Automated drawings are available now, and AutoConstrain and Autodesk Assistant will be in Fusion early next year.
At Autodesk University 2024, the annual user conference taking place this year in San Diego, California, there’s no avoiding AI.
Take Project Bernini, the 3D object generator unveiled by Autodesk earlier this year. Seemingly every speech by an Autodesk executive mentioned Bernini, suggesting that he demonstrated the potential of AI to revolutionize design and manufacturing. But always with a tantalizing caveat: Bernini is only a proof of concept, not yet ready for commercial use.
Too bad. AI’s most ambitious applications may remain out of reach, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make a difference to today’s engineers. To prove it, Autodesk revealed three new AI-powered features for Fusion that are already ready (or will be soon): AutoConstrain, Automated Drawings, and Autodesk Assistant.
Automatic merge constraint
Fusion’s new AutoConstrain feature uses AI to automatically suggest sketch constraints like symmetry, center points, and any other spatial relationships that Fusion users had to add manually. AutoConstrain will continually evaluate the sketch and adapt constraints to design changes.
Autodesk believes that AutoConstrain will save designers time in two ways. First, it will help them draw faster by eliminating the need to manually add constraints. Second, it will make their parametric models more robust, thus avoiding errors and rework. Stephen Hooper, Autodesk vice president of design and manufacturing product development, says it’s easy to overlook minor inconsistencies in sketches that cause big problems later in the design process.
“If you’ve created a complex sketch and you don’t apply the constraints precisely, you can drag the sketch and everything turns upside down,” Hooper told Engineering.com. He gave the example of a square (or what the designer intended to be a square) that is actually one degree away from a true right angle, preventing proper alignment in later assembly.
“These small issues that seem mundane cause huge problems for clients when they work later in the process,” Hooper said. “So automating that and deriving those constraints to be 100% accurate every time, should be a huge productivity gain for them,” Hooper said.
AutoConstrain will be available to Fusion users by the end of January 2025, according to Hooper.
Fusion Automated Drawings
Automated drawings have been a feature of Fusion since January of this year, but Hooper says Autodesk has now made it smarter with AI. It does what you expect: automatically generate drawings from a 3D model including 2D views, dimensions and other manufacturing details.
“AI doesn’t just generate the designs; it intelligently decides what details are necessary and what can be left out,” according to the Autodesk blog post announcing AI update. “For example, it can identify fasteners or other components that do not need to be included in the final drawing… The result is a streamlined set of drawings, ready for manufacturing without the need for to excessive manual revisions.
Autodesk Assistant in Fusion
Autodesk Assistant will debut in Fusion’s manufacturing workspace. It’s a text-prompt interface that Hooper describes as “manufacturing-aware.”
The assistant can answer user questions such as “How can I program my toolpath to avoid groove milling?” Or “What manufacturing methods should I consider for this part? » and, according to a blog post by Jeff Kinder of Autodeskexecutive vice president of product development and manufacturing solutions, “Autodesk Assistant will respond with Fusion-specific answers or manufacturing-specific answers, and share hyperlinks to the original sources.”
But it’s not just about sending and texting. Users can give Autodesk Assistant commands related to their part, and it can call Fusion functions to accomplish the task.
“The result is actually a machining strategy or a 3D geometric part, so it’s a little different from a text assistant. It’s actually about creating intellectual property for you,” Hooper said.
Like Fusion AutoConstrain, Autodesk Assistant in Fusion will be available by January 2025, according to Hooper. He sees great potential for the technology, which could evolve to accept voice commands and expand to other Fusion workspaces.
“It’s one of those things that seems inconspicuous when you see it, but I think its applications are quite profound,” Hooper said.