What's New in Fusion 360 | Blend Curve | April 2023 | What Is Blend Curve?

In this video we are going to look at the newly added Blend Curve sketch tool to understand what it is, what it does, how to use it and if you even want to use it.

[@Fusion360School]

Wow! Did not know that this works to create a curve in 3D space. That is definitely very useful.

[@brandonkeeber3799]

I saw another video about blend curve yesterday and was thought "meh."
When he showed the 3D curve though I actually said "whaAAA??" out loud

[@picassoimpaler3243]

Holy ****, I can't believe I didn't think of that way to make a curvature continuous driving rail before!!!
I was stoked to see the blend curve tool added, but was never happy with how I couldn't change the actual weight of curvature per side like in alias or rhino. So the control point spline/constraints thing is going to be a game changer for me. Thanks so much!
Also kind of mad at myself that I never thought to do that before haha

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Haha :) Yeah the weight is "overall" at that handle so needs some work arounds. Blend curve is handy but i often still use the control point method.

[@bwilliams1815]

Great tool. Excellent video. Thanks Matt

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

you're welcome!

[@johncherrey1798]

Really excellent. In depth tutorials are much needed.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Glad it was helpful!

[@a330turbinex7]

Superb!!!!!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Thanks a lot

[@mateuszwawak7437]

Always great job ! We waiting for more CAM improvments. Like turning simulation. Better display with stock. - Faster calculation toolpaths.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Thanks! For CAM turning do you use In process stock? Turning stock has gotten better. If you are doing simulation on turning or milling you can right click on the stock and export it as a mesh fyi.

[@userx6679]

Ok just learning how to use this software and want to make some simple things. first on my list is how to make an egg, lol I need it for a project, not an egg but the basic shape of one cut in half. How would I go about it? Do you have a discord channel?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

I do have a discord channel. you can email me [e-mail] and ill send you a link.
the 2 ways I would consider making an egg shape. A 2d sketch and a revolve, or use freeform modeling. With forms you could start with a Quadball primitive and just pull the top up and Boom, done :)

[@JuanAdam12]

Thanks for the deep dive on this, Matt. It doesn’t appear that Autodesk gives its “registered educators,” such as yourself, any sort of background info on new features like this. Seems like a strange way to introduce a new thing-just throw it out there and see what people make of it.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Thanks :) And the "inside info" i get on this stuff that is coming, well yeah that is a bit sporadic. It is usually around what big changes are coming that might affect something currently in play. Like I knew Automated modeling was coming eventually as it had been in the works awhile, but other things are a surprise to me when they land lol.

[@davidreyburn5548]

There's no mention of the degree of the blend curve. Is is cubic? Are they NURBS? Does Fusion 360 even let you know that much about your geometry?😊

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

The control point spline I showed in the last example that gives you degree control is a CV spline or NURBS curve. From a geometry and mathematical standpoint that is the one i go to :). I guess in the back end it is probably the same but the fit point spline doesn't expose any additional control. It simply has the points on the spline. The control point was added maybe 5 years ago. recently they have added more options (used to be just 3 and 5 degree). Now you can change that quite a bit. Edit. should say you still select 3 or 5 during creation, but after you can change from 1 to 9. I think "best practice" is create it with as few control points as you can and add more control by changing the degree later if needed.

[@davidreyburn5548]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Yes agreed on your approach. They use 5th degree for curvature continuity most likely. Can you come back later after making a "fit point" spline and edit it by control vertex manipulation?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Hey David, maybe, however they don't add any control points on these new blend curves so not sure how they do 3 or 5 degree splines with only the start end.... magic?
Only the control point splines give you the direct option to change the degree. With fit point on the blend curve or on manually created ones you can right click on it and insert more points. That is about the best you have as nothing else is exposed to the user on a fit point(which i think is generally true).

[@chronokoks]

There is never a 1 solution to any g1/g2 constraint - why you spend so much time musing on this. Those are curves, not sections of a circle - you can't expect " consistency and why should you? Makes no sense from a design standpoint..

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

I am not sure I follow your question/comment here. This was a tool added to fusion in April. What consistency are you talking about? The difference between blend curve and using a fit point spline?