Manufacturing in Autodesk Fusion 360 software continues to expand within the wider Autodesk community. While it expands, there is very limited knowledge on manufacturing as a whole. This course aims to level set, upskill, and provide an appreciation of subtractive manufacturing. This deep dive will focus on capturing manufacturing intent from the design, and we will cover available subtractive methods, programming techniques, and part alignment.

Laurens Wijnschenk will take you through the past year of what has been added and updated in the Subtractive Manufacturing environment, as well as show you how to use it and what you need to do to make use of these features. And of course, we’ll take a small peek into the future.

We typically see robotic arms being used in welding or pick-and-place applications on production lines. This class will cover some lesser-known uses that are becoming more relevant in manufacturing, with a focus on subtractive machining. Though not as commonly used as traditional computer numerical control (CNC) machines, they offer versatility by enabling attachment of various end effectors, such as CNC tool spindles, additive extruders, and even grinders or polishers. They can therefore be used as subtractive, additive, and postprocessing machines. The PowerMill Robot plug-in takes advantage of PowerMill software’s innovative 3- and 5-axis toolpaths and the toolpath editing features to apply them to a wide range of supported robots. We will primarily cover subtractive manufacturing in both industrial and artistic settings. Attendees will learn the workflow, from setting up a robot cell, calculating toolpaths, and optimizing robot motion for efficiency and safety.

This class will describe the workflows that Optomec uses to translate CAD designs into printed features on existing parts or surfaces. We will cover specific additive-manufacturing challenges that are related to Aerosol Jet printing and how we have used Autodesk, Inc., packages to address our needs. We will further explore the subtle differences between additive and subtractive manufacturing and how Autodesk has worked to address the philosophical differences in an easy-to-understand way. Attendees will develop a deeper knowledge of the use of Autodesk products for additive manufacturing and how they can be adapted to suit their specific additive requirements. Attendees will also learn about the differences between additive and subtractive methodologies and how they apply to CAD and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) development as a whole. This session features AutoCAD and FeatureCAM.

Design advancements are exciting and offer solutions previously unthought-of to complex problems. But we can’t forget the manufacturing processes needed to fabricate and eventually implement that new and optimized design. This class will focus on the emerging Generative Design technology in Fusion 360, and multiple ways to manufacture those designs, capitalizing on additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing, and a combination of both. The goal will be to explore design and manufacturing workflows to bring this emerging technology into the fold for potential users with varying levels of manufacturing capability. This class will address the workflow from initial generation to final part, focusing on the best practices found along the way.

Generative Design opens up new solution spaces because there is more than one way to solve problems. Fusion software’s powerful CAM tools have been extended by additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities to enable workflows directly from design to additive, subtractive, or hybrid production of parts. This class will show an example workflow to apply subtractive preparations, add support structures, and calculate the toolpath for an Aconity Metal AM machine with a generatively designed model—all inside Fusion software. Metal AM processes produce parts of limited surface quality that need subtractive postprocessing. Putting data in the center allows for exploring design options, adding offsets/stock for milling, and calculating laser paths in the same software.

The usage of 3D printing (additive manufacturing) is at an all-time high, but is it the best solution for all types of manufacturing? Depending on the mechanical needs and ultimate application of your part, a decision between additive and subtractive manufacturing can significantly affect your design approach, costs considerations, and outcomes. Join Xometry's Greg Paulsen and discover when to choose 3D printing over traditional processes early in the design cycle. After this session, you will better understand different strengths and considerations of popular additive processes like powder bed fusion (SLS, HP MJF, DMLS), fused deposition modeling (FDM), and others when compared to precision computer numerical control (CNC) milling and turning. By the end of the session, you'll be better prepared to make decisions for your products to save costs, add value, and hit engineering specifications.

Modern manufacturing technology has given the designer a large selection of possible avenues for manufacturing a component. However, with this variety, it is difficult to know which method would provide the most sustainable results. By leveraging manufacturing sustainability metrics, in this session, we’ll showcase how Fusion 360 users can select a manufacturing workflow to ensure a reduced impact for their manufactured component. Focusing on Additive, Subtractive and Hybrid manufacturing workflows, our case study will highlight how to use manufacturing energy consumption and waste metrics to select the most sustainable manufacturing method for your designs. Furthermore, this session will dive into on going research on how these decisions can be made within the design phase of product development, through leveraging predictive manufacturing energy and waste models.

With the announcement of Autodesk Generative Design, we take one of the most common structural engineering problems and turn it on its head. This class will teach you how to use AGD to discover unthought-of designs for a structural aerospace bracket. Learn how to go from seed geometry definition in Fusion 360, to problem definition, design generation, and results exploration in Autodesk Generative Design. Select from generated designs of different materials, safety factors and build constraints. Next, we use detailed non-linear finite element analysis in Fusion 360 to verify the selected Generative Design solution. Learn how to input non-linear properties for AM metals and correctly interpret finite element results. Once verified we will discuss AM (metal powder bed) build preparation with the help of Autodesk NetFabb. Finally, we will compare the performance of our new Generatively Designed bracket with that of the baseline (subtractive manufactured) bracket by physically breaking both of them!

New manufacturing processes and hardware are changing the way products are designed and made. This class will focus on how companies can use innovative DED (directed energy deposition) additive processes in their businesses to respond faster, produce more efficiently, and produce parts they couldn't have through traditional manufacturing techniques. We'll be focusing primarily on PowerMill 2019 software's support for additive/hybrid manufacturing processes, and the Diversified Machine Systems (DMS) Hybrid Machining Center that combines 5-axis additive and 5-axis subtractive machining. You'll learn which industries have lead the way in adopting these technologies and how they've implemented them, which applications in your shop could benefit from DED hybrid technology, how to most effectively plan for hybrid processes, and how to best utilize the new Additive tools in PowerMill.

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 just the world of additive manufacturing, but can also be capitalized on with subtractive manufacturing, and even as design inspiration for traditional techniques. In this presentation, we’ll learn how to use Generative Design in Autodesk Fusion 360 software to create multiple models that meet production, performance, and cost requirements, and we’ll choose which ones to produce.

Everyone is experiencing the skills gap change to some degree. With the increasing breadth of this issue looming over manufacturing, automating processes have become paramount to every business. Many CAD/CAM products offer solutions that come close; however, they leave people feeling daunted, which causes more of a setback, rather than a solution. In this class, we’ll demonstrate how the new generation of cloud and advanced manufacturing solutions will help close the gap. The goal is to communicate how Fusion 360 and PowerMill can improve the efficiency of subtractively manufacturing your parts, increasing productivity, and complementing your existing workflows.

With the release of Inventor 2023, users can now send their CAD data directly from Inventor to Fusion 360. This opens a suite of new capabilities for Inventor users in Generative Design, simulation, subtractive and Additive Manufacturing. This presentation will demonstrate, through compelling customer case studies, how Inventor users can now take advantage of this workflow to explore the benefits of metal Additive Manufacturing to manufacture their products. Metal Additive and Hybrid manufacturing can offer tangible advantages in product performance due to the design freedoms the process allows, manufacturing sustainability, supply lead time and component cost. In addition, with the advances in accessible hardware and software, this technology is becoming feasible for nearly all industrial sectors. With the connection from Inventor to Fusion 360 you can now learn how these advantages in metal Additive Manufacturing can also benefit your business today.

Everyone is experiencing the skills-gap change to some degree. With the increasing breadth of this issue looming over manufacturing, automated processes and efficient workflows have become paramount to every business. Many CAD/CAM products offer solutions that come close; however, they can leave people feeling overwhelmed, which causes more of a setback rather than a solution. In this class, we’ll demonstrate how the new generation of cloud and advanced manufacturing solutions will help close the gap. The goal is to communicate how Fusion 360 software and PowerMill can improve the efficiency of subtractively manufacturing your parts, increasing productivity, and complementing your existing workflows.

This class is designed to communicate how multiaxis milling machines can improve the efficiency of subtractively manufacturing your parts. We will then explain many of the common problems experienced by computer numerical control (CNC) programmers or owners of these machines, followed by a series of short demonstrations where we will explain how PowerMill software could provide solutions to these problems. This class will be useful for anyone involved in multiaxis milling. There are no prerequisite skills required, nor is knowledge of PowerMill required.

You don't often take an additive part directly from print bed to installation. Tolerance requirements almost always dictate the need for subtractive postmachining to ensure surfaces meet design specs and tolerances. In this class, we'll take a generativity-designed part from design to preparation for hybrid manufacturing. Along the way, we'll explore optimization with generative design, design for manufacturing, and work-holding design, and we'll see how the mechanical design tools, FEA capabilities, and hybrid manufacturing environment in Fusion 360 software can reduce friction and streamline the process from design to manufactured part.