Intro to CAD with Autodesk Fusion: From Idea to Real-World Part

Intro to Autodesk Fusion: Understanding the Core of Modern CAD

This workshop gives newcomers the practical skills to design real, functional parts from scratch with no prior experience required. We’ll start with the basics of how to think in 3D and then explore the key concepts that determine whether a design actually works in the real world. By the end, you’ll understand the principles that make for strong, clean, reliable models you can 3D print, machine, or use in your own projects.

You’ll learn:

• Sketching the right way: How to use lines, arcs, and profiles effectively and why the sketch is the backbone of every solid model.
• Constraints explained: Horizontal, vertical, coincident, equal, tangent, fixed… what they actually mean, why your geometry keeps jumping around, and how to finally make Fusion behave.
• Parameters & parametric workflows: Setting dimensions properly, creating user parameters, and building models that update cleanly instead of exploding.
• Understanding the timeline: What the timeline is really doing, how features depend on each other, how to reorder or repair a broken model, and when it’s time to roll the timeline back instead of starting over.
• Bodies vs. components: The single biggest beginner confusion - how to decide which you need, how joints work, and how to avoid merging everything into a single uneditable blob.
• Common beginner pain points & how to avoid the: Unintended constraints, missing profiles, broken extrusions, sketches that won’t fully constrain, timeline errors, and more.

This class is a mix of demonstration and hands-on practice. By the end, you’ll understand not just where the buttons are, but the underlying logic that makes CAD work, and you’ll be able to build clean, stable models for printing, machining, electronics enclosures, robotics parts, and anything else you can imagine.

All skill levels are welcome. Beginners encouraged.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Hackers Guild PGH