I know the Fusion 360 blog is around here somewhere…
You probably noticed the blog moved since you were here last! That’s right, D3 also has other blog categories now besides Fusion 360. Check out Inventor and 3D Printing while you’re here! And whatever else is there by now.
I’m going to blame the blog moving and just say I lost it and couldn’t find out where it went... But before we hit an actual year since the last post, I thought maybe it was time to dust off the old typewriter and start again.
What have I missed? Well, we are now on Fusion 360 V.2.0.5790. Since my last update blog, there have been ~17 updates from the Autodesk team and way more actual product updates than that. Hopefully you’ve been keeping up. That’s 243 pages of updates (if you were reading it on pages, which, let’s be honest – you’re not) (and you’ll just have to trust me – it’s science). That’s 12 months of updates. So, this update blog is going to be a bit different. I’m going to go through my top 10 changes since last year.
Generative Design
This is probably the environment inside Fusion 360 I’m the most excited about! There has been an update for this tool in almost every single update. If you don’t know what Generative Design is yet, check it out here. This is something to watch for sure!
Generative Design is the coolest tool in Fusion 360 right now.
One Fusion 360 Consolidation
I was always getting questions on what versions of Fusion 360 allowed what function, and which version a person really needed. I should specify, not only from customers, but even from my own team members! Last year it was announced that Fusion 360 was being consolidated into one tier. That means no more Fusion 360 Ultimate and Fusion 360 Standard. Just one product, with all the tools. Including Generative Design!!
Show/Hide projections in the Sketch Panel
Projections in Fusion 360 are a bit in-your-face. The crazy pinkish-purple line colors, the dots and circles all over the place. Sometimes it’s just in your way or cluttering up your drawing. There is now a way to show/hide projections from the sketch panel.
That’s a lot of projected edges! So distracting..
Know when a teammate is working on a design at the same time!
This is a great update. I’ve had questions from customers asking about the multi-user updates. How do you know who has the latest, what if you overwrite each other’s designs, etc. This is a great addition to make sure you’re always in the know about what else is happening with a design you’re working on.
See who else is working on a design at the same time as you.
UI Modernization.
This one had its own UI modernization blog post. I definitely appreciate the updates to improve usability and streamline the workflows!
Mirror in a 2D sketch with a 3D plane or face
This is a pretty cool tool that I never even knew I needed!
Mirroring in 2D with a 3D tool – you didn’t even know you needed this.
Derive Designs
This was an update from late last year. It allows you to keep a link to a source design but make downstream edits on your own. Think like a single blank that becomes several different parts depending on the finishing operations.
Ctrl + # hotkeys for visual styles
Visual Styles aren’t something you change all the time. But when you need to, accessing the tools inside the menu was always a bit tedious for me. Now you can quickly cycle them using the new shortcuts. You’ll see them all listed inside the standard visual style menu.
New hotkey assignments for visual styles.
Split Body can use multiple splitting tools.
Randomly I’ve run into this issue quite often with the projects I’ve worked on. You could always have created multiple individual splits and then just grouped them in the timeline, but this is so much more efficient! Great update Autodesk.
Title Block Editor is here!
With the August update last year the Title Block Editor was released in Fusion 360. No longer do you need AutoCAD to build a custom title block for you drawings!
Bonus update – Fixed: wrong Japanese translation for Remove command in the right-click menu
Well, I just had to put this one in here. Sometimes you forget that the tools you’re using are a universal, international thing! Kudos for the users for finding and reporting issues like this that can make all language versions of the program on par with each other!
Fusion 360 in Japanese, glad I’m not in charge of checking this.
You’ve probably noticed your own share of updates if you’ve been using Fusion 360 over the last year. Have your own favorites that didn’t make the list? Post below and let us know! -RJ
Do you use any of these tips and tricks in your daily workflow? Feel free to brag about your success in the comments!
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