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Designers, engineers—let’s get real. It is, of course, important to design good-looking parts, but employers and clients are equally (if not more) concerned about the cost of manufacturing in the end. As you know, one small design tweak can skyrocket that cost up like nobody’s business, and there’s no way to realize the immediate cost impact besides intuition. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a manufacturing expert looking over your shoulder, making sure you nail that balance between aesthetics and cost every time?

Xometry just released a new app in Fusion 360 that does exactly this. The revolutionary integration gives you an instant price and lead time from Xometry without leaving the Fusion 360 platform. It’s like having a manufacturing expert available at your fingertips, enabling you to see the direct impact of design changes on a part’s cost and manufacturability right inside Fusion 360. This instant feedback makes you more informed of the cost before presenting a design, giving you an added layer of confidence and increasing speed to market.

Take a look at how the Xometry app in Fusion 360 works in the tutorial below—and yes, it really is as easy as pressing a button:

“Autodesk and Xometry share the common goal of doing everything possible to remove inefficiencies, increase transparency and collaboration, and generally improve the journey from design to manufacturing,” says Srinath Jonnalagadda, Vice President of Industry Strategy at Autodesk. “Our aim is to remove barriers, early in the design process, to understand what a part will cost to manufacture and how choosing new processes or more sustainable materials could increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and make a product more relevant. To that end, more closely coupling Xometry’s capabilities with Fusion is a no-brainer.”

The Xometry app in Fusion 360 is free and can be downloaded directly from the Fusion 360 App Store.