanks! I was just fighting with this dependency mess on a project. Changed one thing in the beginning of history and got 15 errors down the line, all components that somehow reference back to the original, lost references, CAM toolpaths too. Very helpful indeed, thanks! And this way it's really nice to keep CAM and its fixturing separate, like you mentioned. Definitely going to use this method for next thing.

[@DeedsEngineering]

Another solid video... thanks for the tips!

[@RRINTHESHOP]

Thank you for sharing Rob. I enjoy your thoughts and ideas. I use Inventor and Fusion. I will start you use your Master idea more.

[@supahonkey]

Rob - Thanks for posting this. I use NX9 at work and Fusion 360 at home. I do this type of modeling in NX all the time, but get the benefits of Wavelinking my master model geometry to my separate components and also using Interpart References to allow my component to pick up on parameters that I defined in my master model. I've always wanted to try something like Wavelinking and Interpart References and I think your method gets the closest that Fusion 360 will allow. Thanks for sharing! - Brenton

[@bugrobotics]

Great overview. I use master modeling techniques in SolidWorks but not sure I have patience with Fusion 360's sketch environment yet. Thanks for sharing.

[@doningram3978]

Thanks for the great video Rob. Based on this I ran an idea up the flagpole at ideastation "Master Sketches & Global parameters"

[@MarcPilon]

Thank you M. Lockwood. Master modeling helps to keep complexity at bay. For this reason I suggest this concept to be introduced early in 'beginner's tutorials'. I do not think it would be too tedious for would be home machinist / designers. I see here, in the comments, some of the celebrities of KZbin ! The multitude of viewers you serve (for that we are all thankful !) would benefit from Master Modeling early introduction - at least of the concept. Maybe just mention it, use it , show it briefly... ;)

[@Wintergatan]

Great video, thanks!

[@james2749]

I'm a Solidworks user and for me the only reason I haven't moved to fusion is because the skeleton modelling seems more difficult, primarily because you can set features like extrude to start at a vertex and end on another vertex from a reference sketch. I see fusion users getting around this by making planes everywhere that they want to start and end a feature. I prefer to have as few planes as possible, preferably only the 3 default planes. Then I drive all of my features with sketches on those planes. I'd love to know if Fusion plan to add the ability to "from vertex" and "to vertex" on features like extrude and cut.

[@rlockwood2]

This is doable today, it's just a little buried in the extrude menu.. Also, I have to say, this video is quite dated. When I made it, SOLIDWORKS was definitely preferred for skeleton modeling workflows.. but fusion has improved a ton, via edit in place and derive!

[@james2749]

@@rlockwood2 I would love to see you demo how to do that!

[@user-rs3gb7kf3y]

고맙습니다 좋은 공부가 되었습니다

[@MrLiamCooley]

Interesting! I use a very similar technique for larger solid works assemblies at work.

[@rlockwood2]

Yep! It's a pretty popular technique across a lot of CAD, but Solidworks especially. It's not quite as robust as what's available elsewhere, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it works here.

[@cadcamstuff]

Great video!

[@What-is-thehandle]

Can we get more videos on how-to in HSMworks? There are a lot of videos using it in fusion. But not a lot in solidworks. Id like to learn more about the equations and different toolpaths. Thanks!

[@hiwithaar]

Fusion Fusion Fusion, Buggy Buggy Buggy.