• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Changes to Fusion 360 for personal use

This is bad news. They are taking away key features for hobbyists such as the ability to export to various file types.
 
Alexander said:
I got the email today. I knew something like this was coming
Click to expand...
Well you were right.

When I was working we used call this "Being Adobe'd" because they more or less invented the practice.

Build a devoted base of students and hobbyists for a few years such that they love the product and are comfortable with it. When these people get employment in companies they bring their tool preferences with them and this helps build their commercial base. After a few more years, the developer starts whittling away the key features in the freebie version. A certain percentage will love the product so much by then they just buy it instead of changing tools. The developer doesn't lose any paying customers by doing this either.

It's a delicate balance because you need enough features that will attract new hobby level guys or students, but not so many that they can do without the full version.
 
Last edited:
I think for what I use it should't affect much........ that said, I'd not hesitate to subscribe provided it wasn't robbery.
 
Free version only lets you have 10 files editable at a time. Not sure what that means exactly but I imagine I’m going to pay for the license.
 
Lar‘s is back doing the Cad thing again there is lots of videos on pretty much all subjects so even at $400.00 a year it’s not that bad depending on what you are doing and for simple things basic will still do.
 
Doesn’t change a thing for me, aside from me using it less :p

The job shop I use uses fusion, but they’re good with my drawings I send out...

I’d like to be more proficient with it, but I don’t have a huge need for the extra features.

Brad
 
The $387 I can accept I suppose but really they are just gearing up for $645/year. The sale is going to end and next year it will be more - likely $645. The smart thing to do is give them the $1000 for 3 years. oh that hurts. How much is solid works? Or Bob Cad? I see bob cad I have to ask to find out how much.

One thing you can really credit autodesk for is the price is really clear and easy. Now I"m waiting for the canadian bob cad rep to contact me to find out how much guys how much. I see solid works is the same sales rep BS. must be expensive if they have to pay for all that manual sales labor.
 
Last edited:
I purchased TurboCab back in the day, and upgraded it twice....... and used it about 2% as much as I use Fusion. The CAM was a bolt-on, and was klunky.......

I don't know if I'm ready to learn another tool, or be locked in on a platform (win32/osX) etc. That's what made Fusion nice. Same tool, windows or mac, house or shop........ And looking at the prices for a TurboCad subscription..... may as well pay for Fusion........ But that said, I can manage the limitations I think, even the 10 document limit (I'll just have a very big document with a lot of objects/models in it.

Its almost cost effective to sign-up for a course (and never attend) at SAIT/Red-Deer college to get the solid works academic license........ I'll have to look into that.
 
sign up for a course for the license. okay. clever Kevin. When does the academic license expire? sign up again next year?
 
The industrial strength 3D modelers like Solidworks, Inventor, Catia, possibly Onshape (not 100% sure there) are all big bucks. SW guessing 4K for licence + 1K maintenance. They may vary by promo or term commitment or lower upfront cost vs higher fees, modules/capabilities etc. but I suspect its in that range. Hard to justify for 'hobby use'. But that enters the slippery slope domain when dollars meet leisure activities. Usually its a spousal conversation - Do you really need that.... [shotgun/golf trip/milling machine/shiny car part/purse/handbag]? The answer is inevitably Yes. Who am I to judge? haha

So if you say Fusion is 80% of SW capabilities, then its still cheaper by a long shot. Which is why I pretty much predicted this price bump several years ago. I just cant find the post LOL. I think this was part of a long term business plan, or possibly the plan has been amped up to get more cash flow in the door just like Microsoft & Adobe & all the other subscription platforms. Strange thing about investors & shareholders - they like constant, predictable & high revenue.

I was kind of fortunate (if you can call it that) I did some mold related work that essentially paid for SW licence leaving me only <cough> the fees, which were also less back in the day. But renewal time is not a welcome date, I find it an ever increasing tough pill to swallow. OTOH I use it daily & it would be very difficult to build my radial or future projects like it without this level of software, so like it or I will be married to 'something' until the machines also roll out the door. Some guys come to a point where they go coast mode. They just stop renewing & simply use that version until it becomes redundant. Your files can be read by newer version but no support. I know a guy doing this running SW-2008 or so, but he is also buying antique PC's with locked down OS & backup systems. This is the last year SW is supporting Win-7, so OS & PC power is another consideration with software.

The only outs I've heard for SW is
1) veterans, you know who you are
2) joining EAA (experimental aircraft association) which gets you a working version. I'm shocked by this actually & really keep meaning to look into it. I don't know what membership costs or what is entailed to being a member in good standing. But that is my retirement strategy - volunteer doing something I'd do anyways & get some software out of the deal.
3) academic. I think SW is very fussy about compliance; transcripts, full time academic program, specific recognized programs. This was also confirmed by some engineering interns I spoke with. SAIT doesnt do SW I think they are Inventor? And it expires as soon as you are done your program. It has varied over the years but I think that's the norm. Once upon a time it was cheaper to take an evening/correspondence course just to get the software. I knew photographers that would take entry level Photoshop courses just to get the $$ product suite. One guy ran out of courses so re-enrolled & started again citing 'learning difficulty' LOL. Well the software vendors have tightened that up & they are on the lookout for repeat names, same address (son or daughter), CC#. Plus evening/correspondence courses are getting stupidly expensive. Why pay Sait $500 for a 40 hour 3 month course vs pay Adobe for a year & train on Lynda for free?

Back to Fusion I was seriously looking at 2021 as being a transition year to at least learn it so I would have my own perspective of what it could & couldn't do for my own needs. I still might but I think the writing is on the wall.
 
Janger said:
The $387 I can accept I suppose but really they are just gearing up for $645/year. The sale is going to end and next year it will be more - likely $645. The smart thing to do is give them the $1000 for 3 years. oh that hurts. How much is solid works? Or Bob Cad? I see bob cad I have to ask to find out how much.

One thing you can really credit autodesk for is the price is really clear and easy. Now I"m waiting for the canadian bob cad rep to contact me to find out how much guys how much. I see solid works is the same sales rep BS. must be expensive if they have to pay for all that manual sales labor.
Click to expand...

I belive we payed 5 / 6000 for Bobcad Version 31 with the features we wanted I’ll have to look and another 500 for their video tutorials. You can take a look at it if you want to see it. It’s for one seat though I had to buy two for my son and I and it can be transferred from one computer to another.
One thing nice though is it’s yours and will function till the end of time.
 
I forgot to say, but I'm sure you already know. SW & most of the industrial strength parametric 3D Cad modelers have no CAM capability to the best of my (very limited) knowledge. So you have to pass your CAD file to some other program. So if CAM is your thing, or workarounds is not your thing, then another check for Fusion where CAM is integrated.
 
For those of you using Fusion as your CNC CAM generator there are two changes to note. No more rapids - traverse moves are at the tool cutting feed speed only. That will slow things down. But worse - no automatic tool changes. I guess you will have to add the tool changes manually to the program. and then do that over and over each time you regenerate the CAM. Or just pause the program and change tools - I'm not sure my mill will let me do that with the program running - perhaps there is an override setting.

Makers muse over in the 3d printing world has a video on these changes - what I noticed is 69K people have watched it already. That I find surprising. I would think only people using Fusion would be watching that video. So if autodesk can get 10% of them to buy that's 7000 * $400 = $2.8M. That will pay a few salaries. I would guess this software cost tens of millions to develop. It's surprisingly capable and I suppose I'll pay for it happily enough. Ask me again next year when it's $650.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top