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ZW3D vs Fusion 360 Lesson 8 3D Modeling Techniques Defined Streamlined Sketching/Feature Based Modeling |
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The modeling technique is hugely responsible for the level of
productivity. Those of you that are only trained in the sketch, sketch,
constrain, constrain world are truly limited by not using the freedom of
Streamlined Sketching and Feature Based Design, that is available in even
the most Pro/e-ish of CAD systems. If your designers are designing in these
very unproductive and time consuming processes it might be time to review
your standard design processes. Don't have any do you? I am not sure if it is due to these exercises but I have replaced a few Fusion 360 with ZW3D. Listen to what these two fellows said. Brian "We spoke a year and a half or so ago about ZW3D. I took the Autodesk Fusion 360 but am becoming increasingly unhappy with it… It’s not very productive for me, just too slow and cumbersome to get things done quickly. On on the strength of your recommendations I am ready to give ZW3D Standard a shot, probably as a rental for the first year. Bottom line is, Fusion 360 is “free” but not really free… I am finding that the slow, clumsy pace of design with it is counterproductive… time is money." Thanks much, Brian Peter The initial hull design was done in Rhino, which for some reason is a standard in the boat industry. The surface already had a few problems! It was imported into Fusion 360 and I did some of the early concept design work, but when it came to surfacing I hit road blocks every way I tried it. At this time Phil was not part of the project, but I suggested to my client that we needed Phil's help. Phil also hit road blocks in Fusion 360 even using some of his unique re-topologizing workflows and T-Splines. The rest is history, as they say. Thanks to ZW3D paired with Phil’s surfacing skills we now have tooling for the hull created. You should see the images.  Perfectly smooth reflections! Peter I saw the following video challenges on LinkedIn and thought I would give them a try on IronCAD. I got a great response and decided to do it in ZW3D. I was very familiar with the parts and did it a bit easier. It shows more the difference in the level of the 3D CAD experience than the CAD system itself. You can Download ZW3D and give it a try. Fusion 360 Challenge of the Month: September 2016 Here is the drawing.  ZW3D vs Fusion 360 ZW3D is very similar to Fusion 360 and the Pro/e clones with differences that make it much more streamlined. It is very easy for those users to get up and running with ZW3D. The unique benefits over the other systems is the multi-object environment with the integrated drawing. You can do complete projects (parts, assemblies and drawings) in one file.
I would do a video, but I really
am not good at it. So I will show you step by step. I will try and get ZW3D
support to create one. They are very good. I will do the first step twice. My first step is what we would do in Fusion 360 since they do not have primitive shapes. We will first create a sketch and create the basic rectangle with Streamline Sketching  Then we extrude the rectangle making the base shape. There you go. The Fusion 360 fellow is still sketching.  Now the way you would do it in ZW3D. We insert a primitive block and size it.  Now we create the fillets. Never sketch a fillet!!!  Now the center block. Notice how I sketch this part on the XZ default plane. No constraints. I started with a 127 x 50 rectangle, added the angled line, drew the horizontal line from the intersection to where it lines up with the bottom vertical line then just trimmed and deleted the unnecessary lines. I don't agree with the Fusion 360 presenter that the back edge is not flush. I guess it is just the 52 years of design experience and there is no dimension defining it.  Now for the extrusion  Back to the XZ plane for the center cut. It is funny as you zoom out the default planes become available for selection, eliminating a step of turning it into a wireframe to select the appropriate plane. Again we sketch without constraints. Just trim the lines and we are done.  Just create the extrusion and we are done with the basic shape of the part.  Now for the holes. I am sure Fusion 360 has hole functionality. Why in the world does this fellow sketch holes??? We go to our create hole feature and define the holes. We can do both holes at once.  With that done we create the fillets. The Fusion 360 presenter missed a couple of fillets. You should always put fillets in last. But you should put them in with a couple of steps to assure they go in correctly. Just picking a bunch of edges gives Murphy an advantage. So I will show you the two steps. The first two should be the edges of the flanges since the others are based on these two. There is much more to filleting or blending than just picking a bunch of edges. It should be thought through.  The final two blends  There you are. A very simple part made even simpler. Modeling technique is a huge part of productive design. Of course, a much more productive 3D CAD system helps too!! It is very important that you look into how you or your engineers are creating the parts. Streamline Sketching and Feature Based Modeling is easy to learn and implement. It, alone, can increase productivity 10X. Now, ZW3D with its unique history and robust direct edit functionality can increase your productivity another 5X or more with changes! Again, time is money in engineering. More on Streamline Sketching and Feature Based Modeling. 3D Modeling Techniques Defined To experience this increased level of productivity, please download ZW3D for a 30 day evaluation. Legacy data is no problem, ZW3D can read the native files of all of the popular programs including the PMI data of NX, Solidworks, Catia and Creo. ZW3D is a great replacement for the subscription only Autodesk and PTC products. For more information or to download ZW3D Give me a call if you have any questions. I can set up a skype or go to meeting to show this part or answer any of your questions on the operation of ZW3D. It truly is the Ultimate CAD/CAM System. |