Lots of new members joining the forum. I thought I would explain that Fusion 360 has several subscription levels that range from free to $640/year. Plus Fusion 360 has a number of add-on subscription features. Don’t be overwhelmed about that.
The confusion comes with the “free” version since there is a free trial of the subscription version and there is the free Personal Use/Hobby version that is renewable as long as you make less than $1000 from products that you design with their software.
Here is a link that is active as of Jan. 3, 2025 that gives you a simple run down of this:
Note: There are more features in the paid version but you will have a robust design platform with this free hobby version. You will have more than enough power to do most anything with a plasma table.
Off hand the one thing the paid version has is a pretty nifty nesting function but that can be handled in other ways with Fusion 360 and in FireControl. There are even free programs like Deepnest that some users have good experience.
Good information @ChelanJim , but, from my perspective, the downside of the personal use version is that it permits only ten active files at a time. You may have more files than this, but they will not be active, they will be read-only. To use them you’ll need to first convert an active file to read-only.
If you only work on one file at a time, this is not a problem, but, to me, one of the overwhelming benefits of Fusion is the ability to easily create complex assemblies of multiple parts. You can’t do this conveniently with the Personal Use version.
To be sure, the Personal Use version is more than adequate for the common CrossFire customer.
So true. I found that I was constantly needing to make designs “read-only” with the hobby version so that I could work on other projects. It has been a little over a month since I subscribed and I would guess that I have at least 50 files that I have created and I have not had to worry about it.
I will re-evaluate in 10 months or so to see if I think I can justify the $640 price tag for another year.
Not to deviate from the subject as this thread can benefit many members.
I’m often making many one-off parts in several vehicle forums so there are times where I do indeed reach the “10 active file limit” within two or three days if I get slammed with requests all at once. These requests paired with my own personal projects add up quickly.
However, this has never bothered me once nor has it encouraged me to fork out a single penny for any paid version.
It takes some 5 seconds to open the side bar and turn an active file as read-only. Then another 5 seconds to open a read-only file and make it active again.
It’s important that one should simply refrain from starting a new project if all the information needed isn’t there yet. After a project starts, it’s pretty much done by the time one needs to take its place.
My process is simple - once the G code is posted, and the end result is confirmed to work, the file goes to read-only. There’s no reason to go back at it for anything again.
Speaking of one-offs, I’ve never advertised myself on Instagram yet someone found me and is requesting a job for their vehicle (just earlier today). So yes, the requests are there and they come in often, yet I don’t feel the need to pay for Fusion. There’s no real benefit of having more than 10 active files at any given time (at least for me).
Good points, @Kwikfab . Even in my case where I might have an assembly with 30 different parts, I ‘could’ have 20 of those parts set to read-only if I don’t have to edit them.
The tricky part is making assembly drawings. Oops. Sorry, you can only export a single sheet with the Personal Version. Need to create a STEP file? Nope.
In 2023 I went to a paid subscription for this feature only to find out it was a additional cost equal to the subscription price. That was one of the reasons I subscribed.
It worked great but I used the wrong term. There might be another function that Fusion 360 performs for “nesting” for an addition cost. The feature I meant was “Arrange.” I just did a bunch of shapes and extruded. You have to make them components for the “Arrange” feature to work.
Notice I drew the rectangle after I selected “Arrange” as you will need this for the arrange to work.
Select the components. Move to the “envelope” tab and then pick the rectangle:
As soon as you click in the sketch space, it arranges them, quickly:
Done (10 seconds)
Something that I thought I’d add here, that was instead shared via private.
My above post was specific to my own workflow - I use Fusion for my CNC table and nothing else.
On the off chance that viewers may also have a CNC mill, 3D printer, or other such devices they use Fusion 360 for, then I can see the benefit of paying for a subscription.
Another thing with the personal version that probably won’t be a problem with CNC plasma table but for a machine shop if you have a complex item you can only make and print one drawing without a bunch of work.
Do you mean shop drawings? If so, I have lost the ability to save a shop drawing as a PDF. in the free version. I thought I had that feature the first time I was using the free version but after I subscribed for a year and decided to cancel, I lost that feature after going back to the free version
I never tried to print don’t ask me why, (because I dont know) but I can also print just cant export in any of the 4 ways that are listed in the drop down
Just a side note, Solidworks has released an inexpensive hobbyist license that was $25 for a year on Black Friday, normally $50 or something. You don’t get ALL the solidworks features, but for all intents and purposes, the main parametric design features are there as well as assembly.
Thankyou for posting this, I use the full version of SW but I have a friend who was asking me the other day about his son learning it. Up until now SW was out or reach for learners due to the cost and I pointed him towards Fusion. I just sent him that link.
i would have to disagree about the file limit. i have a paid version and i prefer to save as dxf from the sketch with a right click. i have back ups saved in fusion files but when i want to do something i insert them from my computer. most of my files are single sketch. i have zero need to extrude.
i started this way to get around the free limit but ive had a paid for a year and thats my work flow but i use sheetcam.
nope. same way i did it in the free version. all im saying is if you are doing plasma cut files the limit is not a problem. easy workaround. i clarified that. if you want to assemble 3d stuff thats different.
