Introduction: Design Your Own 3D Phone Case Model in Fusion 360!

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This Instructable serves as a tutorial on how to design your own 3D phone case, including a video for extra assistance and instructions presented as text. It also showcases my knowledge and skills from the tutorial that I used as assistance by @BadMonkeyEdd. All credit belongs to him!

I was looking for new projects to create when I stopped by an instructable created by @BadMonkeyEdd. After writing a case study about it, i was very impressed and set a goal for myself. My goal was and still is to apply the knowledge and skills which I gathered through Edd's tutorial and make my own instructable on how to design a 3d phone case for an Iphone 12. Through previous research beforehand, i was very pleased to see that Fusion 360 was used to create the modeling of the phonecase in Edds tutorial because it is very simple to install and use. To clarify, I only showcase and explain how to design a 3d phone case but not how to print it.

Fusion 360 - Sign up for a free hobbyist license

Step 1: Signup for Free in Fusion 360

If you don't have Fusion 360 installed or don't want to pay for it, sign up as a hobbyist and download it for free. You will have missing items and tools, which luckily are not required for a project like this though.

Step 2: Get Stock Photos of the Phone

Make sure to look up the correct model of your phone and download pictures from all sides. Use a piece of paper or create a document and write/type the measurements. You don’t have to do the measuring yourself because your phone's manufacturing website should include these details.

Step 3: Model the Phone

Before creating the actual phone case, you have to recreate a model of the phone itself (Iphone12 in my case). This is done by

  1. Adding basic parameters to make the rest of the process easier
    • Select MODIFY --> Change Parameters
    • Select the + next to 'User Parameters'
    • Add separate entries for Height, Width and Depth of the phone. This will make all subsequent steps easier
  2. Creating the basic rectangle for the phone
    • Create a new Sketch by selecting the 'Create Sketch' icon at the top of the screen
    • Select the same plane as the image from step 2
    • Select CREATE --> Rectangle --> Center Rectangle
    • Click the centre point of the screen, and move the cursor slightly to start drawing the rectangle
    • In the Height and Width boxes, use the user parameters 'Height' and 'Width' that you created in step 1
    • This will draw a rectangle to the size of the phone
    • You may need to zoom in or out to correctly see the drawn rectangle
    • Select 'Finish Sketch' in the Sketch Palette
  3. Extruding the rectangle to make a solid
    • Select the SOLID tab at the top, then select Extrude
    • Select the rectangle and add in the dimension of 'Depth'
  4. Importing the back image into Fusion 360
    • Select from the top of the screen INSERT --> Canvas Select
    • 'Insert from my computer ...'
    • Find and select the image of the back of the phoneSelect the appropriate 'plane' for the image to go on (I use the 'Top' plane so the image is lying down)
    • Zoom in on the image to make sure that it is orientated correctly.
    • IMPORTANT - Check that the image is in the correct orientation.
  5. Scaling and positioning the image
    • Right click on the image that was imported in the browser window Browser --> Component --> Canvases --> image
    • Select 'Calibrate'
    • Zoom in on the image and click on the left side of the phone, and click again on the right side of the phone. You will be prompted to enter a value. The value will be the user parameter 'Width'
    • The image should now be the correct size, although maybe not in the correct location to match with the rectangle drawn in Step 3.
    • Right click on the image that was imported in the browser window Browser --> Component --> Canvases --> image
    • Select 'Edit Canvas'
    • Move the image around until to exactly matches the rectangle that was drawn previously
  6. Repeating steps 3 and 4 for the other appropriate sides of the phone.
  7. The actual shaping of the phone is very specific to the phone itself, but most should be covered with a few basic techniques:
    • Two Tangent Circle - (When editing a sketch) A two tangent circle allows a circle to be drawn by clicking on two tangents and entering a radius of the circle. In the video, this technique is used for the corners
    • Fillet - Select the Fillet icon under TOOLS, then select the edge to fillet. Enter a radius for the fillet. In the attached video, the iPhone 6s has a design where the top fillet and the bottom fillets make a half circle, so by adding the top fillet as 'Depth/2' and the same for the bottom fillet, this creates the correct shape.
    • Using these techniques, it should be possible to model almost any phone.

Step 4: Create the Phone Case

When the phone has been modelled correctly, the case needs to be modelled.

  1. Select the 'Shell' icon from the TOOLS section
  2. Select the phone body that has been generated in the previous step
  3. Change the 'Direction' to 'Outside' and enter the thickness of the case. I keep the case thickness as a user parameter, allowing me to adjust the case thickness if I need a thicker or thinner case.

The phone will look like it enlarges as the shell is added to the body.

Step 5: Cut the Features

Now we have the case, we need to cut out all of the features of the phone. These features include:

  1. Front face
  2. Camera
  3. Volume buttons
  4. Lock button
  5. USB port
  6. Speakers
  7. Mic

Not all phones have all of these features, but the techniques are the same for all of the items:

  • Create a sketch on the appropriate plane
  • Draw the cut out as required using lines, rectangles, circles
  • Select the sketch shapes that need to be extruded
  • Extrude the shape in the appropriate direction as a 'Cut' for the appropriate distance.

Step 6: Thank You for Your Time!

Again, thanks to @BadMonkeyEdd, please check his page out because without his InstructableI wouldn't be able to make my own. Feel free to use this Instructable to make your own, if you need more explanation, check out BadMonkeyEdd's Video!