Designing with Autodesk Fusion 360

I'm just addicted to Fusion 360. Its an amazing CAD tool, and not at all difficult to learn. A few hours watching Youtube tutorials and I soon picked it up. But its not just designing the part, its thinking through the what if's, how will something you design perform? What material is best? How much will it weigh and does it weigh less that what it's replacing? Will it actually work? Whats the cost to manufacture, and can that be reduced by reducing the complexity?

I use Fractory (laser cutting and CNC machining) and 3D People (3D printing) for manufacturing. Both highly recommended.

Fusion 360 plugins

I use airfoil tools plug-in for Fusion 360. This allows you to draw aerodynamic airfoils very easily. There is a very good demonstration on youtube. Using this plug-in I've created several models that have been 3D printed, including a vortex generator and a turning vane.

Aero

Turning vane (Nylon PA12 SLS printed)

Vortex generator (Nylon PA12 SLS printed)

Diffuser louvres (Nylon PA12 SLS printed)

Suspension

Carbon camber shim (CNC machined 1mm carbon sheet)

Rear suspension rocker (CNC machined)

Uprated forward lower front suspension (CNC machined)

Uprated rearward lower front suspension (CNC machined)

Supports

Rear wing supports (CNC machined from 6082T1 aluminium)

These are CNC machined from 6mm 6082 T6 aluminium, finished to 3.2µm, polished and then anodized black. They are 2mm thick in the milled out sections, and weigh approx 600g each. The brackets they replaced weighed 1kg each, so I saved 800g. I profiled all the edges to make them as aerodynamic as possible. This, together with the milled out centre sections, made them very expensive to manufacture. But the quality from the supplier, Fractory, is outstanding.

Damper reservoir support (Onyx CFS SLS printed)

Bosch linear sensor collar clamp (Nylon PA12 SLS printed)

Bosch linear sensor rod end post (Nylon PA12 SLS printed)

FTR 16tooth reluctance ring (Laser cut steel)