teaches Fusion 360, 3D printing, SketchUp, and board drafting at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. Her previous works include 3D Printing with Autodesk 123D, Tinkercad, and MakerBot; 3D Printing and CNC Fabrication with SketchUp; 3D Printing Projects for Makerspaces; and Architectural Drafting for Interior Designers, 3rd Edition.

Autodesk recently added a futuristic function to its Fusion 360 design software. The new Generative Design workspace uses cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) software that designs mesh and T-spline models with parameters that you provide. It's called generative because the software generates dozens or hundreds of solutions from those parameters. If you don't like any of the results, you can input different parameters. The software will offer different, improved outcomes via machine learning, the ability to learn from and analyze data without being specifically programmed to do so.

Generative design is not exclusive to Fusion 360. Autodesk Revit, PTC's Creo, and Siemens NX are other programs that have it. This software

has produced buildings, products, and construction materials.

Generative design can produce lighter, stronger, more cost-effective, and aesthetically pleasing outcomes than you could think up on your own.

It frees you from your personal limits on imagination, time, history, engineering biases and experience. Outcomes often look different from traditional solutions, such as the wheel rims above and the airplane partition below.

This is because the AI uses biomimicry and evolutionary algorithms to produce designs

that are organic looking. You're unlikely to get a perfect, finished design from the generative process, but you'll get a base design to edit and develop.

Find it in the workspace switcher of a paid, educational, or 30-day trial version of Fusion 360. Depending on your version, you may need cloud credits to run it. The trial version is limited to 300 cloud credits. Buy them through the Preferences panel: General → Cloud Credits (below). (Note: This system appears to be changing -- check Autodesk's website for the latest details). Generative design is not available in Fusion's free version.

Open the data panel. If it shows your design files, click on the house icon in the upper left to access the project list and scroll down to Generative Design Samples (above left). Click it open for projects to experiment with (above right). I clicked on the GE Bracket (this particular sample may not be available in all versions). All these files are locked, so right-click on the Browser root and choose Save Copy As (below).

Scroll back up the project list to Your Corner and find the copy there. Click it open, and then click on the Generative Design workspace.

The Generative Design workspace interface looks similar to all the other workspaces, except that it shows a milling (cutting) tool at the origin point.

The Browser has fields for inputting the information required to generate a study. There are also listings for any studies already done. You can right-click and rename past studies from the Browser, or just delete them. Each study listing contains all its inputs.

Click on the Ribbon's icons from left to right to input your information in the correct order (above). The first icon, Guide, opens a learning panel on the right side of the screen (below).

Now let's model something more relatable than the GE Bracket to show how generative design works.

Model a part in the Solid workspace to give the AI something to work with. It can be a single body, multiple bodies, or a component assembly. It can be very basic, maybe something that just has mounting holes, flanges, or parts that will carry loads. Remove any non-essential parts like fasteners, pins, fillets, and chamfers. Turn off the visibility of all parts that you don't want considered in the study.

The image above shows a tree modelled in the Solid workspace. It consists of five simple bodies: three cones, a straight cylinder, and a tapered cylinder. Bring it into the Generative Design workspace and we'll go through the icons from left to right.

STUDY

In the Generative workspace, click on the New Generative Study icon to put a "Study1" entry in the browser (above). Everything you input will go here. Then right-click on the study. This brings up a window that lets you choose the result's resolution: Coarse will generate faster than Fine (below).

You might want to generate several coarse studies to save your cloud credits before generating a fine one.

EDIT MODEL

This lets you create additional bodies to serve as obstacle, preserve, and starting geometries (left). Those geometries don't have to be created in the original design.

Click to access Solid and Surface submenus and run the mouse over the icons for tooltips. In the Modify menu, the red X removes features, and the blue dot replaces selected objects with primitives. Know that the changes you make in the Generative Design workspace are permanent, not temporary. The Edit Model function is there so that you don't have to leave this workspace to go into other ones.

Let's remove the lower two cones by selecting them in the Browser and deleting (above). Then click Finish Edit Model.

DESIGN SPACE

Choose what to preserve and what to serve as obstacles (above). Preserved geometry are items to remain untouched. Obstacle geometry are areas in the design where we don't want the AI to place material. You can also choose a starting shape (this is optional), which is the shape the AI starts from.

DESIGN CONDITIONS

Apply structural constraints and loads to your selected geometry (above).

DESIGN CRITERIA

Specify data that will help achieve the goals you want for the outcomes (above left).

MATERIALS

Click on Manage Physical Materials (above) and then choose at least one material to use in the design process. An outcome is generated for each material you choose.

GENERATE

Pre-check, preview, generate designs, and find the generate status and details here (above).

Click the Explore icon to view your outcomes (above left). You can filter and compare multiple outcomes (above right).

Click on a thumbnail to see a larger version (above). The Create menu lets you choose to output a Design (solid) model and a Mesh model (below). After closing Fusion, you can return to the Explore icon to review the outcomes again.

THE DESIGN MODEL

This consists of a T-spline body and the preserved geometry. A boundary fill is done automatically. However, the model will generally need more editing.

You may be able to edit it in the Form space by right-clicking on a form icon in the Timeline and choosing Edit. But if that doesn't work -- an edit option doesn't appear, or the model is ghosted in that workspace -- bring it into the Solid workspace. Then click on each Timeline icon from left to right. They'll highlight specific geometry and temporarily put that geometry in the Form workspace to edit (above).

THE MESH MODEL

Bringing this mesh model into the Mesh workspace is a bit counter-intuitive because typically the Timeline must be turned off. Right-click on the Browser root and choose Capture Design History. Then right-click on the mesh and choose Edit (above ). This will take you into the Mesh workspace (below).

Tweak your mesh model, then export it for 3D printing and see what your generative design looks like in real life!