Autodesk Fusion 360 Advanced Arrange: Automated Design for Manufacturing

WAYNE GRIFFENBERG: Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's class on Advanced Arrange using Fusion 360. I'm Wayne Griffenberg. I'm a technical specialist on the Fusion 360 sales team. And I'm happy to be here to walk you through today's class.

Before we get started, I just want to mention how we are an Autodesk collaborative experience. So our product managers and our developers love our collaboration with our community. And those enhancements and features that you guys are all asking for is something that we take pride to make sure that we can get in the software. There are some places where I may talk about some future enhancements, some milestones that we're headed to. They may or may not be in the software.

So I ask please don't purchase or start a subscription based on some of those features. I would say, think about the product, and start your subscription based on what's available today. So, as we go through, I want to make sure that we're clear as to what's going to be future enhancements and so forth.

So, with that, I talk about automation. And I used to think about that term. And, for me, I used a picture a large bottling facility with some bottles moving along, a serpentine type of conveyor going into big machines and slapping labels on the bottles and filling them up and pressing the cap on. And then out it goes into packaging for distribution.

Or I think about automation being like robots, putting together and assembling cars and welding together the bodies and doing that with trucks as well as like trains and airplanes. But I've learned, over 20 years of experience in the CAD/CAM world, automation, it also becomes part of our daily work. So there's tasks and repetitive things that we do to be able to design components, to make them for manufacturing and fabrication and even packaging using tools like Analysis.

So we can calculate and see how much space is required for being able to ship those components when it comes to visualizing and performing those tasks to make the packaging itself. And even ways that we can use CAD/CAM and automate that process to run our CNC machines is all part of that world. Now, as designs become much more complex, the capability that we have now built into the tool, being able to make more designs that are hard to control and sometimes leave us prone to human error-- I mean, we all make mistakes.

Sometimes the more we think about incorporating automation into our daily workflow, the better products we can make, the more apt we can think about repeatable outcomes. And, overall, our customers will be more-- become more reliable-- or at least see us as reliable resources for them. So, with that, I'd like to jump in.

As I'd mentioned, I'm Wayne, part of that Fusion 360 team. Part of my main role is to do customer demos in Fusion 360 as well as additional tools. And, occasionally, I would join some conferences and some seminars and create classes and perform and be able to work with customers like yourself like today.

So our class is focused on the Advanced Arrange capability. This is part of our fabrication-- or our nesting and fabrication extension. And we're going to focus in and do a deeper dive into some of the aspects when it comes to 2D Rectangular Arrange or True Shape, 2D True Shape Arrange. And we're going to talk about 3D Arrange.

Some of the benefits, some tips along the way. And how you can use it to automate a lot of the projects and work that you're doing in your design to manufacturing workflow. So, with that, let's jump in.

So I talk about 2D Rectangular Arrange, thinking about how we can optimize the placement of those different components or those parts or assemblies within a space that you can make it more manufacturable. You can automate that process. And we're going to talk about and do a deeper dive into those.

One thing to think about, as I'd mentioned, we have three main solvers within the arrange or advanced arrange, which is that 2D Rectangular and True Shape and 3D. So we're going to focus in on that 2D Rectangular. So one aspect that I would recommend is think about your design intent.

So if you're going to arrange components for manufacturing versus for packaging or maybe even layout a factory floor, think about designing in or bringing in that space that you would need and require. So the more you can design that, the more you can make a 2D sketches, the more optimized your workflow's going to be. But there are a couple of different ways that you can do this within Fusion.

So, of course, the first step is selecting the components. You can windows select to bring them into the Arrange workflow. Or you can decide to select those components directly from the feature tree, which would also populate those objects that you're trying to arrange.

And think about also those different ways that you're going to now optimize the placement of those parts. So we've left inside of Arrange the capability of having the rotation set up. So you have different options. So now parts aren't automatically going to fall into place and optimize themselves.

So we allow some controls like Rotation-- you could say I want a 270 or 90 degrees. You have some control there. When it comes to aligning, you can choose exactly how you want to align components to an axes within your space.

We also think about how you can limit, specifically, to certain rotations in your design that makes sense the way you want them output. So that's one aspect, of course. This is where we can change our global quantities. So you think about, if I put in 1, I'm going to get one instance of each of those components that I listed or those objects.

Now you can override this. You can choose and say, I want to put in a high number. So I at least want to find out if I have a fixed envelope of an area that I want to arrange. I can put in a high number. It's going to place as many as it can within that Arrange area.

So if you want to find out-- if I want to get 300-- or at least I want to find out how many can fit onto this sheet. You can change it. And that'll be your global quantity going forward.

You can also get granular. So that means that any of the components that you add, you can override that quantity. So you could choose-- if I want, let's say, component-based bottom.

I want 10 of those, or I want 15 of the tops. 27 of the lefts and so forth. You can override and change that quantity that you want for each component.

Now, also, I wanted to mention too we have the capability for doing a priority. So certain components, you want to make sure they're nested at first. And they're nested on that first sheet. And you could change the level and priority of what takes the first set of arrangements in your overall workflow.

The other aspect, too, you could choose-- and this is across global. So if you have your Arrange envelope, you could choose whether you want to have all the components that are arranged face down or face up. Sometimes you might have a cabinet or other features that have dados. And you want to make sure you present those dados to the machine to be able to cut it. So you could flip all those different components that have that priority into the zone where the dados are available for CNC machining.

Another aspect too and a quick tip on this. We have the capability where you can do an auto preview. So if you select a bunch of components, you select your envelope area, it'll show you ahead of time, highlighted in blue, how those elements or those objects are going to be arranged in the space.

Now, you can turn off auto preview only because if you have a large assembly that has 300 parts on it, it might take a while to calculate and place those parts because, just when you're trying to set it up to get it ready for Arrange, it could take a while and take a long time for calculation. So I recommend on large assemblies, disenable the Auto Arrange. But it's a pretty cool feature.

So, also, in the envelope area, there's a couple different choices you can make. You could choose a plane which then you can define what you want your envelope space to be. You can also choose a sketch. So you could draw up that sketch as I mentioned earlier that defines, predefines that envelope area.

Now, I'm going to talk about the first one, in this case, selecting a plane first and walk through those different capabilities. So just simply select a 2D plane. It's now going to set the origin and all Arrange is going to come from that origin where you have your offset.

So think about your offsets being-- that's the next page here. But this is selecting that plane. We'll talk about the offsets. But select the plane, the face that you want to have all your Arrange components on.

And then it'll select that face. And now it'll start to arrange and give you that auto preview. Now, when it talks about the envelopes and the different places where-- or at least the number of envelopes, so if you select a plane, it'll give you an initial envelope.

So you could choose one, two, three, or how many envelopes you have. This will represent the number of tables or at least the number of packages that you want to arrange the components in. So you could choose, of course, one or change the number of envelopes.

And you'll start to see your Arrange, especially if you have a high number. As I'd mentioned, you can put 999. It'll arrange as many components as it can on the number of envelopes that you provide.

So we can also change-- and using our frame width. So frame width, thinking of this being your margin, your border around the part. So, generally, when you nest components for CNC machining, you normally won't have them going right out to the edge of your stock so that your tool doesn't have to leave the envelope or the table.

Generally, we put a margin in there. And, even for packaging, it wouldn't make sense for your parts to be spilling out over the box. So we want to keep make sure that they're within a certain frame.

Same thing with object spacing. So if we're doing a 2D arrange, we want to make sure we leave room between each of the objects or the components that now the tool can get in there and cut it efficiently. And you can change that. So you space out your different components. Then you have a larger tool to get into that area.

Finally, your envelope spacing. So if you do have multiple envelopes, let's say you have two tables on your router. And you can mimic the distance between those two tables.

So the more-- you can optimize inside the powerful CAD/CAM workflow. The more it's going to match exactly what you have in the real world. So those are some options that you can do with the envelope and spacing of those components.

One thing also, I had mentioned the alternative way of doing a sketch and versus just a plain, and you define the boundary. This is where you can predraw it. You can use parameters as well. So as you change the envelope space-- so if you're going, let's say, a 4 foot by 4 foot stock, and then you go to a 4 foot by 8 foot stock, you could just change the parameter. And all your components that you're arranging update as well.

So it's a smart way to do it. Just as an example, I predrew. And I use what I call as a machine template.

So the more you can automate that-- you can create a machine template. I call it that-- where it represents the space that you have in your machine, your boundary of your stock. And then you can reuse that, and you could change it accordingly.

So, as I mentioned an alternative way, and, in this case, we're able to select that sketch plane or the sketch face. And it automatically populates and we can see a preview of those components now getting ready for our setup for CNC machining, so in this workflow. So now if you can also choose if you have multiple sketches that represent the tables or the different packages that you're trying to arrange, you can now select that additional sketch. And it'll automatically update and give you those components, give you the nested, in this case, the Arrange components accordingly to the other sketch.

So an example of a way that you can automate this process-- of course, we wouldn't want to arrange if we can't use it for manufacturing. So just simply switch from design into your manufacturing workflow. Since we arrange those components exactly the way you'd want to see it in your machine, you can do your setup and orient according to your machine as well.

So we use easy tools to select the different components, as well as the sheet orientation. And then apply your template. These are called tool path templates that you can apply. Preset them so it automatically recognizes the geometry, applies those tool paths, and now you're ready to send over the code to your machine to be able to cut them out.

So some optimization within those templates. You can do it by material. You can do it by process. You could choose specific tools and update those tools. And then, again, we can process, mimic exactly how the CNC machine is going to run, and then postprocess output.

Choose your machine in the list. We support, well, I think about 300 machines in our list. And then you get that code that you can send right over to your machine.

The best part is you have a one-to-one direct influence. So if you make a change to your Arrange space or you make a change to the number of parts or even change the parts themselves, you can push that change right through to the manufacturing template, update all your tool paths, and it automates that whole process. And you get the parts off the machine exactly the way you expect inside of Arrange.

So, with that, I'd like to talk a little bit more in the 2D True Shape workflow. So we'll see some similarities between what we've done in the rectangular workflow, the difference being that 2D true shape now takes into consideration the actual profile of the parts. In an example, I have one of these speed squares.

And I'm going to choose to do a 2D true shape. So it doesn't have to be just rectangular parts and have a rectangular boundary. You could choose a part. And you can also choose the orientation.

So if you want to align an edge to make sure that that's normal to a plane, like an x or a y, this is something that now you can enable within the 2D True Shape Arrange. Here's an example of Arrange components. Just simply select that part. It now arranges them, and it takes in consideration what that true shape would be.

And you get a much more optimized workflow. So if you have some squiggly shapes or some interesting French curve-looking shapes, it can arrange them and optimize the placement based upon your initial selection and the boundary of the part. So it's a much more flexible way to be able to get those actual shapes that you're looking to do in this workflow.

So some of the differences and what we've added is capability for those true shapes. Now, you'll see your quantity override. It's very similar to rectangular.

We have the edge select. Now, we could choose an edge. And it'll now take that edge and orient it. So now each other component is going to be normal to those edges.

So it adds a little bit more capability of the true shape that you're trying to make. Flipping it, of course, is going to change the direction. Rotation override, just like rectangular, lets you reorient according to material grain.

You can also do this according to a fixed location that you want to have your components arranged against each other. The priority of course, you're going to set this for components that you want to nest first. And then they take priority of the rest of the true shape. So if you orient one or you change the edge, the rest of them are going to go according to that orientation. So it's good to set a priority on what makes sense first in your arrangement.

So filler components. Now, this is something new we haven't talked about yet but added to the Advanced Arrange capability. So if you have certain components-- in this case, I have the bigger square. I want four of them.

And I want to be able to use a shape or a component as a filler. In other words, why cut only a finite number and then have the rest of the sheet maybe be scrapped or use it for a different process? You can use a filler to fill up that sheet that you would need or multiple sheets. And now you can have an excess inventory of those components. While you're cutting them, you might as well cut additional parts as well.

Here's an example of the way you would set up. Select those different components. I'm going to choose to use that smaller speed square as a filler within my workflow. And you can see now it's going to do four of the bigger speed squares, the 12-inch one.

But the 7-inch is now going to be populated. And it places them in the most optimized way to use up that-- as much as the area, the envelope as possible. And then it adds those filler components as many as we need to fill up that sheet. So it's a good way to use up some of that remnant stock if you need to. You can also use this to optimize your sheet and fill it up with those parts as many as you need in this process.

So I wanted to make sure we spend some time to talk about some of the differences. The way we work with Rectangular Arrange using the True Shape Arrange, now which takes into consideration the actual profile of the parts, a new way to use filler capability to fill up a sheet.

So, now, I'd like to talk about-- and maybe switch gears a little bit-- about 3D Arrange and capabilities in a way you can combine this with other capabilities, like Advanced Piloting within Fusion 360. I like to start with an example. So we have capability within Fusion 360 where we can add complexity, of course.

Complex and being able to have as many variations of a design is a good thing. But, when it comes to manufacturing, it can get a little overwhelming because you now have many different ways that you can think about packaging. Now you have to maintain a large family of designs as well.

But it's a-- configurations added within Fusion 360's pretty amazing to be able to use. But now let's think about using that capability in a smart way. So we think about fabrication. We think about also manufacturing.

But, when it comes to packaging, one very good way and a good use of 3D arrange is thinking about, I have all these variables. We have 0 all the way up to 12 inches on a micrometer. I want to think about a smart way to apply it in packaging.

I want to be able to get as many in this box as possible that it now optimizes the placement. So I can package this and have it very professional to our customers. Now, one thing we think about is exactly what that space would look like.

As I mentioned earlier, it's a good idea to use parameters in your design. Parametric design is a really good way of applying variability, not only to the product itself but variability on the way that you can manufacture and package the components. So, in here, I have some parameters set up where I could change the size of the box.

It's a smart way to work. And, as you change the size of the box, we can push that change right into Arrange. So think smart. Think more of the way that you're going to optimize your design.

Think about your design intent. Add parameters or parametric design. Drive your Arrange that way.

Now, when we think about selecting those components, in a similar way we did the 2D Arrange, just simply select all the components you want to arrange. Now, we also think about using those parameters not only for the box design itself. We can also use the same parameters in a smart way to apply to our Arrange envelope.

So you have 3D space. Think about a volume. Now we can drive that in both places. Now we have synergy between the actual design itself of the box and the actual placement of those components.

Now, a few things to take into consideration, and, again, using variables is a great way and a smart way to do it. It's a good tip. And, when we think about optimization and placement, we think about, again that frame width.

Now, not only do we think about the 2D frame into which we're going to place those components, we now have a volume or a 3D height. Now we add the ceiling clearance. So that means that now we can adjust how high on the z-axis, in this case, but how high or how-- on that third axis exactly where we want to place those components.

Again, it doesn't make sense to have them sticking out the top. So now we have a margin on the 3D side. Object spacing, similar to the rectangular, 2D rectangular, we can now choose exactly how close or how far apart we want to space those components, which now optimizes the way we want to package things together.

One thing I want to point out too, there's also voxel size. So what this is is looking at each of the components. Now, within a space around the component, we have a let's say an optimized envelope of the part itself.

Now, we can get really granular on how close we are to the actual component. But we also, when we think about arranging them, we also place an area or a space around each part.

Now, think of this tolerance too. So we can dial in, how close do we want to the finish actual arrangement of those parts? Or can we have some leeway?

If there's a variation in the thickness of parts, we can allow and accommodate for that variation. That's what the voxel size is. Keep in mind, if you want to try to get really close that you can to the actual product and each of the parts, it's going to take longer to calculate. So there's a balance there.

So think about having your equalizers and how you would balance, how close do I want to be to the actual real world? And how much variance I can have between the components or within the component itself. Versus, do I have some leeway? Do I have some relief of temperature, if you will, of exactly how big that part can be?

Find some place, some fine tuning in there that you'll find that'll optimize exactly how fast it calculates versus, how accurate do I really want to be in my packaging? So I just want to point that out because it's one place that-- I hear sometimes with customers. And they're like, oh, man, it's taking 20 minutes for this to calculate.

And we change the voxel size a little bit. And, suddenly, it's two minutes. So think about what's important to your envelope, what's important to your arrangement and your design. So I wanted to take a couple seconds to make sure that we pointed that out.

So here's an example of exactly how it's going to arrange those components. And I'm taking a consideration a larger voxel size as well as some base of the component itself. And using those parameters-- so we could change the size of our box. And it will automatically orient, place those components exactly where we want them.

In this case, we can always go back and make some changes. If we do change the box size, it'll actually change the placement of those components. So it's a good example, a good use of the way that we can now mimic what we want to see in the real world.

We can use it for packaging design. We can think of exactly how we're going to make, like in this case, the foam insert, that now we can place those in to have a very professional presentation to our customers. It's reusable.

We can always make changes in our design. And it's a flexible way to think about packaging in a 3D space. I have another example just to think about ways that we would use this to actually design the packaging itself.

I use a sheet metal workflow for the actual box that would go around it. We can now nest those different boxes. So if you are working in an industry, you can use the nesting and fabrication extension to be able to nest your cardboard boxes to be able to cut them out.

Again, if you're in that industry, it is a really smart way to work and then incorporate it right into your design. Another aspect of this is now using advanced tools. Think about a way to use 3D arrange, combining it with smart patterning, and you can find out exactly how many of these packages will fit into that space that you're trying to set up as your crate so that you want to be able to ship and package.

Use some analysis tools, but Arrange is a really good use of those types of analysis tools. So if you're designing for packaging, it's a really good way to automate and visualize and come up with a good workflow that you could save as a reusable template, change your crate size, change the skid size as well. And it'll automatically update how many boxes you could fit inside of that space.

Let's take it a step further than that. Now you can think about exactly how many of those crates that you could fit into a shipping container. Now think about the shipping industry.

So how many of those different components-- and I can get a throughput. So I can think about exactly how much I can ship, let's say, to New Mexico. Or I could ship to New York, and I can find out exactly how much of my product can be optimized and placed.

Now, you can even think bigger. How many of these containers can fit onto a ship. So it doesn't end. There's a lot of different ways that you can use a range and think about it in a practical way, have a repeatable process, automate all of that, and you can find a really easy and a very quick way to design specifically for packaging. But you can also do this in manufacturing as well.

So, with that, I just want to summarize some of the examples we walked through. But we did talk about the 2D Rectangular Arrange, how we can optimize the placement of those components or assemblies. And we can have them organized and placed in position the way that you would want to see them in the real world, whether you're going to CNC machine those components, whether you're going to do this with packaging, fabrication.

As I'd mentioned, you can even lay out your shop or factory and think about having components be machines or components be different assembly fixtures and so forth that you can arrange and have them placed into one facility and repeat that for another facility. So there's-- thinking outside of the box in different ways that you can use Arrange. 2D True Shapes, so if it's not-- the whole world isn't rectangular. Sometimes we have a flavor and different shapes in the world. And think about some ways that we can use Arrange, especially True Shape Arrange that can organize and allocate those according to edges or direction for grain and so forth.

And, finally, we talked about 3D Arrange. The capability of using it not only to visualize what's going to be in the real world. And, as far as your design, designing in a smart way for packaging, using parametric design that you can incorporate not only in the package design or even CNC and so forth.

But you can also think about how that would apply to Arrange components that will fit inside of that package. How many can you fit within there? What's the best organization? What's the best layout that you can have a repeated process and make your package much more professional?

So, with that, I wanted to at least bring to the table and bring to you guys up to speed. After this class, we're going to have a Q&A session that we can now take your questions, answer them. We're going to have the product manager on site who's the product manager for Arrange and Nesting. And he'll be able to give some support and some information as well.

So check out other classes. I know there's another class on Arrange and Nesting and Fabrication. Kevin Ellingson and Ravi. Well, Ravi, he's the product manager. He'll be on site.

He'll be also part of that other class. So I highly recommend checking out the other classes on Advanced Arrange and Nesting and Fabrication. So, with that, guys, I do appreciate your attending the class.

Hopefully, it's been enlightening, and you have some more information and going forward into smart ways to think about your design intent for manufacturing. Apply some automation tools like Advanced Arrange and Nesting and get more professional products, as I've mentioned. Build better products, and start to expand your capabilities in the Fusion 360 world.

So, with that, I thank you all. Thanks for attending. And I will talk to you soon.