PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf  

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

SolidEdge 2020 can export 3MF files directly.

Might be another eason to try it out.

Still is a learning curve there.

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

Found it - For SolidEdge I was in an assembly and not a part template, which disabled a number of features. 

Opening the STL as a part instead adds a 'reverse engineering' tab with mesh editing/importing tools to turn it into a body you can work with. 

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

Already exported all my drawings to local disk.

Just installed Solid Edge and seeing if I can get to grips with it, might be worth the learning curve as I have very poor internet connectivity when on site at work.

Shame as I was really beginning to like Fusion 360.

If they released a lite version at a reasonable cost with just what we need for 3D printing, then I could consider buying it, but not the current subscription cost for something where I would not use over half of the product.

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

In response to the backlash, Autodesk have officially retracted the decision to remove the ability to export to STEP.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/changes-to-fusion-360-for-personal-use/

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

Color me skeptical, but I'm going to bet it's not permanent, won't be the first time a company has balked after public outcry only to continue trying to sneak the same thing past their users in the future once the initial outrage blows over. (Paypal's seller fee refund gouging comes to mind...)

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

It’s a good thing that people have more time now to export. But I think the direction Autodesk wants to go with the free license is as clear as it could get. Everybody who decided to switch will do it anyway. 

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

I have to disagree.

My background is in cloud computing and managing data centres. The cost of running the infrastructure for this software is enormous and this is before you take into account to costs of R&D and maintenance.

To house unlimited designs to an unlimited number of people along with a commercial grade parametric 3D CAD application for free is a massive gift to the community. The number of terabytes of data they are storing would blow your mind.

A big part of what they are doing is trying to reduce disk consumption. By limiting the number of active designs to 10 allows them to compress (archive) the data that is not active. It's like zipping files to reduce their size.

They are not reducing how many designs you can have. You can archive and bring out of archive as many designs as you like as much as you like.

There is nothing else that the changes to the free license is really limiting a GENUINE hobbyist user from doing.

If you're nervous, keep regular STEP backups of your designs. There is a simple plug-in for Fusion 360 that will allow you to export all of you designs to STEP in one go and it will even build the same folder structure for you so you can keep your Project containers.

Here is a video on how to do it:

If you can't accept it or have been using the free license dishonestly, then it probably is best you move on; but stop griping about it. You've had it good for a long time, for free, and it's still free and it still does 99% of what the paid for version does.

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

@morphias

As you post it directly under my post without reference but still getting personal “you”, I assume you’re talking about me.

First of all free license is for a business purpose reason there. You get people trained at no cost. People are producing tutorials at no costs. You make it attractive to companies because more people in the market know this software and if they have to decide between product A or Fusion360, they will most likely pick F360. And this is where the real money lies. So please don’t let us picture Autodesk as charitable organization because of that.

In regards to costs for Autodesk they could make it completely different. Like offering local safes only, archiving everything after certain amount of time (i.e. one week untouched document will be archived automatically). With they most recent steps they obviously locking you into their eco system first and cutting features. Like no simulation and no cloud services for personal license. 

I made my decision to switch after my startup license was removed without notice and I had to switch to personal license in order to access my documents. As you’re not allowed to sell anything with this license and monthly costs does not reflect the earning I’m getting from it, the choice was made. So it’s not tied to this recent Autodesk move. I’m only trying to make it clear for people who are starting CAD journey. If you’re not ready to pay for this service on monthly base, then it’s better to find alternatives as long as you have F360 running and have export options. Otherwise you might end up investing a lot of time learning this software and at some point realize it’s either to expensive for you or you’re not able to do something what was possible with the free license before.

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

@nikolai-r

Take it down a notch mate. It wasn't directed specifically at you and is the reason I didn't post as a Reply or Quote. You don't get to choose the order posts appear in.

It was a general post providing a counter to the people unhappy about the free version and changes to it. It's free. You don't like it, go elsewhere or pay for it or apply for a legitimate free Startup license.

Now that you've made this about you, can you please shed some more light on your experience? You say they took your Startup license away without warning. Did you contact them to find out why? If you did, what reason did they provide? Did you no longer meet the guidleines for a Startup license?

People making tutorials on how to use the product at no cost is their decision. Plenty of people make tutorials on how to use software at no cost. For example there are plenty of free tutorials on how to use the various Adobe offerings, which are paid for subscription products.

I'm on a Startup license as I recently launched my own business. I know I'm on borrowed time (3 years from when I launched the business is the best case scenario) before I no longer meet the criteria. If at the end of that I'm using the product a lot for business purposes, then I'll pay for it. It will be a legitimate business expense that will be generating an income, and therefore a cost, that the business can absorb.

Annualised it isn't really all that expensive anyway. $674USD for 3 years or $250USD for 1 year with full tech support and unrestruicted access.

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

@nikolai-r

Startup licenses are reviewed annually BTW.

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

@morphias

Yes, it was after around one year of usage. Looks like I didn’t met the criteria anymore and they followed the rules pretty strict. So I didn’t contacted them. Not really sure what conditions were couple years back and I don’t want to write something wrong here. I don’t earn $60 every month from the designs to justify this expense. So it was pretty clear that I need to switch because it’s just a hobby for me. Yes, they are offering discounts today but they were none when my account was frozen and this might change next month as-well.  

I understand your case. Just be prepared to pay (more) after a one year review. Nobody knows the price tag and conditions which will be there in one year. Maybe it will be even better for you to buy a 3 year license today with the discount. And don’t forget the price is per user. Means if you have 3 designers in your startup, you will need to buy 3 licenses. The expenses are getting pretty big pretty fast. 

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

Posted by: @nikolai-r

First of all free license is for a business purpose reason there. You get people trained at no cost. People are producing tutorials at no costs. You make it attractive to companies because more people in the market know this software and if they have to decide between product A or Fusion360, they will most likely pick F360. And this is where the real money lies. So please don’t let us picture Autodesk as charitable organization because of that.

In regards to costs for Autodesk they could make it completely different. Like offering local safes only, archiving everything after certain amount of time (i.e. one week untouched document will be archived automatically). With they most recent steps they obviously locking you into their eco system first and cutting features. Like no simulation and no cloud services for personal license. 

I agree with your view; opening up or narrowing down licence terms in commercial operations do always have a business reason. Seeing that Fusion360 and other CAD systems are well locked in; a pretty good motivation for opening up licence terms is to grow their closed ecosystem.

Personally I think, Autodesk revoked the privileges a bit too early to gain enough dependency from Joe Public.

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

Posted by: @bodo

Posted by: @nikolai-r

First of all free license is for a business purpose reason there. You get people trained at no cost. People are producing tutorials at no costs. You make it attractive to companies because more people in the market know this software and if they have to decide between product A or Fusion360, they will most likely pick F360. And this is where the real money lies. So please don’t let us picture Autodesk as charitable organization because of that.

In regards to costs for Autodesk they could make it completely different. Like offering local safes only, archiving everything after certain amount of time (i.e. one week untouched document will be archived automatically). With they most recent steps they obviously locking you into their eco system first and cutting features. Like no simulation and no cloud services for personal license. 

I agree with your view; opening up or narrowing down licence terms in commercial operations do always have a business reason. Seeing that Fusion360 and other CAD systems are well locked in; a pretty good motivation for opening up licence terms is to grow their closed ecosystem.

Personally I think, Autodesk revoked the privileges a bit too early to gain enough dependency from Joe Public.

I agree.  they also have opened a huge avenue for a competitor.  

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

just set a document as "read-only" and then you have slot open for "editable"

RE: PSA: Fusion360 free getting a major nerf

Anyone around here with a commercial license or even educational license for Fusion who might be able to support me with upload and translation of an x_t file?  This is also one of the functionalities that has been killed from the free license scope.  So now I can upload it, but only for viewing which isn't quite helpful at all.