Fusion 360, Part 2: How to Make a Simple Model

A die may look simple, but there’s a lot to it.

In Part 1 of this series, we covered how to set up Fusion 360. It’s time we actually modeled something.

Here we provide a step-by-step explanation of how to model dice. If you follow the tutorial exactly as directed, you should be able to create the dice shown in the picture above. Once you’ve completed the article, I encourage you to try to modify the dice, as they are parametric and lend themselves to being modified.

Start by saving the file using the save icon in the top left corner. Make a project that you can use for all the tutorial projects we will cover or really just any project. Call it Project1Dice. Save the file and then look at the main screen again.

To start with, click the Create tab drop-down and click the Box tool to use it. This is a tool that makes a box quickly and easily at the expense of some control. It saves time compared to methods I will show you later though the later methods do have significant advantages. You will see a rectangle tool pop up. One of the dimensions will likely be blue off the bat, or you may have to press the tab button on the keyboard. Most of the tools in the program will work this way, in that pressing tab will cycle between the angle, length of the created object or some other useful dimension. Pressing enter will advance the tool to the next stage, which for most will be closing the tool. In this case, however, the box tool has a second phase, which will bring the box you make into 3D. Make the dimensions all 30 mm in both the first stage for the sketch box and also the second stage where you extrude it up 30 mm. You will end up with a 30 mm cube.

Now you should have a 30 mm box, but it is not in the right place because of how we created it. Look under the Modify tab and select the Move/Copy Tool to get it to the origin, which will be important later. This is a tool that lets you move objects around by selecting a pivot point and then moving an object relative to it. Start by selecting the tool or pressing the shortcut M. You’ll notice that many tools have a shortcut next to them that you could press. It is worth learning them all. You could have also selected this on the Toolbar panel. Any tool can be added to that panel by clicking the three dots you see when you hover over it in the drop-down menu.

Whichever way you do it, you will be in the move tool and have to set the Pivot point, which for now is following your cursor. It will, however, snap to certain geometric features and is normally attached to the model you want to move somewhere. You can place it anywhere technically, but this is rarely used. Snap the Pivot to the middle of a face on the Box, then click the drag arrow and select the origin point or the origin plane that is perpendicular to the selected arrow. Do this again for the other direction that applies to that plane. Once you have gotten the center of that box’s face centered about the World origin, you need to select the Set Pivot option on the move tool dialog box. Move the Pivot plane one turn of the cube over—in other words, any other face that is connected to the face you just had it connected to. Once you have done that, move the box center to the world origin one last time. It is critically important that by the end of this, you have centered the box on the origin completely or the rest of the tutorial will fail. It should look like it is sunk into the middle of the box perfectly. This could have been done in easier ways, but this method of moving the pivot is an important skill actually.

If the top front right corner of the view cube looks like the one above, you should be fine for the rest of the tutorial. Notice how I referred to the view there; that is useful sometimes for explaining things and I will be using that method again.

Let’s next learn about the Filet tool. Basically, this makes your edges appear rounded and soft. You can find it under the Modify tab. I have highlighted it with my cursor in the image. Select all the visible edges of the box and type 2 mm into the measurement box. Once this is done, you can just press OK. There are lots of fun features to change the style of your dice, like changing the Corner style and Tangency weight, but that’s will have to wait for another tutorial.

Now that the shape is roughed out, it isn’t a bad idea to start making it the right color. Press A on the keyboard. This will bring up the Appearance Menu, which may come up in full or as a tiny, closed menu all the way to the right of your screen. Open it with the arrow if that’s the case.

Now that you can see the menu, let me explain the structure. The very top is the toggle for applying to bodies or faces. Next beneath that are the materials in your actual file or were in your design but have since been removed. Notice the search bar below it and the library below that. If you scroll down, you can explore all the materials in Fusion. It’s got a lot of them, so I normally just search. Search for Paint like I did—that does the job just fine for most colored objects. Drag Black Paint up to the In This Design section. Then click it again and drag it to the body you are working on. By the way, the cube is a body, as would be the case with every object you make. You can find it in the browser on the left if you expand it. Bodies can be colored in their entirety or by face depending on the selected option.

Hover over the Black paint and click the Edit option. That will give you a new menu with a pretty standard color wheel. Make the material pure white and make it shiny by lowering the roughness and raising the reflectance. It should now look more like a die and even more so when we render it in a later tutorial. While you are here, drag a second copy of the black paint up for use later on the pips.

To be continued…