Fusion 360, my choice for 3D mechanical design in ceramics

Intimidation by the complexity of this type of software is the biggest obstacle you will face to learning 3D design (for 3D-printing). Fusion 360 is the new mission of AutoDesk, the leader in CAD software for 30 years, bringing much of the power of their industrial strength Inventor product into the hands of everyone! Fusion 360 has a lot of advantages. It is a standard. There is a simple learning curve via their Tinkercad.com, videos on Youtube, easy online help and many freelancers to hire (at Upwork.com). It is free to qualifying users (teachers, students or people who earn less that $100k/yr), the fact that software of this kind of power and utility is actually available to anyone who wants to try it is amazing. Fusion 360 (and other 3D design products) cannot run 3D printers (3D slicers do that). Fusion 360 is very demanding on the processor and graphics hardware of your computer, typical laptops are not powerful enough.

Fusion 360 can also be used for modelling, but other products are better.

Related Pictures

G-Code 3D Printer instructions

Simplify3D knows how to convert the 3D geometry generated by Fusion 360 into G-Code (shown in the black text window lower right). I have just told Fusion 360 to print this and it automatically launched this and passed the 3D geometry to it. Simplify3D is a "slicer" because it knows how to convert a 3D object into slices that a 3D printer can lay down (one on top of the other). Simplify3D is fairly expensive and competes with a number of free products (like Slic3r, Cura). It gives me a 3D view of the object and enables positioning and rotating it on the bed and configuring dozens of parameters. It is about to deliver the G-Code (via a USB connection) to my RepRap 3D printer (although it is often preferable to use the "Save Toothpaths to Disk" button to generate G-Code and write it to an SDCard which the printer can accept). The black text-edit window shows what the G-Code looks like. It is just text. With hundreds of thousands of commands that mostly move the head to successive X-Y positions and a defined filament feed-rate.

Fusion 360 on YouTube

Popular gurus get millions of views on their videos. Lars Christensen, Kevin Kennedy and Tyler Beck are popular contributors. Each of them has plenty of videos to teach you everything you need to know to get started designing for your ceramic production. If you get stuck, there are hundreds of places on line to go to find help. It is helpful if you know how to do a screen recording (e.g. using Screencast-o-Matic) to be able to demonstrate your problem. Getting specific answers to specific problems is a surefire way to progress in your knowledge. The first item to learn is sketching, if you can master that much of what you did will be modifying sketches (e.g. extruding, revolving, sweeping and lofting them).

Getting a consultant on Upwork

Notice I have done the search: "3d printing fusion 360". Initially it showed many North Americans, who typically charge $30-50/hr. But notice I have refined the search and specified India and Bangladesh. This cuts the price by half or three quarters. Notice that the highlighted consultant, although advertising as hourly, also does 'fixed price' work. And on the other jobs, notice how happy the client was and that he worked many more than the required hours (reducing the hourly earnings). At the prices Asian engineers charge you can afford to pay them plenty of bonuses (part of the Upwork system) to keep good relations. Their skills are exceptional, they will make you look good!

All-in-one 3D printed block mold for slip casting

All-in-one 3D printed slip casting block mold

The center piece of this 3D printed assembly defines the outside shape of the ceramic vessel (plus two spares at the top). This entire assembly is an all-in-one case mold for a two-piece plaster working mold. This was printed as six light-weight units on standard Prusa MK3 and MK4 printers, walls are 0.8mm thickness. The upper and lower inside model halves were glued together (with the aid of an inside hoop to line them up). Outer flanges were glued on to enable clamping the outer shell vertically and horizontally.

The membranes defining mold mating points are printed onto the inside model, they extend out far enough to clamp between the flanges of the outer shell sections (suspending the model in the center). The membranes have holes to enable inserting natch-pairs. The thin base is glued on to hold the lower outer shells in place (in flexes enough to enable extracting the plaster form without mold breakage). The whole assembly is held together by clamps so it can be used multiple times.

Links

Glossary	3D Modeling 3D surface modelling tools enable the creation of objects by starting with a basic shape having polygon surfaces and then subdividing, pushing and pulling the quadrilateral or triangle polygon meshes to form shapes.
Glossary	3D Design 3D Design software is used to create dimensionally accurate objects by sketching 2D geometry and transforming it using tools to rotate, extrude, sweep, etc. The software generates the polygon surface.
Glossary	3D-Printing Standard 3D printing technology (not printing with clay itself) is very useful to potters and ceramic industry in making objects that assist and enable production.

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