Fusion360 Is free for startups, but does it work ?

[jjg]

I purchased and invested a month+ learning sprutcam then when I started using it on complex fluid shapes it crashed constantly and had all kinds of import errors with Iges and solidworks file.

I then purchased and invested in learning bobcad-cam for solid works. A little better but a whole lot of crashes and ridiculously long compute times for my complex paths.

I stumbled on autodesk fusion360 and it looks way way to good to be true.

Having burnt many months and lots of $ on very poor quality software, I'm a little gun shy.
Is fusion360 with integrated cam any good?

Has anyone used it for extremely complex parts?

If this is real, how can sprutcam and bobcad survive ?

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• Will Work For Free

[dertsap]

If your doing this for a hobby or as a small business thats making less than 100k then it's pretty hard to beat fusions price of nothing . even still it's well worth the $300/year for the paid subscription . Bobcad wants $350/year for support and "free updates" , the bigger softwares are $1000+ for support . Fusion is free , so it's worth giving it a tire kick because theres nothing to lose but a bit of time on the side .
Ive used bobcad v25 for quite some time , and not too long back I spent a few months working with fusions cam with the plan of migrating away from the bobcad software . Fusions cam portion is a pain to get used to but it's a very functional software once a guy gets the hang of it , I never bothered with the cad portion because I already have my preferred cad program . If I hadn't been using bobcad already then it would have been a no brainer to use fusion for the mold work that I do . Recently I upgraded to the new version of bobcad due to a lot of improvements in the cam . Plus I wanted to see to see if my "hardware" issues would go away which they did , though there are some new issues that are pissing me off . The cad is a good thing to avoid altogether .

I don't know how bobcad works in your solidworks but the cam portion of v28 seems to be more solid and robust than in the past anyhow . If you can get your issues ironed out - then the software can put out some pretty good work . These are words from an accused bobcad basher , but seriously aside from some avoidable bs with the software I can always trust the code that bobcad puts out .
If you can't get the issues ironed out then fusion may be the way to go . Otherwise the next step in software is an expensive one

BTW doesn't your solidworks offer free integrated cam

[daniellyall]

hsm work`s is free it`s 2.5D only

[cmelo]

I have never used sprut cam but I don't think I'd bother after trying Fusion360. I also have Bobcad V27 and hate it compared to Fusion.

[ger21]

If this is real, how can sprutcam and bobcad survive ?

I personally don't believe that Fusion will be free indefinitely. Autodesk is investing too much time and money to have 90% of your user base not paying.

[dertsap]

It probably wont be free forever , but if they uphold the 300 per year then its still well worth it

[cygnus x-1]

I purchased and invested a month+ learning sprutcam then when I started using it on complex fluid shapes it crashed constantly and had all kinds of import errors with Iges and solidworks file.

I then purchased and invested in learning bobcad-cam for solid works. A little better but a whole lot of crashes and ridiculously long compute times for my complex paths.

I stumbled on autodesk fusion360 and it looks way way to good to be true.

Having burnt many months and lots of $ on very poor quality software, I'm a little gun shy.
Is fusion360 with integrated cam any good?

Has anyone used it for extremely complex parts?

If this is real, how can sprutcam and bobcad survive ?

Fusion is fairly new and still under construction, so it does have its issues. That being said it's already a bargain at $300/year and AD's development has been very aggressive at fixing bugs and adding new features, so it will only get better.

What do you mean by complex parts? Can you post an example part or picture at least? Import errors with IGES files are quite common since it's an old standard and not very good for complicated shapes. STEP is much better, and importing from the native CAD format is usually best.


C|

[Kenny Duval]

I've been using it for free but will happily pay t the $300 a year when and if they decide to move away from the free for personal use model. That's still a hell of a deal for the capabilities they provide.

[hoecken]

To avoid crashes with Cad/Cam you need to get a good PC with lots of RAM otherwise no Cad/Cam is going to work for you.

[Charcad1]

I personally don't believe that Fusion will be free indefinitely. Autodesk is investing too much time and money to have 90% of your user base not paying.

I wondered about this too. Then I realized in a couple of years AutoDesk will probably be offering discount coupons and cash rebates to get people to d/l and use Fusion 360. This program is already well on its way to integrating the CAD/CAM/Rendering/Engineering analysis programs with the web browser.

I think the integrated Parts4CAD webpages with the many dozens of suppliers, all with click to import Solidworks drawings for their products, the embedded "Insert McMaster Carr component" catalog with SolidWorks drawings and online e-machineshop quote generators show where AutoDesk intends this to go. Its common sense these days that before your products can get listed on a purchase order they have to get put into drawings and BOMs. In Fusion 360 the procurement game is already over before bills of materials are generated, let alone before a tedious text and eyeballs based Alibaba search can occur.

What's value of a click-through to a Solidworks component drawing that's imported into a Fusion 360 drawing? It has to be worth a lot more than a Google Adwords click through to a main landing page.

[ihavenofish]

autodesk's motives are simple.

they own the 3d architectural cad market.
they own the 3d visual effects market.

they were getting they ass handed to them in engineering cad, and had zero in the cam column.

they want to own cad cam.

they WILL own cad cam.

one thing they have learned from 3d software like 3dsmax is that people do NOT like switching complex software packages on a whim at any price. so they give it to schools for free/cheap, have very generous full featured no hassle trials, and turn a blind eye to individuals learning on pirated software. all of this means that as many people as possible know how to use their software, and as a result, companies wanting to employ people will buy what those people know how to use.

with the new dynamic of subscriptions and constant internet tethers, adesk can just easily hand out the software for free to those who otherwise couldnt (wouldnt) pay for it, because they KNOW that when everyone in the job market is an adesk user, their employers will be forking over cash. (the company i work for spends nearly 6 figures per year with them, and were tiny!).

as to fusion as a software, its still evolving, growing. its pretty usable as is, but your gonna hit some quirks, bug, or find some things flat out missing. adesk is doing something though with fusion they have really not done well in the past. listening to users. report a bug and it goes on a list, and with some luck, its fixed in one of the updates that month or shortly after. sometimes there are several updates per month.

adesk is all about the money and not into charity, but in the case of fusion, we may get alot more value than usual for the money we give them thanks to the strategy they have chosen.

this will also help users of the other big packages too, cause if they dont innovate (both on the product and pricing) adesk will annihilate them. all the little guys, unless they have something unique and desirable, they are kinda doomed.

[daniellyall]

yep and the other little companies if they have something better adsk will buy them out or buy them out and leave them to it if it`s a really good product they can`t make it better

[Jon.N.CNC]

autodesk's motives are simple.


they own the 3d architectural cad market.
they own the 3d visual effects market.


they were getting they ass handed to them in engineering cad, and had zero in the cam column.


they want to own cad cam.


they WILL own cad cam.


one thing they have learned from 3d software like 3dsmax is that people do NOT like switching complex software packages on a whim at any price. so they give it to schools for free/cheap, have very generous full featured no hassle trials, and turn a blind eye to individuals learning on pirated software. all of this means that as many people as possible know how to use their software, and as a result, companies wanting to employ people will buy what those people know how to use.


with the new dynamic of subscriptions and constant internet tethers, adesk can just easily hand out the software for free to those who otherwise couldnt (wouldnt) pay for it, because they KNOW that when everyone in the job market is an adesk user, their employers will be forking over cash. (the company i work for spends nearly 6 figures per year with them, and were tiny!).


as to fusion as a software, its still evolving, growing. its pretty usable as is, but your gonna hit some quirks, bug, or find some things flat out missing. adesk is doing something though with fusion they have really not done well in the past. listening to users. report a bug and it goes on a list, and with some luck, its fixed in one of the updates that month or shortly after. sometimes there are several updates per month.


adesk is all about the money and not into charity, but in the case of fusion, we may get alot more value than usual for the money we give them thanks to the strategy they have chosen.


this will also help users of the other big packages too, cause if they dont innovate (both on the product and pricing) adesk will annihilate them. all the little guys, unless they have something unique and desirable, they are kinda doomed.

Wouldnt say they were getting theier arses handed to them when they are well up there in the top 5, with many behind, in engineering cad/cam with hsmworks most stable platform currently being inventor, with solidworks versions being riddled with issues. And unless solidworks pull their finger out and step away from the old software architecture they are so dearly hanging onto, to one that has multiprocessor support, i wouldn't be surprised to see them soon fall from their perch with processors coming out with more and more smaller cores, and solidworks favouring larger single cores. and it will inevitably be autodesk that will assume their position.