Oliver Briggs
Oliver Briggs, Fusion expert at EduCAD, highlights 5 unique ways to use automated modeling in Fusion to collaborate faster, streamline prototyping, create custom tooling, accelerate design, and optimize workflows.
Elevate your design and manufacturing processes with Autodesk Fusion
Automated modeling in Fusion is a breakthrough for design and engineering workflows, streamlining tasks that once required hours of manual modeling. While most users know the tool for creating connections between multiple bodies, there are powerful, lesser-known ways to leverage automated modeling across different stages of your product development process. Here are five innovative approaches to get even more from automated modeling in Fusion:
1. Creating functional primitives for collaborative design
Instead of relying on plain boxes or cylinders as simple placeholders, automated modeling lets you quickly generate functional primitives that more closely match the final part profile. If a team member hasn’t finished their component, you can use automated modeling to bridge the gap, fabricate an accurate placeholder for fit checks, or even provide a starting shape for your colleague to refine. This accelerates collaboration and allows prototypes to be tested while designs are still in progress.
2. Accelerating free-form and organic shape development
Free-form modeling typically requires starting from basic shapes, repeatedly adjusting faces and edges until the desired geometry emerges. With automated modeling, you can generate a more sophisticated starting form, then use free-form tools to sculpt and refine it. This approach significantly reduces initial modeling time and gets you closer to complex, ergonomic designs that would otherwise take much longer to shape manually.
3. Boosting generative design workflows
Generative design excels at producing optimized solutions, but evaluating dozens of alternatives can be time-consuming. By using a shape created with automated modeling as your starting body, you give clear guidance – letting the algorithm focus only on optimizing what really matters, such as reducing mass. This minimizes unwelcome surprises in your outcomes and speeds up the overall generative workflow, as the system builds from an informed baseline.
4. Designing custom tooling and assembly fixtures
Automated modeling isn’t just for finished products. It’s incredibly efficient for producing one-off tools, jigs, or fixtures used in assembly and manufacturing. For example, if you need a fixture that holds several PCB components in precise positions, define the faces and spaces for each component and use automated modeling to generate a custom holder. This automated fixture can be quickly 3D printed, adapting to iterations in your product’s design as needed.
5. Iterative prototyping and rapid updates
Because automated models are fully associative within Fusion’s parametric timeline, they update automatically if your assembly changes. This is a huge advantage for projects in flux: any time you tweak component locations or shapes, your tooling, connectors, or placeholder bodies modeled with automation will adapt as well. This reduces bottlenecks, prevents errors in assembly, and allows for much faster prototyping cycles.
Unlocking the full potential of automated modeling in Fusion means thinking beyond the default. Try these approaches on your next project, and see how much more agile and inventive your design workflows can become.