Fusion 360 Tutorial

Modelling a Dice using Primitives and Sketches

In this introductory Fusion 360 tutorial, you will learn the basics of modelling using primitives and
sketches. You will model a basic dice, then use different tools to model the details on each surface
of the dice, then you will save and export the file for 3D printing.

Stage 1: Setting up the Dice Project

Projects are like folders in Fusion 360 to help you to organise your work. Files can be uploaded to
projects and your 3D models can be saved to projects. When a project is open in Fusion 360,
everything you work on will be saved to the open project. All files saved in projects get saved to
the cloud, so they are accessible from any computer whenever you log into your Autodesk
account.

1. Open Fusion 360 and Log into your user account.

2. Click on the “Data Panel” icon in the Application Bar.

3. Click the “New Project” button, then in the new project box that appears at the top of the
project list, type in “Dice”.

4. Double Click on the Dice Project to open it. Any work you save will save within in this Project.

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Once the project is opened, you can close the data panel if you wish using the cross in the top
right corner of the Data Panel, or by clicking on the Data Panel Icon in the Application Bar. This will
give you more screen space, however you will still be working in the Dice Project. You can open up
the Data Panel to access saved files at any time.

Stage 2: Modelling a Basic Dice Shape

To model the basic dice shape, you will be working with Primitives. Primitives are the building
blocks of 3D models, they are basic 3D shapes/forms such as cubes and spheres. Once you have
drawn a primitive, it can be modified with other modelling tools and joined together to form more
complex 3D shapes.

1. In the Toolbar, click on “CREATE” to expand the CREATE drop down menu. Then click on “Box”.

2. Hover you mouse pointer over the ground plane (shown in blue below) so it turns grey then
click to select it.

3. Click once on the origin to place the first corner of the box, drag the curser out to the left and
click again to draw a rectangle, finally click the centre blue up arrow and drag upwards to draw
the box. Do not worry about dimensions while doing this.

4. In the Box edit window insert a value of 20mm for the length, width and height, then click OK.
This will resize your box to a 20mm Cube.

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5. In the Toolbar, click on “MODIFY” to expand the MODIFY drop down menu. Then click on
“Fillet”.

6. You can select each edge individually by hovering over them and clicking on each one.
However, as all the edges on the dice need filleting, you can simply select the whole cube by
clicking away from the cube towards the top left corner of the canvas then dragging to the
bottom right of the canvas to draw a selection box around the dice. The cube will turn blue to
show that it has been selected.

7. In the “FILLET” edit window, enter a fillet radius of 2mm, then click OK. This will apply a 2mm
fillet to all edges of the cube.

8. To save you dice model, select the “File” icon on the Application Bar, then select “Save”.

In the Save window, type in the filename “Dice Example” and click the save button. This will
save your model into the Dice Project.

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Stage 3: Modelling Face 1 of the Dice

To model the first face, you will be creating a single spot in the centre of the face using a cylinder
primitive and the fillet tool.

1. In the Navigation and Display Settings bar at the bottom of the interface, select the “Grid &
Snap Settings” icon and ensure that the “Layout Grid” and “Snap to Grid” checkboxes are
ticked. This will make it easier to line up the spots.

2. As you will be working on a single face of the dice, click on the “Right” face in the ViewCube.
This will change the view to show this face side on. Zoom in so the face takes up a large part of
the screen, this will also make it easier to add the spot.

3. In the Toolbar, click on “CREATE” to expand the CREATE drop down menu. Then click on
“Cylinder”.

4. This time you will be working directly on one of the dice faces, so instead of selecting a plane
to work on, you will be selecting the side of the cube, hover over the centre of the visible face
of the cube, it will turn light grey, then click to select it.

5. Using the grid to help you, click in the very centre of the face to position the centre of the
cylinder. Move the curser to drag out a circle, type 4 into the dimension box and press Enter
twice this will set the diameter to 4mm.

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 At this point it may help to see the dice in 3D, so click on the “Home” icon in the ViewCube.

Then in the “Cylinder” edit window, type in a height of -1.5mm, this will sink the cylinder into
the surface of the dice and change the “Operation” to cut. Click OK to complete the cylinder
operation.

6. Challenge – try to round off the base of the cylinder using the “Fillet” tool so that the spot
looks more like the example below. Now save your model.

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Stage 4: Modelling Face 2 of the Dice

To model the second face, you will be creating four spots arranged symmetrically on the face using
a hole primitive and the rectangular pattern function.

1. Now you will be working on the front face of the dice, click on the “Front” face in the
ViewCube and zoom in so the face takes up a large part of the screen.

2. In the Toolbar, click on “CREATE” to expand the CREATE drop down menu. Then click on
“Hole”.

3. Select the face, then in the “Hole” edit window select the hole type and drill points shown below, and
enter a hole depth of 1.5mm and diameter of 4mm. Click and drag on the centre of the hole to position
it near one corner of the face (using the grid as a guide), then click OK in the “Hole” edit window.

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4. In the Toolbar, click on “CREATE>Pattern>Rectangular Pattern.

To fully select the hole you need to select both the inside face and the back of the hole, this is difficult
to do in the current view. Click on the edge between the front and right face in the ViewCube.

Select the back of the hole first, then hold down the shift key and select the inside face of the hole.

Go back to the front face view. Then in the “Rectangular Pattern” edit window, click on the Direction
selector button and click on the left edge of the dice face. This line will turn blue and direction arrows
will appear over the hole.

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 In the “Rectangular Pattern” edit window type Quantity 2 and Distance 10mm in both sets of value
entry boxes, then click OK. This will copy the hole into a pattern of 4 equally spaced holes on the
surface.

Now save your model.

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Stage 5: Modelling Face 3 of the Dice

To model the third face, you will be creating two spots arranged symmetrically on the face using
the sphere primitive and the pattern along a path function.

1. Now you will be working on the top face of the dice, click on the “Top” face in the ViewCube
and zoom in so the face takes up a large part of the screen.

2. In the Toolbar, click on “CREATE” to expand the CREATE drop down menu. Then click on
“Sphere”.

Select the face, then click to position the centre of the sphere click near one corner of the face
(using the grid as a guide). In the “Sphere” edit window, enter a diameter of 4mm, then click
OK. Click and drag on the centre of the hole to position it near one corner of the face (using
the grid as a guide), then click OK in the “Hole” edit window.

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3. In the Toolbar, click on “SKETCH” to expand the SKETCH drop down menu. Then click on “Line”.

Select the face, then click to position the first point in the corner near to sphere, move the
cursor and double click on the opposite corner to position the second point. This will draw a
diagonal line across the face of the dice.

In the Toolbar, click on “STOP SKETCH” to expand the drop-down menu. Then click on “Stop
Sketch”.

5. In the Toolbar, click on “CREATE>Pattern>Pattern on Path.

Click on the Sphere to select it, it will turn blue. Then in the “Pattern on Path” edit window, click on the
Path selector button and click on the line you have just sketched. This line will turn blue and direction
arrow will appear on the line.

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 In the “Pattern on Path” edit window enter a Distance of 14.14mm, then click OK. This will copy the
sphere into the opposite corner.

Challenge - Can you work out how the distance calculated to be 14.14mm?

Now save your model.

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Stage 6: Modelling Face 4 of the Dice

To model the fourth face, you will be working in the sketch mode, creating three spots arranged
symmetrically on the face using the sketch circle tool and adding dimension constraints.

1. Now you will be working on the back face of the dice, navigate around the ViewCube and click
on the “Back” face in the ViewCube, then zoom in so the face takes up a large part of the
screen.

2. In the Toolbar, click on “SKETCH” to expand the SKETCH drop down menu. Then click on
“Circle”.

Select the face, then click to position the centre of the circle in the right corner area of the
face, 3mm from the top and left fillet lines. Move the cursor then type 4 into the diameter
dimension box, then press enter. This will draw a 4mm diameter circle.

Repeat to draw two more 4mm diameter circles on the face anywhere on the face. These will
be positioned accurately in the following steps.

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3. In the Toolbar, click on “SKETCH” to expand the SKETCH drop down menu. Then click on
“Sketch Dimension”.

Select the circle nearest the centre, then select the circle in the top left. Move the cursor
vertically above the two circles to produce a horizontal dimension label, then enter a value of
5mm, this will move the centre circle to a horizontal distance of 5mm from the top left circle.

4. Right click in the work plane and in the marking menu, select “Repeat Sketch Dimension”

Select the circle 5mm to the right of the top left circle, then select the top left circle. Move the
cursor horizontally to the left of the two circles to produce a vertical dimension label, then
enter a value of 5mm, this will move the centre circle to a horizontal distance of 5mm from the
top right circle - this should now be positioned exactly in the centre of the face.

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5. Challenge – repeat steps 3 & 4 to dimension and align the 3rd circle so that the circles are
positioned as shown below.

6. In the Toolbar, click on “STOP SKETCH” to expand the drop-down menu. Then click on “Stop
Sketch”.

7. Click on the top left corner of the ViewCube to show a 3D view of the back face of the dice.

In the Toolbar, click on “MODIFY” to expand the MODIFY drop down menu. Then click on
“Press Pull”.

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 Select all three circles, then in the “Extrude” edit window, enter a Distance of -1.5mm, then
click OK.

8. Challenge – try to round off the base of the 3 cylinders in one step using the “Fillet” tool. Now
save your model.

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Stage 7: Modelling Face 5 of the Dice

To model the fifth face, you will be working in sketch mode, creating the word “SIX” embossed on
the face using the sketch text function.

1. Now you will be working on the left face of the dice, navigate around the ViewCube and click
on the “Left” face in the ViewCube, then zoom in so the face takes up a large part of the
screen.

2. In the Toolbar, click on “SKETCH” to expand the SKETCH drop down menu. Then click on
“Circle”.

Select the face, then click to position the text on the face, then in the “Extrude” edit window,
enter the text SIX, a height of 10mm and an angle of 45 degrees. Change the text style to Bold.

Drag the blue position handle to position the text in the centre of the face, then click OK in the
“TEXT” edit window.

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3. In the Toolbar, click on “STOP SKETCH” to expand the drop down menu. Then click on “Stop
Sketch”.

4. Click on the top left corner of the ViewCube to show a 3D view of the left face of the dice.

5. Challenge – Using the Push Pull modification tool, sink the text 1.5mm into the dice surface.
Now save your model.

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Stage 8: Modelling Face 6 of the Dice

To model the last face, you will be working in sketch mode to create an emoji design embossed
into the face using the import SVG function.

1. For this final step you will need a Black and White SVG image of an emoji symbol, like the one
shown below (with nice clear thick black lines). There are hundreds available free to download,
just run an internet search, but check that the file is free to download and safe before
downloading it.

2. Now you will be working on the bottom face of the dice, navigate around the ViewCube and
click on the “Bottom” face in the ViewCube, then zoom in so the face takes up a large part of
the screen.

3. In the Toolbar, click on “INSERT” to expand the INSERT drop down menu. Then click on “Insert
SVG”.

Select the face, then in the “INSERT SVG” edit window, click on the folder icon. In the pop-up
window, browse your computer to find your saved SVG file, select it and click the Open button.

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 This will import the SVG emoji image into the workspace, however it will be very large compared to the
size of your dice, you may not even see it on screen. Zoom out until the image is visible in the
workspace. Then click and drag on the corner resize handles to shrink the image so that it will fit on the
face of the dice.

Zoom back in, then click and drag the blue move handle to position the image in the centre of the dice
face, then click OK in the “INSERT SVG” edit window.

4. In the Toolbar, click on “MODIFY” to expand the MODIFY drop down menu. Then click on
“Press Pull”.

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Select all the areas of the emoji that were black in the original image file, then in the “Extrude” edit
window, enter a Distance of -1.5mm, then click OK.

Now save your model.

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Stage 9: Saving and Exporting your design

The final task is to save your design and export it as a .STL file ready for slicing and 3D printing.

1. In the Toolbar, click on “MAKE” to expand the MAKE drop down menu. Then click on “3D
Print”.

Click and drag a large box around your entire box design to select it. The dice will then turn
blue and show a mesh of triangles over it as shown below.

2. To export the file as a STL file for sharing, or for use in any 3D slicing software, in the “3D
PRINT” edit window, untick the “Send to 3D Print Utility checkbox, then click OK.

In the Save STL window, browse to the folder you wish to save your file into, enter a filename
and click the SAVE button.

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3. If you have Cura slicing software installed on your computer, you can export your design
directly into Cura slicing software. To do this, in the “3D PRINT” edit window, tick the “Send to
3D Print Utility checkbox, select Cura as the print utility, then click OK.

This will open your design directly in Cura ready to slice.

Please note this will not save the STL file, to save a copy of your STL file, follow Step 2.

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