Inspired by our Freshman Orientation series, we deiced to pull together a special edition of Tip Tuesday to help new users get started with Fusion 360 including parametric capabilities, repeated commands and adding geometry.

Got a tip for new users? Share in the comments and it could be part of an upcoming post.

1.    What should I click? Not sure what to do after selecting a command? Hold the mouse still for a helping hand at the tip of your mouse.

For example: After creating a box from Create –> Box, the friendly and handy tool tip says to “Select a Plane or Planar Face” for us to place our box.

2.    Rinse and Repeat: Performing the same action over and over again? Make use of the marking menu. Right-click, hold, and drag up to repeat your last command. The same applies to the other functionality within the marking menu.

For example, to Undo: right-click, hold, and drag to the left

3.    Driving your designs: Take advantage of Fusion 360’s parametric capabilities. Nearly every number you enter into a dialog box is stored as a parameter in Fusion 360. You can open up your Parameters Dialog box from the modify menu.  I use this all the time when I’m creating shelled models. Set a shell command equal a user parameter, so you can easily tweak your body’s wall thickness with a few clicks. 

4. Adding Sculpted Geometry: There are occasions where it feels like you’re stretching your sculpted body, when you really want to be adding geometry with the edit form tool. In this situation, hold down the alt key before you use the edit form manipulator, and you will start adding additional faces and edges to your model. Look at the difference it makes.

5. Start the Movement: Having a hard time selecting an entire body when using the Move tool? Click on the body’s name in the browser to be sure it’s all selected. Now you can move the body around your interface.

Got a Fusion question? Check out our Freshman Five FAQ or tweet @adskfusion360.

What’s your tip for new users? Share in the comments and we could use it in an upcoming post.