Fusion 360 Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon Project

I am a grade 9-12 engineering teacher in Orlando, Florida. This project is inspired by the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The project would be over the course of 5-6 days leading into the holiday break. Students will have already been working in Fusion 360 and have basic sketching skills. This particular project will enhance their skills using FORMS in Fusion 360, however, it could easily be adapted to other platforms. The images with this Instructable are balloons created by my students over the past few years.

Introduction:

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade has been a New York tradition since 1924! The planning for each parade takes approximately 18 months and one of the most exciting parts of the parade is the giant balloons! Designers begin the creation process by 3D modeling those balloons, then sending them to print 2 models so that the fabric sewers/pressers have a working model! Balloons are made of separate pieces so that if one part pops, the whole balloon does not come down! Helium was introduced to the inflation process in 1928 and there have only been 3 years when the Parade did not happen - during WWII!

Students will mimic what designers do and design balloons in 3D modeling software (Fusion 360)!

Objective:

Students will use FORMS in FUSION 360 to design balloons from the current Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade lineup.

Skills:

• Organize their workflow in Fusion folders
• create a form to design
•  use edit features to accurately design chosen balloon
• render the balloon in Fusion 360
• Access Materials and Properties to meet criteria

Criteria:

1. Use FORMS to build a Balloon
2. Hollowed Balloon (to fill with helium)

Constraints:

1. Total Volume should be between 300,000-700,000 cubic feet (518,400,000 - 1,209,600,000 cubic inches)
2. Material: Polyurethane - with a density of 0.08g/cm3
3. Weight ≤ 3500 lbs
4. NO candy canes or Macy’s Stary balloons - students MUST design character balloons

Supplies

Computer with Internet Access

Access to Fusion 360 (or any other CAD software)

Paper for sketching

Pencil for sketching

Step 1: Procedure

To introduce this holiday-themed activity, teachers may choose to show a clip of the most recent (or any) Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Teachers will explain the criteria and constraints of the project and allow time for students to research the balloon they intend to create. Students will then gather the dimensions needed to form their balloon and get started in Fusion 360.

Procedure:

1. Visit https://www.macys.com/social/parade/lineup/ to view the balloons that will be displayed in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
2. Choose a character balloon to model.
3. Document the statistics of the balloon you chose on a portfolio slide deck that will be used as your submission - Be sure to include the length, width, and height of the balloon as well as an image of the balloon and a brief description of the balloon's history with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
4. Use the rendering tool in Fusion 360 to create a realistic view of your balloon
5. Create a snip of the balloon you are designing and include this in the submission portfolio. 
6. Design the balloon! You will have 5 classroom days to accomplish this task
7. Take a snip of your design AND THE physical properties of the design and paste them into the portfolio slides

Step 2: Preparing Project File

Launch Fusion 360 and begin a new project folder. You may title this project anything you would like.

1. Launch Fusion 360
2. Click on the Data Panel Icon
3. Select Home
4. Click New Project

Step 3: Workspace

After launching Fusion 360 and creating a project folder, select the correct workspace for this project.

1. On the create tab, select the arrow to activate the drop-down menu.
2. Select Create Form to enter the workspace you will be using to design the balloon.

Step 4: Familiarize Forms

After entering the forms workspace, students should familiarize themselves with how to use forms. Teachers may choose to demonstrate some of the key features in the workspace, specifically the tools in the Modify panel drop-down. The video is meant to assist instructors on some of the key features of modeling characters in Fusion 360 Forms. (I do not own the video)

Step 5: Coloring the Balloon

Once students have their balloon designs completed, they will begin adding the artwork of the balloons. Current designers of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade balloons paint the colors on them, but students will practice changing the appearance of their balloons.

To change appearance, students will select the part or portion of their balloon > right click > select appearance>click, hold, and, drag the color over to the part to make a change. Encourage students to use the paint folder for a variety of colors. If a student is interested in customizing their colors, they may add a desired color to the balloon. With this, the color will appear in the "In this design" menu. Students may right click>duplicate the color. Select the new color>right click>select EDIT>use the color library to change to the desired color, then click, hold, and, drag the color over to the part to make a change!

Step 6: Selecting Materials

Once students have their designs complete, they should change the materials in the physical materials menu: Select part>physical materials>click, hold, and drag material to part to change. The balloons used to be made of rubber, but are now made with polyurethane fabric. There is a polyurethane foam in Fusion 360. Either material is fine, the goal is really to have students practice changing materials and reading the physical properties.

Step 7: Rendering the Balloon

Once students have finished sculpting the balloons, changed the color, and the physical materials, they should render their balloons and take a screenshot of the final product! Students will render by clicking the drop down on the design menu and select Render. Students may change the appearance of the balloon in this space also if needed. For the final submission, students will need a screenshot of their balloon as well as their physical properties. In the Render workspace, students will select the part, right click and select properties. The physical properties of the part will then populate.