Threw this in DMS General… please feel free to move to a different group.
Just tried logging into my Fusion app on my computer and it’s saying that my subscription is up and I need to renew… for $495. Has anyone recently run into this? I had an education account with a UTD email, but it’s not giving me the education option anymore.
Out of curiosity, how many times have you renewed?
This is the end of year 1… none yet.
Contact their support. Autodesk is good about giving their software for free for education
Hmm I’m on my second year. I signed up under the startup license though. It’s free.
During the renewal process you want to select the “Startup Edition.” It does not cost to renew, they just assume a startup might have grown enough to start paying.
As long as you still meet the requirements it will be granted, and for the most part it’s automatically granted unless they detect something “suspicious”
I don’t recall the exact steps for startup license, but Google is probably your friend here.
As a DMS member, you’ve got a free one year subscription to Solidworks maker edition (student edition plus the cam software). They’ve renewed us 3 or 4 times so far, but it might not be perpetual.
Also, we’ve got a fully featured Premium version of Solidworks on the jump server that we can all share, even for commercial projects.
It’s worth exploring, especially since it’s free and projects would live on your desktop – not in the cloud.
I’ve seen this mentioned as a benefit of SolidWorks vs. F360, but I can’t say that I understand it as a benefit at all. F360 synchronizes your project between cloud and desktop. You can totally work offline in F360 and it will simply synchronize your project again when you reconnect. The F360 approach allows you to work on multiple computers (I personally use two different Windows PCs and a MacBook, plus can use the mobile apps on my phone and iPad to view projects on the go.) and you don’t have to worry about ensuring that you have a good backup of your project when the only copy of it is on your PC.
How is the desktop-only approach better?
Privacy? Less regular dependence on a provider that might be down for maintenance or change their terms of service or pricing?
I think the Solidworks vs. Fusion 360 debate is hashed out many places on the internet, including here:
https://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2018/10/24/battle-of-software-fusion-360-vs-solidworks/
Solidworks (Dessault) was kind enough to gift us special maker licenses (hundreds per year) in response to my phone call to them. It’s valuable to us, and I’d prefer to see people take advantage of it so they don’t think we’ve abandoned them. I know that engineering companies still pay over $4,000 for a single license to the Solidworks program, and $1,200 per year for updates, so it must have some advantages.
First, I support the idea that we should honor the gifts we’ve been given… but Dessault, as previously mentioned, could also change their Maker licensing.
No doubt that there are some advantages. I just wouldn’t be of the opinion that “desktop only” is one of them.
Privacy is generally a non-issue… AutoDesk’s solution and policies delivers enough to satisfy most organizations’ requirements. And their uptime has been good as well, especially considering it’s a hybrid model that doesn’t require the online component to function.
Admittedly, I am an enterprise cloud architect. I spend a good part of my workday convincing people that they shouldn’t fear cloud. I am a biased viewpoint for sure. And, to be totally transparent, I wouldn’t recommend F360 for my company BECAUSE of the cloud/privacy issues. But we are a privately held 10-Billion-a-year manufacturer who fights to protect our designs of million-dollar machines from Chinese patent-scoffs. My argument is simply that most Makers shouldn’t allow privacy concerns dictate their choice of CAD/CAM tools.
EDIT: In the end, this debate is religious in nature. They’re all the right choice. And all the wrong choice. At the same time. Pick your poison and let others pick theirs. 
I had technical issues with my F360 startup license when I built a new PC for home use a few months ago. It would prompt me to download the software from my account page which did not show I had an entitlement, and provided no download link. If I attempted to add it their system claimed I already had it. Catch 22.
After much back and forth with Autodesk support I created a new email account on my server and signed up for a new account. The original issue remains unsolved.
you download the trial and activate it through the “about” menu when you don’t have an installer. Entitlements etc are generally sorted on first login to an install if not through that.
Welp… got everything renewed… didn’t have to pay for the renewal… but all my files are gone. I’ve spent the better part of 2 hours now trying to recover everything, going through the Fusion forums, etc… but not no avail… I have my first two drawings from when I first downloaded Fusion, but everything after that is gone.
One more reason to go back to Solidworks… and I was just starting to like Fusion 
That did not work in my case, hence the open case with Autodesk. Activation leads back to logging in and my account is schizophrenic on Fusion 360. Perhaps that would work for the OP though, thanks!
They sent me a potential work around today that they want me to try and I plan to give it a shot in the next day or so. The ticket is still open and I hear from them occasionally
I had this problem about two weeks ago. Free trial had expired. If I had renewed before it expired, it would have likely been easier. AutoCad support directed me to the "Subscribe button at the top right of the F360 design start page. At first I though that I had been given a bum steer, but later I noticed on the page that demands in loud bright letters “Subscribe for $495” that there was the tiniest faint blue font nearby that said “click here for free trial” or some thing to that effect. Once I saw that, it all fell into place. Need damn good eyes though!
Regards,
Bob
simple - you own it and they don’t have access to it. I would not do proprietary work in fusion.