Fusion 360: A Streamlined Platform Integrating CAD/CAM/CAE and Collaboration

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Fusion 360: A Streamlined Platform Integrating CAD/CAM/CAE and Collaboration Integrated Cloud-based Product Development Environment Addresses Dynamic Market Requirements T he design engineering industry—from packaging development to circuit board layout—is under in- creasing pressure from every angle as Industry 4.0 truly begins to make its impact. The ability to inte- grate software, logic, and intelligent management to every facet of design and manufacturing is creating both serious challenges as well as lucrative opportunities. Operating in this disruptive market, avoiding the pitfalls, and leveraging the new capabilities will come to define success moving forward. Using an integrated Cloud- based development environment like Autodesk’s Fusion 360, the first 3D CAD, CAM, and CAE tool of its kind, brings the entire product development process into a single synergistic platform that speeds collaboration, de- velopment, and manufacturing. DYNAMIC CHALLENGES Among the advances of the last generation, “Just in Time” manufacturing has changed how businesses make things. The ability to use the supply chain as a force multiplier en- abled a facility to be more productive, while reducing costs and streamlining cash flow and inventory management. The new emerging paradigm is “Just in Time Design,” a con- cept pushed by Samir Patel, CEO of Sankalp Semiconductor, among others. In Patel’s keynote at a 2017 India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) event, he points out that value today is migrating yet again, from information-based products and services to knowledge-based solutions inte- grating all aspects of business (Figure 1). The ability to manage resources at every level have been expanded and enhanced capabilities to actively guide and manage every step from the engineer’s bench to the cus- tomer’s loading docks. This integrated command, control, and intelligence (in the command sense) empowers prod- uct manufacturers to take a truly integrated approach to product design and development. In such a business environment, it is no longer enough to have the right product just as the customer needs it, one must have the product literally before the customer needs 2 FUSION 360: A STREAMLINED PLATFORM it. This means not just providing design support once the customer comes to you with a need, it means working with the customer as they develop their concept so you have the solution they need the moment that need is man- ifested in their design. “JUST IN TIME” DESIGN The ability to work with the customer to aid design and anticipate product needs is not a new concept; solution providers have been working with their clients since the invention of sales calls. However, the ability to more completely integrate the design effort with a company’s manufacturing capabilities and supply chain can deliver savings and infrastructure optimization previously unob- tainable by legacy technologies. A truly integrated solution like Autodesk’s Fusion 360 enables a single team to design, test, and manufacture in a unified work environment that gives every participant full access to all of the tool’s features and capabilities. Its Cloud-based user interface allows workers to provide creative input in real time to everyone else involved in the project, delivering immediate results over solutions that require multiple software products and communi- cation bottlenecks. AGGREGATION IS NOT INTEGRATION One of the biggest blocks to creative collaboration and team project development is the need for everyone to sync information with one another, often between separate development environments. Email is often the most com- monly used collaboration mechanic, even between people using similar software products, often to ensure clarity be- tween collaborators using similar-but-different tools. Many software products enable dynamic updates between users, but in the case of cross-platform collab- oration efforts, unless the software has complete data file interchangeability, the effectiveness becomes signifi- cantly reduced. The worlds of CAD, CAM, and CAE are just different enough that seamless software integration is not just a matter of having the ability to send work files to one another. CLOUD-BASED FUNCTIONALITY AS FORCE MULTIPLIER The key is to fuse together multiple disciplines. In a tradi- tional workflow, you would design and then simulate in a different tool, and do your digital manufacturing in an- other tool, all separated processes that slowed down the development process. A truly integrated solution enables everyone to use all as- pects of functionality for all modules within a system: The goal of seamless collaboration can only exist in a seam- less work environment. Fusion 360 is the first integrated package to provide full collaboration compatibility for true real-time development. The fact that Fusion 360 is a cloud-based tool makes con- necting different people and personas even easier: Instead of sending files around, the tool grants access. So not only can you perform multiple disciplines, you can bring the people that are performing those functions in and out of the project with ease. CASE IN POINT: SWISSOMATION An example of Fusion 360’s effectiveness to a development effort can be found with precision machinist Christian Welch, president of Swissomation, a micromachining specialty manufacturer. All of Swissomation’s CNC pro- gramming for its milling machines is done in Fusion 360. According to Welch, the ease of use of Fusion 360 fur- ther aids creativity. “For really difficult milling, we can grab from Fusion 360, and then paste that code in. That’s easier than using the older legacy software that’s been around for a long time. The workflows in Fusion are just much faster.” The collaborative power also is a force multiplier, as Welch points out, “The cloud functionality is a huge thing for me because I’m able to access data and keep up with the en- gineers on the projects they’re working on, even when I’m not in the office. I travel quite a bit for the sales side of business, and I have multiple divisions. When I’m in one division or back at the other division, I can keep up with what’s going on in all three of my companies, by using the cloud functionality.” Further elaborating, Welch relates, “Collaboration on the designs happens all the time: One of the engineers may be having a problem with something, or we’re prototyping, 3 FUSION 360: A STREAMLINED PLATFORM and we run into an issue in functionality, and now we’re trying to address that. My engineer sends me a note say- ing, ‘I worked on a fix, what do you think?’ I’m able to go in there and circle it and reply, ‘Change this,’ or, ‘Hollow this pocket out,’ or, ‘Move this over here,’ to try to help without having to wait a week until I get back in the office to look at it. “From that standpoint, many times I get requests from customers to quote jobs while I’m on the road. This is very common, or they have a problem with a part, and I’m able to bring it right up on my phone and look at the parts. Even while I’m sitting on an airplane, I can pull up a cus- tomer issue, load it into my Fusion 360 app on my iPhone, and deal with the issue by looking at all the problems and write notes, circles, whatever, and send it back.” COST-EFFECTIVE Even the best solution is useless if it is not cost-effective, and Welch agrees, “Huge. The money savings is huge, and in more ways than just the cost of the product. The constraints put on my business from the costs of our pre- vious solution were not readily identifiable until we got Fusion 360, and we were able to have four or five people in the organization able to access the CAD program with- out waiting on the one seat that we were paying $2,000 a year for, for the maintenance at $8,000 up front to pur- chase. That created a bottleneck in our business that I didn’t really recognize.” Further breaking it down, Welch says, “We got 10 seats of Fusion, we’re paying like 50 percent more per year with- out the up-front costs. But I’ve got 10 seats instead of one. I give 10 people in my organization access. I couldn’t afford to spend $8,000 plus two grand a year, but I can afford to put $300 on a seat of Fusion a year, and they’re able to work directly with customers on a regular basis.” SERVING THE CUSTOMER As for the collaborative aspects of Fusion 360 from a cus- tomer standpoint, Welch says, “I can send them a link, and it’s really impressive to them to be able to click on an email, click on the link within the email, and up pops a window with no software to install. It all comes through a Web browser and works on all platforms. I can move my mouse around and they see a little red dot. I can say to the customer, ‘This radius right here needs to be bigger,’ or, ‘I cannot machine a square corner. You’re looking at a difference of $50 a part versus $5 a part if this square corner has to be here.’ ‘They reply, “Oh, well that doesn’t matter. We can make that round.’ Now you’ve made a product that was not a viable product, into a viable product. You’ve impressed the customer with the help they needed to get their product to market. You’ve solved an expensive problem for them easily, and that’s a very empowering thing. You earn the respect and the trust of your customers by being able to work with them in that way.” And, if the customer has a question? “I can give them the control. Then, I see the red dot, and they can talk about it from their standpoint. We can really, in one phone call, cover things that took many phone calls and frustration on both ends, in a week of meetings,” Welch says. “The customers that I have that use Fusion, it pretty much goes without saying: The collaboration tools at that point are very seamless.” INTEGRATED EMPOWERMENT The example given above from Swissomation underscores the capability and flexibility of Fusion 360’s integrated solution to deliver goods when time is critical. The delay and effort in trying to import information from an exter- nal source using a non-integrated system would make real-time collaboration, especially when on the road, im- possible. Fusion 360’s ability to offer seamless design and manufacturing collaboration, with the on-the-fly ability to make changes that can be immediately implemented on the factory floor, is a significant force-multiplier. The Fusion 360 value lies in its ability to fuse CAD and CAM/CNC pro- gramming in the same platform. Fusion 360’s low per-user cost is also an enabling factor, as this capability to interact with the customer in real time can be extended beyond management and key design en- gineers to your FAEs and sales staff. The more your team can work with your customers to ensure everything is run- ning smoothly at every level, the more competitive you are in the marketplace. With Fusion 360 you can serve the 4 FUSION 360: A STREAMLINED PLATFORM customer with a granularity not possible earlier, by being able to move CAD and CAM files around without worries about translation or conversion issues. SAUNDERS MACHINE WORKS Another example of the advantages found in using an inte- grated design solution that can be accessed from anywhere can be found in John Saunders, of the eponymous Saun- ders Machine Works. A known early adopter and social media personality (through his popular NYC CNC channel on YouTube), Saunders has leveraged the advantages of Fusion 360 to his best advantage. He points out, “We often work with folks that aren’t your typical engineering company or machine shop. Some com- panies may work with or as a subcontractor to a defense manufacturer, where they’re always getting perfect draw- ings that have been done before using a perfect process, where the customer knows that they want. That’s not us. “The file that I got this morning that I’m working on, in between calls, was your quintessential idea-based job, a microfluidics system for a chemistry lab. But instead of a napkin sketch, somebody went into PowerPoint and drew some circles and some squares and said, ‘This is where we want fluid, this is where we don’t, and this is how we want it made’ but obviously missing a ton of details.” Saunders clarifies, “What I do is go into Fusion and very quickly make a 3D model. We can actually then send a 30-second screen recording to the client using Fusion 360 live review, which is great because it doesn’t require them to install any software or even any web browser plug-ins. Then we can quickly do a screen share where they can see what they had thought in their head and tried to put on PowerPoint, which is obviously a terrible tool to do any rep- resentation of a 3D design. They say, ‘Oh, okay, I totally get it.’ Or, ‘I missed this,’ and that is a great thing to do up front. We’re usually not selling the machine product, we’re selling the service of getting them what they want, and they don’t always know what they want until they have a chance to see a quick draft. “For me, within 40 seconds, literally, I can go into CAD, create a new sketch, bang that out, extrude some things, get them a quick video or example of it, makes them happy, it gives them the chance to weigh in. From that standpoint, the Fusion cam is very strong. What I love about all of this is, I’m an entrepreneur. I work a lot. If I am waiting, no joke, if I’m waiting six minutes for an appointment some- where, I will open up my MacBook, open up Fusion and do work. If I’m on hold, I will do work. If one of the guys back at the shop has a problem with something, I can, from any- where, turn on my hot spot on my phone, get on Fusion 360 and help them troubleshoot a fix. I love the fact that I am never without my CAD/CAM solution.” EMPOWERING SYNERGY When asked about how well his team works with the product, Saunders stresses, “Most importantly, there’s an energy around Fusion 360. The thing I care most about is my YouTube channel, because it’s my one little chance to change the world. The viewership we have, there’s an energy, and the community around Fusion 360 is awesome and very inclusive. It helps people like who I was 10 years ago, when a machine shop didn’t want to talk to me, for the right reasons. I didn’t know what I was talking about. “I’m probably the only one who works the crazy hours. Most employees are rightfully here when they’re here, and they’re not here when they’re not. It does save me a lot of time when it comes to the hassle factor of again, going back to the former days with my old software. You’ve got to either deal with dongles, or you’ve got to deal with licensing software, checking licenses in now. That was frustrating. Your computers fail, I mean I run three computers every day. My home PC, my work PC, and my MacBook laptop. Knowing that I don’t have to worry about where my data is, if I’ve got the right licens- ing, and did I do something wrong, is there an activation problem, that’s great.” LOOKING FORWARD Using an integrated design environment provides the abil- ity to take advantage of your own skill sets to improve a design, and/or bring in people, either on-site or in virtual teams in a mutual simulation environment. Solutions like Fusion 360 can help you make even better products, and understand and improve how those products are designed and made. 5 FUSION 360: A STREAMLINED PLATFORM About This Report This report was prepared by Advantage Business Media, a data-driven marketing solutions company serving industry professionals in the manufacturing, science, and design engineering markets. For more information, visit advantagemedia.com. About Autodesk Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you’ve ever driven a high-performance car, admired a tow- ering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you’ve experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with our software. Autodesk gives you the power to make anything. For more information, visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk.