Annaka Ketterer
May 13, 2024
27 min read
Usability:
Design:
Electronics:
Manufacturing:
(v.2.0.19204) – May 13, 2024
This May we’re back with so many game changing features and enhancements to share with you. Within this release you’ll see updates focused on Design for Manufacturing, such as a new Shell algorithm, new Solid Sweep, and the ability to patch multiple holes simultaneously. As well as a new elevated Turning and Turnmill experience which includes Bar Pull, improved tool orientation, threading enhancements, and a new face mode of profile finishing. You will also be able to enjoy the convenience of a new insert component command for external designs and a new ‘Ground to Parent’ feature. We can’t wait for you to try this amazing update designed to help shape your ideas into reality! But before we get started let’s jump into a few highlights from this release:
Workflow and Data Improvements
Design
Drawings
Electronics
Manufacturing
Want to learn more about all the updates coming to Fusion this May? Join us on Thursday, May 23, 2024 for a LIVE webinar where we’ll dive into improvements around flexibility, control, and programming efficiency, show off some tips & tricks, and open up the floor for LIVE Q&A. Looking forward to seeing you there! `
Register for 8am PST | 11am EST | 4pm BST
Going forward, we anticipate that most of the new projects you create will utilize our new Folder-Level project type. We understand that you may already have ongoing Closed, Open, and Secret projects. We assure you that these legacy project types will continue to receive our full support.
With a vision to streamline project management, our goal is to gradually transition towards a single project-type model. Rest assured, this new project type will include all the features of our existing legacy project types.
Upgrading your legacy projects to incorporate these new features is a straightforward process. Regardless of whether your project is currently Open, Closed, or Secret, you can learn how to upgrade it here.
Physical properties are now displayed in Home tab and Fusion web client! This feature provides expanded viability of more components property and helps streamline your data flow between each stage of the product development cycle.
NOTE: Physical properties are only displayed if the design version is a Milestone
Now within the Fusion Upload workflow, you can select JT Files (.jt). This enhancement enables efficient data transfer with other stages of the product development lifestyle, while expanding your collaboration opportunities with other applications.
Note: There are 3 types of structure for JT files. As of the May release, only the Monolithic structure is supported.
We’ve introduced a new loading bar along with additional informational text to the Fusion splash screen. This feature is designed to give you a clearer understanding of the progress of the launch process. With this enhancement, you’ll have insights into each stage of the launch, providing a more transparent and interactive experience.
Previously, Text selection in Fusion on Windows used a generic color shade of blue, as of this update Fusion will now reflect the operating system’s accent color as configured in Windows’ Personalization accent color settings, just as it already does on macOS, allowing for a more cohesive user experience.
Investing in performance is a cornerstone of our approach, and with each update, our teams strive to enhance Fusion’s speed and user experience. Let’s take a look at some standout features from our May release:
When an external or internal component is created or inserted into an assembly, the first component under root or another component is now “grounded to parent” by default. You can select other components to be Ground to Parent if needed through right click menu on components in browser. Similarly, unground from parent can be done through right click menu on the browser.
This is the equivalent to adding an as built rigid joint to the parent component, but without the need to create a joint. This ground information is stored with the component node in the timeline/browser. It will reduce the clutter in the timeline and save many clicks for those wishing to achieve the same effect. The ground to parent status of a component will be retained when the component is inserted into another document unlike legacy Ground/Pin feature which formed a pain point. As there will be lesser number of joint features in the timeline, Ground to Parent will also help in improving the performance for the assemblies.
Additionally, the “Ground” will now be called “Pin” after this feature release.
You now can select a solid body in the sweep tool and use it to create a swept volume. This allows for the ability to create a sweep using a solid body instead of a sketch profile, making it easy to create very complex geometry very quickly.
A new Shell Type option has been added to the Shell command. This exciting new feature allows you to select between Sharp (current method) and Rounded (new method). The Rounded option creates rounded offset corners and for complicated examples and can produce a partial result when a full one is not possible, allowing you to then modify it using Fusion’s surface tools.
Previously, if you wanted to insert a design into another design to create an external component relationship, you had to go to the Data Panel, find the design you wanted, right-click on it and choose ‘Insert Into Current Design’. If you were using Windows, you also had the option to drag and drop the desired design from the Data Panel to the canvas. These workflows weren’t obvious, and there wasn’t a formal command on the toolbar to do this. This may have caused some confusion and undesired outcomes when you, like many users, instinctively went to the ‘Insert’ panel on the toolbar for this task.
As of the May release, we have introduced a formal command in the toolbar on the “Insert” panel. The command will open a file browsing dialog to let the user select the design they want to insert, and then insert it as an xref component into the current design.
Before this release, it was impossible to use a joint origin with the measure tool. As a workaround you had to create a sketch with a point at the same position as the joint origin. Now the joint origins can be used directly. They can be selected and used both for the in-canvas measure and the measure form itself just as sketch points or body vertices.
You can now quickly apply multiple patches at once to a single surface in one operation. Previously, the surface patch tool would fail when attempting to create patches for multiple holes in a single surface. The tool is now able to handle this scenario, leading to a more efficient workflow while saving you time and reducing timeline clutter.
When consuming configurations of a Configured Design through Insert, Derive, Create Drawing or Update to Latest Version, you previously needed to have access level higher than Reader to the folder containing the Configured Design. If you had Read Only access to that folder, these operations would fail. This update unblocks users and allow those with Read Only access to folders containing Configured Designs to consume their configurations in their designs.
Last October we released a new Fasteners Library, and ever since we have been continuously enhancing and expanding our fastener content to consistently improve your experience. In the latest release of Fusion, the following additions have been made to the fastener library:
Learn how to Insert Fasteners
As of this May you can now set rho value for the parent conic curve and have it propagated to patterned conic curves, this update will help you streamline your overall pattern experience.
With Match Dimension, you now have the ability to copy tolerances set on one dimension to another. Simply right-click on a dimension and select Match Dimension from the available options.
Additionally, you can click on a similar dimension type, and this will apply the same tolerancing to that dimension. You can also box select multiple dimensions to add this to more than one where needed.
Note: the dimensions need to be of the same type ie, Linear to Linear, Diameter to Diameter or Radius to Radius to apply.
Learn more about Match Dimensions
Previously, creating a technical drawing of a part with a taper or slope was a manual entry only. Now when adding a taper and slope symbol it will automatically select the correct symbol and calculate the value. This value can be changed from X:X or X% using the three-dot option to the right of the value input area.
Learn more about Taper and Slope
Within Drawings you can now optionally have a section line that spans between both points. This setting can be found in Document Settings under the view tab. Under more options there will be a check box for Display Section Line
Leveraging our ongoing partnership with Ansys, we are excited to announce the latest enhancement in Signal Integrity simulation available in the Autodesk Fusion Signal Integrity Extension powered by Ansys. You will notice that it will now include differential impedance and coupling for the differential pair traces. This significant update, built upon our previous introduction of impedance capabilities, now offers a refined analysis mode for the pair. Ensuring that the differential impedance is correctly designed and maintained is critical to achieving good performance in circuits that use differential signaling, especially in high-speed digital electronics where even minor discrepancies can significantly impact the performance. Switching to the Coupling mode will measure the coupling coefficient of the pair against aggressor signals, which is crucial for understanding crosstalk effects on your signals. You are now empowered to compute Differential Pair Impedance simulations with the same ease and precision as single-ended signals. This innovative feature is readily accessible through the Analyze Signal Panel, enabling a streamlined and powerful new simulation experience.
Our latest update heightened your design experience by migrating the default local libraries to the streamlined library.io management system. Moreover, to enhance library recognition, entries managed by our team now bear the Autodesk logo for immediate identification. For those who have incorporated these libraries in past designs, an update prompt will appear—completion is just a few clicks away, thanks to the Fusion Library Manager’s intuitive component matching. These updates will enrich your design process, ensuring seamless component selection and a more efficient workflow.
Our latest Fusion update has also improved the handling of complex data model objects. Users can now copy multiple elements—such as vias, wires, copper pours, and via stitches with the option of preserving the integrity of the source signal. This new feature ensures that the original electrical characteristics remain intact, providing a seamless and error-free design experience.
We’re excited to announce enhancements to Fusion Electronics that significantly boost performance. The latest update dramatically speeds up the loading of designs with numerous polygons and improves the handling of unrouted assets. Autodesk Fusion now performs real-time ‘rats nest’ calculations, leading to more efficient connection pathfinding. You’ll also find increased performance in loading and generating manufacturing files with the Fusion CAM processor. These improvements are designed to streamline your design process, helping you bring your innovative ideas to fruition more quickly and easily.
Additional fixes and improvements
In our previous update, we were pleased to announce the implementation of via stitching in your PCB design process. However, we soon discovered an issue where assigning a zero value via stitching caused Fusion to crash. We have since identified and resolved this problem. These enhancements will rectify the issue and improve your design experience through clearer messaging and functionality.
The Part Positioning tab of the Setup dialog has a new Machine Preview mode that allows machine axes to be moved around to assist with positioning the part appropriately. The machine axes can be moved by dragging machine parts in the graphics canvas, dragging the sliders, or entering values into the text boxes. The ability to drag machine parts in the graphics has also been added to Machine Preview in the Machine Builder environment. The biggest benefit here is that now with this implemented, you can see your part move in real time when you jog each axis, helping you verify that you have in fact positioned the part optimally.
The ‘Inspect Surface’ probing provides the ability to inspect complex, free-form surfaces with a user-defined probe path. The probing commands usually create a machine-generated results file, and when the probing routine is finished, you have to import the results file into Fusion for evaluation, analysis and reporting. The new ‘Live Data Connection’ allows the machine-generated results to be sent automatically to Fusion, rather than through a separate results import action which can only be carried out when the probing routine is complete. This means that inspection results can be evaluated and analyzed quicker while providing additional capability to stop the machine if a problem is detected. This can also help to allow machines to run without operator attention for longer periods. In the normal results file import method, all probed points must be measured before the machine-generated results file can be imported and evaluated.
The ‘Live Data Connection’ has been available as Preview functionality for a couple of years but until now it has only been available for Haas machines. This is because a ‘Machine Connector’ is required to send the machine-generated results to Fusion, and so far Machine Connectors has been available only for Haas controls. As part of releasing the ‘Live Connection’ we have provided more ‘Machine Connectors’ available to support other CNC Controls- Fanuc, Heidenhain with DCOM, and Siemens with RPC. The Machine Connectors can be found in the Fusion postprocessor library for supported ‘Inspect’ and ‘Inspection’ postprocessors at the ‘Connector’ link.
Learn more about Live Part Alignment and Live Connection for Inspection
Spiral linking mode in Facing Strategy
The Facing Strategy now has a spiral linking mode, called “Order For Shorter Links”, which reduces the linking distances in some case while maintaining climb or conventional milling.
New Option to select Climb or Conventional Milling in the Swarf strategy
The Swarf strategy now has a control to select Climb or Conventional Milling on the passes tab.
Learn more about the Swarf strategy
A new operation type, Bar pull, has been added to turning “sub-spindle” operations. Bar Pull allows you to “pull the stock bar out” with the subspindle. This strategy will give you the ability to gradually expose more stock for machining.
Learn more about Bar Pull
To give you more flexibility and a more consistent experience we have added another improvement to threading operations on turning toolpaths which is Z-axis confinement boundaries.
Previously, the confinement for a thread was on a per-thread basis and was confined to the stock which resulted in a little trial and error to get the desired toolpath outcome. Essentially you had to guess where the threading operation was going to start and finish.
Now, as part of the May update for production we aligned the turning confinement options for threading with the other turning strategies which allows you to be more purposeful as to where threading begins and ends.
You asked, and we delivered! You now have the ability in turning threading operations to define the depth of cut for the first pass. Defining a first pass depth will help you prevent tool damage while threading harder materials and provide you with more control over your threading operations.
We added a new “face profiling” mode within turning profile finishing operations. To help provide you with a more intuitive experience when machining turning features on the face of a part.
Machining of Multiple Disconnected ID / OD and Face Regions for Turning Profile Finishing
Within the May update we have added the ability in turning profile finishing to machine disjoint regions on the OD / ID and face in the same operation. This will help provide you with more robust and predictable toolpath generation experience as well as safer linking moves.
Allow Machining Down the Face and Back of Sketched Geometry for Turning Operations
For turning profile roughing, profile finishing, groove roughing and groove finishing strategies, when the model is overridden by a sketch, we now allow the tool to machine all areas within the Z limits instead of clamping Z limits to the sketch, allowing the tool to machine down the face as well as back of the part.
Improved Linking between the Cutting Toolpath, Start Point and the End Point of the Toolpath for Turning Strategies
Improved linking between the cutting moves and the start point of the toolpath and the end point of the toolpath for the following turning strategies.
The new linking moves are now safer and more optimal.
Want to learn more about all the enhancements within the Turning environment and dive a bit further into the why behind our investments? Check out this blog post where we go over our recent updates in Turning:
Geometry selections are a set of selection filters that let you select the appropriate geometry for toolpath programming. These selection filters vary from operation to operation and also depend on the type of selection you are performing, such as a geometry selection for machining, confinement boundaries, or drive curves. Within this release we have made a variety of improvements to how you use Geometry selections within Fusion Manufacturing. Let’s dive in!
Geometry selections are used to select appropriate geometry when programming turning operations. This May, we have enhanced the geometry selections to provide different default options for turning operations. ‘Sketch Profiles’ and ‘Chain’, the most commonly used selections for profiling, grooving and adaptive roughing operations, are now the default options for these turning operations.
Geometry selections provide different ways to select the appropriate geometry for toolpath programming. For selecting pockets, the dedicated ‘Pockets’ selection is usually preferable to more general selection methods such as ‘Chain’ because it allows you to define your intent more directly. Usually this means that you will need fewer mouse clicks to define the selection, and the associativity is more robust, so toolpaths are more likely to recalculate successfully if the geometry changes substantially.
‘Pockets’ selections are normally used with for flat geometry with 2D toolpaths- 2D Pocket, 2D Adaptive and 2D Contour – but these toolpaths can also be used for Wrap machining. Previously ‘Pockets’ selections could not be used with wrapped geometry, so you would have to use ‘Chain’ to select the geometry. This would usually require more mouse clicks, and if the model changed you would probably have to recreate the chain selection.
‘Pockets’ selections have been enhanced to support wrapped geometry. If you select ‘Wrap’ machining and define the appropriate Wrap Cylinder, the ‘Pockets’ selection will allow you to select wrapped 2d geometry.
Geometry selections allow you to select the appropriate geometry for toolpath programming. Geometry selections are associative, so the geometry is recalculated when the model changes.
The associativity can help you to automate the programming of similar parts – if you create a CAM program for a linked design, you can reuse the setups and operations to program a similar part by replacing one linked design with another.
If the new design is very different, geometry selections may become outdated and user intervention is required. Until now, there has been no quick way to clear redundant selections or references, so updating more complex geometry selections could be quite time-consuming.
Improvements in this release allow you to remove redundant geometry selections and references more quickly and easily. For geometry selections which are no longer required, there are new options to ‘Clean-up selections’ or ‘Clean-up all selections’ which will remove empty geometry selections. For geometry selections which are still required, but with major rework (for example if you were to reuse a chain selection to select a different feature), there are now options to ‘Clear missing references’ and ‘Clear all missing references’.
Point connection net option has been added as a new Pattern type to bar support base plate for groups connections.
When generating bar supports, you have the option to group them. When you have 2 or more bars grouped together, you can choose to connect them to the build using several different options. One such option is to generate a “base plate for groups” connection type. This base plate can be a solid object, or it could have cutouts based on different pattern types.
With this release, a new pattern type called Point connection net has been added to Fusion so that you can generate base plates where every bar is connected to another bar, ensuring stability at the build plate without wasting material to 3D print a solid baseplate.
Learn how to add a Bar Support Structure
When using “Fill Build Volume” command, instead of filling the entire empty build volume with a selected component, you now have an option to limit the number of copies Fusion will create. This improvement will allow you to fill the build volume of an SLS or MJF 3D printer systematically with one component after another.
Learn how to Fill Build Volume
Looking for the latest post processors and machines updates? This March we released a ton of new updates and improvements to many of the open-source Post Processors and Machines we offer for free. Within this release you will find improvements to post processors including Generic Post Processors, Milling Post Processors, and Turning Post Processors. We also added new machines to our Machine Library, updated our Workholding library, and improved functionality around the Autodesk CAM Post Processor engine.
Learn what’s new for Post Processors and Machine Simulation this May.
Missed the February update? Learn what’s new for Post Processors and Machine Simulation from this past April.
There is now API support to add a separator to a command dialog. A separator command input performs no action but serves as a visual break within a command dialog. The picture above shows the EXTRUDE dialog that uses a separator between the “Extent Type” and “Operation” inputs.
The API now supports the dataComponent property on the Component object, which returns a DataComponent object. This object provides some ID’s that can be used with the MFG DM API.
Fusion uses the bottom-right portion of the graphics window to display information about the current status. This includes messages and a progress bar for actions that may take several seconds. These are both now exposed through the API.
The new UserInterface.statusMessage property lets you specify a status message.
The API has long supported a progress bar dialog, but for its own commands, Fusion uses a progress bar displayed in the lower-right corner of the graphics window. This is now available in the API through the ProgressBar object, which is obtained using the UserInterface.progressBar property. The interface is very similar if you’ve used the progress bar dialog. An example of the progress bar is shown below.
This is a breaking change. This release retires the existing DataFile.publicLink property. When making changes, we try to make them backward compatible so existing programs will continue functioning. However, there was an inherent security issue with the DataFile.publicLink property in that calling the property would create an all access public link. This could happen accidentally when debugging a program.
As a result, we’ve decided to retire and change the behavior of The DataFile.publicLink property. When a function is retired, it still exists and usually functions as before but is flagged in the documentation as retired and is not shown in code hints. In this case, the property is still there, but the behavior has changed, which is the breaking change. The change is that calling this property no longer causes a public link to be created. If a link already exists, it will return it; otherwise, it returns an empty string.
We’re introducing a new object that provides the full capabilities of a public link. The new DataFile.sharedLink returns SharedLink object. This object lets you check if a public link exists and enable it if not. If a link does exist, you can get the URL and disable the link. You can also specify a password and control if the person with the link can download the file.
This May we added API support for a few of the new Design enhancements released within this update. You will now find API support for the following features:
We’ve been listening to your feedback and have been working hard to make things better for you each and every update. You’ve spoken, and we’ve acted – here’s a list of fixes that came straight from your forum reports. These changes show just how much we value your input and want to make our products the best they can be. These improvements reflect our ongoing efforts to ensure that our products and services are as efficient and reliable as possible.
Do you want to engage more with the Autodesk community, use Insider previews, and test out the latest build one month before it’s released to the general public? Check out the Fusion Insider program! The Autodesk Fusion Insider Program enables you to access the next version of Fusion and all the new features, improvements, and fixes, 3-4 weeks before the general public. As a member, you’ll gain inside knowledge of when we are deploying an update, what’s new, and what’s coming next . You will also have the opportunity to join exclusive events, try pre-release functionality, and give feedback straight to the product teams.
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