At $297 per year it’s already really cheap by any other standard for comprehensive CAD and CAM software with commercial support. Either way it’s a moot point because the pricing Autodesk chooses isn’t something you can influence short of buying it or not buying it.
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At $10.00 a month I would do it. But again I only use F360 on the weekends, but when I do use it I am a high level user. I have a current project that I am working on that right now has 36 active parts. And when finished is going to have well over 50 parts. It is also something that I want to share with the maker community when I finish and that requires not just exporting as STL’s for 3D printing but STEP and IGS files so that other makers can edit and modify.
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looks like they got you bad
Got the email at work and decided I’d download FreeCAD to see what that’s like. I really only used Fusion for 3D printing, so we’ll see how that goes.
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does solid works have generative design?
This licensing feature change impacts me greatly. Not so much as a user, but as a teacher of Fusion 360. I have used Fusion for several years and delighted in its power and development. AND it was FREE. The licensing model - 1 year at a time - for makers was incredibly generous.
The timing of this - just weeks of notice - is terribly unkind to us, their base. The new limits, like exports, seem almost punitive. DXF is incredibly useful for Laser and Plasma Cutter. I am glad there is still a limited option for this.
Yet looking at what is still avail for FREE, it is immense. This does not affect 3D Printing at all. Models created are not lost. you just archive active ones and restore others. All the design and parametric tools are still available.
As for the new price to enable all the old functionality, is it really that much for all that is offers? Do you need drawings? do you need generative design? do you need CAM? then maybe it is worth $25 a month.
Compare the price to Solidworks.
$150 for the student license. Thanks to @David_A_Tucker, we do get that for free with our MakerSpace membership and @Robert_Davidson for updating the deal. (David & Robert, please sweet talk Autodesk into considering us an Education institution for the same deal).
Autodesk still has this for free to students and teachers.
Fusion 360 personal: $60 a month, $300 a year.
Solidworks: first year is $5,290. then $1,295 a year. That is entry level. PLUS you need a much, much more powerful computer to run it.
“The price for one license of SolidWorks Standard is $3995 with an annual maintenance fee of $1295. You may find it interesting to learn that this price has not changed since 1996 when it was first released, so no surprises there! Term licenses are also available at $810 per 3 months or $2700 per year.”
Time investing in learning CAD via Fusion will make it easy for you to transfer those skills to Solidworks, DesignSpark, and other packages.
Fusion 360 is still offering immense power for free, though I am at the point of needing just a few additional features that might make me upgrade that license.
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DXF is the industry standard for 2D and STEP and IGES are the industry standards for 3D.
These are not cherry picked examples they are fundamental tools for the CAD industry.
It is a shame that it is. Too many problems in scaling between software packages.
Fusion 360 Personal still allows DXF export from a sketch, as @John_Marlow noted above. That is the only way I use it. Even if I want a DXF of a face, I create a new sketch on it. So i do not see this as a feature loss.
These are for export to use in another software package. So… rare use? Or you are paying for that other software, like Solidworks? OBJ and STL (meshed based) are still avail for 3D printing and Aspire /VCarve CNC routing.
Angus discusses how the sky is not falling in this video, as well as other 3d CAD options.
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I actually work with Creo and Autocad at work. But I have to drop parts in from suppliers probably once or twice a week that were made in solidworks or inventor. And keeping as much data as possible not in meshes is good for my work laptop.
Maybe something would be better than DXF but absolutely everything accepts it. That’s what makes it so useful.
I watched that video from Angus and he is right that for many its either worth it to stay on the free plan or to buy a license, the issue is that he is mostly focused on 3D printing whereas many at the space have to worry about 2 or 3 cnc types
I don’t understand the issue. Creo seems to cost over $2,300 a year at the basic level. And if you use Autodesk AutoCAD, pricing might include/discount Fusion 360. AutoCAD LT is $500 a year and the full package is $1,600.
Either way, $300 a year is a drop in the bucket compared to those packages.
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I’m not paying for either of these. They are for company use.
My original comment was just to support the fact that Dxf and step were pretty fundamental to many if not most drafting and design.
We have machinist members and we have programmer members.
How about we form a tiger team to make FreeCAD a real contender?
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I would love that! I’d be happy to be a beta-tester or offer advice. I think the major feature I’m seeing missing is the lack of 3D CAM. From what I’ve read it’s 2.5D, which should work “well enough” but isn’t featured enough to fully replace Fusion for example.
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FWIW, the F360 Forum says this:
If you have an assembly with referenced designs in it, the assembly will count as 1 document. You will still be able to edit the referenced designs as long as they are also active. If your referenced designs in the assembly are inactive, they will be read only.
It doesn’t help with your export problem, but it should mitigate the 10-document-limit issue.
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If anyone is looking for a different CAD program here is a pretty decent list of free/low cost CAD Programs.
https://all3dp.com/1/best-free-cad-software-2d-3d-cad-programs-design/
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Looks like Autodesk blinked, they’re putting STEP output back in.
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You’re correct that students would use the HOME EDITION for their coursework and then post using the licensed version at school. I’m not sure but I think they may have discontinued the home edition after version 9 when they went to a graphical front end with Mastercam 2018.
I have my own full version of MC9, but trying to get even a single license is very expensive. They may have even gone to the extortion, uh sorry, subscription model so expect yearly payments.
I think the blowback for AutoDesk is that users of the free student version won’t be advocating for it with their companies anymore after they graduate. It will take years for them to feel that sting (if any) so I don’t know what we’re going to do. the sad part is we will all be on different platforms again. cheers!
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Start the migration sooner rather than later…
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