Blog 3: 3D Modelling with Fusion 360

Welcome back! 😃

This is my 3rd blog which is about 3D modelling💻

The software I use is Fusion 360, and there are others such as Blender, which is mainly used for animation.

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3D Printing

There are many types of 3D printing technologies as shown below

Illustrations of different types of 3D printing technologies

We'll be focusing on Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) since I'll be using FDM 3D printers

What is FDM?🤔

Fused deposition modeling is an additive manufacturing technology that creates 3D components using a continuous thermoplastic or composite material thread in filament form.

Basically, it works by using an extruder to push a plastic filament through a heated nozzle, the molten plastic is then deposited layer by layer, creating a 3D object🛠️💡

FDM is also the most common type of 3D printing🖨️ due to its simplicity and relatively lower cost.

Now moving on to the next part, Practical 4!

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Practical 4: 3D Modelling with Fusion

For Practical 4, I was assigned to design a casing for a motor in a toy helicopter🚁

To start my design, I made a sketch using the base of the motor as a reference✏️

Using this sketch, I can easily extrude the different sections to create the casing.

The next thing I did was making the holes🕳️ on the casing for the wires. For this, I used another image of the motor as a reference to draw where the holes should be.

After that, I needed a lid for the casing, as well as a way to connect the lid to the casing.

For the lid, once again, I used a reference🙃

Then, to connect both parts, I used a press-fit connection like the one shown below

I got this idea because the refill casing of the correction tape I use uses that type of connection, and for some reason I have taken apart the refill enough times to remember that😅

Finally, here's an embedded file of the finished design✨

I would say this took about 2-3 hours⏰ just to design and most of it was spent scaling the reference images to the correct size, then drawing the sketches, otherwise the casing would not have the correct dimensions📐

Overall, it was pretty fun to play around with the different functions in Fusion 360, even though it was mostly sketching and extruding🥱

But for the next practical+blog, I'll be looking forward to designing moveable joints👀

By the way, if you ever have a small brushless DC motor that you need a casing for🤔,

here's a short description of the steps to design this model🖌️:

Create Sketch 1 on x-y plane>Create 16 by 20mm rectangle>Trim all corners 7mm>Offset outwards 1.5mm>Create 11mm diameter circle in center>On 20mm side, create 2 symmetrical 0.7mm diameter circles>Repeat on opposite side>On 16mm side, create a 0.7mm diameter circle>Repeat on opposite side>Sketch 1 done

Create Sketch 2 on x-z plane>Using middle of Sketch 1's x-z side, draw 31mm construction line upward>At its top end, draw 10mm construction line to the left>Using leftmost point on that line, create 29mm by 20mm rectangle>Create a 4 by 5mm rectangle 1.5mm away from long side & 3.2mm away from short side of rectangle>Use construction line to mirror that hole>Sketch 2 done

Hold left-click, highlight Sketch 1>Ctrl+C>Create Sketch 3 on x-y plane>Ctrl+V>Move Sketch 3 next to Sketch 1>Change circle in center to 5.8mm diameter>Change 0.7mm circles to 0.8mm> Sketch 3 done

For Sketch 1, Extrude: middle circle 2mm, the area around that 5mm, 0.7mm circles 29.5mm, outer area 31mm

For Sketch 2, Extrude: both 4 by 5mm rectangles 10mm (to cut the holes)

For Sketch 3, Extrude: area around middle circle 2mm, 0.8mm circles 3.5mm, outer area 2mm

...and done!

OR

You could open the embedded file in Fusion to download it🙃

Alright, see ya!

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References:

• Carew, R. and Errickson, D. (2020). An Overview of 3D Printing in Forensic Science: The Tangible Third-Dimension. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1556-4029.14442 [Accessed 10 Jul. 2024]. ‌