Fusion 360 - Learning to Create Drawings.

Even as the CAD world steams at flank speed toward the "Land of 3D", many of us, even most of us, still need to generate a 2D drawing.

As I created a design to take me through the process of creating parts and assemblies, I have at last reached the point of creating drawings.

So how does Fusion 360 create drawings?

It all starts with the model that you want to create the drawings from.  In this example, I'm going to use the end table I used in my last post.

Revisiting the this coffee table.

To create a drawing, choose the File icon and choose New Drawing.  You'll have the option to create a new drawing From Design or From Animation.  In my example, I'm going to use the Design.  Mostly because I haven't had a chance to try out animations yet!

Creating the Drawing

The next screen will give you options to choose from to create the drawing.

 From the top, the options are:

• A check box allowing you to create a drawing from the Full Assembly
• A pulldown allowing you to choose American Society of Mechanical Engineers  (ASME) or International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards for your drawing.
• The units for your drawing (inches vs millimeters)
• The size for your drawing, A,thourgh E for ASME, and A0 through A4 for ISO

Clicking OK will create the drawing.  And you can be off creating your assembly drawing! 

The drawing getting created.

Choose your options to place your view. A quick summary of the options are: 

• A pulldown allowing you to choose the view orientation you want (Top, Bottom, Left, Right, etc.)  
•  A pulldown with line styles (visible edges, visible and hidden edges, shaded with visible edges, shaded with visible and hidden edges) 
• A Tangent Edge pulldown allowing you to show full length tangent edges, foreshortened tangent edges, or turn them off. 
• A pulldown to turn interference edges on or off. 
• A pulldown to turn thread display on or off

Clicking OK will place the view, and get you started.  Now your off and running with a drawing! 

But what about creating drawings of just the components?   What if you want piece part drawings? 

That's where we can return to the Create Drawing dialog box, you can uncheck the Full Assembly option to create drawings of individual components.  You'll have an option to select the component, or components, you want to create the drawing from. 

Creating a drawing of piece parts.
Note two components are selected.

So there you are!  Creating drawings from assemblies and components  

But there is one, last final tip.  You can also create a drawing from a component, by right clicking on it in the browser, and choosing Create New Drawing. 

It's another neat little trick to get started creating drawings!

Have fun, and enjoy!