Image by Claas Kuhnen

THEA FOR AUTODESK FUSION 360

www.thearender.com/fusion

USER MANUAL
Revision01 – v1.1

Copyright © Solid Iris Technologies

1. INTRODUCTION
Thea for Autodesk Fusion 360 is a bridge plug-in that enables you to export your projects from Fusion
into Thea Render Studio for rendering. Through the use of advanced features available in Thea Render
Studio you will be able to enhance your projects with physically based materials and produce high
quality photorealistic output quickly and easily using the available biased/unbiased/GPU rendering
modes. This documentation offers a basic introduction on how to get started with our plug-in, starting
with installation instructions and description of functionality available.

Note:
This manual covers the plugin settings and options only, thus for a deeper and more detailed
understanding of Thea Render settings, materials, engine modes you need refer to Thea Render User
Manual.

2. APPLICATION PREREQUISITES& LICENSE ACTIVATION

Our plug-in is compatible with both Macintosh and PC version of Autodesk Fusion 360. We have
however provided separate installers to accommodate individual environment needs. Please
download the appropriate release according to your available operating system. In relation to
compatibility for Thea Render Studio which is a required component for the complete installation of
the bridge plug-in you will need to refer to the Thea Render User Manual.

You will have received with your purchase a license sheet that contains four serial keys:
 Thea Render Studio key
 Thea for Fusion 360 plugin key
 Node license keys (2x)

To activate your Thea for Fusion 360 purchase you need to first install on your system Thea Render
Studio available on our download page. Upon installation of Thea Render Studio, start the application
and select from the main menu Help – License Form.

In the Main tab you will need to insert your Full Name and Email along with the serial number for Thea
Render Studio that you received with your license sheet (please note that uppercase/lowercase is
important and we recommend that you record the information for future use). Once you have inserted
in the Main tab the information you will need to activate your license (live Internet connection is
necessary).

In the Plugins tab you will need to insert the serial number for Fusion 360 plugins provided in your
license sheet. It is very important that you press the Activate Plugin Licenses button once the serial
key is inserted in order to activate also the plugin license.

Node licenses are used primarily for network rendering and thus are not needed on your main
modelling workstation. To activate node licenses please refer to the Thea Render User Manual.

2 Copyright © Solid Iris Technologies

3. INSTALLATION& ENABLEMENT OF PLUG-IN
3.1 Windows / OSX
For the Microsoft Windows plug-in installer
(shown in Figure 1), Thea for Fusion plug-in files are
copied into appropriate Fusion AddIns folder.

If you have not installed Autodesk Fusion in the

default installation folder you will need to click on
the Browse button in the installer and select the
appropriate Fusion plug-ins folder.

For Macintosh OSX, the provided compressed zip

file available provides an install and uninstall script
file. You will need to decompress the zip file into an
appropriate folder on your drive and double click
on the install command file which will
Figure 1 – Thea for Fusion 360 Windows Installer
automatically copy the plug-in files to the
appropriate Fusion 360 AddIns folder.

Upon completion of the installation process you

will need to enable our plug-in from within Fusion
Scripts and Add-Ins Option from the File/Scripts
menu option.

Click on the green (+) icon to open the Add new

script window

3 Copyright © Solid Iris Technologies

Select TheaForFusion360.py file in the
AddIns\TheaForFusion360 directory and then click
on Open button.

Click on the option Run on startup which will make

Thea for Fusion plug-in initialize when you start
Autodesk Fusion 360.

Now that you have initialized the Thea for fusion plug-in you should have now in your main button
panel (as shown below) in Autodesk Fusion two buttons: Export to Thea and Refresh geometry

4 Copyright © Solid Iris Technologies

The Export to Thea button provides the following options:
 Quality of triangle mesh
 Scene orientation
 Add Ground Plane
 Enable HDRI lighting
 Export only selected objects
 Refresh geometry only
 Start Thea after export – enable to start Thea Render after export

Quality of triangle Mesh

This option provides control over the resolution of the mesh being exported from Fusion into Thea
Render Studio. Depending on the value set the mesh resolution increases or decreases during export
giving you control over the speed and the mesh triangle count.
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Scene Orientation
This option enables you to control the export axis by which your object is brought into Thea Render
Studio. If your design once exported into Studio is orientated in an incorrect manner you can control
the axis during export and assign the correct orientation in exported objects.

Add Ground Plane

The ground plane is a small utility option that allows you to drop a simple ground plane object
underneath the object you are exporting making it easy to setup quickly for a render. This is also
very useful when also combined with the Shadow Catcher feature of Thea Render which gives very
realistic rendered output and is great for product visualization.

Enable HDRI lighting

Our plugin comes with a sample HDRI image that allows you to quickly preview your model inside
Thea Studio with image based lighting. During export the provided HDRI is used but can easily be
replaced once the scene is open in Thea Render Studio.

Export only selected objects

This is a flexibility option that allows you to partially export objects that you have manually selected.
This in essence makes Thea Render Studio a “collection bucket” for modelled objects that can
dynamically be brought over from Fusion into Thea. Therefore you can create new objects and then
add them to Thea Render Studio whenever you desire.

Refresh Geometry only

The refresh geometry option allows you to dynamically update any objects that have been altered
in Fusion. Using this feature you can make modifications to your original design without have to re-
export the whole scene. This makes it very easy to make quick updates to any of the objects you
want and once you press the refresh geometry option to propagate that change in geometry across
to Thea Render Studio.

Start Thea after export

When enabled, this option initializes Thea Render Studio to begin visualization of your project
workspace inside the Studio viewport.

The Refresh Geometry button effectively acts as a refresh for any changes that occur in your design
from Fusion that is propagated during export to Thea Render Studio. When you wish for your project
changes to be refreshed across in Thea Render Studio you simply click on the button and Thea
Render will accept those changes and redraw the Studio viewport.

6 Copyright © Solid Iris Technologies

During the geometry refresh you have dynamic control over the mesh resolution of the item being
exported. You have also control over which objects can be refreshed when exported thus Studio
receives only the changes you want. This makes the export process quick and efficient but also very
flexible as you can create objects and dynamically bring them across into Thea Render Studio.

The Start Thea Studio button starts Thea Studio that’s linked with Fusion360 and able to listen for
Refresh Geometry commands.
After starting Thea Studio with this button you can load Thea scene in the Studio and then send
updated or new geometry from Fusion360.
This way you can work with previous projects that are saved on disk.

If you have any questions or feature suggestions please do not hesitate to contact us directly at
fusion@thearender.com. For any support requirements related to the plug-in please contact us at
support@thearender.com.

7 Copyright © Solid Iris Technologies