The best way to learn Fusion 360 is to dive in and try it. In my opinion the effort involved in learning Fusion 360 is well worth it because it is very capable and it’s free. This is an open ended question, but to just get you started I am going to demonstrate in this article the minimum amount of knowledge needed to create basic toolpaths. If you want to find Autodesk’s knowledge base just click the ‘?’ in the top right hand corner of the Fusion 360 user interface. The majority of the tutorials I have seen neglect this area and concentrate on the design aspect only. The emphasis on this tutorial and any I do after this will be on creating toolpaths for a cnc machine.

You will only have to understand a few of Fusion 360’s capabilities to get creating your projects. This introduction is titled ‘Fusion 360 basics’ because you don’t have to learn everything about this software to use it for creating your toolpaths. I will design this sign and create G Code for it in this tutorial This article will show you a step by step process for producing your own G Code using Fusion 360. No sudden, aggressive sharp corner movements meant that the outcome was just what I was looking for.This is the first in a series of Fusion 360 training articles dedicated to teaching the basics of Fusion 360. However, once I selected Morphed Spiral the resulting toolpath was perfect. I’d experimented with a few toolpaths but, due to the complexity of the surface, I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the result. well because as a hill-runner who doesn’t love a good mountain! Helvellyn Toolpaths I used this feature recently when creating a toolpath for finish machining a topography data file of Helvellyn, a mountain in the Lake District, because…. The toolpath is different to other 3D strategies such as Scallop for example, in that the toolpath generated is much smoother with fewer sharp corners, therefore achieving superior results on shapes which are deemed to be freeform or organic. It’s a 3D machining strategy perfect for finishing complex surfaces. One particular favourite of mine, however, is Morphed Spiral. You can choose from Parallel, Scallop, Contour etc. The list of 3D machining strategies available within Fusion and Inventor is extensive to say the least. Written by Stephen Hall, Fusion, Inventor and CAM Applications Engineer

Fusion 360 milling