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I had been putting this off until I had a chance to have a personal look-see but a similar topic coming up seemed to make it appropriate. I am by no means well informed about the following which is why I was procrastinating so some of what follows may be off base. Please note that I have no personal interest in the following product other than an ongoing quest for better software.
A week ago last Saturday, I was at the Tormach open house and a couple of reps from Autodesk gave a presentation about their new product, Fusion 360. Autodesk is trying very hard to become number one in the CAD/CAM arena. Fusion 360 is their bid to regain the market.
Some background: Autodesk fell behind the curve in CAD when SolidWorks aggressively pushed the 3D parametric CAD package. Since then, it has been catchup for them. A year ago or so, they issued HSM Works and the free version HSM Express, CAM applications that launched from within SolidWorks. Building on that, they began developing a stand-alone product integrating the CAD and CAM portions within a single product: Fusion 360.
Fusion 360 is a cloud based application that can run on virtually any platform. The product is a subscription, either by the month or by the year. Once you subscribe, you can open the app on any computer, smart phone, or tablet that has internet access. All of your work is stored on the cloud and can be accessed at any time. Additionally, all your work from the previous month or more can be stored on your computer to work with when you don't have internet access. Additionally, any product upgrades are seamlessly and transparently available each time you use the app.
The really great thing about this for hobbyists is their pricing schedule. This is a professional product intended for professionals but because of their aggressive marketing, it is available by the month for $40 or $300 for a year subscription. You can opt out of any month you don't want or need to use the app and resubscribe when you need it again.
Now here is the best part. You can download it free for 1 month. After the month has expired, you can continue if you are a student or, if you are an enthusiast (i.e. non-professional user), you can extend the free subscription for a year. After the year has expired the subscription rates above apply.
I currently have a personal seat of SolidWorks 2012. It cost me over $4,000. I do not pay the annual maintenance fee of $1400 so my seat is out of date with all the future versions. SolidWorks does not create backwards compatible files so I cannot receive files from anyone using a future version (I had heard that they were going to start backward compatibility with the 2013 version but that is unverified). For my CAM application, I use SprutCAM ver. 7. The upgrade fee is $300 each year so I am two versions out of date . If I don't upgrade each year, I have to buy a full seat at $1250. When I compare that against the Fusion 360 cost, it's almost a no-brainer.
I love my SolidWorks. I have been using it for eleven years and can do anything that I want or need to do. The SprutCAM is kind of kwerky but it works and I have the 2D HSM Express as well. But eventually I will have to upgrade and when I do, Fusion 360 is looking very attractive.
There is much more to this product and I would recommend that anyone interested check it out further.
Bob
A week ago last Saturday, I was at the Tormach open house and a couple of reps from Autodesk gave a presentation about their new product, Fusion 360. Autodesk is trying very hard to become number one in the CAD/CAM arena. Fusion 360 is their bid to regain the market.
Some background: Autodesk fell behind the curve in CAD when SolidWorks aggressively pushed the 3D parametric CAD package. Since then, it has been catchup for them. A year ago or so, they issued HSM Works and the free version HSM Express, CAM applications that launched from within SolidWorks. Building on that, they began developing a stand-alone product integrating the CAD and CAM portions within a single product: Fusion 360.
Fusion 360 is a cloud based application that can run on virtually any platform. The product is a subscription, either by the month or by the year. Once you subscribe, you can open the app on any computer, smart phone, or tablet that has internet access. All of your work is stored on the cloud and can be accessed at any time. Additionally, all your work from the previous month or more can be stored on your computer to work with when you don't have internet access. Additionally, any product upgrades are seamlessly and transparently available each time you use the app.
The really great thing about this for hobbyists is their pricing schedule. This is a professional product intended for professionals but because of their aggressive marketing, it is available by the month for $40 or $300 for a year subscription. You can opt out of any month you don't want or need to use the app and resubscribe when you need it again.
Now here is the best part. You can download it free for 1 month. After the month has expired, you can continue if you are a student or, if you are an enthusiast (i.e. non-professional user), you can extend the free subscription for a year. After the year has expired the subscription rates above apply.
I currently have a personal seat of SolidWorks 2012. It cost me over $4,000. I do not pay the annual maintenance fee of $1400 so my seat is out of date with all the future versions. SolidWorks does not create backwards compatible files so I cannot receive files from anyone using a future version (I had heard that they were going to start backward compatibility with the 2013 version but that is unverified). For my CAM application, I use SprutCAM ver. 7. The upgrade fee is $300 each year so I am two versions out of date . If I don't upgrade each year, I have to buy a full seat at $1250. When I compare that against the Fusion 360 cost, it's almost a no-brainer.
I love my SolidWorks. I have been using it for eleven years and can do anything that I want or need to do. The SprutCAM is kind of kwerky but it works and I have the 2D HSM Express as well. But eventually I will have to upgrade and when I do, Fusion 360 is looking very attractive.
There is much more to this product and I would recommend that anyone interested check it out further.
Bob
