This is just a heads-up to warn you that Autodesk are changing the way in which you can use Fusion 360 with their “free for non-commercial use” personal license. Most of the changes will probably not affect the average hobbyist user, but two will.
The first is that you will only be able to have up to 10 “documents” active at any time. The rest will need to be archived, and unavailable for editing. It is not clear what a document is, but I suspect that it is any editable component.
The other is that it will no longer be possible to export models in a format that will allow you to import them into other CAD packages (e.g. STEP format will not be available). You can still export your models as STL files, of course, but these are not always suitable for further modelling.
So, if you want to move your Fusion 360 models to another CAD package, you only have a limited amount of time to do so without having to buy a license. More information in the following link:
The lack of .STEP and .DWG file export is the worst for me. I mostly do 3d printing so the changes to the gcode output aren’t of immediate concern to me. I get it re: no 3+2 or 5-axis, but goddamn, no rapids or tool changes?
If they were changing things solely to reduce the server loads for free users (generative design, simulation, etc) I totally get that. But they’ve totally hobbled the free version for anyone with access to a decent CNC machine.
Yeh man. That sucks! But we have to admit that even limited is still the best free CAD, CAM, Slicer, pcb drawing out there.
They gave it open access to improve fast with the help of the community but think it will stay free forever was utopic. Even the full license is way cheaper than everything else on the market. I mean 300 euro a year is nothing compare to other softwares. We have to give it to them.
Options are 2:
Buy the license
Subscribed to a cheap university and get the educational licence which has access to unlimited credits, which don’t think the standard license has.
Or wait for someone putting a cracked version out but since is cloud based I would be worried to loose all the files if they block the account.
10 documents active. But you can close some and open others. The storage is unlimited. To me the main limitation is the exporting file types and the lost in CAM. That is huge.
you qualify for a startup account, free for 3 years I believe
Im very disappointed about the changes. I would like to see a $120 a year hobby licence that opens up all the features. I think this is a fair ask and is affordable for the majority of hobbyists. Its a classic bait and switch - because its always been there and has always been free nobody has developed a viable alternative.
Pretty disappointing and just when I started using it. I am a bit surprised it was free all this time. At least we can still export stl. and 3D print. I think its $300 (40% off rn) for the year. Tough pill to swallow though.