CAD Software Fusion 360 Personal Use Changes In effect Oct. 1st

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Yukon@K-9 Rocket Tech

Student, Drone and Rockets, Aspiring Engineer
Joined
Jun 21, 2019
Messages
577
Reaction score
199
Location
Georgia, USA
https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/changes-to-fusion-360-for-personal-use/
Anyone using Fusion 360 personal Use read the article above^

I'm rather annoyed by this šŸ˜©, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised they would do this (Make a powerful software free, get the hobbyist used to it, software lock so they have to buy subscription). I mean companies do have to make money and I do get it, and I did think ever since I started using F360 it was kind of too good to be true to have access to all these features for free (should've remembered there's really no such thing as free). Essentially they'll software lock a lot of the features by Oct. 1st, which included simulations, full exporting features, full pcb features, full drawing features, and only 10 editable files at a time (read article above fore more details). I think I'll go ahead and export all my assemblies and bodies into STEP files, because after Oct. 1st, I won't be able to.šŸ˜ 
 
That is certainly annoying, but I *think* that for basic usage for creating the occasional 3D-printed part it should still be OK. I can see that more advanced users who use more of its capabilities will be hurt by this.
 
I read their blog yesterday. Presently, I do not use the advanced features and do not foresee becoming that proficient with the program in the near future. My concern is Autodesk has made two major changes to the hobbyist license within a year.
 
I don't think I have ever had 10 designs open at once, and I don't use the advanced features that will be held back, so I think it won't change much for me. As free software goes, Fusion 360 is shockingly powerful and well supported.
 
Hmm... that's annoying, but honestly not that surprising considering just how popular and featured F360 is. For now it won't affect me as I am using the Academic license. I just hope that once I am at the point of having to use a personal license it will still be a thing...

I did appreciate that their blog post announcing this didn't try to sugar-coat these changes as much as other companies have tried to. I've seen other companies eliminate free plans altogether and try to pass it off as the best news ever for the user which is just a load of BS.
 
For anyone using the CAM features for milling very much, it's pretty much game over.
 
For anyone using the CAM features for milling very much, it's pretty much game over.

Yea, I have a Shapeoko. I have been using the Cambam software trial, but recently started using the CAM in Fusion. It's amazing. You can still *use* it...however, you don't get rapids anymore. Essentially limited to your cutting feeds - ouch.
Ultimately, I get it. They are working to discourage people using the software in any way shape and form for commercial use. And ultimately, I saw this day coming. For my hobby stuff, It probably doesn't much matter, but it's a bit of a blow, and it makes you wonder what the future holds. I can't complain though.
 
Here's a fun Autodesk story for you. I'm a Systems Administrator for a post-secondary educational institute. We purchase a lot of different pieces of software for student use, AutoCAD used to be one of them. The majority of software that we buy is on a yearly subscription basis.

We'd been paying about $1500/yr for 25 licenses of AutoCAD for a number of years. We needed a bunch more licenses to support some new classes and went back and forth with the sales guy for a bit. We ended up with a one-time offer of $60k for 2000 perpetual licenses. Perpetual licenses would never expire and this would give us the ability for every student to have their own copy of AutoCAD instead of just having it available in our lab.

The next year Autodesk decided to make basically all their products available for FREE for educational institutions. FREE. $60k down the drain.
 
They will go the way of Adobe. They pushed out the hobbyist.
Maybe so, but as someone who works in that world, I can't tell you how much better it is for the professionals since they've gone to a subscription model. In the 'olden' days, it seemed everyone was on a different version of the software, even in the same company. You'd send a file to the printer only to hear back they can't work with it because it was made with a newer version of the software. Or a freelancer would be 2 or 3 versions out of date making exchanging files a nightmare. Then throw in the differences between Mac and Windows licenses and it was a giant rats nest of serial numbers, versions, and feature differences.

All of that is pretty much a thing of the past. With CC, nearly everyone is on the same version (of course there are always exceptions). The feature set is nearly identical between the different platforms, and I can switch between Mac and Windows seamlessly. For someone who makes a living using Adobe software, things are far better than the 'olden' days.

There are plenty of excellent hobbyist applications for any discipline that you can buy once and use forever. On the Mac I bought Final Cut Pro years ago and have never had to pay an upgrade fee and it is still a great video editor. For image editing a great example is Pixelmator Pro, less than $30.

Not to sound like a terrible person, but if catering to business professionals who use their products meant Adobe had to make tradeoffs for the hobbyist, I'm all for it. I make my living using Adobe products and anything that makes my business life better is a good thing in my book.

Now, once I fully retire in a few months....


Tony
 
Maybe so, but as someone who works in that world, I can't tell you how much better it is for the professionals since they've gone to a subscription model. In the 'olden' days, it seemed everyone was on a different version of the software, even in the same company. You'd send a file to the printer only to hear back they can't work with it because it was made with a newer version of the software. Or a freelancer would be 2 or 3 versions out of date making exchanging files a nightmare. Then throw in the differences between Mac and Windows licenses and it was a giant rats nest of serial numbers, versions, and feature differences.

All of that is pretty much a thing of the past. With CC, nearly everyone is on the same version (of course there are always exceptions). The feature set is nearly identical between the different platforms, and I can switch between Mac and Windows seamlessly. For someone who makes a living using Adobe software, things are far better than the 'olden' days.

There are plenty of excellent hobbyist applications for any discipline that you can buy once and use forever. On the Mac I bought Final Cut Pro years ago and have never had to pay an upgrade fee and it is still a great video editor. For image editing a great example is Pixelmator Pro, less than $30.

Not to sound like a terrible person, but if catering to business professionals who use their products meant Adobe had to make tradeoffs for the hobbyist, I'm all for it. I make my living using Adobe products and anything that makes my business life better is a good thing in my book.

Now, once I fully retire in a few months....

As long as you're a company that can afford the yearly subscription, this works great. For a small business that used to save up ~5+ years for a new software package -- welp, guess you should have picked an industry more in line with Adobe & AutoDesk's target market.
 
As long as you're a company that can afford the yearly subscription, this works great. For a small business that used to save up ~5+ years for a new software package -- welp, guess you should have picked an industry more in line with Adobe & AutoDesk's target market.
If your business uses Adobe software and you can't afford the $55/month subscription price (or $600/yearly), maybe time to rethink your business model. The beauty of a monthly subscription is just that, no more saving up for a huge expense. The cost is predictable, just like internet or other monthly fees. (You can get individual apps for about $20/month).

The old version of the bundle pack of Adobe software averaged $1,800 (the Master Collection was over $2,500, which is what I used), with upgrades being less. For that same $2,500 I get 45 months of using the software and I am always up to date. That's a far better deal under the old model. And I can move between Mac and Windows, which I do a lot, at no extra cost. Before I needed an entirely separate serial number that doubled the cost.

After owning a business for over 25 years, I can categorically say I now spend far less on software than I did back when I had to buy serialized licenses.


Tony

"For the most part, Adobe is offering its CS packages at the same price as its 5.5 offerings as well, with pricing for the Design Standard ($1,299) and Master Collection ($2,599) packages remaining unchanged. One notable exception is the Production Premium package for video professionals, which is being bumped up $200 to $1,899 thanks in part to the addition of new applications Adobe Prelude and Adobe Speed Grade. Lastly, Adobe's $1,799 Web Premium package is being dropped from the company's lineup, replaced with the $1,899 Design and Web Premium package." (From an Apr 23, 2012 article on Adobe CS6 pricing)
 
Last edited:
It could be worse. A 1 year license of MOE runs 6 figures for what basically serves a single userā€˜s needs. However, as a bonus, it always comes with a guaranteed conversation with the CFO. šŸ¤ÆšŸ¤¬
 
Some good news is that STEP export will now remain for personal use. For me this was the only major blow for how I use the software, so I am happy to see Autodesk reverse course on this.
 
Some good news is that STEP export will now remain for personal use. For me this was the only major blow for how I use the software, so I am happy to see Autodesk reverse course on this.
This is good news as I recently convinced my wife of 3 months that we should get Prusa Mk3 next year. This morning I began researching for alternatives to F360 and found 3 that might work. They are FreeCAD (Link), SolveSpace (Link) and DesignSpark Mechanical (Link). I may still DL/install one or more of these to try out just in case...
 
Back
Top