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Fusion FEA

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
You guys running Fusion, does it have FEA capability? Like, if I send you a simple part in .iges or whatever format works, along with a load/orientation & material, can it calculate & display stress levels (like generic picture attached).
 

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Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
Yes and no Peter. It seems there is tab I’ve never used called “simulation” which does FEA analysis. I don’t know anything about it. I mucked about for a while and discovered it consumes cloud credits which are an additional licensed item. They want more money to run simulations. They have a number of fancy features like that. Simulations, advanced machining, 5 axis stuff, generative design ( no real I dea what that is ). So while the answer is yes fusion does it I can’t really explain what that would cost. I really dislike features that consume license tokens - it’s just a cash grab it seems to me. Maybe FEA software is really pricey though and tokens is a less painful way to use it? Any one else know more?
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I have no idea what Fusion can or can't do. I'm just barely able to make simple drawings. But I used to do FEA and used other CAE tools in Catia. Quite frankly, even if Fusion can do that stuff I would have very little faith in the results. Simply building a 3D model isn't enough to do much real FEA. The biggest problem is accurately modelling the forces and other dynamic parameters which are never simple. The end result is usually garbage in - garbage out. Those who trust it often find out the hard way that it isn't worth the effort. To do FEA properly, you must create a model, test it using FEA, then build a part and test that in the lab, then compare results, then modify the model to make the model perform like the prototype, then retest. Yes, it's lighting fast compared to the old days but still not painless.

Things might have changed considerably since I last used FEA 15 years ago, but I doubt it has reached the point yet where real-world testing is no longer required to calibrate the model.
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
It wasn't for anything mission critical where I'm looking for definitive stress values. Although having that capability would be fun if not useful for spot checking things comparatively, like make the fillet wider or skinny up the mass or substitute a different alloy & just see if the colors were going in the right direction or problem areas were being alleviated, even if the forces were not nailed down.. The picture in post#1 could just as well be my master rod for example with lots more cutout features & more constraints on size.

I got thinking about other things. Maybe a bad example but my lapping tool for my liners. The inner relief profile was somewhat plagiarized from a commercial lapping tool. I had different ideas about the array, how many slits/circles, pattern orientation relative to the squeeze bolt. In the end I winged it & I guess it worked. The objective is an even squeeze among the finger contact, kind of like a collet. But it would have been be interesting to try different permutations & eyeball results just qualitatively vs quantitatively. I'm actually not even sure how this would be set up in FEA because its one part being resisted by another part, so more like an assembly force wise? (>1 part).

Anyways, I'm not surprised its another cost add module in F360. Its the same in Solidworks & other modelers. Mucho-Dollero & training. Years back there was a freelancer type guy, maybe on SW forum, that would do some freebie analysis if it tickled his interest. There was some interesting evaluations. I'm pretty sure he did it for a living.
 

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gerritv

Gerrit
Simulation requires a subscription. CA$710/year but usually there are 20% or so discounts. OTOH if you only need Simulation once in a while, just license Fusion360 for a month, should be long enough to get your project done. CA$72/month.
 

Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
I don’t think so Gerrit. I have the annual subscription and FEA needs cloud credits to work. So you’ll need the regular subscription $80 month or the annual license plus cloud credits.
 

gerritv

Gerrit
I understood that the basic simulation was still available, just in the cloud. Quoting Autodesk's announcement of move to cloud "Linear Static Simulation is our most popular study type today, and it is still included in your subscription at no additional cost."
 
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