Autodesk Fusion 360

[HDN]

I've been using Autodesk CAD products for years - vanilla AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Inventor, and most recently Fusion 360.

In the past few years I've been 3D printing, Fusion 360 has been my go-to software for designing practical parts and trinkets alike. I've decided to share my experience in the form of tutorials for anyone who's interested in using Fusion 360 for their own designing needs.

You can download Fusion 360 for free personal use here: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal
The personal use license is for hobbyists and small businesses and needs to be renewed every 3 years. I've been using Fusion 360 for 4 years and it's still free! You will have to make an Autodesk account as the modeling data is stored on their cloud. You can store STLs and drawing PDFs locally on your computer.

My YouTube channel, Shapes Imagined, is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKU21dEeoGeUuxKTOU5zKLA/videos

I currently have five videos up that cover the basics of using Fusion 360 and some 3D modeling, and I plan on adding more. Maybe I'll even get into 3D printing tips.

If anyone has questions about Fusion 360, please post them here and I'll try to answer them. I might even make a video with the answer in it

 

[NY Tom]

It comes with the AutoCAD Mechanical package and when we purchased out first real CNC mill with a tool changer we started using it. For 3 axis it works fine and that is all we really do anyway. Barely any 3D milling all holes and 2D milling. But for the price of basically free if you are already buying an AutoCAD license it is great. I see no reason to shell out all the money for MasterCAM in this application.

If you do not have an internet connection that is a problem. Not a standalone software as far as I can tell. But I really like it and it got me up and running in almost no time. Lots of library features. Even the post processor for FANUC was great out of the box. Only had to make a few small modification to the PP program to do what we wanted. Easy to do this.

Good luck with it and thanks for sharing.

 

[HDN]

That's the one thing that sucks about it - file storage is on Autodesk's cloud. You can save STLs and PDF drawings locally on your computer.

The personal use license allows hobbyists and small businesses to use the software for free. There are some functions that are behind a paywall, but I haven't had to use any of them so I don't think that's a problem.

 

[Bulldogger]

I've been using Autodesk CAD products for years - vanilla AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Inventor, and most recently Fusion 360.

In the past few years I've been 3D printing, Fusion 360 has been my go-to software for designing practical parts and trinkets alike. I've decided to share my experience in the form of tutorials for anyone who's interested in using Fusion 360 for their own designing needs.

You can download Fusion 360 for personal use here: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal

My YouTube channel, Shapes Imagined, is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKU21dEeoGeUuxKTOU5zKLA/videos

I currently have five videos up that cover the basics of using Fusion 360 and some 3D modeling, and I plan on adding more. Maybe I'll even get into 3D printing tips.

If anyone has questions about Fusion 360, please post them here and I'll try to answer them. I might even make a video with the answer in it

I didn't know there was a hobbyist license/version. This is good news! Though I'm sure at the end of the 3-years they will lean on me to pay. It does look like prices for a subscription have been reduced since I last checked, or I was accidentally looking at commercial licenses. Regardless, I have been stuggling along using an old freeware version of 123D Design, a great-grandfather of 360 that I think Autodesk bought years ago and later dumbed down into TinkerCAD. It lost online support and expansion packs several years ago, and now designing in it isn't much better than using a paper and ruler and all calculations/scaling is manual (or visual, i.e. " I guess that looks about right, let's print it and see"). I've pretty much stopped using it due to the difficulties. I'm VERY glad to see this.
Thanks for this and for the vids HDN.
Bulldogger

 

[HDN]

I didn't know there was a hobbyist license/version. This is good news! Though I'm sure at the end of the 3-years they will lean on me to pay. It does look like prices for a subscription have been reduced since I last checked, or I was accidentally looking at commercial licenses.

The personal use license lasts for three years, at which point you can re-apply for it. Unless Autodesk decides that it's losing money for them I hope that won't be the case. I've been using Fusion 360 for four years for free, reapplying for the personal use license, and hope it stays that way! Otherwise you'll see me making videos about something else

 

[NY Tom]

It is the best and lowest cost CAD and CAM package that I am aware of.

There are others but not as good as the real thing in my opinion.

Commercial ACAD package is not really that costly considering what you get for the money. If you have use for it.

 

[HDN]

I just posted up a video that might interest some of you. As mentioned earlier, most of Fusion 360's storage is on the Autodesk cloud. The one exception to this is printing drawings to a PDF (saving the PDF to your computer in the process), then printing that PDF to paper. So I have about a half-hour video that goes over how to create a drawing with Fusion 360 as well as some dimensioning principles that I learned from engineering school awhile ago. So if you need anything on paper that shows how big stuff is, this will get you started!

If you're trying to 3D print holes that you designed and they keep printing undersized, print a test model that can show you how much to compensate for shrinkage: