Can Anyone tell me if Fusion360 is now a 1 year trial for the hobbyist? If so I am not messing with it, I don’t want to learn something they are going to make me pay for later. Thanks
I beleive it is 1 year but you can renew it like you did the first time for another year or what ever it is. There is a topic on it somewhere on this site where someone did renew it after a year with no issues once they figured out how to, Still free after that. Someone that has done it will chime in, I hope.
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in the search window type in software cost. the first on the list has the info your seeking i think.
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My real issue is will it be free again after the year.
Yes it remains free as long as you qualify as a hobbyist, educator or small business.
Okay. May give it a go. Hopefully they dont pull the plug on us later. Pretty expensive software.
Seems like a lot but check out solidworks. Really if your are running a business it’s not an issue to pay but if your not then its nice to see we have an option, autodesk was not always friendly this way.
They’ve been committed to supporting the hobbyist/small business market for years. Their recent changes in licensing maintained the free option and they specifically stated that commitment when they did the licensing update rollout.
IT IS NOT FREE !!!. They just called me and told me it will cost me approx. $500 to renew, I licensed mine as a startup originally , now they are telling me I do not qualify… I have 5 days to decide what to do…PERFECT!!!
if your not a start up then maybe the hobby license is better for you
I use Designspark Mechanical which is free, and for the tool path and g code I use sheetcam.
Will Designspark Mechanical accept my Fusion 360 drawings and create .tap files for use in my Mach 3 software I already purchased?
What did you save your fusion files as? It can open .step (it says read only but there is a simple way around that)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YK_ZDzt9mI, .skp, .stl, and it can export as .dxf, once I export it as a dxf I use sheetcam to create the .tap file.
Here is a good thread on the forum about sheetcam Fusion 360 vs Sheetcam
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Told them I am a one man hobby/ startup shop running out of my garage. Said it would cost me $500 a yr…
well startup and hobby are 2 diferent licenses so if your just doing hobby stuff it likely wont be accepted. they want proof you are a start up like incorporation, web page, phones, address that sort of thing. so they feel they are one day going to be paid if you are successful
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Sounds like you need to get another email address and create a new account with fusion using the new email address and list it as hobby?
Good luck with that. I talked to this guy on the phone twice, he gave me a lot of info. They are cracking down. He told me they are manual accepting investigating all applications. If you don’t think they can track your IP address you are wrong. You are using their cloud based server, they can do whatever they want… I value my files. I do have a website and am very successful at what I am doing. Don’t mind paying, so I did. Better than opening up Fusion someday and finding everything is gone…
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I renewed mine last month with no problem as a hobby 
… . But if your successful and don’t mind paying there you go it’s a win win, they get payed and you get what you want 
enjoy… But I still enjoy free stuff 
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FREE is good… LOL
They now offer a personal license in place of the hobby license. You can use it as long as you make less than $1000 a year with it, how they determine that I have no idea? Shortly after they announced the new plans, they also offered a promo deal, $310 a year. I might start taking on small jobs as a side business, so I decided to take advantage of the pricing.