Fusion 360 Free version - work arounds

Like many (I assume) I had grown to love having the features of a full 3D parametric modelling available to me for my home projects, not that I often need all the power it provides. The removal of features from the free version has been a PIA to work around.

I tend to use Vectic V-Carve in the workshop for 2D work and generating G-Code quickly as it is so simple and user friendly. So the biggest pain was the removal of .pdf or .dxf export from Fusion 360, stopping the easy moving of 2D parts between the two. However I have found 2 fixes while searching

- Print to PDF
In Fusions 360 you can't export a drawing to pdf anymore, but you can print it and use the Microsoft Print to PDF driver (other free pdf print drivers available) to generate a pdf ready for importing into Vectric. On import you have to rescale the parts to full size, but with a reference dimension from Fusion and the dimension and scale features in Vectric that is simple and accurate to around 6 decimal places. I had some concerns about the resolution and complexity of the pdf file generated so i drew a 50mm cube, printed it to pdf, imported into Vectric, created a profile cut, exported the g-code. I then inspected that to confirm the files was clean and short, simple point to point moves of 50mm (not thousands of short segments for example) - not exhaustive but encouraging and so far has worked for me on simple outlines of parts. (I think the resolution is 600dpi by default for this print driver)

-Mapboard Pro
Recently been frustrated (and confused) by the Arrange (and Nest) features not being available, as taking parts from a Fusion 360 design and laying them out onto stock material is a common stage (even if I then rearrange them in Vectric at the machine to suit actual material available that day. YouTube made me aware of a Fusion 360 App Store App called Mapboard that not only recreates the arrange feature but also export of results in dxf and svg format! Feedback from users is excellent, the app only costs around $16 for Mapboard and $25 for Mapboard Pro. So I have bought it, and so far am very impressed.

Of course the idea of allowing third party apps that replace functionality disabled in the free version seems perverse way to manage a product and so who knows how long Autocad will allow this to continue or will impose further restrictions, but for now it works like a dream!

FreeCAD 0.19
Longer term the answer is probably to not rely on Autocad's fickle generosity, so I have started to use FreeCAD, the open source parametric modeller. Version 0.19 that came out recently is a huge step forward. Whilst nowhere near as sophisticated a UI, it does embody the parametric and constraint driven design approach I have come to prefer from Fusion 360 and so I have been using it for simple parametric box designs, getting it to spit out 2D dxf ready for CAM in Vectric. It does however also have an increasingly sophisticated CAM workbench so that might soon be an unnecessary step. Worth a look.

I have started to learn Fusion360 as an alternative to Sketchup Make for producing my quick and nasty (functional not beautiful) 3D prints. I may switch to FreeCad as I do not like cloud storage and processing. I feel it leaves me too vulnerable to ransom, should Fusion decide remove the 'free' option.

Hi

I was pleased to see that the widely used solidworks program is to be made available for makers at a modest fee 99USD a year?

Solidworks is widely used in industry. You get an idea of its usage when you visit free 3D CAD sites like Grabcad. The vast majority of the 3D models available are written in Solid works.

The SW Maker version is not yet available It appears that it will be cloud based.

To me it is the first counter strike against Autodesk Fusion that has a good chance of gaining real traction, It will be interesting to see how this battle plays out. With decent competition users are likely to be rewarded with better options at lower prices.

Google Solidworks for makers there are a number of links to check out.

Regards
John

SOLIDWORKS is certainly a leader in mech eng design, and having a cheaper, more secure way to access a personal licence (I believe for some years you could get cheap licences by joining a model engineering society) will be reassuring to those who can use it......But you can't beat free, and at least for now Fusion 360 is still free with all that professional, parametric, constraint based, integrated CAM goodness....if you can navigate around the recently imposed restrictions.

SketchUp is a fantastic tool for designing rectilinear woodworking projects, but does not handle curves well and the short comings of the models it produces can be a liability when you move to CAM.

So with workarounds, Fusion 360 is still a compelling option in the short term, but FreeCAD now seems a safer choice where you needa simple parametric model to drive part design for CNC.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andrewg

SketchUp is a fantastic tool for designing rectilinear woodworking projects, but does not handle curves well and the short comings of the models it produces can be a liability when you move to CAM.

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My gamechanger with Sketchup was that I could not get a .stl export feature, when I moved to a new Ms account. It wasn't worth the bother of registering with Trimble as SketchUp Make is crude and clunky (crap!).

It's been mentioned on this forum before, but Tim Paterson's plugin for F360 overcomes a couple of the CAM restrictions - see here. It allows multiple tool gcode output files and restores rapid moves for positioning (and watching adaptive cutting without this is painful!) It has some rough edges but I have been using it for some time successfully.

As a free alternative for 3D CAD, I suggest looking at Solid Edge from Siemens - completely free for hobby users, and arguably more powerful than F360. Steeper learning curve but plenty of tutorial material available. Big down side is no free CAM - but I am told that you can export 3D models and import into F360 for gcode generation.

Thanks Neale, I was not aware of Tim Paterson's plugin, which certainly seems to address some lost functionality within Fusion's CAM. Will definitely try it.

Solid Edge, SolidWorks, Pro Engineer, On shape along with Fusion..they are all serious, high value applications trying to attract the hobbyist with special offers and artfully constructed restrictions! Disentangling the pros and cons is not easy. So for example a quick look at Solid Edge suggests that at least you get to download the app with a forever licence but it has a less intuitive UI, no CAM restricted file output options, so not an immediate winner.

I started this thread in the woodworking section because I realise metal cutting engineering types have different requirements to us woodies and are probably looking for something to work with Cambam. So bearing that in mind:

I used to make extensive use of SketchUp to design furniture projects and generate cutlists. However the clue is in the name -Sketch, as it is usually best to redraw something than try and modify a design. When I started designing more complex pieces with curves and angles, I moved to Fusion and found the parametric, constraint and history based modeling a huge step forward that I could use to print out templates full size or pass 2d dxf files to a friend with CNC.

Two things have change for me:
1. I have bought my own CNC and invested in VCarve desktop which I find great for making the CNC do what I want in the workshop.The 600x600 max size restriction is only a problem occasionally (so far Carbide Create has done the simple big jobs like spoilboard surfacing)

2. Fusion 360 has removed features from the free version, in particular 2D DXF output and GO rapids. With the free Tim Paterson plugin and $25 Mapboard plugin, it looks like there is a reasonable workaround so sticking with Fusion for now.

However that is only because I am up to speed with Fusion already and I certainly don't trust Autocad and have been bitten before (used to use Draftsight for simple 2d stuff until it got withdrawn, now trying LibreCAD). So whilst a competitive environment of other 3D CAD providers chasing the hobby market is good, for me the best hedge still seem to be to start learning FreeCAD for simple 3d modeling and large size CAM.

However I am interested in what other people do and think?

Freecad 0.19 Released as stable version. Well worth an investigation.
Check out the German guy on utube for great tutorials. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8otDF_C_fw&ab_channel=FreeCADAcademy

I always harboured suspicions about the generosity of Autodesk and never even looked at Fusion.Freecad is extremely capable and improves every day.What it isn't is easy to understand or well documented.I persevere with it because it is truly free and there are enough good youtube tutorials to get me over the hurdles.It is worth looking at several on the same topic because there may be more than one way to do most things and a combination of approaches may be even better.I recommend sliptonic and Joko Engineering and always look for the latest additions.Any reference to earlier versions than 0.17 may well be obsolete by now.

Well - my foray into FreeCAD did not end well. I have just deleted the software and all of the work I tried to do with it. I learned a lot in the process. First of all 'Free' isn't always good value. The actual cost was a lot of wasted time as I could not get it to create 3D stl files which were error free. Everything looked OK, but the meshes were bad and the file was full of non-manifold surfaces.

All the help available was just confusing as I do no speak Geek.

I suppose I will just have to bite the bullet and go with Fusion360. At least I have been able to create 3D prints with it.