Stage 1: Foundations

Goal#

After this stage you can open Fusion, find any part of the window without hunting, move around a model confidently, set up a design in the right units, and draw a sketch that is fully defined: every line and circle sized and positioned by dimensions and constraints, so it does exactly what you tell it and nothing else.

Why this matters for product design: every physical product starts as a handful of flat profiles. A phone stand, an enclosure, a bracket, a knob: each is a sketch that someone decided how to size. If the sketch is vague (loose lines that drift when you touch them), every later feature inherits the vagueness, and changing a size at the end of the project means rebuilding by hand. A learner who can build a fully constrained, parameter-driven sketch can change a product's size in seconds, which is exactly what you need when a client says "make it 5 mm wider".

This stage is about habits more than commands. Read each page, then do the work; do not skip the practice, because reading alone does not build muscle memory.

Before you start#

• A working Fusion install, signed in. The free personal-use licence is enough for everything in this path unless a task is marked "Optional (extension required)".
• A three-button mouse is strongly recommended. Without a middle button, you can use the Orbit, Pan and Zoom tools on the Navigation bar instead.
• No prior CAD experience is assumed. If you have used another CAD package, still do the practice: Fusion's sketch colors and constraint workflow are worth learning on their own terms.
• Set aside roughly 8 to 12 hours across several sessions. Short, frequent sessions work better than one long one.

Learn#

Read in this order. Each page ends with a practice exercise; you will do those in the next section.

• Read User Interface Tour - name every region of the window (application bar, toolbar, browser, canvas, timeline, navigation bar) before you click anything.
• Read ViewCube and Navigation - orbit, pan, zoom and jump to standard views; you will do this thousands of times. Focus on the mouse table and the ViewCube context menu.
• Read Units and Document Settings - set units correctly now, because wrong units are the most common cause of a part that prints or cuts at the wrong size. Focus on "How unit entry works".
• Read Sketch Basics - sketch planes, profiles, finishing a sketch, and the colors Fusion uses to show what is defined.
• Read Lines and Arcs - the tools for open and chained geometry, including typed entry.
• Read Shapes - rectangles, circles, polygons and slots. Slots matter later for adjustable mounting holes.
• Read Constraints - what each constraint does. Study Coincident, Horizontal/Vertical, Equal, Midpoint, Concentric and Symmetry carefully and skim the rest.
• Read Dimensions - the Sketch Dimension tool, expressions, naming dimensions and the difference between driving and driven dimensions.
• Read Fully Constrained Sketches - the systematic method for getting every element to turn black. Focus on "Step by step: the systematic method" and "Strategies that save effort".
• Read Parameters dialog - only the opening sections on user parameters, because the checkpoint project uses them. You will study parametric design properly in a later stage.

Reading note: Constraints and Fully Constrained Sketches are the heart of this stage. If you only have energy to read two pages slowly, read those.

Practice#

Do each page's own exercise first. They are short and each ends with an "Expected result" you can check yourself against.

• Do the practice exercise on User Interface Tour (save a design, toggle panels, rename a body, change visual style, find Fillet with S).
• Do the practice exercise on ViewCube and Navigation (reach Top, Front, Right and an isometric corner using only the ViewCube).
• Do the practice exercise on Units and Document Settings (type values with and without units, add a wall user parameter).
• Do the practice exercise on Sketch Basics (a 60 by 40 mm plate with a 10 mm hole, then change the width to 80 mm).
• Do the practice exercise on Lines and Arcs.
• Do the practice exercise on Shapes.
• Do the practice exercise on Constraints (build a rectangle from four loose lines using only constraints).
• Do the practice exercise on Dimensions (a rectangle and circle driven by Width and Height parameters).
• Do the practice exercise on Fully Constrained Sketches (the 100 by 60 mm profile with a slot and two holes).

Then run these drills. Each should take 10 to 20 minutes. Repeat any drill you cannot finish in the time given.

• Drill A, navigation (10 minutes). Create any box. From a random orbit, reach the Top, Front and Right views using only the ViewCube, then return Home. Repeat using only the mouse (pan, orbit, zoom) and finish with Fit to frame the whole model. Target: each view reached in under 10 seconds.
• Drill B, units (10 minutes). In a design set to millimeters, sketch a rectangle and dimension one side by typing 2.5 in. Read the value Fusion shows, which should be 63.5 mm (2.5 x 25.4). Type 50 for the other side and confirm it is read as 50 mm. Write one sentence explaining what happens when you type a number with no unit.
• Drill C, the three-dimension rectangle (15 minutes). Draw a 60 by 40 mm rectangle with a 10 mm circle exactly in its center. Using construction diagonals with Midpoint and Coincident (as in the Constraints exercise), get the whole sketch black with only three dimensions: width, height and circle diameter. Prove it by dragging each element and seeing nothing move.
• Drill D, count the freedom (20 minutes). Draw a slot (width 10 mm, centers 40 mm apart) near the origin. Before adding any constraint, predict how many dimensions plus constraints it needs to turn black. Add them one at a time, watching which element changes color after each. Compare your prediction with the "Degrees of freedom" section of Fully Constrained Sketches.

Checkpoint project#

Project: the simple L-bracket. Work through Tutorial 1: A Simple L-Bracket from start to finish. It uses what you have learned here, plus the Extrude, Hole and Fillet commands that the tutorial walks you through (you will study those properly in Stage 2). Estimated time: 40 to 60 minutes for the tutorial, then 30 to 45 minutes for the variation.

Do the tutorial exactly first, so you know what "right" looks like. Then make a variation without following the steps.

Variation brief. The client now wants the same bracket in 5 mm material, 70 mm wide, with a 50 mm upright. The holes in the upright must stay centered across the width, and everything else must still work.

• Complete the tutorial and save it as L-Bracket, with named parameters for thickness, width and both leg lengths.
• Save a copy as L-Bracket-V2 and make the variation by changing parameters and sketch dimensions, not by redrawing.
• Confirm that every sketch in the timeline is fully constrained (all geometry black) and no feature shows an error.
• Use Inspect > Measure to confirm the new thickness (5 mm), width (70 mm) and upright height (50 mm).
• Confirm the two upright holes are still centered across the width, and the two slots are still centered on the base leg.
• Write three lines in your notes: what you changed, what broke (if anything), and how you fixed it.

Challenges#

These are open design briefs. Use the Learn pages for reference; no steps are provided. For each, save the file, name the sketches meaningfully, and use named parameters for every size the client might change. You need Extrude to turn the profiles into parts; the bracket tutorial shows the minimum. If you get stuck, read the page the hint points to before looking anywhere else.

Challenge 1: Calibration plate#

Brief. A workshop wants a flat test plate to check a 3D printer's hole accuracy. It carries four mounting holes in a rectangular layout, and the client will want to tweak the hole size after the first print.

Constraints. Plate 80 mm long, 50 mm wide, 5 mm thick, millimeter units. Four through holes, 6 mm diameter, each 10 mm from the nearest two edges. Hole size and edge margin must each be a named user parameter. Printed holes usually need a few tenths of a millimeter of extra clearance (typical), so the client will change the diameter in 0.1 mm steps.

Deliverables.

• One fully constrained sketch containing the outline and all four holes.
• A 5 mm extruded plate with four holes.
• Parameters named hole_d and margin.

Self-check.

• Hole centers are 60 mm apart along the length (80 - 2 x 10) and 30 mm apart across the width (50 - 2 x 10); read this off with Measure.
• All sketch geometry is black.
• Changing margin to 12 mm moves all four holes; the centers are now 56 mm and 26 mm apart.
• Changing hole_d to 6.4 mm updates all four holes at once.

Stretch. Make all four holes depend on a single sketched hole using the sketch's symmetry or mirror tools, so only one hole carries a diameter dimension.

Hint: see Fully Constrained Sketches for "Use symmetry and mirror", and Dimensions for parameters.

Challenge 2: Stadium-shaped badge#

Brief. A maker-market stall wants a rounded name badge that hangs from two screws on a board.

Constraints. The outline is a stadium (slot) shape 90 mm long and 30 mm wide, 3 mm thick. That is a slot with 60 mm center-to-center distance and 30 mm width. Two through holes, 4 mm diameter, whose centers sit exactly at the two end-arc centers. No dimension may locate the holes directly: they must be tied to the arcs by a constraint.

Deliverables.

• A slot sketch with the outline and both holes.
• An extruded 3 mm badge.
• The slot center-to-center distance and width as named parameters.

Self-check.

• Overall length measures 90 mm and overall width 30 mm.
• Hole centers are 60 mm apart.
• Changing the slot width to 24 mm keeps the holes centered in their end arcs with no further edits.
• The sketch is fully constrained and the holes carry only a diameter dimension.

Stretch. Add a 20 mm by 8 mm window for a paper insert, centered on the badge.

Hint: see Shapes for slot types and Constraints for Concentric.

Challenge 3: Inch drawing, metric part#

Brief. A client in the United States emails a hand sketch: a plate 3 inches by 2 inches with four 1/4 inch holes. Your shop works in millimeters and the machinist reads the file in millimeters.

Constraints. Plate 3 in by 2 in, 0.25 in thick. Four holes 1/4 in diameter, centers 0.5 in from each edge. Your design must stay in millimeters. Do not convert by hand: enter the values with their units.

Deliverables.

• A millimeter design with the plate extruded.
• A note listing each dimension in both inches and millimeters.

Self-check.

• The plate measures 76.2 mm by 50.8 mm (3 x 25.4 and 2 x 25.4), 6.35 mm thick.
• Hole diameter measures 6.35 mm.
• Hole centers are 12.7 mm from each edge.
• The document units are still millimeters.

Stretch. Add a user parameter stock for the plate thickness and show that changing it from 0.25 in to 0.375 in gives 9.525 mm.

Hint: see Units and Document Settings, "How unit entry works".

Challenge 4: Cable comb#

Brief. A desk accessory keeps three cables from tangling at the edge of a desk. Cables slide down into slots cut from the top edge of a small block.

Constraints. Block 100 mm long, 30 mm tall, 6 mm thick (typical for a rigid printed part). Three slots, each 8 mm wide and 12 mm deep from the top edge, at a 30 mm pitch, symmetric about the block's center (slot centers at 20, 50 and 80 mm from the left end). Use one slot-width dimension and one pitch dimension only.

Deliverables.

• One sketch of the block outline with the three slots as part of the profile (a comb, not a rectangle with separate cuts).
• The extruded block.

Self-check.

• The material between slots measures 22 mm (30 - 8) and the end margins 16 mm (20 - 4).
• The remaining material under the slots is 18 mm (30 - 12).
• Changing the slot width to 10 mm widens all three slots equally and keeps them centered.
• The sketch is fully constrained.

Stretch. Make a four-slot version at a 22 mm pitch using the sketch's rectangular pattern, and check it stays symmetric.

Hint: see Fully Constrained Sketches and the Equal constraint on Constraints.

Challenge 5: Sensor board mount#

Brief. A small sensor board must be held flat on a wall. You are designing the plate it screws onto.

Constraints. The board is 40 mm by 25 mm with four mounting holes, each 3.5 mm in from both nearest board edges. Your plate is 50 mm by 35 mm, 3 mm thick, with four 3.4 mm clearance holes (typical for M3 screws) positioned to line up with the board when it sits centered on the plate. Plate corners stay square for now.

Deliverables.

• A plate with four holes, centered on the origin.
• Named parameters for board length, board width, hole inset and clearance diameter.

Self-check.

• Holes are 33 mm apart along the length (40 - 2 x 3.5) and 18 mm apart across the width (25 - 2 x 3.5).
• The first hole center is 8.5 mm from the plate edge on the long side ((50 - 33) / 2) and 8.5 mm on the short side ((35 - 18) / 2).
• The sketch is symmetric about both origin axes.
• Changing the board length parameter to 45 mm moves the holes to 38 mm apart (45 - 7) and keeps them centered.

Stretch. Add a 20 mm upright leg to turn the plate into a right-angle bracket, reusing what you learned in the L-bracket tutorial.

Hint: see Sketch Basics and the symmetry section of Fully Constrained Sketches.

You have finished this stage when#

• I can name the main regions of the Fusion window and show or hide the Browser and timeline.
• I can reach any standard view and recover from "lost in space" using Home and Fit.
• I can predict how Fusion reads a number I type with and without units, and I check document units before I start.
• I can start a sketch on a chosen plane, draw lines, rectangles, circles and slots, and finish the sketch.
• I can explain what the sketch colors mean and find what is still free in an under-defined sketch.
• I can fully constrain a sketch with a mix of dimensions and constraints, preferring constraints that express design intent.
• I can drive a dimension from a named user parameter and change it later without breaking the sketch.
• I finished the L-bracket tutorial and its variation, and at least three of the five challenges.

Next stage#

Continue with Stage 2: Solid Modeling.