
Fusion 360💗Python
I’m really passionate about Fusion 360. It’s an amazing solution at such a great price.
Now, you know all about the Guided Tutorials for Fusion 360.
You are a regular on the Fusion 360 YouTube channel and you’ve tested most of the Add-Ons that the Autodesk App Store has to offer to maximize your use of Fusion 360.
But… Now what?
Like many of our solutions, Fusion 360 can be customized using the API.
Application program interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API specifies how software components should interact.
In the spirit of simplicity, you can use Python to write your own add-ons!! What’s Python you ask?
Python is an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. Its high-level built in data structures, combined with dynamic typing and dynamic binding, make it very attractive for Rapid Application Development, as well as for use as a scripting or glue language to connect existing components together. Python’s simple, easy to learn syntax emphasizes readability and therefore reduces the cost of program maintenance. Python supports modules and packages, which encourages program modularity and code reuse. The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are available in source or binary form without charge for all major platforms, and can be freely distributed.
Often, programmers fall in love with Python because of the increased productivity it provides. Since there is no compilation step, the edit-test-debug cycle is incredibly fast. Debugging Python programs is easy: a bug or bad input will never cause a segmentation fault. Instead, when the interpreter discovers an error, it raises an exception. When the program doesn’t catch the exception, the interpreter prints a stack trace. A source level debugger allows inspection of local and global variables, evaluation of arbitrary expressions, setting breakpoints, stepping through the code a line at a time, and so on. The debugger is written in Python itself, testifying to Python’s introspective power. On the other hand, often the quickest way to debug a program is to add a few print statements to the source: the fast edit-test-debug cycle makes this simple approach very effective.
source: https://www.python.org/doc/essays/blurb/
How to get started with Python
You could go buy a book about Python but, you know, it’s 2017 after all.
Why now leverage the power of online learning!
The Free solution a.k.a Codecademy
This is an easy way to learn — at your pace, on your terms — how to code.
The paid solution a.k.a. Udemy
This is the class that I took to push my learning just a little bit.
Python Ressources for Fusion 360
This title could’ve been The Usual Suspects because, guess what, I’m going to send you to the Fusion 360 Community to learn more!
- Welcome to the Fusion 360 API (Application Programming Interface)
- Fusion 360 API User’s Manual
- API Samples
Just like Fusion 360, you can ask your questions on the API forum:
GitHub
To store and manage all your code, you should use GitHub.
Autodesk has a special GitHub site:
It’s here that you can find links to get more information about developing scripts and add-ins for Fusion. There are also many repositories of sample code written by Autodesk and also links to many community repositories where other developers are sharing their Fusion programs.
Still Not Sure This Is For You?
Let me share the YouTube video that inspired me to learn how to code with Python. Big, big, big shoutout to my colleague Mike Aubry — follow him on Twitter.

