Week 1: Parametric Design aka “Death by FUSION360”

This first week’s assignment was to:

  1. Model (raster, vector, 2D, 3D, render, animate, simulate, …) a possible final project,
  2. Compress your images and videos,
  3. Post a description with your design files on your class page.

Getting started with Fusion (aka “Confusion”)

This week marks my first attempt at designing anything on a laptop. I was a bit intimidated: I’ve never used CAD software before, let alone a parametric one. My design experience has mostly been sketching on whiteboards or paper, and making things by hand.

So—challenge accepted. I began with the tutorial videos shared by Alfonso on the HTMAA website. They helped me get over the initial fear of starting my first Fusion 360 drawing. Once I wasn’t so scared of the interface, I brainstormed what to design.

Final Project Ideas — Brainstorm

I had many ideas—some possible, some too easy, some reasonable, some silly—and felt a bit overwhelmed by choice.

Initial ideas

Noise pollution concepts

Interactive tools

Wearables & materials

Everyday comfort / utility

My initial favorite was the “Earpod”—earrings that are also earphones, harvesting kinetic energy from walking to self-charge. It’s an accessory, a stealthy gadget, and a fun way to connect movement and music. But for week one, that felt a bit ambitious, so I decided to scope down.

Other ideas

My fallback project also related to movement and energy—this time, solar power.

I have a Monstera at home that struggles to find the light. It bends toward one direction, and I wish it would grow more evenly. So I thought: why not create a solar-powered plant light that rotates to follow the sun and provides light all day long? That way, the plant could receive light from multiple directions and grow more symmetrically.

I began by sketching ideas and decided to start with a simple object to learn where the sun is coming from: a sundial.

A first stab at modeling

What is a sundial?

A sundial tells time by the apparent position of the Sun. In its simplest form, it consists of a flat plate (the dial) and a gnomon that casts a shadow onto the dial. As the Sun moves across the sky, the shadow aligns with hour lines marked on the dial.

Pretty neat, right?

All we need is a base plate with engraved hour marks and a gnomon to cast the shadow. There are many sundial types (see examples here). The simplest to start with is the horizontal dial, with vertical a close second. I’d like to make an adaptable design that works both horizontally and vertically—so the gnomon can be placed on either side of a base plate with markings matched to our latitude.

Design process

I sketched several concepts aiming for simplicity and ease of assembly. I chose a circular base plate with a slot for the gnomon, which is a triangular insert. To adjust for different latitudes, I added alternate slot positions for the gnomon.

Modeling in Fusion 360 had a learning curve. After a few hours (and many undos), I built a basic model, then added details like hour lines and numbers, plus tabs/slots for clean assembly.

Once satisfied, I exported vector files for laser cutting (DXF/SVG), verified dimensions, and prepped line weights/colors for cut vs. engrave. After cutting, I test-fit the parts and checked the hour-line readability outdoors—the shadow was crisp and easy to read.

Overall, this week was a great learning experience: I learned the Fusion 360 basics, designed for laser cutting, and—most importantly—kept iterating until it worked.

Design Files