What do you think about Autodesk Fusion 360 ?

Hi mir4ea,

> What do you think about Autodesk Fusion 360 ?

Are you asking me in particular or just looking for comments from the community in general? I don't think I've tried it myself so I wouldn't be the right person to give an opinion on it.

It looks like there is a trial version of it, usually the best way for these things is to give it a try yourself.

- Michael

It's currently coming to the end of its beta version. I signed up as a beta user to try it out, primarily because it incorporated T-Splines into it. I also used Inventor Fusion, which has the same interface. I personally didn't like the "cloud based" aspect of it, I thought it was somewhat of a hassle. I guess I prefer applications running on a local machine. I thought it might be a solution (because of T-Splines) for our organic modeling needs. There were some aspects of the interface and the way it works which I thought was nice, but it's very different. I found it hard to go back and forth between it and other CAD applications. In the end, I went with Rhino with the T-Splines plug-in. It just made more sense for me to have a solution for organic shapes that was interchangeable with MoI.

Your experience was similar to mine. I did not beta very long due to the cloud aspect. The cloud is the worst, over-rated hype on the planet. Just think of how much money per minute a larger firm with 20 designers or engineers would lose if their pipeline to the internet went down, even for 15 minutes. Everything else (the modeling) will end up coming down to what features an individual will use and what kind of interface that they like working with. Solution for Cloud - its called dropbox or even a sharepoint server or any other number of ways to access and share data. When we were on SolidWorks we had a server for PDMWorks and it was accessible for our outside offices, again no cloud needed and not hard to setup. No way I would rely on the cloud for important data. I wonder how many people stopped using it just because of the cloud portion?

After fighting with Alibre, now Geomagic, and coming from SolidWorks for a decade and AutoCAD for 10 years previous to that this is a MoI, Rhino, RhinoWorks world for me. MoI is so simple and quick for most designs. Refine in Rhino, add the parametrics that most feature based / history based cad users can't seem to get away from.

TSplines does rock but is a bit much for what I do. However, I would recommend it to anyone who does design using organic shapes. Hopefully AutoDesk won't ruin it with features, scope creep, or just messed up pricing.

My biggest love about MoI, Rhino combo is one format.

Hi Andrei:i think,first of all, depends by the feeling you have using different softwares
I used Moi almost everyday in last 4 years during my spare-time.We all describe his beauties but,all these wonderful things are addictive !
I used 123D Autodesk for extra-filleting until they allowed SAT-STEP export:try to select an edge,it's like to turn on a neon light..orrible !
Last month i did a basic Rhino course,being oriented to T-Splines.We used Rhino 4
No problem to have lot of pop-up menus,also about Nurbs modeling techniques..but snap system really sucks !
Selection and snap are the fundaments of all design software,so you can understand why Moi is the TOP...
You have to consider these basic features before to "fall in love" with amazing tools the software offers to you.
If you got an "elastic-mind" enough to jump in and out different applications..forget my words.
I think will die with Moi,and i'll bring my copy with S.N. in the coffin with me :-) :-)

I did see that there was a fair amount of feedback to Autodesk about concerns with the cloud only based Fusion 360. They said that they were going to make an improvement to allow 360 to be used without an internet connection. Even with that, it still doesn't appeal to me. I would assume that you'd have to make sure you had a copy of your files on your local machine, as well as the copy that it kept "in the cloud". Like I said before, I think it's a hassle.

I don't mind using the cloud for some added redundancy of my files, I use various methods and services in this manner. I just don't like the idea of using the cloud as my primary source for files or especially for my software and/or applications.

I agree with you Michael C. thanks for the infos
seems that Adobe too will move all stuff on the cloud
you will not buy a sw as a copy on a disc like in the past, but only pay-for-use on the cloud
do you know something about this ?

A funny workflow! Fusion 360, Moi, Sketchup ! :)

You can use Fusion 360 free a year as "Student" or "enthusiast" for personal use!
For export to Moi just transform before Tsplines in nurbs !

Would love to have Fusion360 tools inside MoI environment, especially the T-Spline stuffs, and the powerfull fillet engine.

However I hate mostly everything else, the camera navigation is horrible, you cant configure your key shortcut, the viewport is freaking slow. And I absolutely hate the cloud system, forcing you to have internet connection, and slowing down the application even more.

At least it gives you access to tspline for free, always good to take :)

<< to tspline for free

Just for a year! ;)

Some cool features also ;)

SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual also looks interesting:

Conceptual Design 1

Conceptual Design 2

Radial Engine

Some cool tool animation!

A few days ago I was facing some fillet trouble in MoI. I didnt want to spend to much time troubleshooting the model (how lazy !), so I decide to give fusion360 a try.

First, my version was not up to date ... upgrading (a couple of minutes)
Then, when I finally find how open the application from the dashboard (...), I spend 5 minutes in the interface to find a way to import a model ... and well, you can't ...

Google-ling few sec ... you first have to upload the model on the stupid cloud !

It takes me another 5 minutes to upload the .STP file ... and I have to wait a little bit more for some validation/refresh process. (This part was long enough to make me upload the model a second time :P)

Finally the model was available ... to discover that 360 didn't want to fillet the trouble area either :P

So at the end I spend more than 20 min for something that should take a snap in any other application (File/ Import) ... but hey, the cloud is the future, we all sharing our work
with 10 other friends, it's sooooo cool !

Back to MoI I receive 2 mails from AD, telling me my uploads are ready on my dashboard !

... I just hate it, even as a free app ! ... the fact 'they' now own t-spline is killing me :'(

I agree with you!

Maybe the real final version is for local computer ? (but it's a true price :)

it has a very simple and easy renderer! :)

You can now use it Off Line!
And always one free year for student or personnal use!
http://fusion360.autodesk.com/pricing (rigth bottom page)

Great Pilou, thanx for information, updatig! Looks like it good news!
Just want to ask somebody here who works with fusion, is it possible to leav sculpt mode and then return to it and continue to work with sculpted model?