This industrial case study will cover a recent design-and-make collaboration between Autodesk and Impression Technologies (ITL), an industry-leading, automotive, hot-forming solutions provider. Together we’ll present a comparison of several mold designs across a range of design approaches and manufacturing technologies. We’ll demonstrate how optimizing design for additive manufacturing can be maximized to achieve more-efficient production times and material usage, improved part quality, and reduced part cost and energy consumption. During the project, experts from Autodesk and ITL collaborated via Autodesk CFD software and the Autodesk Fusion 360 platform. We used simulation and several design methodologies, including conformal cooling and the application of lattice structures via the Autodesk Fusion 360 Product Design extension. The project culminated in the tooling production using Autodesk’s Birmingham Technology Centre metal additive manufacturing systems, and testing and validation at ITL’s research facility.

The additive manufacturing (AM) industry continues to grow, doubling in size roughly every five years. With this also comes an increasing environmental footprint. AM holds many promised environmental benefits. From lightweight parts for electric vehicles and reduced material consumption through optimized designs and flexible localized production, there’s no shortage of potential. However, many caveats remain. How do you print parts that perform better and last longer? Is the lightest part necessarily the most sustainable? How can we design not just for the printing process, but also for post processing, shipping, and the entire product lifecycle? In this class, we’ll look at design technology and case studies that will provide insight into these questions. We’ll also cover how you can start putting these technologies and workflows into practice to turn promised sustainability ideas into reality—while avoiding common pitfalls.

In this class, Autodesk and GKN Aerospace will present how you can use Autodesk Fusion 360 software as a start-to-finish powerhouse for metal additive design and manufacturing. Starting with generative design, we can quickly explore possible print orientations and material possibilities, and build in automated design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) best practices to create designs that are optimized for structural performance, while minimizing the amount of required post processing. Once a design is selected, we’ll show how we can use the Additive Build Extension in Autodesk Fusion 360 to quickly create highly customizable support templates to generate intelligent support setups with a single click, and export directly to a powder bed additive printer for manufacturing.

Generative design is changing the way we design, engineer, and manufacture the products of tomorrow. By capitalizing on cloud technology, hundreds or thousands of higher-performing design options can be generated based on objectives, enabling users to make trade-offs for different materials, performance, and production options. The benefits of generative design are also not restricted to the world of additive manufacturing, but can also be capitalized on with subtractive manufacturing—and even as design inspiration for traditional techniques. This presentation will show the benefits and workflow of Generative Design in Autodesk Fusion 360 software alongside Inventor software going seamlessly from your CAD workflows within Inventor, to generating a design in Autodesk Fusion 360, back to having the generated design in the context of your original assembly with Inventor. Join us to learn how to get started with Generative Design in Autodesk Fusion 360 alongside Inventor.

This session will showcase how modular construction leaders DuBox and DuPod are revolutionizing project delivery by using Forma Build software and Autodesk Forma—with QR-coded, data-driven workflows throughout the entire lifecycle. Starting with AI-assisted design, participants will see how design teams generate multiple layout and system options, instantly visualized in 3D models and analyzed through Power BI dashboards to reveal quantities and costs—empowering faster, smarter decisions early in the process. In manufacturing, each module and component is tracked using the Asset feature in Forma Build. QR codes are assigned to every asset, linking physical elements to their digital counterparts.