Design in Manufacturing - Fusion 360 and the Art of Design Collaboration, from concept to completion

Fusion 360 is a cloud-based platform, and it allows users and team members to access your data and
 models from any device and any location in the world and its very simple to do so. This means everything you design and create is automatically saved to the cloud. Yes, you can still save to your own local drive, for what reason I’m not sure as this is “old school” but the workflow is slightly different, still easy but different. Fusion 360 is setup to go straight to the cloud from the minute you click on save, now its on your phone, tablet, or any PC as long as you have broadband.

As an extreme fan of Autodesk’s Fusion 360, having it cloud based is by far the way forward, this is the future of designing, team sharing, customer collaboration, design reviewing and I believe all other software’s are going to have to follow suit, it’s just a matter of time. Having access to all your designs and assemblies at ease just makes life so simple and makes our jobs a lot easier and more efficient.

Let’s look at the benefits a cloud-based platform can bring to your design developments and contribute to your workflows. The standard product development can be a long-drawn-out process with many steps forward and backwards. Each person has a team contribution to make that is essential to how the end result looks and to how it will work in the real world.

The product owners, internal customers and external clients all have an opinion on how it will be viewed too. The designers can be near what they think is the finish line before other members of the team send the project back to an earlier version of worse yet, back to the very start as direction was not strong starting off. This causes frustration in the teams within the team and across departments.

This is where Fusion 360 shines and brings the project along allowing and ensuring all members to have full visibility on where the project is at a live state. Everyone sees how the designs are evolving and where its heading at any given moment. This eradicates delays and moves the project along swimmingly with full transparency for everyone involved. This is where the cloud-based platform comes into play, anybody that is part of the project can check in on progress and view the live models and assemblies making sure that it’s going according to the specifications required. All invited members to the project will have access to the designs weather they have Fusion 360 or not. They will be able to view them through any browser, smart phone, or tablet from any location, anytime. The actions, participation, and collaboration can flow continuously. Timelines are kept, budgets are met, and mistakes are reduced, teams are working smarter and more efficiently is a more positive environment.

Fusion 360 integrates CAD, CAM, CAE, and PCB software all in the one package, combining all the different areas of design into one environment. This enhances how effectively and productively they can do so as they all blend within each other. A design is modified, all the other environments have now been notified that there was a change and maybe all other departments may need to just review their input and make sure all is correct before moving onto the next stage of the design.

There are so many positives that Fusion 360 has thought of and integrated as a platform, it really is seeing to believing, or in this case, using to believing. Having all designers and engineers all in the one software on a live version of the designs makes life so much easier and work so much smarter. No more losing track of different version, models, programs, simulations, and other areas that all other software’s fall down at. Connect ability is a huge step into the future of how designing and sustainability is moving forward.

If you want to bring Fusion 360 into your design processes, take advantage of software you may already have invested in or take it to the next level, then please contact us in Symetri Ireland.