{"id":9751,"date":"2018-08-21T13:19:24","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T20:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?p=9751"},"modified":"2018-08-21T13:19:24","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T20:19:24","slug":"master-the-timeline-browser-preferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/master-the-timeline-browser-preferences\/","title":{"rendered":"Master the Timeline, Browser, & Preferences"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a lot to learn on the path of Fusion 360 mastery. Whether you\u2019re working on a 3D printed project or a complex assembly, every Fusion 360 design requires use of the Big 3 – The Timeline, Browser, and Preferences. In this article we\u2019ll be walking through the fundamentals of the Big 3 and how to use them effectively in your next design project.<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/a>Previewing the Preferences<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Fusion 360 offers a ton of preferences to customize your design environment. If you\u2019re coming from another CAD tool like SolidWorks or Inventor then you likely already have an established workflow. A few settings in Fusion 360 can be tweaked to make you feel like you\u2019re right at home. To open the preferences, left-click your name in the top right corner of Fusion 360 and select Preferences<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Pan, Zoom, and Orbit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For existing CAD users, the first setting you\u2019ll want to tweak is the Pan, Zoom, and Orbit shortcuts<\/strong> in the General<\/strong> section. You can keep these at default, or switch them to SolidWorks, Alias, or Inventor.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Design History<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Next up, head into General > Design<\/strong> and take a look at the Design History<\/strong> option. By default Fusion will capture every change made to your design in a tieline. This process is called Parametric Modeling and is great when you need to capture specific features and define the relationship between parts.<\/p>\n

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Turning off design history allows you to work in a Direct Modeling environment. This lets you quickly create geometry without having to worry about individual features.<\/p>\n

Which one is better, Direct or Parametric Modeling? That depends on your specific design needs. Keep these thoughts in mind:<\/p>\n

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Parametric Modeling is great for designs that require exact requirements and manufacturing constraints. For example, you might be working on a family of products that all share the same core design but have slight variations in individual features. Activating the design history in this situation would be useful so you can quickly edit individual features.<\/p>\n

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Direct Modeling is more suited for designers that just want to create geometry without worrying about the features and the manufacturability of a design. For example, if you\u2019re just working on a conceptual model then you might not care about the connection between individual parts and just need to define faces.<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/help.autodesk.com\/videos\/RpazVtMzE61vLqiAewdnV8bfnelWqJHp\/poster<\/em><\/p>\n

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The difference between Parametric and Direct Modeling really comes down to relationships and details. Do you care about how one part relates to another in an assembly? Go with Parametric Modeling. Just want to deal with faces and geometries? Direct Modeling will do.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Feature Preview<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fusion 360 is always getting new features and enhancements, that\u2019s what our customers love about it. When we\u2019re baking new features in the development kitchen you can try them out in the Preview preferences.<\/p>\n

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Select Preview<\/strong> at the bottom of the Preferences<\/strong> dialog and you\u2019ll see all of the new features in development. Tick one of the boxes and you\u2019re ready to use it.<\/p>\n

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Keep in mind that these features are conceptual in nature and are still being actively developed. Some of them might make it to prime time, others get pulled for rework. If you find a bug, we\u2019d really appreciate your feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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P.S. Do you work alongside an Electrical Engineer in EAGLE? The PCB Feature makes it easy to connect electrical and mechanical designs together between Fusion and EAGLE. Give it a try!<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Browsing the Browser<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The Browser is where every piece of your design lives. Whether that\u2019s a specific feature, sketch, origin plane, component, or body, it\u2019s all here. As you can see in the image below, the Browser is organized in a tree-like structure. The top-level entry is the primary Grinder Vise assembly with several sub-folders nested inside.<\/p>\n

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The Browser above looks a little crazy, but open a new design and things start off simple. A new Browser will have three folders – Document Settings, Named Views, and Origin.<\/p>\n

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When you add a new feature to your design, it will automatically get added to the Browser. For example, if we add a simple sketch of a square this automatically gets added to the Browser under a Sketches folder.<\/p>\n

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Extrude that sketch into a cube and a new Bodies folder is created.<\/p>\n

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This simple yet powerful process of organization will happen 24\/7 as you work on your design in Fusion 360. You don\u2019t need to worry about what goes where, the Browser will handle that for you.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some of the default Browser folders in more detail.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Named Views<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Named Views<\/strong> folders contains several default views that shift the perspective of your design. You can also create your own custom views and add them to this folder.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Active Units<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Expand Document Settings<\/strong> and you\u2019ll find Units<\/strong>, which sets the default unit type for your design. To change this setting, hover over Units and select the icon that appears to the right.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Origin<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Origin<\/strong> folder contains all of the available planes, axes, and origins that you can use to create new sketches on. One thing to note is that this folder is connected to the main assembly of your design. When you create new components each component will also have its own unique origin folder.<\/p>\n

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For example, in the image below you can see that we have a top-level Origin folder as well as another Origin folder within the Hinge Base component. Both of these origins are independent from each other.<\/p>\n

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Origins are not displayed by default. If you want to see them in your canvas left-click the lightbulb<\/strong> icon next to the origin name.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Components<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Components are the last major piece of the Browser puzzle. These design objects have two important jobs. First, they can serve as containers for a variety of design features. For example, the Hinge Base component below, identified by the block icon, contains its own origins, bodies, sketches, and construction geometry.<\/p>\n

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Some engineers prefer to outline the structure of their design first with components, and then add sketches and bodies to each component.<\/p>\n

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Components, when combined with joints, are also capable of motion. This makes them perfect when design assemblies with moving parts.<\/p>\n

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You can work with components in the Browser by first activating them and then adding features like sketches and bodies. To do this, hover over a component\u2019s name, then select the radial<\/strong> icon to activate it.<\/p>\n

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After activating a component a couple things change. First, your canvas grays out every other feature except the component you have activated. Second, the timeline at the bottom changes. This new timeline shows features that are specific to the activated component.<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a lot more details to cover about working with components. While we can\u2019t cover them all in this article, keep these points in mind:<\/p>\n