Had enough of F360!
I had it for a year and when that one expired I had to use a different email to sign up for another year. Well the second year is close to done and have NO interest in having my hands tied for another year.
My son works with numerous CAD programs for work and is my Go-To with any questions. Just about every phone call with him ends with “not sure why it won’t work”. I believe it is because I am using the free version but cannot justify $500 a year for a hobby.
I am very used to 360 now but the more I do the more I realize what I CANNOT do. I have been searching the forum and realize that I am not alone with how I feel about 360.
I AM going to change to a different CAD program but looking for other users thoughts and suggestions as to which one to try next.
What kind of roadblocks are you running into with fusion 360? I’m a die-hard fusion 360 user and I really want to understand what people are running into that’s causing them to give up.
I also did a quick search and realized how many options there is to pick from which is the reason I decided to reach out to the community for a suggested replacement.
I have no problem paying for an annual subscription but at the level of my “hobby” I simply cannot justify paying more than maybe $50-$100.
I only do 2D signs, shapes, and images. The majority of the time I am sent a JPEG image that I then use CONVERTIO to convert into an SVG file. My main problem is that the converted file usually needs some cleaning up and 360 doesn’t always let me do what I want. Options are there, but without paying for it they are not a clickable option.
I almost feel like they are poking me with a stick by showing me that it’s there and until I send them money I cannot use it. Basically being held hostage which I do NOT like especially when there are so many options out there to pick from.
Inkscape to Sheet cam sound like a good path for you.
I had the free version of 360 before I bought a 3-year subscription. I don’t remember any options opening up that would help me in 2D designs with my purchase?
What kind of things did you want to do that it wouldn’t let you?
Are you selling stuff Or just making for friends and family?
. Periodically fusion does come on some pretty good sales.
What are some of the features they aren’t letting you use?
None of those other options even come close to fusion360 capability. We’re talking parametric modeling with full-time lines. Constraint conditions. 3D modeling from 2D and back again. Very clean manual nesting options.
Drawing and rendering integrated for presenting projects to customers. And all of this without having to import export at all after the initial design materials been uploaded.
It’s definitely not “hobby” software .
It is professional software.
The learning curve for fusion360 is completely insane. But this is because people try to use fusion360 like they want to , instead of how it was intended to be used.
Mostly for myself but friends and family also. I have been selling occasionally when someone hears about me having a table but so far it’s been word of mouth. At some point I plan on spreading the word on social media to have this thing earn it’s keep but not yet to that point.
My education on 360 has been trial and error along with guidance from my son (via phone calls). Quite honestly I do not know what I am missing in the free version because without opening something up and playing with it I have no idea what it is or what it will do for me but opening it up is not an option.
I do hear a lot of Sheet Cam talk and for that reason that is the one I would probably try next but your telling me that 360 is more of a professional type software. I do know my way around 360 now and if it is indeed a better program maybe I should suck it up and stick it out until the table can start earning enough to pay for a subscription.
On the other hand I have no intentions of going beyond 2D so maybe 360 would be overkill and SheetCam would be a better fit ???
Can’t expect to master Fusion 360 by trial and error.
Take a couple of classes at local college or even online. Those other programs are great but not even close to fusion.
If your hell bent to not using it, Inkscape and Sheetcam.
Starting to sound like I should take another look at 360.
Definitely frustrated and thought there would be an easier, affordable, and more user friendly program out there but I am getting the feeling that I should stick with 360 and look into training rather than another program.
There’s a ton of us on here that will help you with whatever your roadblock is on fusion 360.
Just let us know what you’re trying to accomplish and that’ll be lots of folks trying to help you with the best path.
This playlist is a good place to start. I would painstaking to go through every one of these sketch tutorial items and don’t move on till you understand it completely.
Not any more. My son graduated last year but good thought.
I got through the post process and when I loaded it into Firecontrol it said it was posted with an out of date post processor v1.1, asked me if I wanted to convert and save to v1.6. I did this but how and what do I need to update to v1.6? Been looking all over and not jumping out for me.
I like F360. I have the free subscription. All you have to do is renew for free and then log out of fusion and log back in and you get another year. Its easy to use, but it does have weird quirks though.
Been messing with Autocad since Release 12 in DOS. That’s how I started learning to build computers is cause my dad was an architect and when the new versions came out he stayed with R12. I had to keep his computer running Win 98 till around 2014. You know how hard it was to find motherboards and drivers for Win 98?! For some reason lighting loved to eat his computers. He’s retired now, threw all that mess in the garbage finally. Old stuff made my dad a lot of money for his family too. I bet if yall had to use R12 in DOS and a digitizer pad you would hug your F360 and talk sweet to it.
I use Rhino cad. It’s expensive up front but once you own it you own it. None of this software as a service crap. That’s why I refuse to use Fusion, because it’s hard to learn and they can change the terms and pricing on you at any time, leaving you stuck learning something else or paying their extortion. I also don’t like how there’s no option in Fusion to not use the cloud. Sorry I don’t need your company storing all my designs. No respect.
Rhino has a good 90 day free trial for the FULL PROGRAM. It’s also really intuitive, much easier to learn than fusion. Cad tools are where you expect, called normal things, and work how you would expect. The only downside I see is there is no parametric modeling built in. I think someone sued rhino and banned them from making it parametric because the last version started to go in that direction.
I also use sheet cam. Very straight forward and once you get it set up pretty much select the “tool” (saved presets for different metals) make sure it looks good and hit print to make the g file.
You do not have to pay for a full version of Fusion 360, i used to have the hobby license, zero cost, now i am on a non commercial private use license, zero cost, i had to fill out some documentation to show that a make under 5k a year and they gave me the license for zero dollars. i used to use Draft Sight 2D CAD for DXF work, but they wanted money so i use Nano CAD now. My wife uses inkscape to work with images that need converted to SVG’s. I also have SheetCam as well.
