Fusion 360 Sheet Metal Tutorial! FF94 

me too, i have used NX for 5 years and Creo 2.0-4.0 for 2.5 years...but they can not compare with Fusion is so sweet and simple to use ! it will be my next partner in my career as CAD engineer !

Thanks Andreas! I'm glad you find the overview useful.

Thanks Stephen. Hopefully the video helps you to get started with the sheet metal tools.

Thanks Byron!

Glad you liked the video!

That's awesome! I love to hear things like this.

Hi Tom. I'm glad you found it useful. Thanks for the potential future topics.

Hi Steven. You are correct that this was just a widget demo part. That being said, I don't think what I showed pushed the limits for a part that couldn't be made. I emailed a good friend of mine that runs a sheet metal fabrication business to get his opinion and he said he didn't see anything that wasn't makable. He did say he wouldn't want to do a huge production run of these, but he didn't see any real issues either. Thanks for asking the question and keeping me on my toes!

Mechanical Advantage thanks for the follow up. Like I said, I've been out of that design area for 10 years, and honestly I don't think they had changed how we did break work in house for quite a while before that. IIRC they pretty much worked with a sheer, press and really good welders, and 90% of it was 1/8" aluminum. And we were doing our design layouts in 2d AutoCAD, with some in house lisp programs for determining lengths. I really liked working with them, but they were a bit old school. I could see with a more modern press and cut flat stock, it would make doing some of that easier. Keep it up, I hope to learn more.

A sheet metal part like that is "bread & butter"for the business I work at. It would not be difficult to fold at all. I'm also the bunny that has to weld it so accurate folding makes that part of my job much easier.

Thank you. I just want to note that the numbers you see on the flat pattern aren't the bend sequence. Currently these are just bend identifiers. It would still be up to the operator to determine the order of bending to make the part.

+1

Thank you. I'm glad you found it useful.

Thanks Tony! I hope you and Vic had a safe trip back to Alabama. Thanks for making the drive up to attend the class.

You are correct, it can be used for other materials as well. In the Autodesk sheet metal preview forum, a user was posting images he was creating of cardboard fold ups he was making for packing foods.

I'll be using it to design my own small cardboard shipping boxes then cutting them out on my laser cutter.

Thank you. I should have thrown out a warning to not change the channel or adjust the volume haha

Hi. Thanks for the comment. I debated showing more about the process of using the integrated CAM tools to cut this shape out from a sheet. I didn't want to make the video too long and wanted this to be more of general overview to get started using the sheet metal tools. Maybe in the future we will do a video that covers the process of creating a setup for sheet metal and cutting the part using the plasma/laser/waterjet tools. To your question though, the plasma/laser/waterjet cutting tools do provide an etching option for the tool paths. It is possible to etch the bend lines into the flat pattern.

Thank you. I'm very excited to be here!

Thanks Greg! Hope things are going well in your new job.

Thanks!

Thank you. Happy to hear you liked it.

Thanks Paul. I'm glad you found it useful.

Kelsey Smith Thank you. I haven't done a ton, but this one isn't my first. I hope you found it helpful.

Yep. After switching to the CAM workspace, all of the tools available in CAM would be available to the user for this.

Hi Cameron. I'm glad you liked it. Unfortunately, things like flattening cones or creating square to rounds (lofted flanges) aren't in the initial sheet metal release. Keep you eye out for future updates to the sheet metal tools that will add this type of functionality.

A competent person would discuss the prints with the shop providing the work prior to finalizing the design, and would not have any surprises on the pricing, at the end of the day.

You bring up some interesting points for discussion. The first would be will sheet metals parts be designed in house, or will the be produced by a vendor? There is a good chance that if parts are being produced by a vendor that all the vendor will want is the outside folded dimensions of the part and they aren't interested in the flat patterns, k factor values, or radii that are in the folded model as their machines will use their own values that the vendor has calculated. If the parts are to be made in house, bend studies can be performed to determine bend radii and k factors for each die and material. Once those bend studies are done, extremely accurate parts can be produced. I worked for a company where a large part of my job was creating sheet metal parts. These parts went straight from CAD to laser cut flatter patterns that were bent up into finished parts. The parts could get fairly complex and I don't recall every have to change a part because something didn't line up after forming. Thanks for pointing out some of the things to think about when creating sheet metal parts.

Wrenchmonkey this isn't always possible, and under the right circumstances a competent designer will make it completely unnecessary. The specific circumstances are large company, high volume, purchasing "separate" from engineering, and part designs that are repetitive in nature. Also, having rock solid call-out's on the prints. Basically, once you gain experience you learn how and where to leave the part as "wide open" as possible. "Spot weld corners OK, max bend radius = X, min bend radius (i.e., make it as small as you can, but I don't care what the value is, I know it'll be around ≈ Y), A -> critical surface (customer will see this A LOT) weld splatter and tooling marks unacceptable, G -> non critical surface (never seen) do whatever you want," etc, etc. Use larger clearance holes and loose location tolerances when holes are across many bends, and combine that with button head screws that have integral washers (the proper name escapes me at the moment). Make sure PEMNUTs are placed on the correct part and that there is ample access to install them (or weld nuts or whatever). (I mostly work on enclosures if you haven't noticed yet LOL) *NOW,* for new proto parts, or the guy/company that rarely deals with sheet metal, *absolutely get with the vendor.* This is how you gain experience, and oftentimes is the point that cost saving design changes on already established parts are found. IMO, gaining knowledge in this manner is a critical skill needed for all manufacturing processes, and with manufacturing moving offshore and colleges churning out grads with little to no real world experience, it is *very* lacking with engineers today. This is where ±.0001" tolerances on hole locations 5 feet apart come from. As well as "impossible" parts. Sure, they are freaking awesome in their function in an assy on the computer, but will cost a fortune or literally be impossible to manufacture. I've seen mid level engineers churn out such parts. Anyway, sorry for the long post. Especially as I think we are really on the same page here. Basically, communicate and visit with your vendors (as well as customers) to learn as much as possible about various processes you deal with *_as that's best path becoming a competent designer._*

Mechanical Advantage everything you've said is spot on. In my work, everything sheet metal has been contracted & like I said in my post above, is best to be designed and called out "as open as possible." Just the opposite when it came to machined parts. 95% in house. We developed certain methods & practices to machine a part in as few ops as possible, and applied those methods everywhere. Couple examples are back boring /facing & using thread certs. All the "back" operations allowed us to machine tables and other large parts completely in one setup. Thread certs allowed tiny (comparatively) threaded holes to come off a 50 taper machine with great accuracy and tool life (at the exchange of someone installing the certs, but that labor was much cheaper). "Window" fixtures on parts going into a horizontal allowed a part to be finished without ever unclamping the part. Now, all of this was meaningless if the engineers never knew about it, because we had to design for it from the beginning or it wouldn't work. If we were a contractor we wouldn't want customers trying to design for this stuff, we would want the freedom to apply it as we see fit. Interesting points, indeed!! There's a lot of knowledge in some RU-vid comment sections!! If only it was easier to find.

Totally disagree, +Iceberg86300. I have done extensive studies to get my bend deductions, bend radii, and K factors dialed in for all my materials and thicknesses. I can get a +-.007 consistency every time with a flat pattern that "I" generated in Solidworks. Sheet metal isn't just a white-haired art any longer. It is a proven science that is very predictable.

Glad you liked it, and I'll let you know if I ever need some sheet metal parts.

Hi Devin. Fusion won't do that part for you. It will only create the flat pattern. It won't control a press brake.

Thanks Mitch! Hopefully it helps you get started with sheet metal in Fusion.

Dave Smith Hi Dave. I've used Inventor as well, so I know the features you are talking about. The Fusion team has made the decision that the only way to create a cut that goes across a bend is to unfold the bends and make the cut in the flattened state. So you won't find cut across bend or project flat pattern. There is currently no cut normal option, so we will have to see if they add that to a future sheet metal update. It is possible to create a normal cut, but you need to use a more manual process to split the faces and then the push/pull command to cut the split faces normal to in order to get a square edge.

Another option, if the cut while bent more accurately reflects the design intent, is to cut while bent, flatten, then Project/Include the outer edges of the hole and cut again. It's a little more work, but could be appropriate in some cases.

Thanks Barry. I hope you can use this as a starting point to use the sheet metal tools in Fusion.

Hi Ron. Fusion 360 sheet metal bending duplicates what can be done in a press brake. Fusion won't do bends that need to account for deformation of the material like you mention. There is an 3rd party add-in for Fusion 360 that might do what you are after. Have a look at www.exactflat.com

In the current release of sheet metal, no. These are just bend identifiers now and I couldn't figure out a way to override the numbering. I think we will see this ability in a future update. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for the question. I meant to add some more info about that to the end of the video but forgot about it. You can do some of what you are talking about by using the push/pull command and move face command. This is the initial release of sheet metal for Fusion 360. There are two additional updates planned that will bring capabilities such as a corner seam tool in addition to other sheet metal tools. I've used these sheet metal tools to manufacture many parts that have been used for HVAC units that you will find on top of hospitals, schools, shopping malls, etc. The initial set of commands for sheet metal cover quite a few needs for sheet metal parts and when the 2nd and 3rd wave a sheet metal tools are released, I think you will find a pretty comprehensive and capable set of tools for creating sheet metal parts.

Watch the tutorial I posted on that. You can change your sheet metal rules or just override them when creating the flanges. Change the bend radius to 0.001" and model the two flanges you want on the outside first with the bend position set to inside. After the first two have been modeled, click the flange tool and select the other two edges also selecting the bend position as inside. They will tuck in.

Yes, most power brakes made now are CNC, we have two at our school.

The gaps are controlled by the sheet metal rule that is in use. I could have tightened up the seam a lot. There are also corner options meant to make things easier to weld up.

Mechanical Advantage Thanks for the reply do you that no you can do a video on those weld options and tightening up those gaps?

Thanks for the question. I meant to add some more info about that to the end of the video but forgot about it. You can do some of what you are talking about by using the push/pull command and move face command. This is the initial release of sheet metal for Fusion 360. There are two additional updates planned that will bring capabilities such as a corner seam tool in addition to other sheet metal tools.

Watch the tutorial I posted on that. You can change your sheet metal rules or just override them when creating the flanges. Change the bend radius to 0.001" and model the two flanges you want on the outside first with the bend position set to inside. After the first two have been modeled, click the flange tool and select the other two edges also selecting the bend position as inside. They will tuck in.

Currently, the numbers are just bend identifiers. The operator would still be the one to figure out the bend order to produce the folded part. I suspect we will see the ability to renumber the bends in a future release so that the bend numbers would also represent the bend order. That will still rely on someone knowing the proper order to fold the bends however.

You may want to start by looking at sheet metal gauges on Wikipedia for some explanation of them. What is the right gauge? The one that meets the criteria for your design. Each gauge and material type will have a unique k-factor. Different bend dies will also product different bend radii. You might even find this will vary between 2 different machines in the same shop. I hope that helps a little bit. If you have questions, ask away.

That would also be controlled by the rules. Almost everything about the look of the part is controlled by the sheet metal rules. The option I changed controlled what happens when bends meet. There are a couple of ways to control the small flange you are referring to such as not having the bend start tangent to the existing face. There are also some settings that control the bend relief size and the minimum remnant for cuts.

Mechanical Advantage seem much more powerful that the sheet metal of solidworks, fusion it's a game changer imho

You can now,. It's in the December 2017 update.

Each time you create a flange, you can override the rule that controls how the bends meet. So the rule is the default, but you can change it on the fly.

OK, but can I get some credit for orienting the flat pattern so the majority of the bends are up bends? See.....making your job a little better every day ;-)

I used to deign brake metal, and I was thinking there was no way our press supervisor would let that design through.

Honestly I would have orientated the part where most of the beds are down. When you are cutting a part on a laser or whatever other machine you use the better side of the part is always going to be the side of the material you see when it is cutting. If you bend it up from that orientation, when you look at the part the outside of the part is going to have the rougher side of the cut and the part of the material that was sitting on the slats that might have got scratched.

Brian W Hi Brian. There are different corner options that can be set in the rule. One of those corner options is called linear weld. I didn't show that as an option ok the model but you could create a rule that would leave you with only a very small gap for welding.

I will look at that. Thanks for the info.