Configure This: Transform Your Design to Make Workflow with Autodesk Fusion 360

VICTORIA STUDLEY: Hello, and thanks for joining us. Welcome to the grand tour of configurations in Fusion, "Configure This," get ready to "Transform Your Design To Make Workflow."

Just a bit of housekeeping up front-- this is our Safe Harbor Statement, which basically says that you shouldn't make any purchasing decisions based on future development we might show or speak about here today. Now let's jump into the good stuff.

We're your hosts. I'm Victoria, an experience designer working on configurations in Fusion to ensure your workflows are intuitive, easy to learn, and delightful to use.

SAMI GO: I'm Sami, a content experience designer with a passion for creating a lean and efficient design to make workflows. I think you're going to like configurations because they do just that.

VICTORIA STUDLEY: All right. So today, our tour focuses on the key workflows and provides a big-picture view of how you might use configurations. Our goal is to help you establish a foundational understanding of configurations in Fusion, demonstrate how to author configurations, and explore downstream workflows.

So here's a quick agenda. We'll talk about what configurations are and share our vision for configurations across a Fusion platform. Then we'll demonstrate how you can author and use configurations in your own workflows, from design all the way through manufacture. Then we'll wrap up with a conversation about what's next for configurations in Fusion.

So what are configurations, anyway? Traditionally, configurations are a way for designers and engineers to efficiently author similar sets of related components. You start with a core design, like this cabinet, for example, and then define slightly different versions of the same design in a table.

So you add columns to increase variability of aspects, like the table's height or the cabinet's height, or which side the handle appears on, left or right. And you add rows to create new configurations in the set, then edit the values in each column to define the differences between them, short and tall versions of the cabinet and options for left- and right-side handles.

Maybe some configurations include decorative detail features, while others don't. So you add a column to include or suppress those details and then add rows to expand the set of configurations, quickly doubling the number of options you can offer.

And what product line is complete without offering different material and finish options? Add another column to vary the material, and then add more rows to create more variants. Now you have left- and right-hand options in two sizes, with and without decorative details, in both ash and walnut.

Now, 80% to 90% of this design recipe is the same every time, with just a thin layer of features and options that vary. Most of us aren't designing new things from scratch every time. Instead, we use templates. We make copies. We iterate to create families of similar things.

Designing and manufacturing each of these cabinets individually would be complex and difficult to manage. Configurations give us a way to capture all those similarities and differences so you can save time and scale a line of products more efficiently. It's quicker to make design changes across all configurations and easier to extend the set when you need to add more options in the future.

So now that we have a shared understanding of what configurations are in general, let's talk about our vision for configurations across Fusion and how they can improve your design to make process. Sami?

SAMI GO: All right. Let's talk about the reality for Fusion today without configurations. So we'll stick with the cabinet example a little longer. And let's say I'm designing a set of custom cabinets for a buildout.

I start by creating one design of a cabinet, and this is fine. But I need several versions of the same cabinet. So I create a new design document for each variation. That's already a lot of data to manage. Now I need to make drawings. I have to create one for the first design and the next one and the next and the next.

So if I want to create manufacturing data or simulation data, I have to recreate each of these over and over again for each subsequent design. And the same thing goes for rendering and animation and generative design, or if I need to make a bill of materials or a list of part numbers, track release management data, and so on.

And, of course, it's inevitable-- what if there is a design change? That shared logic doesn't update automatically. I have to go in and update every single packet of information individually.

This is laborious, it's a time sink, and it's vulnerable to user error. Why should I have to remember or ensure that I update each of these things by hand? This really isn't the world that we want to live in.

So now what would it look like if we solved this problem with traditional configurations? So this solution typically focuses on the design aspects of a product. For example, I can configure variations of the cabinet in one design document, and that's really nice.

But what about all of the other downstream workflows that you need to support, workflows like manufacturer and simulation and drawings? That shared logic doesn't carry through into the downstream workflows. And this leaves us with the exact same problems we have, where we have to manually update each of these individual assets with any change.

So this brings us to our vision for configurations in Fusion. We aim to create a world where you can reuse shared logic across configurations, not only as you author your design, but in each subsequent workspace and in other designs. So imagine the ability to share logic between manufacturing tools and drawings or simulations.

This lets you do things like design of experiments. Our vision expands beyond the design workspace to make you more productive and to allow you a greater use of the technology across the platform, rather than in just one individual workflow.

So what this means for you is that we've set out to build a Fusion system that saves you time by reusing shared logic to describe the differences between similar things. All right. That's enough vision for now. I bet you're wondering what we've built so far.

VICTORIA STUDLEY: Yeah, let's take a look now at what you can do today with Fusion configurations. So first, here are a few examples of where you can get with configurations today, built by some folks here at Autodesk-- a family of configured amps and speakers, a configured keypad with a full set of drawings, a complete set of micrometers, configured work holdings for manufacturing, rock climbing cams, and a fully configured turbo assembly, shown here with a full set of renderings and simulation studies for the impeller. We'll look at this one in a lot more detail today.

So you can start from scratch or start with an existing design, like this compressor scroll. The first thing you'll notice is a new Configure Panel on the toolbar, with tools to help you quickly access configurations. The first tool displays the configuration table and lists all of the aspects you can configure before you enter configuration mode, where configurable objects and features are highlighted blue in the browser and the timeline.

In the configuration table, you can add configurations one at a time or in bulk. Each row represents one configuration, and you can rename each of them, the same way you would name a standard design. So then you can click any highlighted object or feature, and a list of its configurable aspects displays in the Configure dialog.

Check an aspect, like these impeller diameter parameters, this collar sketch suppression, and the component appearance, and each one is added to the table as a column, with the current value applied to all configurations at first.

You can click the check mark at the top of the canvas to leave Configuration Mode when you're done adding aspects to the table. Then, back in the table, you edit the values in the columns that you added for each configuration row. Parameter values work the same way you're familiar with from all the modeling tool dialogs. And aspects like suppression are just a one-click toggle.

A few aspects, like appearances, are represented by theme tables. You can add and rename themes from a child table below, select different appearances for each component or body in your design, and then assign a theme to each configuration in the top table.

You'll only see changes to geometry in the canvas for the active configuration. So the final thing you'll want to do after you edit values in the table is activate your different configurations to make sure all your changes show up the way you expect. Either double-click the configuration name in the table or use the dropdown list in the browser to cycle through.

With configurations in the mix now, all the variations of your design share their parametric logic and timeline within the same design document, making it easier than ever to manage and iterate on a family of designs. This is just the foundation, and we'll talk about theme tables and so much more. But first, you probably want to know a bit more about all the different aspects you can configure. Sami, what do you think?

SAMI GO: Let's dive into it. There are a wide variety of aspects that you can configure to create complex assemblies and unique combinations quickly. So you can configure user and feature parameters to drive key aspects of your design. For example, you might configure the diameter of this impeller to create different size variations.

You can configure suppression for features to suppress or unsuppress them in the timeline. You might configure suppression for features to illustrate steps in the manufacturing process, like this cast and machined version of this part. You can configure appearance and physical materials. You might do this to create different color or material options in a product line to prototype or manufacture.

You can configure visibility of objects to show or hide them in the assembly. So, for example, you might configure the visibility of components to reveal hidden detail features.

You can also configure sheet metal rules for sheet metal components and plastic rules for components with plastic rules assigned to them. You might use this to configure different material thickness options and then create studies in the simulation workspace, compare results, and then choose the best material option for your design.

In the Properties tab of the configuration table, you can configure the part number and description for each configuration. This can carry over throughout your downstream workflows. You might use this in your drawings or in a bill of materials.

So as you can imagine, the theme table can get quite busy. Victoria, how might we manage all of that complexity?

VICTORIA STUDLEY: Thanks, Sami. That's a good point. These columns can add up fast and create visual clutter that's hard to manage.

As you configure your design, you can organize configured aspects and theme tables, which are child tables that display below the top table. When you configure an appearance, physical material, sheet metal rule, or plastic rule, Fusion automatically creates a theme table for you.

Each row in the theme table represents a theme, and you can add and rename as many themes as you need. You might create physical material and appearance themes to represent different material, color, and finish options across a product line. Once you've set up your themes in a theme table, you can locate the column that represents that theme table in the top table and assign a theme to each configuration.

You can also create custom theme tables, which are a flexible way to group similar configured aspects and simplify the top table. Select sets of columns that represent choices you need to make across multiple configurations, and move them to their own custom theme table. So you only have to define those options once and then assign them to as many configurations as you need. You might create a custom theme table to suppress or unsuppress detail features, like the collar in this compressor scroll.

So theme tables are a great way to tame complexity in the configuration table, reduce redundant setup, and maintain consistent variation across configurations. You define them once and assign it to all the configurations that share a set of common aspects, like appearances, suppression states, or parametric values.

That about covers it for the core authoring workflows. But once you've created configurations in Fusion, you're just getting started.

SAMI GO: Now let's take a look at what you can do with configurations in downstream workflows. So once you've created configurations of a design, you can use them in several workflows in other workspaces within the configured design and in other design documents.

Just like standard designs, you can derive components or objects from a configuration into another design. You might do this so that you can defeature it or prepare it for manufacturing.

You can also Insert a configuration into another design as a configure component. For example, you could insert a variant of this compressor scroll into the larger turbo assembly. And then, once you've inserted a configured component, you can always switch it out for a different configuration.

OK, so this is the fun part. You can configure the insert feature of any configured component to create a configurable assembly. This adds a column to the top table which lets you select a different source configuration for each configuration row in the destination design. In this example, you can select a different variant of the compressor scroll for each configuration in the larger turbo assembly.

So this means you can configure individual configured components to quickly create larger modular assemblies that build upon each other.

VICTORIA STUDLEY: Let that sink in for a moment. This breaks the bounds of what is traditionally possible for configurations. Shared logic can carry over from design to design. This means you can configure each component in an assembly and then configure that assembly to create any combination of those configured components that your product line might need. It's like Fusion Inception.

So where else can we break the boundaries and take advantage of that configuration logic across Fusion? Let's take a look at animation and drawings next.

With configurations in the mix, now you can quickly create storyboards and exploded-view drawings of each configuration in a set. When you switch to the animation workspace, you can create a storyboard and explode components for the active configuration.

You'll see the same dropdown list from the design workspace, which you can use to activate different configurations here as well, create unique storyboards for each configuration, and then create exploded-view drawings from those storyboards. So this means that configurations carry through to the animation environment to help you create exploded-view drawings across a full product line in very little time.

Similarly, your drawing workflows are now easier than ever. Simply create and annotate a drawing of a single configuration in the set. Save it, and use the new Switch Configuration tool to select a different configuration.

All the drawing views and the parts list, including configured part numbers, update to reflect the new configuration. Make any minor adjustments, and then use Save As to save a drawing for each configuration in the set.

So a full set of drawings for an entire line of products, like this turbocharger assembly, comes together in a fraction of the time it would take to accomplish with separate standard designs. That shared logic carries through to the drawing environment to reduce repetitive setup tasks and saves you time as you document multiple configurations across a product line.

So we need drawings at the production end of our manufacturing process. But what about the earlier conceptual phases of design?

SAMI GO: I always like to start with creating renders when I'm working through the early design iterations. So how can we quickly create renders for all configurations in a set? In the render workspace, you can specify your render and environment settings once to streamline and create consistent renders across configurations.

When you switch to the render workspace, you can use the environment tools to dial in your render settings for one configuration. And then, just like in the design workspace, you can activate different configurations from the browser dropdown list and then create rendered images with the same settings across the full set.

Now that you can bring configurations through to renderings, the visualization process across the product line is faster than ever. So while Render can help you make aesthetic decisions, how might we use configurations to help us make other design choices?

VICTORIA STUDLEY: Yeah, let's talk about simulation and generative design next. You can run studies on each configuration in a set and compare the results to select the best design option based on different performance criteria.

For example, we've configured the angle of the blades in this impeller, as well as its material. These studies compare thermal and modal frequency results across the different blade angles, as well as the aluminum and titanium material options, so that we can pick the optimal design for the turbocharger.

When you switch to the simulation or generative design workspace, you can create and solve studies for the active configuration. And just like other workspaces, you'll see the same dropdown list from the design workspace, which you can use to activate different configurations, create and solve similar studies for each configuration, and then compare any studies across the full set of configurations.

By pulling configurations outside the bounds of design and into simulation and generative design, you can evaluate and compare similar design options, all in one place. This can help you make more informed design decisions based on criteria that affect manufacturability and performance. In generative design, this also opens up the door for things like design of experiments.

Now that we've looked at the different environments in Fusion that lead into the manufacturing process, let's tie it all together and look at how configurations can aid your manufacturing workflows directly.

SAMI GO: Now, there are countless ways configurations can help you throughout your manufacturing workflows. Let's start in the manufacturing workspace. So just like a standard design, you can create manufacturing models, setups, and toolpaths for any configuration. After you post your code for the first one, you can activate a different configuration in the browser. Then you can reuse all of that setup work and regenerate those same setups and toolpaths for the next one.

This lets you carry configurations through to manufacturing, where they share common setups and toolpaths across all variants. Let's dive into a few manufacturing specific problems that we can address with configurations.

So we talked about how configurations maintain setup and toolpath associativity across configurations. Another example of this with configurations is that any configurations with common geometry can maintain joint associativity when you cycle between them. So you might use this to maintain joint relationships between parts and their workholding.

So take a close look at where the scroll wheel is held in the vice jaws. When the different configurations are activated, the jaw positions update to match the diameter of the inlet.

So assembly relationships between workholding and stock are associative and update as you activate different configurations of various sizes. This can save you time when you're manufacturing similar parts with the same setups and manufacturing conditions. This is one of several ways that configurations can address common manufacturing challenges.

VICTORIA STUDLEY: So another common challenge is how we represent different stages of the manufacturing process, which often means we need a way to defeature a design for one stage while preserving all of its details for later stages. One common way you might do this is to derive the design into another document and then defeature it. This preserves the design upstream. But unfortunately, you have to maintain two documents and manage any updates that occur.

So another option is to create a manufacturing model. This is basically deriving geometry from the design workspace into the manufacturer workspace so you can remain in the same document without affecting the source design. This still requires you to switch workspaces and enter a contextual environment to create and update that derived geometry.

So now you have a third option. You can use configurations to create defeatured variants of the same design to represent each stage all in one place. For example, this design has four variations. There are two different central bearing diameters, which make up two manufacturable options for this design.

Then, for each option, you can create a configuration that represents the part as it will be machined in its final stage of manufacture, then create a second configuration to represent the part as it will be cast during an earlier stage of the manufacturing process. To do this here, we suppress the thread features and use the simplify tools to remove all of the whole features that will be machined later.

You can use a cast configuration as the stock when you set up the part for machining and use the machined configuration as the geometry reference for your toolpaths. You might even use the cast version to determine the volume and fill rate for the casting. So now you can represent different stages of manufacturing all in one place and reference them for different purposes throughout your manufacturing workflow.

SAMI GO: Right. Another interesting way to prepare configurations in the design workspace for manufacturing is to create configured workholding setups. You might consider a few different variables, including the machine's capability, your vice, or the jig that you're using, and the material itself. In this vice example, there are several custom theme tables to keep the top table organized.

So for each configuration in this workholding setup, you can specify the jaw position-- so either normal or reversed. You can select which vice base or jaw type is used for each workholding configuration. And you can even specify the stock depth.

So the key takeaway is configurable workholding saves you time and streamlines your machining setups across configurations. So the machine is out there. I'm sure we've got the gears turning on this one.

All right. So now that you've seen what configurations can do today, I'm sure you're wondering what's on the horizon.

VICTORIA STUDLEY: Well, right this way. All right. So while this initial release of configurations is powerful, we still have a lot of exciting things on the horizon.

In the near term, we're looking at things like API support so that you can extend configurations in ways that work for you; custom configurations to improve the flexibility of configurations and make complex products and manufacturing processes even easier to manage; configure as you design, where we'll integrate configurability into the modeling tools to help you maintain focus while you're in the flow of design; the ability to configure part number and description for properties of internal components.

We also plan to expand what you can configure to include nonparametric aspects, like sketch text, joint snap locations, and whole thread sizes, completing edit in place support, improving the usability of the table, exploring table logic and external editing, and enabling project transfer and completing export workflows. These are just a few of the next things we aim to bring to you soon.

Longer-term, we have a lot of ideas about where we might go with configurations. But most importantly, we want to hear from you. What do you want to see next? Configurable aspects in other environments like drawings, manufacturing, render, animation, simulation, electronics?

Do you want to compare configurations, replace standard designs the same way you can now do with configure components? Do you want to bulk edit data in the table, configure on the cloud? Do you want to see support for different import workflows or complete manage extension support? These are just a few ideas to spark your imagination and get you thinking about what you might want to see next. We here on the configurations team monitor this email address. So feel free to drop us a line to let us know what you need.

SAMI GO: Like Victoria said, please feel free to reach out to the configurations team. We'd love to hear from you. Be sure to check out the other configurations AU presentations. James and Emily have an industry talk. Shekar and Rahul are hosting a product demo of configurations with a deep dive into simulation and generative design. Wayne has an awesome technical instruction talk about Advanced Arrange and goes into Configuration Inception, a.k.a. configurable assemblies. That'll be a really good one.

We also have a list of resources, including a handout with more details about what you saw today, links to the configurations documentation, the video series, and more.

VICTORIA STUDLEY: So thanks for joining us, and feel free to reach out about anything related to Fusion configurations.

SAMI GO: Happy making.