Fusion 360: Designing Custom Cookie Cutters

1. Welcome & Course Overview: Hey there, I'm Kevin Kennedy and welcome to Fusion 3 60 Designing custom cookie cutters. By the end of this class, you'll know many of fusion three sixties core features by building your very own custom cookie cutter that can be three D printed. I'm a product designer, and I run the product design online YouTube channel, where I share my knowledge of fusion. 3 60 I've been working in different CAD programs for over 10 years, including about seven years infusion 3 60 With that said, this class is for beginners or those with no previous Fusion. 3 60 experience. This class is perfect if you have access to a three D printer and you're looking the utilized Fusion 3 60 to create your own custom cookie cutters. If you don't have access to a three D printer, don't worry. You'll still learn a lot about fusion three sixties core features. I'll also be providing some resource is where you can have your design. Three D printed for you. Learning fusion 3 60 is a critical step and being able to create your own unique designs that you can use the next time you bake. Many creatives also find that they can sell their designs at local craft fairs or through an online marketplace such as etc. Throughout. This course will take a look at two examples. First will create a simple cookie cutter using fusion three sixties native sketch features . Seconds. I'll walk you through how to use an imported SPG file to create more advanced designs. Before we get started, be sure to click the follow button that's located just to the right of my profile photo. This will ensure that you receive notifications for important course updates as well as announcements. When I release future courses. Fusion 3 60 offers a free personal use license for hobbyist and creatives to read the license criteria and download instructions as well as some additional resource is. For this course. Head to my website at product design online dot com slash 24. That's product design online dot com slash 24 Last but not least, be sure to click on the Class project have that's located underneath this video Sharon image or brief description of the cookie cutter designed you're hoping to create. This will help me better understand your needs for future videos, and I can even provide you with some tips for your particular project. 2. Navigating the Fusion 360 User Interface: before we get started, I want to take a few minutes to discuss some key elements of the Fusion 3 60 user interface . But first, let's make sure that your settings match mine. I've recorded this course with the Fusion 3 60 default settings. If you've just downloaded and installed fusion 3 60 then you're all set and ready to go. If you've already been using fusion 3 60 then let's restore your default settings to ensure they match mine. Select your user name in the upper right hand corner and click the preferences option within the Preferences dialog. You'll want to select the Restore Defaults button in the lower left hand corner. We can then close out of the preferences dialog. Let's now discuss the key elements of the user interface in the upper left hand corner. You'll see the grid icon clicking. This icon will open up your dad. If panel where all of your files are saved within the data panel, you'll be able to create folders to further organize your projects. Just below the data panel is the workspace drop down list. There are currently seven workspaces in the commercial version of Fusion 3 60 Don't worry, and this course will only need to look at the default of the design work space next to the workspaces dropped down. We have the Fusion 3 60 toolbar. The toolbar contains Tabs, which further organizes The features by common sections in this course will mainly be using the solid tab, which includes the tools for solid modelling. I understand that it can be overwhelming looking at all of these tabs and features, however, don't let this be a concern. I'll be walking you through all the tools that you'll need to know to create your cookie cutter. Below the toolbar is the Fusion 3 60 browser. You can think of the browser as your file structure. We'll be talking more about this throughout the course. The middle of your fusion 3 60 is referred to as the canvas window. This is where we'll be drawing and creating your three D model. While working with three dimensional models, you'll find yourself needing to look at the model from different angles. To reorient the model, you'll be able to use the View Cube in the upper right hand corner. We can either select a face of the View Cube to view the model from the corresponding face or perspective, or we can simply click and drag on the View Cube to drag the model around while working on your model. You may decide you want to reset the view. To do this will simply click the Home Icon, which appears to the upper left of the view. Cute last but not least, we have the timeline at the very bottom, which is currently empty because we haven't started our model. Because Fusion 3 60 is a Parametric modeling program, that timeline will record every feature or tool that we use. This means that we can edit features and change their values or dimensions at any time. We can even reorder the features in the timeline. If we change our minds and how the design should be built again, I promise this won't be as complicated as it sounds. I'll be walking you through step by step, so let's go ahead and start building a custom cookie cutter 3. Starting Your Custom Design: before we do any design work will always want to save our design file. I'll click the save icon in the upper left hand corner within the Save dialogue. We can then type out our files. Name all. Simply type out Kevin's cookie cutter and I'll click that blue save button. You'll see that our file name now appears in the design tab, along with the version number. Each time that you make changes and click the save button, you'll be able to save a new version along with the version description. The next step would be to choose our document units in the Fusion 3 60 browser will see a Document Settings folder within the folder. There will be a units option watch as I hover my mouse cursor over the units. The Change Active units icon appears after selecting the icon, were able to change the units toward desired unit type. I'm going to create my design and millimeters. However, you're free to select inches or whichever unit type you prefer. If you do change your unit type, just be sure to click the OK button to save them. Before we answer a reference. Image will want to create a new component, a component infusion 3 60 can be thought of as a unique part. You'll want to create a new component for each individual part within a design. The advantage to creating components is that they'll neatly group all of our relevant assets within our browser treat. I'll select the assembled drop down list and I'll select new component in the dialog will type out snowman cookie for the name and I'll click OK, notice how the component now appears in the browser. On the left hand side, the next step to creating your own custom cookie cutter would be to import a reference image. This image could be something that you found on Google images or simply a picture of a sketch from your notebook. You'll just need to make sure that you have a JPEG or PDF file. For this first cookie cutter example, I'm going to use a snowman reference image. You can download the reference image on my website at product design, online dot com slash 24. We're going to attach the reference image tour design files. We can trace it to attach. The image will need to select the canvas option in the toolbar or from the insert drop down list. You'll first want to select the image from your computer's file folders. I'm going to select mine from my download folder well, then need to select a face that we want to place this image on. You'll see that we have three origin planes or faces to choose from. These origin planes correspond to the coordinates in views of the view. Cute, I'm going to select the Bottom X Y origin plane as I want the image to appear as it's lying flat on a table. After selecting the face, were given several options that we can use toe further define a reference image, including changing the opacity or flipping the image, to name a few. We can also select the corner scaling icon and drag it to the right to increase the size of the image. I'm going to increase the size so it's easier to work with, then will calibrate the image to the exact dimensions. For now, let's click the OK button. As I mentioned earlier in this course, our browser acts as our file structure. Now that we've added a canvas or reference image, you'll see that we have a canvas folder in the browser. If we toggle open the Canvases folder, we'll see the attached no man image from here. All right, click on the image, and I'll select the calibrate option. The calibrate option lets us determine the image size by selecting two points before defining the distance between the two points. First, however, I'm going to select the top face of the view cube toe. Look directly at the image. You can also use your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out. I'm going to select the bottom of the snowman for the first point, and I'll select the top of the snowman's hat for the second point. You'll then see that were given a dimension and put field. This is where you can define the overall size of your cookie cutter. I want this to be about 100 millimeters tall or approximately four inches. After typing out 100 millimeters, I'll hit the enter key on my keyboard, and the image will be resized accordingly. I'm also going to reposition the image so the bottom aligns with the center origin point. All right, click on the image and the browser and all select edit canvas. Then all simply click and drag the planer direction icon, which is this center square. I'll reposition the image so that this centre origin point appears to be centered with the bottom. Once the images in the correct position, I'll click the OK button. We're now ready to start sketching out our design. 4. Sketching Your Custom Design: the most common workflow infusion 3 60 is to create two dimensional sketches, which we can then turn into three dimensional shapes. Fishing 3 60 offers many preset shapes and types of sketch geometry. These will help us quickly create our two dimensional sketches. Looking at the snowman image, we can see that our snowman could be recreated with some circles and some rectangles to access. Our sketch tools will first need to use the create sketch feature, which is located in the toolbar or the create drop down list. Selecting Create sketch will prompt us toe once again choose an origin plane to Creator sketch on Well, once a creator sketch on the same plane as the reference image. So I'll select the same X y origin plane. Notice how the sketch toolbar now appears while we're in an active sketch environment you'll see that were presented with several sketch shapes in the toolbar. There are also some additional sketch shapes under the create drop down list. The first thing I'm going to do is sketch a straight line up the middle of the snowman, which we can then use to reference, ensuring that the circles and rectangles are all center align. I'll select the line command in the toolbar, and I'll select the origin point. All then click at the top of the Snowman at 100 millimeters. Because we're just using this line for reference purposes, we can turn this into a construction line. I'll select the line, and then I'll select the construction button in this sketch palette. Notice how the line is now. A dashed line to represent it is a construction light. I'll now start the first circle by activating the centre circle from the toolbar. Well, then, want to click on the straight reference line at the approximate center of the circle. Remember that we're using this reference image as a way to trace our design. Our sketch doesn't have to line up perfectly with the image. As I drag the mouse cursor out, you'll see that were given a dimension input field. At this point, we can either guess the size clicking near the reference edge, or we can type out an exact distance. For example, I'll tie about 48 millimeters and then I'll click to place the circle. The Circle tool then remains active, as all commands do until you hit the escape key on your keyboard or you switch to another command. As I go to draw the second circle, you'll see that it may be tricky to select the line. As my mouse is wanting to snap to the grid. We can always turn off the snap option in the sketch palette to avoid snapping to the wrong place for the second circle, I'm going to click and drag, and I'll type out 32 millimeters for the diameter. If you click in the wrong place, you can hit the escape key and simply re select the centre Circle for the third and final circle will enter a diameter of 25 millimeters. Now that our three circles are complete, we'll need to draw the two rectangles. I'll select the rectangle tool in the toolbar. However, the rectangle in the toolbar is the two point rectangle. Instead, I would like to use the center rectangle feature so I can start it from the same center line to switch to the center rectangle weaken. Select that option in the sketch palette. Well, simply click to place the rectangle center point, and I'll drag out with my mouth's. Remember that you can zoom in and out on your design to make it easier to work with. For the rectangle, I'll type out four millimeters for the height. All then hit the tab Key, which unlocks the height in place and switches the input to the wit for the with multi about 30 millimeters. Before clicking toe. Place the rectangle for the second rectangle. I'll type out the with of 20 millimeters. I hit the tab key toe lock the within place before typing out a height of 14 millimeters. Because we're done using the rectangle command, we can then hit the enter key, which will place the rectangle and clear out the command. We now have our basic sketch geometry set up watch. As I hover over each section of the snowman, you'll notice that it highlights individual sections where we have closed geometry for a basic cookie cutter were only concerned with the outside perimeter, therefore, will want to clean up our sketch with the trim tool. You'll find the trim tool under the modified drop down list or by selecting the scissor icon in the toolbar. With the trim tool active, we can simply click and drag across the inner sketch geometry or weaken select items one by one to delete them. Notice how it will show you a preview in red, so you're aware of what part will be trimmed away. After everything is trimmed, we can hit the escape key to clear all commands. I'll click on the Snowman once again and notice how this time we have one nice and clean profile shape that only includes the outer perimeter. There's one last thing that we need to do with our sketch. Before we can turn this into a three dimensional object, we'll want to define our thickness of the cookie cutter to create the thickness will use the offset tool, which is located under the modified drop down list. The first item with the offset tool is to define our sketch curves. We simply need to select our sketch geometry outline. You'll want to make sure the chain selection option is on. This will ensure that all touching pieces of geometry are selected with one single mouse click. Otherwise, you'll have to select them all one by one. We can then type out the desired thickness. I found that three D printed cookie cutters work well when there between two and three millimeters and thickness all type out two millimeters, Lastly, will want to make sure our thickness is on the outside of our shape. If the red preview lines are on the inside, then we can simply click the flip button to move them to the outside. Then we can click the OK button. We now have our closed profile shape, as in, our shape is completely closed all the way around. A closed profile shape is required to turn a two dimensional sketch into a three dimensional solid body. 5. Extruding Your Custom Design: we'll use the extrude feature to turn this sketch into a three dimensional solid. If you're still in an active sketch, then you'll want to click the finish sketch button in the toolbar. We can then activate the extrude command in the toolbar or from the create drop down list of the solid tab. Once the extrude command is activated, you'll need to select the profile that you want to turn into A three D body in our case will select the outer profile. If I now look at the model from the home position, you'll see that we can simply drag the blue directional arrow to increase or decrease the height. We can also type out the height under the distance input field of the extrude dialogue for the height of this cookie cutter, all type out 20 millimeters. We can then click the OK button to confirm the extruded body. Now that we no longer need our reference image, we can hide the image by selecting the canvas folders Aibel icon within the Fusion 3 60 browser 6. Creating a Flat Top: Let's create a flat area on the top to make this cookie cutter Maurer economic. Once again, we'll use the sketch offset tool. This time I'll activate the offset tool with the keyboard shortcut letter. Oh, as an Oscar, we then need to define our sketch plane. We want the extra surface area on the top where the users hand would go, so I'll select the top surface. Notice how fusion 3 60 automatically re orients the view. So we're looking directly at the sketch. I'll now select the outer geometry for this offset all type in offset distance of five millimeters and then I'll click. OK, all then right click to select Repeat offset. This time all offset the inner geometry two millimeters, making sure to hit the flip button so the geometry is on the inside. After clicking. Okay, weaken, select Finish catch in the toolbar. We'll need to activate the extrude command again. This time, we'll need to select all three of the closed profiles. I'll look at the model from the home position at all. Type out two millimeters for the thickness before clicking OK. You'll also want to make sure that your extrude operation is set to join. This will ensure that this new extrusion joins the three D body below it, resulting in one solid body looking at the model. We have the basic requirements for a cookie cutter. Let's take this a step further by rounding over some of the sharp edges, making this even more user friendly to round over edges. We will need to use the Philip Command. The Philip Command can be found under the modified drop down list or with the keyboard shortcut. Letter F is in Fox Trot. Well, once a, rotate the model around as we select all of the edges that stick out, especially these sharp ones. Once they're selected, all type out four millimeters for the Philip Radius. As you'll see this adds a nice, smooth round over to the sharp edges. I'll click the OK button to confirm the Philip Command. We may also want to add fillets to the side edges of the top, so that's nice and smooth. As the user pushes their hands down, I'm going to select the top face of the model. I'll hold down the shift key, and I'll use the view que toe look at the underside we're all. Then select the bottom face. With these two faces selected, I'll hit the keyboard shortcut letter F for the Philip Command. This time I'll type out 0.5 millimeters for a very subtle, rounded edge, and then I'll click OK. 7. Sharpening the Cookie Cutter: I found that a two millimeter thick three D print works fairly well, cutting into a soft dough. However, some users arm or enticed to sharpen the edges of their cookie cutter, which can be quite helpful if you're working with tougher or thicker does. To create sharper edges, we can use the Champ for tool, which lets us create a sloped edge. The Champ for Tool is applied similarly to the Philip Tool. I'll use the View Cube to look at the bottom of the cookie cutter well. First, activate the Champ ER tool from the modified drop down list. Once activated, will need to select all of the edges. Even with the tangent chain option selected, we may have to select objects one by one. Ultimately, this depends on your shape and how the surface geometry was created. After everything is selected, I'll type out one millimeter for the distance. Notice how this applies a nice, sharp edge to the bottom. Feel free to adjust the champ for distance based on your desired sharpness or the thickness that you applied to the original offset 8. Complex Designs: Importing SVG Files: we've taken a look at creating sketch geometry with Infusion 3 60 However, there will be times where you'll want to create a cookie cutter from a logo or custom designed that you've already created or downloaded. If that is the case, be sure to have an SPG file as J. Peg and PDF files won't work with this workflow. The SPG file should also be scaled to the desired size of the cookie cutter. If you don't have an SPG file just yet, then you can still follow along using my demo file. The demo file can be found at product design online dot com slash 24. Let's first create a new component to group all of the files under. All right, click on the file name in the browser, and they'll select new component for the component name all type out reindeer before clicking the Enter key notice. Because my reindeer component is active, the snowman component is great out. We can also hide the component so it's completely out of the way. By selecting the corresponding eyeball icon, we're now ready to insert the custom SPG also like the insert drop down list where we'll find the answer. SPG option, similar to the canvas option, will need a first Select a plane. Once again, I'll use the Bottom X y or Dream Plane. Then I'll select the SPG file from my downloads folder. As I mentioned earlier, you'll want to scale your SPG to the correct size beforehand. As the SPG options are quite limited. With Infusion 3 60 there's no easy way to calibrate the SPG like we did with the attached reference image. However, you can flip the SPG in each direction if needed. Once your SPG looks correct, simply click the OK button to place the file. The SPG file will automatically create sketch geometry, and it will be locked by default. Any time you see green sketch lines, that means they're locked and can't be moved. If we drag over the entire sketch, we can click the fix slash unfixed constraint icon in the toolbar to unlock the sketch geometry. At this point, we can use the offset command to create a two millimeter offset on the outer side. We can then use the extrude command to create this cookie cutters body. I'll extrude this 20 millimeters. This is a much more efficient way to create complex designs. We were able to recreate the shape and a few simple steps. As you can imagine, this would take quite some time if we drew the shape using fusion three sixties native sketch tools, as we did with the Snowman example, however, I should warn you that S P G's can also make adding fillets and champers a bit more challenging. You'll find that the surface of your three D solids will have extra faces due to how the imported geometry is created. At this point, you'll simply need to finish up the cookie cutter by following the same steps as outlined in the last two videos. 9. NEW: Create a Cookie Embosser: with some designs. You may want to create a separate cookie em boss er, now the embossed or could be used to add additional details to a cookie After you've used the cookie cutter, let's use the Snowman As an example, we'll want to create an M boster that lets us add eyes, a nose and some buttons to the snowman. To start, I'm going to make sure that the top level component is active. If not, you'll need to select the activate button. Well, then, want to create a new component to keep them Bossier separate from the cookie cutter. All right, click on the top level component in the browser to select new component. Then we can click once to select the component and click a second time toe. Edit the text field for the component name. All simply type out Snowman and boss Sir. The key thing with RM Boss er is that we want the outline tow line up with the same shape that's going to be cut out. To ensure this, we can use the project feature, which essentially lets us copy the sketch lines into our current sketch. I'll select the create sketch button in the toolbar. Well, then need to select the X Y origin plane as the plane to sketch on under. The create drop down list will find the project slash include folder where the Project Command is located. Once the project man is active, will need to select all of the inside contour lines of the Snowman. This will ensure that our cookie cutter and in Bossier have the same outline. Once they're all selected, we can click. OK, we can also hide the snowman components. We can see our newly created sketch chairman tree without it being in the way. Notice how we were able to quickly recreate the same shape with the Project Command instead of creating it from scratch. At this point, will want to turn this sketch into a solid body which will act as the base of the M Boss er also like the solid tab and then I'll select the extrude command with the extrude command will need to select the clothes sketch profile and then I'll type out an extra distance of two millimeters. Once you have your base layer created, you're able to create any details that you would like. Toa have in Boston and your cookie, I'm going to hit the keyboard. Shortcut. Letter C As in Charlie Toe, activate the Centre Circle Command also like the top face, and then I'll click to place the center point of the circle at the approximate location of the first button. As I drag out with my mouse all type out four millimeters for the button diameter. All then click to place the circle. We can now use the rectangular pattern feature to pattern more buttons in a straight line. You'll find the rectangular pattern feature under the create drop down list. After selecting the circle as the object to pattern, we can simply drag the directional arrow towards the bottom. Also type out four. To increase the number of buttons, you can also type out an exact dimension or simply dragged the directional arrow until the spacing looks good. After clicking OK to confirm the pattern, feature will want to use the circle tool again to create the snow man's eyes. I'll activate the centre circle from the toolbar. This time I'm going to place the center point at the approximate location of one of the eyeballs. I'll make this 12.5 millimeters in size, so it's a bit smaller than the buttons to create the eyeball on the other side, we can use the mere command, ensuring that the snowman is symmetrical. First, we'll need to create a center line for the mere command. I'll activate the line tool in the toolbar. All simply click at the top of the Snowman at its mid point, where the triangle icon of Here's All then click at the bottom of the Snowman, followed by hitting the escape key, because will only be using this mine for reference purposes will want to select the line and turn this into a construction line. By selecting the construction button in the sketch palette, we can now use them your command in the toolbar. I'll select the circle as the object selection, and then I'll select the mere line selector, which lets us select the construction line. As you can see, we now have two eyeballs that air symmetrical ill. Now use the line tool to draw simple nose for the snowman, making sure that it results in a closed profile shape by ending with the starting point. At this point, you can continue by adding a mouth, a scarf or any other features. The adds details to your snowman cookie. It's also important to remember that an M boster will need to be flipped to represent the reversed image of what you want to appear on the final cookie. This is very important if you're going to add text or words to an M boss er as the text will show up backward on your final cookie if you don't flip it in your design. Last but not least, to complete the M boster, we can extrude all of these closed profiles. I'll activate the extrude command from the solid tab. Then I'll simply select all of these closed profiles. Once everything is selected, you'll need a type out the thickness value. Remember, this will define how far the shapes are in Boston into the cookie. In general. Between two and four millimeters seems to work well, but this ultimately depends on the type of cookies you're creating and how thick they'll be . Turning the Qatar component back on may also give you a better idea of how the details will look 10. Testing your Design: one benefit of creating your design in a three D modeling program is the fact that weaken digitally. Check our design before we go to three d print it. This can save a lot of time and frustration and even wasted filament. I'm going to hide the reindeer component and I'll reactivate the snowman component. What will want to do is create a simple box which will represent some rolled out dough. I'm going to activate the box command from the create drop down list and then I'll click on the Bottom X Y origin plane. Now where we click is not super important. However, I'm going to click in the lower left and then I'll click on the opposite corner, making sure to encompass the entire cookie cutter. I'll look at the model from the home position and all type out four millimeters for the distance, and I'll make sure the operation is set to new body as we don't want this body to join the cookie cutter body. Well now use the split body command to cut the shape away from the digital dough. The split body command can be found under the modified drop down list after it's activated will first need to select the body to split, and this case will need to select the dough. We then need to select the splitting tool are splitting. Tool or cutting tool is the cookie cutter. After selecting the cookie cutter body where the entire body is highlighted in red, we'll click OK after the split body command processes the split, we'll need to toggle open the bodies folder within our component. We can select the eyeball to hide the cookie cutter body, and we can now see the results of our cookie cutter. This is a super simple and effective way to check your cookie cutter design before exporting the file for three D printing. 11. Exporting for 3D Printing: now that are cookie cutter is complete. We're ready to export the design for three D printing. But first I would appreciate it if you would pause this video and take 60 seconds to leave a review for this course, simply click that review tab just below this video and click the leave review button. Select a couple of the preset answers and you're done to export. The cookie cutter design will need to make sure our cookie cutter bodies are visible and that the digital nobody is set to hidden I'll then right click on the component in the Fusion 3 60 browser from here will select the option save as STL. You can then select the solid body if it's not already selected. At this point, we have two choices. First, you can save the STL file directly to your local computer by simply clicking the OK button , naming your file and clicking that blue save button. The second route is descend your STL file directly to your three D printers slicing software. To do this will need to select the check box for send to three D print utility. You will then be presented with a list of options. For example, all select Kira, which is my slicing software of choice after selecting your print utility, will then need to click. OK, the print utility does need to be opened beforehand, as Fusion 3 60 cannot open the other program for you. However, you'll see this streamlines the process, and the model is automatically opened in Kira and ready to be set up for printing. I'm not going to cover the three D print settings in this video. As they differ from printer to printer, however, I will be putting my recommended settings on this course is Resource Page at product design online dot com slash 24. I'll also be placing links to Shape Ways, which is an online three D printing service where you can order custom three D prints with food grade filament. When you go to print this out, make sure you re orient the model so that the flat edge is on the surface of the print bed . While these sharp edges are sticking straight up 12. Conclusion and Next Steps: first, I want to congratulate you. I'm finishing the course. If you've successfully printed out your own cookie cutter design, then let me know by uploading a photo of it to the project's tab, which is located just below this video. You can also comment any project questions or roadblocks that you encounter in the community discussion tab. Don't hesitate to ask any fusion 3 60 questions on the discussion form if the question hasn't been answered and chances are someone will have the same question as you. So ask away.