Quote Originally Posted by Washout View Post
A few days away and I miss a thread I might have actually been useful on ;)

Anyway I would also go for a dual boot setup - if any software is going to misbehave in a VM, CAD is usually somewhere near the top of the list.

Given the features of Fusion 360, I would expect you will find you'll use your old software less and less (unless you have a Solidworks/i-Machining combo). The only thing I am using Cut2D for these days is converting pdf plans into DXF, which I then import into Fusion for modelling and CAM. I haven't touched Cut3D or DeskProto since using Fusion, the latter of which I thought was a very good CAM package.

BTW - you might be interested in this video that showed up in my Youtube subs today, which I thought was a good intro/quick start for Fusion as well as helping users coming from AutoCAD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Th0BDUUF4
Thanks for that. Win7 64bit arrived yesterday, and the external drive (to backup data files prior to the partitioning) is on the way. Might get time at the w/end to set it all up. The way I see it going for the dual boot is a low risk option, and depending on how it works out I can decide where to go from there.
I know what you mean about new software replacing old - once you've got over the initial basic approach of any new software the old one just drops away and you mentally commit to investing time on the new one. I almost never use AutoCAD these days and going back to it even after years of using it reveals how awkward it is compared to parametric modelling. I'm expecting the same from Fusion CAM vs Cut2D CAM. Whether I also make the jump to Fusion CAD is undecided - based on what I've seen I think I will end up there but not initially as I will import Step files or whatever it will read in and use it for CAM. But I'm hoping it lives up to expectations and I can get comfortable with CAD and CAM in Fusion because the advantages of design changes in one package are obvious.

Thanks for the youtube link. I've seen a few minutes of it, and when I get a moment I'll run to the end.