Fusion 360 Introduction
This week was all about learning how to use the 3D modeling platform Fusion 360 from Autodesk. Our first task was to build the box from this video on our own before class. I had some experience with a 3D modeling software called Sketch Up from a previous class, but I still found my initial pass at building a model in Fusion 360 to be a bit harder than I thought. My biggest problem was not fully understanding the shortcut keys. I had trouble orienting the screen’s viewpoint how I wanted until I learned that holding shift allowed me to move the structure with my trackpad.
In class, we were lucky to have Dan Banach from Autodesk come in and take us through a Fusion 360 tutorial. We were designing a custom-made phone holder. This model was much more complex than the box we originally had to make, but Dan did a great job walking us through it step by step. He also showed us a bunch of really helpful quick key shortcuts that made the making process much more streamlined. Through creating the phone holder we learned how to build shapes, extrude surfaces, measure distances, and change colors and materials of surfaces. In the end, my finished model turned out much better than I thought it would at the start of class. After building the phone holder, we rendered it and exported a file that we could print in the Maker Lab. I went to the Maker Lab on friday to print the phone holder and I am excited to use it when I pick it up on Monday
Human Centered Design Activity
After learning how to use Fusion 360, we continued our Human Centered Design activity from last week. First, we reviewed all of the needs that we identified and the groupings we put them in. Our next step was to break down the groupings into “How Might We Statements”. The main focus of these statements was to organize our group’s thoughts and fully identify our direct need. We had some difficulty making our “How Might We Statements” because they could not be too general or specific. Our statements mainly centered around the protection of Jenna’s leg and also giving her more customization and mobility than her current prosthetic covering.
Looking Forward
Overall it was a very informative week and I am excited to start working in the Fab Lab next class!
I am a Senior majoring in Finance with a minor in the Hoeft Technology & Management Program.
Hi Nathan,
I think Dan’s approach to step-by-step instruction was very helpful as we jumped into a lot more functionality in Fusion360 than we had for our pre-class assignment. The keyboard shortcuts are incredibly useful and I definitely appreciated his focus on them in class! I think getting your “How Might We” statements to the right specificity can be difficult, but I think a good way to steer your group is to create questions where there might be 10 possible answers, rather than 1 or 100,000. Putting it in that context was really helpful for our group!
Hi Nathan,
I am curious–was Sketch Up or Fusion 360 easier to use? I have never used a CAD software previous to this class, but I have heard that others can be more challenging.
I love the customization of your phone holder. It was also very interesting to see our phone holders in different settings, like yours shows in the picture you shared.
Regarding the How Might We statements, my group also found it difficult to create statements that weren’t too broad nor too narrow. I agree with Sam that writing questions with 10 answers versus 1 or 100,000 answers is a great place to start. I will take this advice to my team to help us with our statements as well!
I love the phone holder, looks super cool! Have you guys thought about the weight of the materials? Jenna explicitly stated that her current prosthetic is pretty heavy so that is a design challenge you guys also need to consider. Obviously, mobility is probably going to be your main focus as a prosthetic exists for that purpose, however I am curious to hear about how your group will go about customization. Solid work.
Hi Nathan,
I agree with what you wrote about the shortcut keys. I also have trouble remembering the shortcuts and understanding how to use them properly. Our team had very similar experience brainstorms. We also had a category for customization. I understand you are working with Jenna so its a little different from our project, but I think its really cool that was both settled on similar categories.