fusion 360 or solid works

I have no formal training and everything I have learned about machining has come from members here, you tube, and trial and error. With that being said, which program would you recommend someone like me? I have never used any type of design software but it would be nice to print out a set of prints vs drawing them.
 
I received a free one year trial of the student version of Solidworks about 3 months ago. But have never used Fusion 360, so cannot compare the two.

To me, Solidworks is extremely complex and difficult to learn. I have made some progress -- mostly by studying a number of the hundreds of video tutorials that are available online. But I still have not learned enough to be anywhere near proficient.

So before continuing to put a lot more time into it, I asked around and found that a subscription for an individual will run somewhere near $2,000/yr. As a hobbyist, there is no way for me to justify that expense. So I am now looking around for alternatives, Fusion 360 being one. For the moment I am continuing to use Sketchup.
 
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I, like Technical Ted, use Fusion 360 and have no experience with Solidworks. Having no prior CAD experience Fusion was a huge step for me, but worth it. I am by no means proficient but I now know enough where I can model parts and generate CAM files. And you can't beat the price!
 
While I started with paper and pencil long ago, I started CAD with CADKEY (now KeyCreator). It was based on geometry not parametrics like Solid Works so I loved it. Yes FREE is hard to beat for Fusion360 if you claim not to make a profit from using it. Solid Works was to expensive to the school I taught at and it is based on parametrics. If Solid Works is your thing I know of a few good books.
 
I've used SW for a while. It is very powerful & I consider myself decently proficient. I have not used 360 but watched some training videos. The impression was similar workflows. SW is a parametric modeller. I 'think' 360 is the same/similar. You draw 2D sketches, make them into 3D solids by a multitude of common tools (various flavors of extrusions, rotation). Then multiple ways to modify these solids again using combination of 2D constructs or 3D tools like cuts, holes, chamfers, feature mirroring, pattering. At this point you have something called a part, lets call it a piston for example. Assemblies are collection of 2 to a gazillion parts joined together by various defined mates. Examples of mates are edges, face to face, coincident axis like a shaft withi a hole, rotate about a line, point. So a completed engine would be example of a moderately complex assembly.

Some people say 360 is <pick a number> 70% of SW in terms of CAD modelling capability. That is infinitely debatable because it depends on what features you commonly use & how buggy the version is. But 360 has a CAM module, SW does not. I'm not sure about 360 drawings/dimensioning capability but think I've seen nice examples. SW drawings capability is excellent & powerful.

SW is probably 5K to buy at its lowest offering, plus annual maintenance fees. The only discount is being a FT student in registered program during the program and I think possibly military/veterans/?? you would have to check. 360 is free for hobbyists although I heard rumbling about price structure changes. maybe that was for commercial. I keep waiting for the shoe to drop (meaning price increase) but so far hasn't. You need to satisfy yourself what 'cloud' means in 360. I've heard everything from a convenient storage mechanism to essentially what equates to holding files ransom depending, but again, due diligence from experienced users & forums is much better than hearsay.
 
I've used both, and prefer Fusion 360. In the long run, it's all about personal preference, so the best thing to do is try them both. OTH, if money is an issue, there's no question which one you should go with.
 
I've used SW for a while. It is very powerful & I consider myself decently proficient. I have not used 360 but watched some training videos. The impression was similar workflows. SW is a parametric modeller. I 'think' 360 is the same/similar. You draw 2D sketches, make them into 3D solids by a multitude of common tools (various flavors of extrusions, rotation). Then multiple ways to modify these solids again using combination of 2D constructs or 3D tools like cuts, holes, chamfers, feature mirroring, pattering. At this point you have something called a part, lets call it a piston for example. Assemblies are collection of 2 to a gazillion parts joined together by various defined mates. Examples of mates are edges, face to face, coincident axis like a shaft withi a hole, rotate about a line, point. So a completed engine would be example of a moderately complex assembly.

Some people say 360 is <pick a number> 70% of SW in terms of CAD modelling capability. That is infinitely debatable because it depends on what features you commonly use & how buggy the version is. But 360 has a CAM module, SW does not. I'm not sure about 360 drawings/dimensioning capability but think I've seen nice examples. SW drawings capability is excellent & powerful.

SW is probably 5K to buy at its lowest offering, plus annual maintenance fees. The only discount is being a FT student in registered program during the program and I think possibly military/veterans/?? you would have to check. 360 is free for hobbyists although I heard rumbling about price structure changes. maybe that was for commercial. I keep waiting for the shoe to drop (meaning price increase) but so far hasn't. You need to satisfy yourself what 'cloud' means in 360. I've heard everything from a convenient storage mechanism to essentially what equates to holding files ransom depending, but again, due diligence from experienced users & forums is much better than hearsay.

I've heard those rumblings about no more "free ride" subscriptions too. Should that go away I've protected myself by exported my files, there are four file types besides the standard f3d format available, and saved them to my hard drive. I then use FreeCad to open them. If I need to save them in another format FreeCad has a multitude of options. It's a bit of fiddling but I don't feel I'm being held hostage should Autodesk change there marketing strategy towards students and hobbyists.
 
For my hobby use, I'm not too worried about their eliminating the free for hobbyist version... I don't think they will, because I think that would be a bad business move and practice for AutoCAD and would alienate their paying customers as well, but who knows??? It would kind of be like a bait and switch. If they do, I would at least think they would give sufficient notice so someone could take action and save the files they want saved to import into something else. For me, that wouldn't be a big deal. For a start up company it might not be so easy.

So, it all depends on what your comfort level is.

Ted
 
I have a seat of SolidWorks and have used it for more than 12 years and I like it. I also have Fusion 360 downloaded but haven't really done anything with it due to the amount of time necessary to climb the learning curve. The biggest differentiator is the cost. Fusion 360 is free to hobbyists whiule SolidWorks is more than $4K. My SolidWorks seat is the 12012 version and as a result, I can't view files created in any of the versions released since. Even the SolidWorks parts models that McMaster Carr has are a future version so I have to download the iges version and because I have the Standard version of SolidWorks rather than the more expensive version by $1.2K, I can't open the features of the part.

If I didn't have SolidWorks, I would definitely go with Fusion because of the cost and of file compatibility. This is speaking as a hobbyist. Were I a professional creating revenue in part from the use of the product, that might be a different story though. Basically, it's about are you willing to spend several $K a year on your CAD package.
 
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