Is there a cheaper alternative (preferably free) to Fusion or Solid Works?
I mean you are dropping $185 for Mach3 then you are dropping $60 a month give or take for Fusion that’s after a trial run 3 years maybe if you qualify.
Am I missing something here…
Thanks in advance…
As a hobbyist your not required to pay for Fusion 360 unless you make 100k yearly at your hobby.
1 Like
John543 is correct
Mach 3 is a given you will need to licence that to exceed 500 lines of code. That is pretty much going to be required.
Fusion 360 is free for startups generating less than $100k/year in total revenue or wholly non-commercial hobbyist users.
2 Likes
free term is only a year
The term for your Startup use is one (1) year from the date You are granted access. Autodesk reserves the right at any time during the Startup term to revoke access of the Startup entitlement by providing notice to You.
you will have to reset your account every year with a new username
If you’re a hobbyist just recertify every year.
hmmm perhaps I should better track my account date. Also I should think more about local copies of my work that I don’t consider “crap” 
I am due to hit the one year mark in roughly August. No matter what we will all figure it out and it will all be good in the end.
Awesome! Then you’ll be the one to tell us if it works. 
I got an email from Fusion 360 that says mine will expire next month. When you say “rectify” do you mean I make a new account or is that something I can do with the account I currently have? Couldnt find much information on this. Thanks!
Have you looked into DraftSight and it free, SolidWorks pushes it as a
2D cad, runs similar to AutoCad and they have a ton of videos on
youtube to setup and learn from also. If any of you are using Linux
software instead of Windows they have a version for that also.
There is a way to renew your “agreement” (that you’re a hobbyist or small business making less than $100k/year) with AutoDesk without having to make a new user name, password, etc. Perhaps we should send out a blast or make a blog post on this if it’s a concern of our customers!
1 Like
I would say it is a pending concern
been using Fusion 360 for 2+ years, hobby license, no issue to renew…no need to create a new account.
3 Likes