Fusion 360 Additive Manufacturing

I am always looking for different ways to accomplish tasks because you never know when a new approach will be better.  It might be easier, quicker, or provide better results.  I find myself doing this in all aspects of life.  I drive my wife crazy because even after I decide on an approach to something, I am likely to consider alternate methods.  This idiosyncrasy is partly how I have acquired the 3D modeling knowledge I have. The latest workflow I explored was the ability of Fusion 360 to create additive manufacturing toolpaths.

When I got a 3D printer back in February, my workflow quickly evolved into designing projects in Fusion 360 and exporting an STL file.  Then I would use Ultimaker Cura as my slicing program.  From there, I could create the necessary gcode for the printer.

Fusion 360 added the ability to create additive toolpaths a while ago and I had it on my list of functions to check out.  So, yesterday I finally decided to give it a chance.  One aspect of this process that is really nice is that I don't have to worry about exporting an STL file.  I can just jump into the Manufacturing workspace and create my setup and have it generate my toolpath.

For my test, I used a design that I had previously created a setup for subtractive manufacturing.  I just created a separate setup for the additive toolpath.  It was very convenient to be able to have both types of toolpaths in the same file, which of course are dynamically linked to the actual design.  In my normal workflow, if the design changed, I would have to remember to export the STL again.

One issue I had was that there was not a default Print Setting for 1.75 mm PLA.  I had to copy one for 2.85 mm PLA and modify it to match my desired settings.  That wasn't a big issue, but it was something that I had to workaround.  I was somewhat surprised that 1.75 mm PLA was not one of the defaults, from my experience that seems to be the most common filament size.  When I created the new setting for 1.75 mm PLA, I was able to save it as a cloud setting, so now that collection of settings will follow me from machine to machine and I will not have to create it again.

I will say that the Print Settings have a ton of options.  For someone that is relatively new to 3D printing, it was a little overwhelming to see all those settings.  I am just not experienced enough to know exactly what to set for some of them.  I did change the few that I knew I wanted to change and left the rest as the defaults.

Here is a video I made that walks you through the process I used to use Fusion 360 to create my Additive Manufacturing gcode.

The next step is to actually print from this gcode.  I plan on printing this part from this gcode to see how it turns out.  I will post about that soon, so please check back to see my results.