Fusion 360 Free version - work arounds

[Andrewg]

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I certainly don't trust Autocad and have been bitten before (used to use Draftsight for simple 2d stuff until it got withdrawn, now trying LibreCAD).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?