Fusion 360 - Did Autodesk just kill the FREE Version?

Today Autodesk rolled out phase 1 of their changes to the free version of Fusion 360. We get into what is actually getting taken away, how that will affect you as well as the controversy surrounding it from the maker community.
Fusion 360 Blog Post - www.autodesk.com/products/fus...
Fusion 360 Support Article - knowledge.autodesk.com/suppor...
Lars Christenson Interview Video - • Changes to Fusion 360 ...
Fusion 360 to Free CAD - • Fusion360 to FreeCAD -...
My Free Fusion 360 Course - course.makeorbreakshop.com/ma...
Save $20 on Furniture Design in Fusion 360 - course.makeorbreakshop.com/?c...
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[@makeorbreakshop]

TLDR: The changes to Fusion won't really affect most people in the maker/DIY community (especially now that they have added STEP back in). There are a few areas where friction is being added to keep people from abusing the free version to create designs as a business. The uproar around the changes have been a little bit overblown.... and why I went with a crazier thumbnail and title ;)

[@alexreid4131]

Thanks for the overview. I was about to take your new course in Fusion 360 and that email from them really freaked me out and gave me pause to part with the cash for the course. You said you would include links to tutorials on FreeCAD but I don't see them in the description. Am I missing something or did you just forget to post them? Thanks again.

[@makeorbreakshop]

whoops, just added it. Also you can find it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXjbe554Z5iNfq8

[@alexreid4131]

@@makeorbreakshop Thanks so much .

[@grantlegend8872]

Sorry to be so offtopic but does anyone know a tool to log back into an instagram account..? I stupidly lost the account password. I would love any tricks you can offer me!

[@jeromebrendan919]

@Grant Legend instablaster ;)

[@alanamorim8559]

FreeCAD!

[@Tarbard]

It's really amazing software and I used it for my CNC CAM work but I won't invest too much time in mastering software that they can change at any point - the real issue here. My real beef is the subscription model I guess, I would rather pay once and know I "own" the software. The subscription model is quite widespread but not something I like.

[@makeorbreakshop]

Yeh subscription is never fun.

[@jasonm2477]

@FuchBoy Carbon until they change the license so a feature you consider critical is now in a more expensive package, or remove the feature entirely because its not widely used and you have no control over the version you run. or until they change the UI dramatically and require re-education and lost time to regain the abilities you just lost.

[@applebutter4036]

That's a smart move. I had already spent 100's of hours in F360, so I'm stuck with it. Great tool, but you would be better off with something else.

[@anotherguy9402]

Subscription base software is a scam. It's only purpose is to revoke your right to use it and demand more money because the business is making poor choices.

[@marcoss6212]

As a long time user of Autodesk software, the company is famous for leaving its customer hanging, changing rules, taking software of the market without notice and so much more, due to its dominance status within the CAD market, they have left dry a couple of times in the past. Using 360 for free is very helpful to a group of us, just don't take anything away from us, specially the axis/milling issue, just a couple of export taken away and just one sheet for drawings, I'll be looking for another option soon, thank you for the video!

[@MichaelGoldner]

Thank you for this video! I am very interested in 3D CAD and printing for private use. What would you recommended to beginners? Fusion 360 or Freecad?

[@davidmattey3065]

Thanks for all of this. Any word on if they're going to fix the 1:1 printing bug before they take away the create-pdf workaround? The bug was still in existence as of January (the last time I forgot and sent something directly to my printer to print full size). You send something to a printer (full size, everything set correctly to print 1:1), and Fusion prints at something like 93% scale for no reason. I printed several patterns, used them to cut out the parts I was making, and about 6 hours later I realized everything was undersized. The workaround was to create a PDF, then print THAT at 1:1 and it works fine.

[@yashpatil8666]

Love your content especially the sending the camera to basically space! Keep up the good work. You have inspired me!!

[@makeorbreakshop]

Thanks! The 360 camera to space video is one of my favorite projects from this year.

[@travelreview8520]

Restrictions might not be such a big deal now but it might be a continuing trend. It might be a good time to start looking for another option because it's hard to trust a public company. Nevertheless, a company needs to make money so those who are using Fusion for a business should purchase a license.

[@courtneyfaas1266]

Totally agree, the only real complaint I have is around the number of pages for drawing. Maybe a limit of 10 but 1 is pretty tough. Hopefully Lars can help us out!!!

[@Just_An_Idea_For_Consideration]

Use FreeCAD instead!!!

[@FushigiMigi]

Great interview with Lars. You asked the most important questions and he answered in a way you would expect, but the confirmation is important.

[@WillianMai]

NO, I am a maker, and I cannot use my 5 axis cnc that i made from scrap material, they are getting important features away from makers. I cannot afford paying the license, and that's frustrating, mainly for a user like me that contributed with so many youtube videos about fusion360. Now i cannot make my videos anymore and i will have to look to another solution to replace fusion360 for real

[@Zebra66]

I think the changes are a big negative for hobby users or those teaching themselves or in the pre-start-up phase. They made 3 axis projects take a lot longer by removing rapids. A 3-hour project will now take 12 hours which is huge if you have to stand watching the machine (as most hobby users do). Not to mention the extra power usage... They made 4 and 5 axis hobby cnc machines useless by removing that functionality completely. This limits what you can make regardless if it's a one-off hobby job or full production. Manual tool changes have been made needlessly arduous as they now require a whole new operation. They could have achieved the stated goal by simply limiting the hobby version to only posting to Mach 3 and Linuxcnc which no commercial VMCs use. Most of what they removed has nothing to do with commercial operations. It looks more aimed at forcing hobby users to pay for expensive subscriptions for the small handful of personal projects they do.

[@johnharding9936]

Solvespace is very similar on the cad end in terms of parametric way of working with constraints. Bit trikier to get used to but free and a nicer experience than freecad. The CAM end is difficult to get anywhere near for even serious money. Not sure if they've limited that aspect. Warning, autocrat have a long history of dropping software completely, which is why I haven't invested much time in learning it. I doubt that will happen here, but be warned they are may drop it for free use completely or limit it more in future. They've done it before with other softwares

[@Lion_McLionhead]

People accepted the clampdown on Eagle because they all switched to kicad. The biggest pain with autodesk is how all their products require your data to be stored on their servers, but freecad requires an internet connection to start up even if it doesn't mandate online storage.

[@DivineMisterAdVentures]

Super helpful!

[@model3d90]

Well, at this moment it is impossible to use the free version of Fusion 360. Now, there are good much problems with the files you can modify or not, but also with the files you want to export.

[@osgeld]

I think they went a step too far with step files, and being locked into a proprietary format with a company who has some asshat that thinks active / inactive nonsense is a fun way to artificially frustrate people is not a good thing to read in your inbox

[@makeorbreakshop]

Yeh the STEP was going to be a hard thing to excuse, glad they brought it back.

[@jamegumb7298]

6:20 No not making money and not big and crazy. I built it in my shed from random off the shelf stuff. It is just 4 axis. Sad, now I gotta go find something else.

[@forrestgumpv9049]

I feel violated. Never again ! I am a FreeCad Hobbyist now.

[@Epiphalactic]

Afaik Most Windows computers have the ability to "print to pdf" baked into the OS. At least in the newer versions. I've always seen it anyway.

[@Rodfraeser]

Im happy for Vectric, having it for the rest of my life, thats no paine and waste of time.

[@TinyWorkshop]

I already switched to one shape. At least they are more fair.

[@jimudd5836]

Thanks for very informative information, I have autodesk licenses through my company, but not for fusion 360, I have need for others of there CAD software from time to time, they resently changed there network license to personal wich almost trippled my companys anual fee for something I need seldom, but when I need it I need it bad and can't be without it. For my personal use I used sketchup for the last 10 years or, so not realising the time saved with putting effort into parametric design, witch would have saved me alot of time with small changes in the design prosess with limitations of payed version. I am personally no converting to freeCAD and blender to mix my personal use since it is opensource and seems to have strong community. Of what I seen on youtube freeCAD can give me my needs for personal use and much more than I need without worring about license changes. Of cource many non autodesk files have caused problems in work since autodesk recognises that and put problems in import of what should be a standard format. Easier 3D modeling software are good to see what you need, but I wish I found parametric design software alot earlier, learning curve is alot steper, but only after a few models I see the win of making that extra effort. So to summary my thoughts, non parametric designs are if you have simple shapes you want and make one design and stick with it, if you have designs that can change small dimesions made in earlie stage without to mouch work go with parametric. Wiched I gone parametric now many years erlier. My finall thougt is that if you are planning to make future with 3D software and modelling for commersial use and get job in company, yes autodesk is most common and used around the world, but if you are a hobbyist or a small company protect your self about changes in future and look at opensorce prosjekts like freeCAD and Blender. I do pay for licenses when needed, but for non company use I only pay for the licenses needed, I try to keep paying atleast 1/3 to opensorce prosjekts if there is equivalent I can use to support further development. Even as smal programmer I believe that the creator sets the price, big or small creator , if you use product respect license conditions, support what you belive in. My first experience with autodesk I think is about 30 years ago with first computer lessons in architektural computing, autodesk has a stayed on top since then for comersial use along trimples sketchup with promise of free use for hobby , sorry to say I think commercial software as they think they won ground in uff they restrict the free for non commecial use to the point it's useless to hobbiest use. even if changes wan't as bad as most makers of youtube made it and thanks for that with your information, that where very informative, I still for personal use look for mor long terme stable solution for you as hobbist, for me it would be easier to keep to one, autodesk do not let me keep my persona fredom as hobbyist and my hobby programs to intergrate with my work at this time. So finalising my thoughts. Yes for work I need to keep up with Autodesk, but for my fredom in private I now fokus for freeCAd and blender, even thou reworking my models from sketchup that I need is a pain, putting alot of effort into lerning software that suddenly changes conditions is a pain, so as coclusion if you read all of this thoughts is,, if your going for learning for work at companies, this is good thing, but as hobbiest for your own use it is better to keep to opensource without restrictions. With my computer being both my personal and working I see complexity in many problems of free and non free versions, but I pay anual taxes for my personal computer and my own computer being the same, the same goes from my telephone that my company pais for and I get taxes for and can't get sirin sevices because of that. If you are new to parametric design I recommend freeCAD and put effort into that, if you plan yor 3D moddeling as work, definitly go with fusion 360. I would surtinality make good thougt about making in freeCAD and 360 videos in future compared to make same in fusion 360, my company gives me licenses if I say I need them without quistion, thats there fault, most licenses could be avoided so investors are at total loss. I do not care about that, if anyone been reading throuhg this it is about proos and con I can think of, there is no simple answer. No english is not my first language, nor do I intend it to be, best regards from Sweden. With all kritics it still the best informative video of fusion 360 autodesk changes in users agrement and priviliges. If anyone gotten throgh my thoughts definitly watch this video and make your desision made of information and need of use

[@tiagot6885]

Rip fusion 360...sad move..Hi FreeCad! :D

[@droidmarqueemarquee6281]

Ok i was just using TinkerCad and noticed there was ALOT of limitations but that is expected on a WEB BASED 3D MODELING... I mean come on.. So i looked in to FUSION360.. and since im a bit older.. i can tell you how i felt reading the changes even years after it happened. Yall remember Photoshop? Like every single person on the planet knew of and used photoshop at least a few times in their lives. Then they did the cloud thing.. and guess what.. NO ONE uses photoshop anymore except their super rich nich businesses that already havent moved on to other technology. Thats the vibe I get. Autodesk was something of a community of free users improving their help and tutorials and user interface. Everyone knew what autodesk was even if you never used its software. They will go 100% cloud and be premium for a insane priceing stradegy only to attract the richest of the rich customers all while making their name on the free version no longer offered. FU Autodesk Moving on to something else before i get used to your software then you take it away and charge $2600 a year.

[@PrincipalDBA]

Hobbyist help to make it and an attempted snubbed. I stopped using SketchUp for some of these reasons. I am considering learning Fusion, and I want the knowledge to last some decades.

[@GrieveIV]

I’ve always wondered. If I make a file in something free, like Free Fusion 360, how do they have any idea how much money I make from sales of that product? Or can they? As of now I’m not, and I won’t be making anywhere near 1000$ either, cuz I’m not actually runnin a full business

[@mairmatt]

Autodesk is obviously not interestet in new customers. Same Bogus as the last 30 years. Will they ever learn? It's 2020. We all (!) should get used to it. ASAP.

[@kevinschilling6813]

I think some of the items you said that would only be important to people doing manufacturing isnt the case.

[@tallvidsanimation6177]

I jumped ship to freecad

[@mikpiotto]

10 files is NOT enough. I’ll be sticking to Creo, yes that dumpster fire.

[@mrme8419]

nice autodesk (APPLAUSE) nice...

[@samlenlap]

even today the personal use license is free for 1 year only, the fear that they might take it away in the future is always there what do you think?

[@jonmhayden]

I was just considering moving to Fusion from Sketchup and noticed that it's only free for 1 year. So I'm not sure why anyone would use Fusion if they're losing all their work after a year.

[@marklowe7431]

Autodesk and other cloud monopolies are the magic flying carpet that can kick you off at anytime. Before you invest a lot of time skilling, think!

[@pietropasotti4418]

I guess they just really killed the free version with last update (Feb. 2021) now is possible to edit only 10 drawings!!! That's it's ridiculous. So wanna use it for free, you can but it's just ridiculous. You can view your empty viewport and the icons. That's what it has to offer now the free version.

[@yashpatil8666]

First!

[@ANCAPVoluntaryist]

Expect it very soon on the torrent network, just like the rest of the very expensive software millions of hobbyists use in order to learn and be able to pay for it one day.

[@stfutruck68]

I am just getting into this kind of stuff. While this program seems nice the price for the regular and the limits for the free one seem like I shouldn't use it. It just seems like just a way to milk us even more. I have enough bills and I am not making money with this yet but limiting us to 10 things in a cad program where I may have hundreds of objects sounds terrible. $500 a year also seems bad as they will probably raise it every so often and you will never own it.

[@Rimrock300]

Fushion and the other autodesk software are great, and got it' price for sure. Understandable they want to limit the free versions. I had a 3 year student version of Inventor, very few limitations, until a couple of years ago, but nothing last forever naturally) Now it's much more restricted. Went for Fusion paid version. I make some money of stuff I design and fabricate now. Understand the situation where one are in a design phase and want to test out hings, no income from it. There are different free 3D software out there OpenScad and so on, I've not stuided them

[@baumkuchen6543]

The video is irrelevant. What happened is that Autodesk has shown you that the can f*** you up good if the management decides you are not relevant for the company. I already started re-learning freeCAD and it is not that bad.

[@TinyWorkshop]

I’ve tried too, but its too different from any commercial cad... an there are severe limitations on the modeling side.

[@brunof1734]

@@TinyWorkshop it's actually similar to solidworks, and with "realthunder assembly3" version, in his github under "realeases" you can use external references in sketch and they won't break, using the option "defining geometry" under "external geometry "

[@TinyWorkshop]

@@brunof1734 yeah I need to experiment more, but for now I'm really uncomfortable

[@jerrypeevey]

Right now it says 1 year free .... to me that means the risk of loosing what you spent so much time learning before you can afford it...

[@MikeysLab]

Except you totally missed a huge portion. They have made the software completely useless to any maker building robots. They did this with Eagle. Fusion 360 is dead, over the next year Autodesk will make it completely pay. Everyone should switch to FreeCAD. Autodesk is lieing, they dont care about us at all, never have.

[@makeorbreakshop]

Mikey's Lab since I’m not deep on the robotics side are you talking about the limitations in the electronics environment?

[@MikeysLab]

@@makeorbreakshop no, for combat robotics the material and stress analysis and to a lesser degree multi axis milling was the only part of Fusion 360 that made it have any advantage over freecad, so saying that these changes do not effect non profit makers is way off. They might not effect wood workers, but the severely cripple the product for some makers. As I said, Autodesk has done this before. In a year there will be no usable free version of Fusion 360.

[@makeorbreakshop]

@@MikeysLab Oh gottcha, that's a great use case. Hadn't considered that one.

[@vovaya]

Of course they are killing it for hobbyist. They send a message to community - they own the product and can do what ever they want. Today is one set of restrictions, tomorrow they just remove hobbyist at all. Why should I do there anything, if one day can lost all access. Only disposable designs.

[@Foomanlol]

Lol people these days... Complaining about something they benefited from and never had to pay a cent for. You could just pay for it? It's about the cost of a cable bill..

[@paulround8501]

Thing is the community built up by free access helped Autocad immensely with all the online tutorials, people working on extensions and providing input into the development of the application and bug testing, all time that could have been better spent helping one of the open source offerings. Then as soon as they thought they could get away with it, bang they screw that community over. It isn't the first time people have been burned like this by Autocad and will likely not be the last. It really is time to look elsewhere and start supporting one of the open source projects.

[@BME-dj1ox]

Autodesk can't be more evil to its users. Imagine removing functionality for all users, just because a handful few have misused it commercially. This is unjustifiable. I am thankful to the high skies that I currently hold a student license, so my projects are still 'alive' and can be worked on. Certainly gonna be migrating though. Can't trust someone who keeps making drastic painful changes without asking out community opinions.

[@wilko4085]

Funny when people bitch about not getting professional software for free lol

[@vi683a]

Seems like FU360 is a no go

[@yasaipicles6295]

So what's the next best thing? Moi? Kus I have a feeling this bullshitnis just the beginning. Ugh...

[@phildalgleish2381]

AGAIN,,,, the problem is any short term gains can ( and WILL ) be wiped out at their whim.... We have no bargianing rights at all!... Just cut them OFF and change to FREE CAD!... or Blender or some other FREE app. You know FreeCad will be getting better and better... and with a larger user base... better!

[@makeorbreakshop]

Phil Dalgleish yeh, it’s their program and they can always switch it up. Same thing happened for me with Sketchup as well as they moved online and paid. I would be interested if I could do some of the parametric stuff in Blender. Already love using it for sculpting style modeling and rendering.

[@phildalgleish2381]

@@makeorbreakshop I have been using FREE CAD and really loving it! AND I don't have to look over my shoulder to see the ax man coming and cutting off parts of my program!!!!! FREE CAD is getting better and better... lots of really nice tutorials on you tube too!.... JUST DO IT!

[@bye130]

@@phildalgleish2381 I just started trying to use FreeCAD but program just keeps crashing. (Closing to desktop with no messages) happens like every 5-10 minutes with no clear cause, sometimes it would be while changing constraints othertimes it would just be open without me touching program and it would close. Sucks trying to work on a model when you lose progress every 10 min.

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

2 words...Corporate Greed!

[@melonshop8888]

:)

[@battles151]

Con"fusion"

[@johngoddard1973]

Its free after all. Maybe the changes came as a result of people using it for commercial use. Pay for it. Its very cheap.

[@BME-dj1ox]

You must be earning a lot then :) How on earth is a $500/year 'cheap' for a hobbyist? If Autodesk finds some people commercially misusing their software, they should be suing only those users. Have you ever seen a video game changing it's monetary structure just because some hackers have broken the game? No right? They just improve the security. Punishing a whole community of hobbyists and DIYers who have tested their software in Beta phase entirely for free and in process helped develop the software itself is ridiculous, basically it's like betraying a huge community that actually helped make Fusion popular and improved, it can't get more evil. 'It's free after all' - No, they better rename it as demo version. Have you seen Unity's personal plan? It provides full engine features without any strings attached, except that it'll be hard to do certain things without the Pro license. But the core functionality is still there, it's possible to do everything that a paid user does with a free license. Fusion 360's most useful features of CAM are no longer present in the free version. This eventually will kill Fusion's community, since a lot of new users will have nothing to learn/test out about the software. Fusion 360 is just being OnShape 2. Massive community drove off from OnShape due to similar circumstances, wouldn't be surprised if that's happening with Fusion too. I'd rather make an initial investment on something like SolidWorks, because once I 'purchase' it, I will 'own' it. My work would pay me off once I spend enough time learning and mastering it. Fusion's 'subscription' is unstable than human mind. Today you'll be happily making what you want, the next day, poof!

[@johngoddard1973]

@@BME-dj1ox Autodesk is serious company that makes serious products to allow its customers to make serious money and charges accordingly. It will charge as much money as people will pay and then some more. Autodesk owes you nothing. If you want free software use free software.

[@BME-dj1ox]

@@johngoddard1973 Whew calm down sir. I too was a big fan of Autodesk products, just like you seem to be. I still am, but not in the case of Fusion 360. For instance, I still use their 3DS Max and AutoCAD for my work. And I never hesitate to migrate from one software to another if I find the former unsatisfying, that's how people are. And did you just say Autodesk owes me nothing? Well, you maybe right. But my point was never that. I was saying that it literally backstabbed a large part of community that produced free learning content and a lot of other hobbyist stuff that was literally the reason why Fusion 360 became so popular. You seem to be misunderstanding what I told. Also, I don't need any free software. I am just against the subscription model that Fusion 360 currently has. I hold a student license in Fusion 360 and a sponsored license in SolidWorks. Fusion 360's price isn't really worth it and anyone who has ever used other CAD/CAM packages knows that. Also, currently industry values SolidWorks experts more than Fusion 360. It's obvious, given the sheer amount of limitations that Fusion has - one of them being its inability to handle large assembly files properly and the fact that you need a constant internet connection for file management. Based on your statement, you seem to be largely neglecting several factors and just in a haste to counter my statement to back Autodesk's seriousness. Sure sir, Autodesk is the most serious company humanity has ever seen, but Fusion 360 is a dark spot for them. It used to be nice, but it is no more. In the blog post video, they say that they have taken community opinion, but if thay actually did, why would the comment section of the same blog post be filled with full of hate? People aren't clowns 🤡

[@handsomesquidward151]

@@BME-dj1ox $500/year is cheap if you are a working professional, when compared to other software that charges $2000/year+ for professional use, e.g. maya. Sounds like you're just broke

[@AshleyMillsTube]

fuck fusion, support the opensource movement and use freecad

[@sounddifferent3752]

Honestly i dont much care about free version cause wanted to use 360 for commercial work, but all that thing they change are defenitely are dick-move indeed. But autodesk just fucked it up even more further. This is absolutely the top level of bullshitness. For 400+ per year you get: 1. Exporting model to OBJ = up to 5 minutes and more of what cloud computation bullshit. Year 2020. You on decent SSD and wait 5 minutes to just save you model as OBJ. 2. You are NOT able to change mesh export settings and if you get model with ugly faceted surfaces because of that and you cant render it = there's no solution. THAT level of bullshitness for payed software? No way.

[@genin69]

omg pls help.. they have killed all my designs.. its all gone. totally gone. cant use the program unless I pay them over $1000... I spend around $200 on my designs, getting them made and I make zero money from it.. faaaaak

[@verbatim1144]

This is hilarious... I love all the b*%ching & moaning from the "something for nothing" crowd... Fusion is amazing software and even in it's throttled back form, it is a priviledge for the freeloaders to be a ble to use it. I have paid over $40,000 (Australian) for Solidworks over the years and that is cheap compared to ProEngineer (Creo) and UniGraphics that preceeded it, but Fusion is way superior, especially if you need to use CNC etc, the Delcam / FeatureCam / HSMWorks tech rolled into Fusion is outrageously good for the price. So take your free subscription and go to FreeCAD, or other halfway house for amatuers, and there will be far less wingeing..

[@romeliapolly4171]

My adventure with the tree began with projects from Woodprix.