I have been running Fusion 360 for several years now. Before that I used Alibre Design/Geomagic (I still own but rarely use Alibre). I have hundreds of models, drawings and complex assemblies in Fusion 360. I have used SolidWorks as well as a couple other CAD packages in years past. Fusion 360 is very similar to Alibre and SolidWorks and others. If you are comfortable in one of those the learning curve is minimal. Yes, menus and tools are in different places but overall the concepts and tools are very similar.
Fusion 360 also allows for a very flexible design philosophy unlike other packages that have a strict model of design. You can build top down assemblies in Fusion where you begin building each part as part of the entire assembly. This is very powerful. But, if you want to build individual parts and assemble them later you can do that too. I have both types of builds in my workspace. Other CAD software it not this flexible making you adhere to a strict bottom up design methodology. I realize that some people are morally opposed to cloud based software. I respect that opinion and if that is your bottom line Fusion 360 may not be for you. But, as cloud based software goes Fusion 360 is the least “cloud based” cloud based software. The Fusion 360 application runs on your local cpu, not in the cloud, so you can use it even if you don’t have a connection to the internet for a period of time. You can also save your designs locally on your hard drive. The CAM and FEA built into Fusion is what initially sold me on it. It has very powerful CAM and FEA features built in. The CAM is a subset of HSM Works CAM which Autodesk purchased a number of years ago. It also has surface modeling as well as sheet metal (fairly new). Fusion 360 isn’t perfect. There are many things missing that I wish it had. I wish Autodesk was faster at implementing features. There is a large user base and it is actively developed so things do get done eventually. There are a huge number of free tutorials on YouTube and an active forum with advanced users and Autodesk employees answering questions so anything you ask will likely be answered in a day or so. Yes, the no, low cost license could change (though Autodesk has repeatedly said it won’t) and you’d have a lot of work into Fusion which you’d have to convert, but this is true with any package. Alibre/Geomagic was on the brink of obliteration and only recovered because some past employees realized there was value about to be lost. I had a ton of work there. I was successful in converting my important work in Alibre over to Fusion 360 as it looked more and more likely that Geomagic was about to die. This is part of the reason I have all but abandoned Alibre. I paid Alibre $1200 for the software and $400/yr for several years and what security did that buy me? None. Someone wrote: > I have no interest in AutoDesk's proprietary Fusion 360 file format that > uses the files that I create to hold me hostage. I have even less > interest in sharing my data on their cloud. All CAD programs use a proprietary file format. All of them. If you are “held hostage” by Autodesk then so you are by SolidWorks, Alibre, Creo, etc etc. The better ones (including Fusion 360) have good file conversion utilities that let you save your designs out in other formats, both standard (step, iges, dxf) and proprietary (sldprt, etc). I have sent both SolidWorks and Step conversions of my Fusion 360 models to my customers who have had no issue importing and using them. Also, your data saved on Autodesk servers is not “shared” unless you want it to be. Fusion 360 is by far the best value out there in the cad/cam world. You can get a no cost startup license, seems like a no brainer to try it out, IMHO. Sorry for the long post, I didn’t start out to write this much... I do not work for Autodesk or affiliates, I’m just a (mostly) satisfied user. -Tom _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
