Keqing Song
What a year! Let’s take a look back at all of the exciting Autodesk Fusion 360 features that were released in 2021 in this Year in Review.
As 2021 comes to a close and 2022 kicks off, we’re excited to take a walk down memory lane and share the most exciting Fusion 360 feature releases from the past year. In 2021, we pushed a variety of our core features further, most notably our extension offerings, electronics design, and additive manufacturing. Additionally, we released a slew of quality-of-life enhancements in the Manufacture workspace. We also introduced many features our community has been wanting for some time, including Thin Extrude, Sketch Chamfer, and Driven Dimensions. Finally, we announced some unexpected features that we noticed people were extra excited about, especially Design Reservations, Generative Design Fluid Path study, and Associative Match!
Without further ado, let’s get down to it:
January
- We implemented a notification center for you to better keep track of messages, announcements, and notifications during your active session.
- Thin Extrude allows you to take an original sketch profile and give it a wall thickness instead of a block of material.
- Untrim Any Surface gives you the ability to create an untrimmed surface from a surface body with the right amount of control—without the cumbersome workarounds.
- You can now customize footprint pads for all through-hole package types according to your own guidelines.
- Drawings now supports Taper & Slope symbols for ASME or ISO standards.
- Turn and Tilt Orientation controls for the Machining Extension allow you to adjust the Tool Orientation directly in canvas.
March
- You can now view real-time feedback and design updates from your teammates with Design Reservation.
- You had the ability to create sketch fillets. Now, you also have the ability to create sketch chamfers. It’s about time!
- The Synchronizer Tool enables you to effortlessly restore consistency between schematics and PCBs in different projects.
- The new Obstacle Offset feature lets you offset your generative design obstacle definition for extra clearance without having to alter your original CAD geometry.
- You can now window select left to right to catch pesky fringe toolpaths while avoiding valid toolpaths that are overlapping them without any issues. (Machining Extension feature).
- Advanced Arrange lets you optimize material yield with automatic detection of material, thickness, part quantity, and generate setups, tool-paths, and NC code directly within the Fusion 360 Nesting & Fabrication Extension.
April
- You can now extend your Inventor 2022 workflow by sending your part directly into Fusion 360 with a click of a button.
- Select a face and the new Full Round Fillet tool automatically finds the two opposite edges and creates a full round fillet.
- Fusion 360 Electronics now offers connectors and battery holders in its content libraries.
- you now have access to a 7-day free trial of the Fusion 360 Generative Design Extension.
- The new Break View for Drawings removes irrelevant portions of a model so that it fits in the drawing sheet.
- We’ve added more flexibility around how you can show or hide tools and toolpaths.
May
- You can now see your Fusion 360 designs in augmented reality with USDz file format.
- When you use the Display Dialog command, you’ll notice an updated interface, along with new material and color options.
- Packages now appear in the timeline, enabling you to simply double-click a package to make changes to a PCB component with ease.
- Transparent View in Explore (generative design) helps you see when voids are present in an outcome before opening the outcome in the Design workspace.
- Fusion 360 now supports Formlabs SLA 3D Printers and SLM Solutions 3D Printers.
- The Fusion 360 Manage Extension introduces advanced data management capabilities to Fusion 360.
July
- Fusion 360 now offers Korean and Spanish language support.
- The Mesh environment has graduated from preview functionality and is now a persistent tab within the Design workspace.
- Reference Objects lets you explicitly reference objects in an assembly before starting detailed design work. Additionally, you can now use the Sync All Assembly Contexts feature when two or more Assembly Contexts are out-of-sync in an assembly.
- Edit-in-Place for 3D PCB
- You can now export all data and properties associated with generative design outcomes to a CSV file.
- Are you originally a PowerMill user? We have good news! You can now use PowerMill pan/zoom/rotation keyboard/mouse shortcuts in Fusion 360.
August
- Export files in ODB++ format, which is the most widely used intelligent data exchange format in the PCB industry.
- Flat Finish Strategy gives you higher efficiency when finishing flat regions of your design.
- Steep & Shallow lets you machine previously unreachable areas.
- Collision Avoidance for Rotary automatically tilts your tool and avoids collisions while simultaneously preserving the 4-axis motion.
- The new Injection Molding Simulation feature is for engineers who need to provide feedback on whether or not a part is feasible for injection molding.
- Fusion 360 now supports Makerbot, BCN3D, and Flashforge printers.
September
- Edit-in-Place now supports Sheet Metal tools, making it easier for you to design sheetl metal assemblies as a team.
- Generative Design Fluid Path Study delivers an efficient fluid path design while minimizing pressure drop.
- SMD Header Right Angle (Male) is a new Electronics package generator that supports single and dual rows, along with customized footprint (non-IPC derived).
- In Drawings, you can now use Break View on Projected Views as well as Section Views.
- We also announced Nesting and Fabrication Arrange enhancements, including Height Offset and Face Direction.
- You can now import G-Code into Fusion 360 for your additive manufacturing needs.
November
- You can now add 3D models to parts directly in the Schematic or PCB Editor.
- Build your own CNC machine with Machine Builder and simulate it in context with Machine Simulation is now available as a production feature.
- The Rest Machining option is now available in the Geometry tab, allowing you to use the most efficient tooling and still complete the part to the right specification.
- Automatic Collision Avoidance for 4-Axis Rotary automatically tilts your tool around the rotary axis to avoid collision between the shaft or holder and part.
- Steep & Shallow strategy just got even smarter—it can now machine under-cut regions in your part.
- Fusion 360 now includes its first Directed Energy Deposition (DED) additive manufacturing platform, the Meltio M450.
January 2022
We just kicked off the new year with a ton of exciting new features, including:
- T-Spline Associative Match allows you to associatively control a T-spline body or surface with the simple check of a box, enabling better 3D modeling workflows.
- Read-Only For Me lets you temporarily make a design read-only for yourself. You can now navigate a design while others continue editing.
- Mesh Repair Analysis gives you visibility of problems and compares repair strategies versus your model in its original state.
- Material Grain Control helps you aesthetically align your parts based on material grain (Nesting & Fabrication Extension). This is especially useful for those who work with wood or carbon fiber.
- The Fusion 360 Simulation Extension unlocks key insights of product design performance and quality through mechanical, structural, and injection molding analysis tools.
- The Fusion 360 Product Design Extension simplifies the product development process and enables an automated approach to creating complex product designs.
Please note: February, June, and October mostly included fixes. If you’d like to read the whole list of fixes, you can click on each month to learn more.
Shout out to all our Fusion 360 Insider Program members
We kicked off the pilot program in June of 2021 and launched the Fusion 360 Insider Program in August. What started as a handful of passionate users has become a growing community of 2600+ members! We are grateful for your relentless dedication and drive in helping us make Fusion 360 better and better, and for that, we thank you!
Become a Fusion 360 Insider and get early access to what’s new.
And, that’s a wrap! We hope you enjoyed our 2021 Year in Review. We’re looking forward to sharing what’s in store for Fusion 360 in 2022 with you throughout the year. Stay tuned for our next What’s New update, which will happen in February.
