Fusion 360 Defunctioning

There are two types of open source / free software. Corporate owned and controlled, and community projects.


A good example of corporate owned is given above. OpenOffice.org. Back in the beginnings of time, Sun Microsystems bought up Smartoffice, started developing it, and then opened it up to the world as an open source project. This was done to battle Microsoft dominance in the market. A community of developers joined in on the project, but in the large part it was still Sun employees doing the heavy coding. When Sun went under and was bought out by Oracle, they took Openoffice back to closed source; making future versions commercial (didn't work out, but that's a different story). But they did not, and legally could not, take the current version that was released as open source version way. It remained available, and the community stepped up and continued the development as LibreOffice. The rate of improvement slowed due to the loss of paid professional coders, but the project was not, could not, be removed from the public.

FreeCAD, on the other hand, can not be sold. It is an open source community project. There is no ownership control structure to buy or sell. The worst that could happen, and has happened on some small projects, is the programmers abandon it. But again that only means no future development. What is there can not be taken away. And that won't happen in the foreseeable future. FreeCAD has too much momentum at this point, and Autodesk just gave them another nudge.

And off topic, but to head off a possible misconception. A Open source community project does not mean it is being written by a bunch of amateurs. Many many commercial corporations reap benefits from OS software and deploy it in their products. As such, they assign personnel, even whole teams, to work on OSS projects that are used in their domain. Bluetooth, wifi, graphics, interfaces, kernels... a lot of what you use has OSS underpinnings. Scroll through the setup menus on your late model pickup... the last screen is usually an Open Source software license notification. My washing machine and refrigerator both have OSS notices. The other night my wife's sewing machine asked for a USB stick, and it wrote out what I recognized as a Linux core dump file.

And it's all a good thing.
 
So I've watched the video. Step seems to be a big one for people and they have indeed brought it back. I guess time will tell now. I downloaded a couple different options...but they really aren't apple to apple. F360 is really the route I'm gonna stick with. Hopefully they do amendments to the original outline once this rolls out and they get more feedback. I don't know what to think honestly.
One edit, on their list, it would appear simulation is gone, but NOT in CAM, only in CAD. I didn't even knw that existed so I'm not concerned.
 
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@GunsOfNavarone

Thanks for the link. I did watch the entire video.
I believe that for the way I typically used F360 very little of the changes will affect me.

In fact, it should be less upsetting than their user-interface change to the frigging ribbon.
I still have not recovered from that change!

-brino
 
JRaut summed it up nicely.
I have been using the EAA SW offering for a couple of years now. It has a few limitations but none of them would be an issue for a hobbyist. I started off using Fusion 360 but then propagated over to SW because of a small business that wanted me to learn it.

A few points...
1. Solidworks is not cloud based. The program and all files are stored on your HD. I consider this a HUGE plus.
2. Solidworks is much more powerful than Fusion.
3. Fusion is easier to learn and because of the maker community there are significantly more tutorial videos available than SW.
4. Cam is built into SW via HSM. This was not the case a few years ago but now SW has integrated CAM. I have not used it but my good friend uses that feature regularly.
5. Solidworks is HUGELY expensive if the EAA offer goes away. You may invest a lot of time only to have it pulled. Learning SW is not a bad thing though, because now you have become much more marketable should you decide to utilize your skills as income generating.

I am very surprised that in this whole thread no one has mentioned Rhino. It is expensive although I thought that they just had an offer for a few hundred dollars, but I can't seem to find that offer at the moment. Advantage is it is yours, just like in the good ole days when you bought something and you actually owned it. I have downloaded it but not learned it yet. I will probably stick with SW.

Oh, another benefit of EAA... You get a really nice magazine for the $40. It is a heck of deal. Of course, I have more than a slight interest in avaiation. (ATP, Instructor, Instrument Instructor, 9000hrs or so). LOL
 
7milesup said:
JRaut summed it up nicely.
I have been using the EAA SW offering for a couple of years now. It has a few limitations but none of them would be an issue for a hobbyist. I started off using Fusion 360 but then propagated over to SW because of a small business that wanted me to learn it.

A few points...
....
4. Cam is built into SW via HSM. This was not the case a few years ago but now SW has integrated CAM. I have not used it but my good friend uses that feature regularly.
Click to expand...
HSMWorks is an Autodesk product. As I recall, it was dirst used as part of the Aurodesk Inventor suite. It first was offered to SolidWorks users as an add-in several years before Fusion showed up. I added it into SolidWorks at the time but have never used it for CAM as it was limited and I have a SprutCAM license. I haven't bothered updating the add-in for some years now so I can't speak to its current functionality.

From the HSMWorks website, it states that it is only available to Fusion 360. https://www.autodesk.com/products/hsmworks/overview?plc=F360&term=1-YEAR&support=ADVANCED&quantity=1
Considering the recent events with Autodesk, I would be reluctant to rely on HSMWorks for my CAM needs.
 
^^^ Not to split hairs but I believe that HSM was acquired a few years ago by AD. I don't believe that it was developed by AD. It originally started as a stand alone product.^^^
I could be wrong on all that though, not that it really matters.
 
7milesup said:
^^^ Not to split hairs but I believe that HSM was acquired a few years ago by AD. I don't believe that it was developed by AD. It originally started as a stand alone product.^^^
I could be wrong on all that though, not that it really matters.
Click to expand...
As it turns out, a limited feature (2.5D) HSMWorks was added to SolidWorks in 2011. I bought my seat in early 2012. In October, 2012 Autodesk acquired HSMWorks. It was an Autodesk product when I first installed the add-in. I distinctly remember that because I thought it ironical that Autodesk would be offering a a production feature to a competitor. Autodesk has continued their support of the SolidWorks add-in although, as I said, I haven't updated for several years so I don't know what the current terms are.
 
I've downloaded FreeCad and played with it. It certainly isn't up to Fusion's level. I emailed Lars C. and he confirmed that you will be able to have multiple drawings for assemblies, but each will have to be a separate file. He calls it "a little friction". Well, I'll take the little bit of friction route and most likely stay with Fusion. For me, the single sheet drawing it the biggest issue. And, dealing with this change is easier and better than switching to FreeCad and FreeCad's limitations and additional learning curve. I've gotten very comfortable with Fusion after having invested many, many hours watching videos and reading learning it. For me, it's still the best solution.

Ted
 
Well it seems to have worked out that after a week of messing with Solidworks thru EAA I have at least landed a job interview at a place that uses Solidworks. So now I am really cramming for the next 3 days.

Who knows This whole F360 debacle may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
 
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