Autodesk Fusion 360 Extensions, Partnerships, Broader Online Availability Announced at AU 2022
Additions to cloud-based CAD software move us closer to a click-to-make future
Digital transformation is bringing better, smarter, more sustainable products to market faster than ever. Too many team members still lack access to projects on the right device at the right time. And skilled workers, rather than innovating and creating, are still required to spend their time doing mundane tasks that could be automated.
New Autodesk Fusion 360 extensions powered by Ansys and ModuleWorks unlock advanced product design and manufacturing capabilities
We’re constantly expanding the capabilities of Fusion 360 to address needs across the entire product design to the manufacturing process. Two Fusion extensions are taking center stage at Autodesk University (AU) 2022.
Industry-leading Ansys simulation technology is being integrated into Fusion 360 to power a new extension that will quickly provide useful insights about printed circuit board (PCB) signal quality as a part of the board design process.
The new Signal Integrity Extension will complement Fusion 360’s growing PCB design capabilities and help bring smart products to market more efficiently. It offers the PCB designer insights into the design impacts of electromagnetics on product performance. The new solution will increase confidence in product viability and overall productivity by reducing the number of design-test-redesign cycles, time to market, and costly prototypes.
Toolpath creation using ModuleWorks technology, and 5-axis control capabilities, debut in Machining Extension
ModuleWorks, a leading software component provider for the digital manufacturing industry, is recognized throughout the industry for its expertise in toolpath creation and simulation. We began combining advanced toolpath creation algorithms from ModuleWorks with enhanced 5-axis machining and other complex manufacturing workflows originally from Autodesk PowerMill into our Machining Extension. The result: new capabilities are coming to Fusion’s Machining Extension that generates higher-performance, collision-free toolpaths for efficient multi-axis milling. The first advanced strategies include a new rotary pocket, rotary contour, and automatic multi-axis deburring. We will continue to combine toolpath calculation technology from ModuleWorks with our CAM workflows to strengthen your ability to get to “make” faster with fewer mistakes.
Two new industry partnerships bring more world-class capabilities to Fusion 360
We’re bringing sustainability insights into the early-stage design process with Makersite, an AI and data management company that powers sustainable product and supply chain decisions at scale. The new plug-in enables designers to push a button within the Fusion 360 workspace and have Makersite instantly calculate the environmental and cost impacts of a product or component design based on its structure, materials, and weight. Designers will get back recommendations regarding the Global Warming Potential, expected costs (also known as “should costs”), and alternative materials that are based on their organization’s own material masters and procurement data.
CloudNC technology furthers click-to-make future
Our partnership with CloudNC, a developer of autonomous manufacturing software, is a big step toward reducing CAM programming times by eliminating the arduous and error-prone task of creating toolpaths. CloudNC software reduces the amount of input needed to program parts. By uploading a 3D model of any part, the software determines the needed tools and their use and generates the required toolpaths and numerical control (NC) code. Our partnership will enable passing a design file from Fusion 360 to CloudNC for automated manufacturing analysis. This is a big step toward realising a true “click-to-make” experience, similar to how desktop printing moves a document right from your computer to paper simply by hitting the “Print” button.
Browser-based Fusion 360 availability expands, marking significant step toward device independence
The pandemic has highlighted the value of having access to software tools and data anywhere, and on any device. We’ve believed this for a long time. Cloud-first technology, like Fusion 360, executes complex CAD and CAM modeling in the cloud, making it possible to provide powerful modeling capabilities to less-powerful computers through a browser. Opening online access to Fusion moves Autodesk closer to our vision of data and device independence, meeting the needs of our customers now and into the future. Together, the new capabilities and partnerships announced at AU 2022 will help our customers reimagine what products look like, how quickly and efficiently high-performance products are produced, and make them more sustainable.
