Fusion 360 is a powerful CAD tool with a lot of menus. We often see 3D modelers lost within its various workspaces so today we’ll be looking at how to navigate Fusion 360s interface for making solid 3D models.

Fusion 360 uses workspaces to group tools. You’ll most likely be sticking to the Design Workspace since this is the workspace containing all the tools for making a 3D model. Fusion 360 has helpfully colour coded the tabs within this workspace. In 3D print club we tend to work mostly in the Solid Tab, Form Contextual Tab and Sketch Contextual Tab so I’ll focus on those three today. For a more in-depth look at workspaces check out Autodesk’s article here.

When you open Fusion 360, you’ll see the Solid Tab. This menu is mostly used to create and modify solid models made from 2D sketches. Notice that most of the tools are blue in this menu and the Solid is highlighted on the top.

While creating 3D forms it’s easy to accidently close the tab you were working on and to get pushed back to the Solid Tab. If you find yourself unable to manipulate a sketch or form, check if you’ve accidently closed whatever tab you were working on and ended up back in the Solid Tab. It happens more often than you think!

The Form Contextual Tab is the Solid Tabs more laid-back brother. This tab allows you to pull and push the geometry of a form creating more organic shapes. The Form tab is colour-coded purple, so if you find yourself unable to edit the form you were working on check if your top menu is still predominantly purple.

The Sketch Contextual Tab allows you to create and modify 2D sketches that can be used to create and modify 3D models. You’ll be in and out of the Sketch menu a lot when creating solids in Fusion 360. This menu is colour-coded blue and red, and it’s designed to be easy to navigate out of. The idea is that you’ll design a sketch and then extrude it straight away while the sketch is active. In practice this makes it very easy to accidently stop editing your current sketch and start a new sketch, leaving you wondering why you can’t edit your old sketch.

Fusion 360 is an incredible piece of software with a lot of functions and features. Because of this you may need to be more observant then normal to make sure you're in the right workspace/tab to get the job done.