Fusion 360 subscription changes


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  1. #1
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    Default Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Hey All,

    I know, a bit off topic, but there are a lot of Fusion 360 users here, especially the hobbyist type like me.

    If you haven't opened fusion lately you might not have seen that they are changing things a bit, to me it looks like the biggest change is separating the hobbyist and the small business folks. They are going to ask for a separate registration, with more info from the small business users.

    Another change is that hobbyist won't have access to the software translators for working with other software tile types, I have never used that function, and don't have a clue if it's important to any Tormach users.

    But, the main reason for this post is that they are offering what seems to me, a good deal if you choose to actually buy a seat, $310.00 US vs the normal price of $495. In addition, the 310 price is locked in forever, if you keep you subscription current.

    I know there are folks here that run small businesses, and if any of you are getting close to the upper income limit and think you might need to go for a commercial seat anytime soon, this special might be a good time to do it. The sale price is good until the end of October.

    Terry

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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    To be clear; other then for those who qualify for free service, everyone else who subscribes will not be "buying" a seat (as you might with Rhino Cam). But instead will incur an annual, re-occuring expense. There are pros and cons on each side of the issue.



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Yes, of course it's subscription, not buy, hence the subject line.

    Terry



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Hi All- The Fusion 360 free offer has been a longstanding hook and it had to change to a cost sometime. All of the Autodesk software is now subscription based, can't get a perpetual license. So the free lunch has been had!! Try Freecad will always be open & free. Peter



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Hi All- The Fusion 360 free offer has been a longstanding hook and it had to change to a cost sometime.
    It's still free for Hobbyists. But they removed a few features that most hobbyists wouldn't use anyway, like Collaboration. Very little has changed there.

    What they changed was that companies now have to pay for it, unless you can prove you are a startup that hasn't made any money yet.

    Gerry

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  6. #6

    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Has the $100k cap been removed?



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    This starting to look more or less like a "slow hook & reel-in" type situation.
    As Peter said better, you hobby folks might want to look into FreeCAD. I use it myself for personal custom dev and can't complain about much, certainly won't ever about its price nor my work potentially being held hostage.
    Forum and activity is killer also https://forum.freecadweb.org/



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Quote Originally Posted by CL_MotoTech View Post
    Has the $100k cap been removed?
    It looks like it's now $1000/yr. Vastly lowered but not removed.



  9. #9

    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Luckily my wife is a full time student, so she gets Fusion for free, or well at least I can say it's included in the price of admission.

    Obviously, I am violating the agreement. My business makes more than $1k, but less than $100k.



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Freecad is a CAD application, whereas Fusion (as the name suggests) brings together other elements on top of CAD. So if you are ever planning on doing any CNC work, Fusion is excellent and Freecad by itself is a chocolate teapot. The simultaneous multi-axis CAM in Fusion is a fantastic offering for students and hobby users and is helping to create a whole new generation of engineers. Just look back at how manufacturing technology has opened up over the last 10-20 years.

    The Fusion team have started to introduce "extensions" which are paid-for features such as advanced probing (inspection) operations and fancy toolpaths. This seems to be the way they plan to increase subscription revenues, beyond lowering the threshold. As long as young engineers (and hobbyists like me) are able to use it without damaging their commercial model, we can all win - and for that I am very grateful. I just hope they don't pull any really cunning stunts on us.....



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Surprised ??? NOT. It will not be that much longer before it is not free to anyone. That is the Autocad way of doing business. You do a lot of the hard work in developement and then they charge you for that privilage.

    Been that way for decades now. Don't see it changing anytime soon.

    (;-) TP



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Quote Originally Posted by vmax549 View Post
    Surprised ??? NOT. It will not be that much longer before it is not free to anyone. That is the Autocad way of doing business. You do a lot of the hard work in developement and then they charge you for that privilage.

    Been that way for decades now. Don't see it changing anytime soon.

    (;-) TP
    Yes. Likely the case. However, it is good marketing to hook people starting out, with free. Thus, most have generous educational discounts (or free). The start-up exclusion is another example and makes sense. Unfortunately, any manager that gives product away for free is under a lot of pressure to prove that it enhances the business model and long term thinking is often in short supply.



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    My Rhino 4, pay once and its yours for life, now if you want to update to a newer version then its going to cost you.
    It is also not cloud based..............

    It is also easy to learn or at least it was for me..

    mike sr


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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    This was always coming and the main reason I found it difficult to recommend 360.

    Interesting that the first thing on the chopping block is the ability to move to another platform - cunning stunt indeed.

    Sadly, Rhino, FreeCAD etc don't offer the CAM capabilities and anything else that does is going to cost you big time, particularly if you start moving into 4 and 5 axis land.

    Dunno how this one will play out.



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Never really had any luck with FREE 'anything'. If its not totally crap at the first place, then it never really last for too long and end up costing you a bloody fortune at the end (that last hot chick from that Romeo Night Club comes to mind).

    Quote Originally Posted by dharmic View Post
    FreeCAD etc don't offer the CAM capabilities
    https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Path_Workbench
    https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Fourth_Axis
    Time to get the matrix and 3DVector maths polished if you want sim 4ax/5ax. Seen it working/in action although the coder does not share his code. Very doable tho.

    Quote Originally Posted by dharmic View Post
    anything else that does is going to cost you big time, particularly if you start moving into 4 and 5 axis land.
    +1. Although the trick to funding software is to find a solid contract or long term business relationship and get that to pay for it (that's what we do at the Co.). For hobby 4ax/5ax (read once or twice per year, maybe bit more) its almost always cheaper to outsource that part than to procure software, post mods, etc.



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Quote Originally Posted by Muzzer View Post
    Freecad is a CAD application, whereas Fusion (as the name suggests) brings together other elements on top of CAD. So if you are ever planning on doing any CNC work, Fusion is excellent and Freecad by itself is a chocolate teapot. The simultaneous multi-axis CAM in Fusion is a fantastic offering for students and hobby users and is helping to create a whole new generation of engineers. Just look back at how manufacturing technology has opened up over the last 10-20 years.

    The Fusion team have started to introduce "extensions" which are paid-for features such as advanced probing (inspection) operations and fancy toolpaths. This seems to be the way they plan to increase subscription revenues, beyond lowering the threshold. As long as young engineers (and hobbyists like me) are able to use it without damaging their commercial model, we can all win - and for that I am very grateful. I just hope they don't pull any really cunning stunts on us.....
    I don't know when you last looked at Freecad.I use the Path workbench to generate programs for my machine.The 4th axis aspect seems to be getting closer to ready for release and the youtube videos will show you more.I don't think too many hobbyists have 5 axis machines yet and it will obviously take a lot of work to develop a post processor that will work reliably.I fully expect it to happen in due course.I would like to learn more about the FEM and CFD capabilities at some point too.My impression is that the Linux version is a little ahead of the Windows version and you may have to enable experimental features and maybe download a couple of additional libraries to get the most from it.It will stay free-thats the way open source works.



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Thanks for pointing out the CAM work that's going on in FreeCAD - apologies for sounding so ignorant and opinionated! It's come a long way since I looked at it a few years back, when it was very limited and impossibly buggy (for me). Looks pretty capable, although I couldn't easily find anything on post processors. Doubtless there is some content on the wiki but it doesn't jump out at you.

    Great to see this work progressing. Hopefully, when / if Fusion cuts off hobby users, FreeCAD will be more than capable of leading the charge.

    Personally, 3 axis simultaneous is my limit unless I win the lottery. But given that I've never bought a ticket, I'm not holding my breath. Beyond Fusion (and FeeCAD), the options for decent CAM are too expensive for most hobby users and students.



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Well I've still got the free HSMExpress CAM embedded in my SW2014 CAD, but never used it yet as I'm still struggling on with Sprutcam.
    Should I use it? Anyone here doing so? And does it even have a potprocessor for Pathpilot...?



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Quote Originally Posted by Muzzer View Post
    Thanks for pointing out the CAM work that's going on in FreeCAD - apologies for sounding so ignorant and opinionated! It's come a long way since I looked at it a few years back, when it was very limited and impossibly buggy (for me). Looks pretty capable, although I couldn't easily find anything on post processors. Doubtless there is some content on the wiki but it doesn't jump out at you.

    Great to see this work progressing. Hopefully, when / if Fusion cuts off hobby users, FreeCAD will be more than capable of leading the charge.

    Personally, 3 axis simultaneous is my limit unless I win the lottery. But given that I've never bought a ticket, I'm not holding my breath. Beyond Fusion (and FeeCAD), the options for decent CAM are too expensive for most hobby users and students.
    If anybody needs to know more about post processors for Freecad,this youtube video is worth watching . I have attached a screenshot to show the selection.


    post processor selection.bmp



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    Default Re: Fusion 360 subscription changes

    Quote Originally Posted by dharmic View Post

    Interesting that the first thing on the chopping block is the ability to move to another platform - cunning stunt indeed.
    How do you figure? The hobby version doesn't include translators so you can't open other file formats, but if you've been working in Fusion for awhile you can still export your .igs files. Or am I missing something that would keep you from moving to a different software package? Does FreeCAD not support .igs?

    Juan


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