Fusion 360 Reduces Functionality for hobby users

[GLCarlson]

As predicted.

Autodesk is killing a variety of features for the free/home user. The most annoying to me is the inability to export to common interchange formats (eg, DXF), but other useful functions are going as well.

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[TheWire]

I'm guessing they think too many commercial users are using the free version. Here is more info. It's supposed to happen on Oct 1st. The full version is on "sale" for $300/yr.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...e-Changes.html

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fu...426.1585597896

There are bunch of limits that they will impose. Max of 10 active drawings, no 4th or 5th axis milling. And I'm in the middle of designing a 4 axis router.

[peteeng]

Hi - No such thing as a free lunch. Peter

[NIC 77]

$300 every year for a hobbyist is excessive. I hate this recurring yearly revenue model as opposed to simply being able to buy it and use it. Over the past few years there were periods where I was so busy working overtime at work that I had very little time to mess around with CAD at home. But I'd still have to pay to maintain my subscription during those times? What a joke.

It's not about getting a free lunch. It's about giving away free lunches long enough to close down all of the other spots where you might go for lunch, then turning the screws on the people who have been toting the merits of the previously free lunch all over the internet, getting their friends to use it, making youtube vids, recommending it here, etc.

I've always said that you can never trust a company that requires you to keep all of your design files on their servers. So it was pretty obvious to many people that once they had enough people hooked on it, they would flip the switch. It's a bid of an underhanded tactic IMO.

[awerby]

This sort of tactic used to be prohibited by anti-trust law. But there's been a lack of interest in enforcing it lately, even when it's a transparent effort to drive rivals out of business and establish a monopoly. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/comp...-or-below-cost

[NIC 77]

This sort of tactic used to be prohibited by anti-trust law. But there's been a lack of interest in enforcing it lately, even when it's a transparent effort to drive rivals out of business and establish a monopoly. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/comp...-or-below-cost

That's a good point.

Pricing below your own costs is also not a violation of the law unless it is part of a strategy to eliminate competitors, and when that strategy has a dangerous probability of creating a monopoly for the discounting firm so that it can raise prices far into the future and recoup its losses.

It seems to me that this is exactly what they did. They've created a monopoly. And now they've raised their prices. Oh, and they now have all your design files held hostage on their servers. Let's not forget that part.

[peteeng]

Hi - Autocad is in strife with their Revit users as well. Peter

https://www.dezeen.com/2020/07/30/au...sm-architects/

[kstrauss]

I am strictly a hobbyist and I don't have an ATC but requiring one file per tool is ridiculous. No 4th axis greatly restricts what I can make. No rapids will make some jobs take forever. And there is no guarantee that the "full" version will continue to cost only $300/year.

[vmax549]

We tried to tell yall but you would not listen. This is their Mode of operation that they have used for decades now. AND it seems it still works.

(;-) TP

[NIC 77]

We tried to tell yall but you would not listen. This is their Mode of operation that they have used for decades now. AND it seems it still works.

(;-) TP

Coincidentally, I just spent a few minutes trying to find a post I remember writing some years ago where I compared Fusion360 to photobucket. Couldn't find it.

[Paul-JB]

$300 a year is still dirt cheap when you think about it I mean add up what cable tv costs.

[NIC 77]

$300 a year is still dirt cheap when you think about it I mean add up what cable tv costs.

Good idea. I'm gonna cancel my internet service and then I can afford F360!

Oh...wait...

Yeah, you need to be online to use it, going to have to think of something else. Car insurance?

All kidding aside,

50 cents a year is too much to pay for a service that they can up the rates on or decrease the functionality of at any time and holds all of your files hostage on their servers.

$300 would be reasonable as a one time payment for a lifetime single user stand alone full functionality copy for a hobbyist. Plus then they don't have to pay for cloud storage fees. I can buy a copy of a DVD for a movie that cost 100 million dollars to make for like $10 to $15. Not seeing why $300 is too little to pay for one hobby user, plus then more people would buy. And they'd probably make more money.

Oh....wait....they're not going to offer that deal because they've already gotten rid of the competition, and because so many people who have invested so much time using their program and saving their designs to the cloud have no other choice but to pay. Then pay more next year.

[NIC 77]

[Paul-JB]

Ha ok so the cable comparison was not the best but my point remains, subject to debate, that its a relatively good value considering the cost of alternatives.

[NIC 77]

Ha ok so the cable comparison was not the best but my point remains, subject to debate, that its a relatively good value considering the cost of alternatives.

I'm getting too invested in something I don't use, will never use, and don't care about. I was almost thinking of trying it out though, against all my own good advice.

But one last point from me, I was checking out what other people were saying, just out of curiosity, and came across this:

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fu...personal-use/?

I use Fusion mainly for personal projects along with a couple small hobby projects and probably only log in every couple months or so but after seeing they were starting to limit things I figured I’d bite the bullet and purchase it while it was 40% off, I can’t really justify the $500 but I was able to talk myself into it at the $300 a year. I read over the checkout page many times and couldn’t find anything that said it would auto renew at full price, it only said they could change the auto renewal price at any time with notice. I have a full subscription at work and thought it would lock in the price like it did for that account. It even states “you expressly request and authorize Autodesk to automatically renew your service or subscription for successive renewal terms each equal in length to the initial term purchased by you, at the purchase price for your initial term” in their auto renewal terms link on the checkout page. After I submitted my order I received the email confirmation and it clearly states in bold “Promotion Information – Promotional pricing applies only to the specified promotion period. When your promotional pricing period ends, your subscription renews automatically at the regular retail price”, why does it not have this statement anywhere on the checkout page? Seems really deceitful that the email clearly states this after purchase but not the checkout page before you purchase.

You say it's good value. But $300 is just the sale price for this year. They can change the price for next year at any time. Spend another year using it, and you're even more hooked on it, all your files stored there, all the time you spent learning the program, when next year comes around.

It effects the business users as well because they see the lack of trust and realize that their functionality could be cut, access to their files blocked or crippled, and more money demanded also. You're basically a hostage at that point, regardless of what you pay, and if it's good value, or not.

[MichaelHenry]

$300 a year is still dirt cheap when you think about it I mean add up what cable tv costs.

Some folks probably spend that much per month on cable TV.

[jwatte]

I cut the cable 10 years ago.
Netflix is $8.99 a month, and youtube is free!
Just sayin'.

[CitizenOfDreams]

Some folks probably spend that much per month on cable TV.

And to some people $300 is an above average monthly salary. Either way, the problem is not the price per se, but the whole busines model of "software as a service" and "file as a hostage".

[kstrauss]

And to some people $300 is an above average monthly salary. Either way, the problem is not the price per se, but the whole busines model of "software as a service" and "file as a hostage".

+1

[TurboStep]

I cut the cable 10 years ago.
Netflix is $8.99 a month, and youtube is free!
Just sayin'.

I don't know about you but in our country Netflix and youtube require internet, and that's not free here.

And to some people $300 is an above average monthly salary.

If I had to live from $300 a month I doubt I'd have CNC machining as a hobby!

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