If you are that convinced you cannot continue to use the free version and cannot possibly work around you files issues, then just bite the bullet and buy it.
I think this is more a psychological thing than anything, if they had started by charging $10-$15 a month for the hobby version, I doubt their would have been much noise, as they have give us a lot to work with, but to go from free to what is it $40 or $50 a month has gobsmacked people.
Itâs $25 a month for a one year subscription. Thatâs not a whole lot. And average in all the free years and itâs very cheap.
How about just admitting you donât know whatâs up here rather than try to shift the goalposts and then not acknowledge the facts are that the drawing functionality is, for all practical purposes, just gone from the free version.
Or that this was a massive slap in the face to their community with a blatant bait and switch.
Thatâs only for the promo period. Note the person youâre replying to talked about the un-discounted rates which are in fact much higher (40% higher actually).
for some people it is; thatâs the point. If you got money to just blow on anything have fun; others have to consider their expenditures. Even for basic 2d things Fusion was nice because not only was it free, but let one work on other stuff in the same environment which was super convenient and powerful. For those not using the super advanced stuff like generative design and >3 axis machining $25/mo is an absolutely waste of money when other products do those features just as well.
Factor in the bait and switch and itâs a massive rip; many of the features being removed, like 2d drawings, arenât worth that price at all and if anything the fact that an entire workflow breaks and people have to frantically migrate years worth of data makes the cost far higher when factoring in time spent moving to a new system.
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Anyone can get the discount and can lock in a 3 year deal for about $23/month. The free version was basically meant for hobbyists, not professionals. If people are required to do professional level work with full access to all the features they should be paying for it. I just have to disagree that this amounts to a âslap in the faceâ or is worse "bait and switchâ. Autodesk is doing nothing wrong.
Also, your data will not go away. Itâs there forever and you own it. I believe you could do a free trial or subscription anytime later on and download your data then in any format. Itâs not going to evaporate.
Why not call Autodesk support and talk over the drawing issue with them? If they get enough feedback, perhaps they will modify the terms.
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I donât know about you, but I donât have $800 to drop on cad software. Completely missing the point.
Yeah, and plenty of hobbyists do stuff in 2d still. DXF and the associated drawing stuff ainât exactly an advanced feature in most CAD programs; itâs kind of considered a baseline feature to, you know, be able to work in two dimensions.
Again we ainât talking about professional work here.
How is misrepresenting the longevity of a program not a bait and switch? How is giving people less than two weeks to get their stuff exported before itâs locked into those proprietary formats not a bait and switch?
How is a personal program, geared to hobbyists, dropping support for some of the most fundamental, again not advanced, features in CAD to be considered even remotely reasonable?
Except you lose the ability to export much of it in a usable form.
So advocating piracy? Cause funny, the free trials are only legitimate if youâre not an existing user
see above about how the entire point of personal editions of CAD is people donât have the money to drop on things.
Oh gee, werenât you just arguing about how this wasnât a slap to the maker community, or how none of the changes impact makers? Itâs almost like thereâs a bunch of people already being pretty vocal about it. Volume of complaints is building, and remember this was only announced yesterday to most users and I guarantee you most of the personal-use hobbyists arenât on the forums and just assume autodesk emails are marketing spam.
Does anybody use or know anything about Solid Edge
Havenât used it, but a lot of people on the Autodesk communities have mentioned it as a replacement that theyâre moving towards. I intend to give it a try.
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WellâŚit looks a little like a cad package, only much smaller.
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Iâve stuck with Solidworks for a long time, so this doesnât really affect me too much. That being said, I have used (and quite enjoyed) OnShape as an alternative. They have a free plan available, if anyone is really looking for an alternative itâs worth checking out imho.
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Iâm planning to call Autodesk tomorrow and see what they say about workarounds for drawings, free trials for current users and such. I know that with Simscale simulations free account I asked for support on an issue and the support person actually called me and suggested he would me sign up for a temporary free trial of the professional version because that package offered more tech support (but the same functionality except for a few very advanced features) just to solve that one issue.
you do you, but even their own product details say otherwise on the drawings front.
You still keep dodging the whole point of this conversation. If you have to go through so much effort to do what almost every other CAD program does as a baseline it might not be worth it.
And I just exported my entire library. I have a small library that sat in Fusion at only about 20 designs over two years (many of which were actually all part of the same fewer personal projects) but it took well over an hour to generate my exports, and thereâs not a bulk export option.
I can only imagine what hobbyists that are more active than I am on the CAD front will have to spend time-wise to get it done. Some of the exports require âcloud translationsâ and these took the longest.
Autodesk isnât Simscale. Autodesk is known for not being easy to work with unless you shell out the big bucks.
Autodesk doesnât even have phone support unless youâre a paying customer.
I also just noticed that team sharing is going away too. Whilst Iâm not surprised since that is an advanced feature, less than two weeks notice is an absolute dick move to suddenly cut off access to files save whomever on the team originally started the project (assuming whoever that is still even has access to their account; especially in makers I can see situations like makerspaces keeping things in a shared team collab and no one knowing who the original document owner was and having to track down files)
It might not but for some it might. I certainly agree that people who feel strongly should let Autodesk know and perhaps they will modify the terms of the change. Especially if some paying customers also bring it up.
Also, is there a possibility that DMS can negotiate with Autodesk for licenses at a reasonable rate so DMS users can continue full access? It would seem to be worth it if there is interest.
Encouraging bad behavior is not a good plan.
Walking away from Fusion360 as fast as possible is the better choice to me.
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We do not qualify for discounts, even for on prem use. We actually just found out recently that a former chair fraudulently had us listed as an accredited educational institution to get free autodesk licenses.
They let us off for handling it in good faith but we have been told in no uncertain terms we donât qualify for their educational discounts.
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Awesome news. Thanks for this!
I donât know if this makes enough of a difference but the FAQâs at Autodesk say this;
What does this mean if I want to export a file from Fusion 360 for personal use?
You still can export select file types for non-commercial use. The exports will still give you the ability to 3D print, CNC, and render in external software.
Can I still export DXFs and how do I do it?
You can still export DXFs, but only from a sketch. To do this, youâll need to right click on the sketch in the browser and choose âSave as DXF. For more information, review How to Save Sketch as a DXF.
Can I still print a drawing?
Yes, you will still have the ability to print an active drawing.
Unfortunately this doesnât cover many modes including sheet metal and other things that use the flat packing for generating 2d cut operations, but at least it should work for simpler tasks with many of our users, albeit the other gotchas in the program may hit them first (Iâve yet to see an average maker properly organize a project into a single document).
Printing unfortunately loses the dimensional accuracy and and edit ability of the drawing by others.
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Some users are suggesting Autodesk enact a hobbyist license on the order of $10/month. If they did that but made all users port to that instead of the completely free version, what would be the general reaction?