It’s not that innovation in itself is bad, it’s pretty great, but innovation for innovations sake usually either makes a bad product, or an overdesigned product. You can make a shape that is usual, but make it play very differently even with small design decisions. The bi looks good, but the monos have too much going on imo.
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i get what you’re saying, i’ll consider it. renders are being updated as soon as fusion360 finishes them.
@RyoCanCan i can definitely see how it can play badly when play isn’t your absolute top priority, but i don’t see how overdesigning is bad? maybe if there’s too much going on looks-wise? care to elaborate?
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It’s not always a bad thing, but what I meant is trying too hard to do something just for it to stand out, or throwing away simplicity and/or functionality to favour uniqueness. Sometimes ‘‘overdesign’’ is ok, like in clothes and fashion which play on this element a lot, but in yoyos simplicity and tried-and-true shapes usually win. Besides, artwork is something that could crown a yoyo.
I’m not saying that uniqueness or designing different things is bad. I like my YYF Monster, which is in no way a conventional design. But, it’s a simple, functional design that works while still being unique, and to me that’s how it should go. Sometimes too much is too much y’know.
To this I’ve to say: if you produce small batch yoyos that are gonna cost something to the effect of +60usd, people will want it to play very well. Be it that they’re not comp yoyos and just fun yoyos, they still gotta be good players to justify the price.
Just my 2c
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NVM, fusion360 just crashed… All my 4 hours of edits are gone…back to square one
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Nooooo!
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That sucks super bad.
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Quick 40min design for funzies. Aptly called the Scimitar as the profile resembles one.
More round cups, and overall rounder with a nice big thumb grind ledge.
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How did u get that last photo?
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Hey Mark,
What was your background before beginning to learn CAD for designing Yoyos? I’m curious to give this a shot as well, but I don’t have a very technical background in math or engineering. I know it’s not impossible, I’m just trying to get a grip on what that learning curving was like for you given your background.
Sorry if this was addressed already, I haven’t had the time to read through this whole thread yet. 
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I’m not Mark, but I can answer too (I hope)
I started 2d CAD with my woodworking studies as means of drafting designs. This was mandatory in our studies and we couldn’t make anything if we didn’t draw it. Mark learned it in drafting class (funnily enough we just talked about this on discord yesterday)
My 3d learning curve was smaller than going from nothing to Alphacam (which is kinda sucky cad sw). My first 3d ‘‘software’’ was trying TinkerCad, which is Autodesk’s (maker of Fusion360) web based, very minimalistic, bare bones 3d modeler. TinkerCad is easy, but lacks almost every aspect of precision and is more catered to young people to model something easily and print it.
Fusion 360 is free, has good tutorials and, while it has a lot of functions, is pretty easy to start up with. This doesn’t mean it’s just a walk in the park, no no. But if you sit down and start trying things out, the software will become familiar in no time. And we’re here to help as well.
@EthanV
In top left menu, pick ‘‘Drawing’’
From that you pick your sheet size (A4-2)
After it opens another tab, you can make projections of the model you made.
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Yep, Ryo covered it pretty much. I also have a little bit of 3D graphics experience that helped a bit. Mostly though I read/watched tutorials and asked people about how to use specific features of Fusion. I learned that cool Drawing Projection thing from Ryo, for example!
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Thanks for the thorough write-up. I’ve been throwing on and off for about 7 years now (that doesn’t mean I’m any good), and I’ve always had a desire floating around in the back of my mind somewhere to design my own throw. For one, just to say that I did it and to selfishly have something unique. For two, to possibly add something back to the community that’s always been helpful to me. 
I finally opened up this thread one day, and I’m thinking it may be the nudge that I needed. It’s motivating to see all of you guys teaching each other and throwing designs together.
Now I guess I just have to download Fusion, and start playing around with it. I’m going from zero to yoyo design, so wish my luck. I can’t even draw (although that’s probably not a prerequisite, I just wanted to make my lack of creativity very clear). 
Thanks @RyoCanCan and @MarkD
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Get at it! It’s great fun, and even if it doesn’t make for a functional one, you can make sick renders of it (and make cool wallpapers).
Remember to post here so we can see what’s up 
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Someone asked about how to render fades directly in Fusion360, here’s a little guide.
First, pick two colors and make a JPG that looks sort of like this:
There are two things about this gradient that are important to make your life easier in Fusion. First, the gradient has some noise in it. This makes it more accurately resemble an actual fade, in that they are not uniform. Second, the colors wrap around on the left/right edges. The helps prevent sharp color changes appearing on the yoyo. It’s not important that the image be wider than it is tall, though. It can be square if you want.
Next, open up your stuff in Fusoin. Press A to open the appearance menu, and right-click an aluminum appearance that you already like that you can duplicate.
Then r-click the dupe and edit it.
Rename it and click Advanced.
Click this dropdown and select image.
Then click on the image preview itself to open the texture editor.
See that Scale? Change it to a size closer to the diameter of the yoyo - 70mm should be good.
If you already had applied the texture to the 3D bodies it might look like this:
Aah! it looks like the anodizer made a mistake. Let’s correct that… pop out of the material editor and make sure Fusion is in MODEL mode. Select your yoyo halves and pick Texture Map Controls.
Change the Projection Type to Planar and select the Axis that goes through the axle of your yoyo.
If you want to offset one of them so it’s not lined up perfectly with the other, do the Texture Map Controls again with only a single body selected and rotate the texture.
You can also render splashes, etc with this method. The important thing is to mess with the texture properties and the texture mapping so that everything ends up where you want it on the 3D models.
Have fun!
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Holy crap this is so helpful. Gone are the days of simple gray and blue finishes. Time to snazz up my renders 
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Not really a CAD pic, but a pretty sweet wallpaper I made out of a scimitar render and some stock wallpaper.
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I love you.
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shut-up-and-take-my-money.gif
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