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Fusion360 - features being reduced


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Email from Fusion 360 this afternoon to advise that the the feature set of the CAD software is being reduced for those on the free personal edition:

 

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Important changes are coming to your Fusion 360 for personal usesoftware that you need to know about. 

Effective October 1, 2020, functionality in Fusion 360 for personal use will be limited, and you’ll no longer have access to the following: 

  • Probing, 3 + 2-axis milling (tool orientation), multi-axis milling, rapid moves, automatic tool changes 
  • Multi-sheets, smart templates, output options for drawings (print only). 
  • Download options from public share links
  • Cloud rendering
  • Export options including DWG, IGES, SAT, STEP, and DXF (Note: DXF can still be saved via sketch)
  • Simulation and generative design 
  • Unlimited active and editable Fusion 360 documents (10 doc limit).
  • Fusion 360 extensions – Generative Design and Manufacturing Extensions

 

 

Several of those will not apply to most, but the lack of some of the export options, the removal of output options for drawings (meaning they can only be printed)  and only 10 360 document (which I presume are projects) will likely hit most of us, and while I'll wait and see what can be done, I think it renders Fusion360 useless for 3D printing and laser cutting purposes?  I still need to dig a bit further, but a heads up for anyone who hasn't had the email.

 

Rich

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6 hours ago, MarshLane said:

Email from Fusion 360 this afternoon to advise that the the feature set of the CAD software is being reduced for those on the free personal edition:

 

 

Several of those will not apply to most, but the lack of some of the export options, the removal of output options for drawings (meaning they can only be printed)  and only 10 360 document (which I presume are projects) will likely hit most of us, and while I'll wait and see what can be done, I think it renders Fusion360 useless for 3D printing and laser cutting purposes?  I still need to dig a bit further, but a heads up for anyone who hasn't had the email.

 

Rich

 

The 10 documents thing is interesting.  I've got I dread to think how many designs, most of which I'll probably never need again.  Do we know if that means I'll have to delete them in order to be able to generate any more ?

 

Adrian

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39 minutes ago, figworthy said:

 

The 10 documents thing is interesting.  I've got I dread to think how many designs, most of which I'll probably never need again.  Do we know if that means I'll have to delete them in order to be able to generate any more ?

 

Adrian

 

Not sure at this stage. I can never delete files from the FusionCloud system tho, it just archives them.  I wonder whether Archived files are included within the 10.  I am in the process of downloading everything as it stands at the moment!

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10 hours ago, PenrithBeacon said:

Has Fusion360 given a reason for the changes?

These are the words they used -

 

"These changes are being made to allow us to scale, align intended usage with the various offerings, support advanced capabilities for Fusion 360 subscribers, and stay true to our guiding principles of democratizing design for everyone."

 

Still not sure what they mean though. I suspect they will shortly announce a new entry level offering at an "affordable" price with these features, or am I really just becoming an old cynic?

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11 hours ago, figworthy said:

 

The 10 documents thing is interesting.  I've got I dread to think how many designs, most of which I'll probably never need again.  Do we know if that means I'll have to delete them in order to be able to generate any more 

 

It is 10 active documents. You can have any number that are archived. Though there seems to a problem at the moment about what archives actually contain. 

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9 hours ago, billbedford said:

 

It is 10 active documents. You can have any number that are archived. Though there seems to a problem at the moment about what archives actually contain. 

 

Thanks.

 

I think it might be a good idea to download some of my designs (I've already got the stl files at home) in case I need them in the future and Fusion is not available.  What is the best format to use ?

 

Adrian

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Thanks for the heads up.

I've only really been using 360 for one particular project,

which I've more or less completed but it's prompted me

to download thecfiles, which I've been meaning to do for a while.

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It will have no effect on laser cutting or 3D printing. It will only really affect people who need solid models, I.E. for CNC made injection mould tools. The drawings element of F360 is pretty useless anyway, it's only good for making a pretty picture and a few dimensions (which are often meaningless because you can't dimension a lot of things which would actually be needed on a 'real' drawing).

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12 hours ago, Quarryscapes said:

It will have no effect on laser cutting or 3D printing. It will only really affect people who need solid models, I.E. for CNC made injection mould tools. The drawings element of F360 is pretty useless anyway, it's only good for making a pretty picture and a few dimensions (which are often meaningless because you can't dimension a lot of things which would actually be needed on a 'real' drawing).

Eh?

 

Seems a bit weird when their startup licence is free for companies making up to $100k per annum. Not sure I’ll be impacted too much by those changes though. 

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On 19/09/2020 at 09:37, JimFin said:

These are the words they used -

 

"These changes are being made to allow us to scale, align intended usage with the various offerings, support advanced capabilities for Fusion 360 subscribers, and stay true to our guiding principles of democratizing design for everyone."

 

Still not sure what they mean though. I suspect they will shortly announce a new entry level offering at an "affordable" price with these features, or am I really just becoming an old cynic?

 

It means they wish to re-designate the fiscal considerations in a direction of enlargement whilst projecting an image where there perception of the the third party device manipulation executive manager feels that the return on their investment is acceptable.

 

Or in other words: trying to get more money out of people.

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12 hours ago, njee20 said:

Eh?

 

Seems a bit weird when their startup licence is free for companies making up to $100k per annum. Not sure I’ll be impacted too much by those changes though. 

 

Fusion for startups is aimed at a very specific group https://www.autodesk.co.uk/products/fusion-360/startups. My colleague at work applied for it, but as he's subcontracted by work he didn't qualify. 

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23 hours ago, njee20 said:

Seems a bit weird when their startup licence is free for companies making up to $100k per annum. Not sure I’ll be impacted too much by those changes though. 

 

Yeah, I am hoping I am in the same boat as you, but currently saving the main projects off Fusion in other formats ... Really like the software and I really feel like I have got to grips with it in the past year or so, and I really really don't want to change!

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If they did a “hobbyist” sub I’d probably pay £15 a month or something, be interesting to see if it makes any difference. 
 

I still don’t understand your comment about it not affecting 3D printing and the drawing being rubbish though Quarryscapes, isn’t that what Fusion does...?!

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22 hours ago, Derekstuart said:

 

It means they wish to re-designate the fiscal considerations in a direction of enlargement whilst projecting an image where there perception of the the third party device manipulation executive manager feels that the return on their investment is acceptable.

 

Or in other words: trying to get more money out of people.

 

Everything costs money. A team of people have spent their time writing this software. The better the software, the more time has been taken to write it.

 

Free versions are there to introduce users to the program until they prefer it to alternatives. Once they want a little more, why shouldn't users pay for the work of others?

 

But..

 

Some software is massively expensive. Quark & Adobe for example are aimed at someone using it for a full-time occupation & their prices are too great to justify using it to produce the odd flyer or quarterly magazine.

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1 hour ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Everything costs money. A team of people have spent their time writing this software. The better the software, the more time has been taken to write it.

 

 

Thanks Pete. I wasn't aware of that. I thought code grew on trees and was harvested once a year.

 

 

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8 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Everything costs money. A team of people have spent their time writing this software. The better the software, the more time has been taken to write it.

 

Free versions are there to introduce users to the program until they prefer it to alternatives. Once they want a little more, why shouldn't users pay for the work of others?

 

But..

 

Some software is massively expensive. Quark & Adobe for example are aimed at someone using it for a full-time occupation & their prices are too great to justify using it to produce the odd flyer or quarterly magazine.

Adobe are a software company with a full suite of products. Not a singular product. 
 

I note Fusion 360 have a sale on their licences at the moment, the cheapest is a 3 year deal, which works out at £20 a month. Still over £700 for 3 years though, and I suspect more than many would pay given probably occasional use.  
 

I certainly applaud Autodesk for continuing to offer a free version, I just hope this isn’t the beginning of the end, unless a new pricing tier is introduced. I like the Shapr3D CAD program, but the free version didn’t allow importing of canvases, or decent resolution STL export or multiple designs or any other number of grossly prohibitive restrictions.  

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12 hours ago, njee20 said:

If they did a “hobbyist” sub I’d probably pay £15 a month or something, be interesting to see if it makes any difference. 
 

I still don’t understand your comment about it not affecting 3D printing and the drawing being rubbish though Quarryscapes, isn’t that what Fusion does...?!

 

Fusion's 2D Drawings environment is useless for anything but rough sketches. It doesn't offer enough dimensioning tools to accurately describe anything but the most basic of designs. The new sketch feature in drawing helps somewhat, but it's such a limited set of sketch tools it takes ages to do things. There are also problems with the way it renders things, threads for example are incorrectly drawn. I do use F360 drawings straight out of the box for some of my work stuff, logo positioning drawings are done in Fusion but all production drawings are done in other software. 

 

3D printing isn't affected, at all by any change. You don't need STEP files, you don't need anything in the manufacturing tab etc. For 3D printing using simple solid modelling tools, Fusion is still a very good option for free, and offers a much better upgrade path should you wish to do more with CAD in the future. It's all we use at work for 3D modelling, and though we would be far better off with Inventor or Solidworks, the boss won't pay so Fusion workarounds for awkward sheet metal shapes are my day job. 

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On 19/09/2020 at 09:44, billbedford said:

 

Yup,  The number of people they have found that run businesses on the back of the free version. 

As usual, the few spoiling it for the many.

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"You pays your money and you gets what you pays for".

 

Software engineers are expensive and CAD software companies are not running charities. Anything "free" is either not all that good or it comes with strings attached. I imagine Fusion is hoping the free version will get you hooked so you move up to a version that brings them some revenue.

 

I prefer to pay "upfront" and buy a product that does not rely on any connection to the Internet. It will keep running until Microsoft stops supporting the OS. I happen to use TurboCAD which is really very good for 2D and 3D. It's also quite affordable.

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8 hours ago, AndyID said:

"You pays your money and you gets what you pays for".

 

Software engineers are expensive and CAD software companies are not running charities. Anything "free" is either not all that good or it comes with strings attached. I imagine Fusion is hoping the free version will get you hooked so you move up to a version that brings them some revenue.

 

I prefer to pay "upfront" and buy a product that does not rely on any connection to the Internet. It will keep running until Microsoft stops supporting the OS. I happen to use TurboCAD which is really very good for 2D and 3D. It's also quite affordable.

Agree with everything in this post except the last sentence, 3D TurboCAD is now expensive! 

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