Although we aren’t physically connecting parts, building designs in Fusion still poses some challenges. Firstly, it’s difficult to get spacing between parts exactly right. This is probably partially due to not being used to the interface, but since there aren’t any physical barriers, it’s hard to tell whether the faces of parts are actually in contact or whether parts are blocking each other. However, this is often solved by using the measuring tool, but that isn’t always convenient to use since without creating a sketch pattern, it only measures between certain points of edges or faces. Additionally, changing things in Fusion 360 is a lot harder than in real life. With physical parts, you could easily line things up and test out different spacings within a matter of seconds, but with Fusion it is a lot harder due to the increased time it takes to connect parts, and time it takes to check if the spacing is correct. One thing that we found to be helpful is if you build individual subsystems in Fusion, but figure out how to connect them on regular robots. Overall we think this will be much more efficient rather then spending hours trying to figure out which spacing is correct on Fusion.
Next, we’d encounter issues with adding chains or treads. Even after creating a path for the treads to follow, a problem would sometimes occur where the tread would completely go off the path and instead appear to go off in one direction and trail continuously. We have yet to find a solution to this apart from just remaking the path. We have also had other issues with tread such as the fact that even if it stays on the path, sometimes the chain would overlap with itself (even when fiddling with the settings on the patter tool). Overall we found tread to be very difficult to work with in Fusion and overall a bit useless in the fact that if serves no structural significance to the subsystem, but rather just makes the design look better.
Lastly, we were simply unfamiliar with the software, which makes doing anything in Fusion slightly clunkier than it otherwise might be. We’ve definitely gotten better over time though, and learning how to use Fusion or how to create CADs in general is a useful skill to have. Practice definitely helps grow skills. As you become more comfortable with the keys and the interface you will inherently become more efficient.
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