Sheet Metal in Fusion 360 has Officially Arrived!

After much angst and waiting, sheet metal has finally been officially released in Fusion 360.  Previously it has been warming up in the bullpen known as "preview".

Upgrade in progress!

This evening, upon getting hope from work, I started Fusion 360 and was greeted by the "Updating Fusion 360" announcement in the Job Status.  

Once the update completed, Fusion 360 asked me for a restart, and once restarted, a shiny new Sheet Metal toolbar made itself available.

Now I have to confess, this is the first time that I've seen Sheet Metal in Fusion 360.  16 weeks worth of evening classes and a full time job prevented me from having the time to really do much with the sheet metal package except for the occasional wishful thought.

The sheet metal tools!

So the reality of the matter is, I can only serve to announce "HEY LOOK! SHEET METAL IN FUSION!"

Yeah, I know, not much good for much am I?

But I did take a few quick "who needs the instructions!" swipes at the tool, just to see how it compared to the Autodesk Inventor I'm used to.

All told, I probably had, about 15 minutes of  seat time with it, so it's easy to argue that I'm not at a place to talk about the tool confidently.

So I'm not going to go into the things I love or hate about the sheet metal tools at this time.

It just wouldn't be fair or proper, one way or the other.

What I will say is that it is similar to Inventor, with it's flanges, rules and flat patterns, but there are some differences as well, such as no face tool, or "cut across bend"  that I've found so far.

But what I do have is a list of parts that I'm going to make, and once I get a few parts done, I'll have a better idea of how Fusion 360's sheet metal tool sizes up!

Stay tuned!