Why I Don't Use Fusion 360 Confusion 360

[Septem]

I agree this subscription model is trash. I wonder if autodesk pays money every month to original inventors of all mathematical concepts they are using in their software?

[markdayneowalla]

I'm glad it's not just me. I have been struggling with CAM in Fusion for too long. If software were a thing I could throw against the wall, I would have shattered Fusion 360 into a thousand pieces long ago.

[smawhorter]

I think it is really important to note how this video was approached and I applaud Chris for looking at this using a "cost-benefit" type approach. F360 makes sense for a lot of users (we use it in my shop because my son is in college so we get it for free right now), for some it doesn't and Rhino/meshcam works just fine 95% of the time.

[mjrudisill]

This seems kind of silly, there are a ton of vague comments with not a single specific example of what you found confusing. And half the video complained about the fact you wanted to pay half the cost.

Fusion isn't "just fusion" you have parametric modeling, surface tools, rendering, mesh workspace, CAM, simulations, and more. The UI is far more modern and logical than any other software I have yet to use, most of the time it's just a matter of people not having direction and getting lost in the many options. I would be very curious to hear what you 'had trouble' getting it to do in either CAD or CAM space. Both have very concrete baselines to understand across any platform, then just seeing how to set it up in specific software. For example... anyone doing any CAM should understand speeds and feeds, depth of cut, radial engagement, and some basics of tooling. Outside of that, you have a very basic handful of cutting operations. 2D or 3D pocket, adaptive, parallel, scallop, etc.

Specifics would be super helpful beyond 'I couldn't get it to do what I want'. I tutor and consult as well as run a side business and day-to-day fabrication shop. The VAST majority of what I see when people complain about Fusion and other programs is user error, people not understanding 'best practices', and with no direction jumping into professional-grade software with no direction or training.

Fusion 360 has loads of great training resources. For CAD and CAM Titans of CNC has a lot that covers Fusion and a whole free academy at CNCExpert.com, and there are numerous other channels to point people in the right direction.

It seems maybe you are using a few basic things from another software and comparing the cost to Fusion which you are using a fraction of, or haven't learned properly. If you want to go super fast and own a Ferarri, but you only go fast sometimes, you don't get to pay half... it's still a Ferrari. And for any business, especially when you can run design, simulation, do all your CAM work, render images, etc., under $500 a year is a steal compared to the actual competitors like MasterCAM and Solidworks which start around 5 figures each and have maintenance costs along that triple what Fusion cost.

[emceha]

Great explanation from business point of view.

Fusion 360 is still best software for people who want to learn parametric or work on side projects. Once you learn the F360 you will switch to any other soft in a heartbeat

[tonyflies]

I also started with Fusion, found it ok but I hated the subscription idea. It didn’t matter much at the time but I knew one day it would bite me. I then tried Rhino and it was a moment of clarity almost immediately. I’ll never go back to 360. Some guys are doing great things with it and I commend them but Rhino is where I’m happy.

[-Thunder]

A few years ago I dove into Fusion 360. Now I find parametric sketches is the only way I imagine things anymore. It took a while for it to sink in. The learning curve is high. On the positive side, there's a tutorial for tons of things on Fusion 360 and I've never had a problem getting something to work on a 3D printer or CNC. But, I still get to use it for free as a hobbyist. $60/month is pretty ridiculous for little guys. Maybe $20/month with a max of 20 editable models would be good. Rhinoceros sounds like it's worth a look. Thanks.

[AndreMonthy]

I learned CAD with Fusion 360 but am now switching to FreeCAD for similar reasons. Probably will buy Rhino or Alibre if I need to. I hate SAAS. I would rather pay more upfront to actually own something.

[kadellagroove]

agreed. I used F360 for over a year and found it to be very frustrating. The history tree was unnecessarily confusing, I would constantly run into issues where it just wouldn't grab the part I was trying to focus ono or wouldn't preform the task I needed and It took me hours of time on google trying to figure out what went wrong... and you are right about the sub fee. It just doesn't make sense for a lot of small business owners who are not professionally doing CAD/CAm work daily to pay that much a month.

[giantpune]

I'm in the middle of doing what you described right now. I'm demoing a bunch of cad and cam software to support my shapeoko CNC.
I found that fusion360, even though I qualify to use it for free, I don't see myself using it. It is very laggy and clunky just clicking through the menus and trying to make a basic model.
Rhinoceros had a bit of a learning curve, but I was able to make the model I wanted. Only after I was done with the model did it dawn on me that its not easy to make changes. Like if you used a circle feature very early on and then did 9000 other steps to your model, you can't come back in later and decide you want to increase the size of that circle. I redid my model from scratching using their grasshopper software and that allows me to tweak the basic building block of my idea without having to go back and repeat a ton of steps.

I'm kinda stuck on the CAM side. I installed meshcam and am running through the trial period. Mine looks a lot more dumbed down than what I see in your video and what I see other people showing online. IDK if its because I'm under the evaluation license or what.

[slartybartfast]

Very useful for me to hear your long term comments on Fusion 360, vs ease of use for Rhino from the start. I have NEVER liked Autodesk, or their products, finding AutoCAD quite cumbersome (back in 1986 and this has never seemed to got easier, just more complicated), but was faced with inevitably having to go with Autodesk Fusion 360 with a new 3D project and not looking forward to that at all! Rhino I will now seriously investigate. Also a cloud server program (Fusion 360) is more damaging for the environment than a download and use off line (Rhino 3D) program. Many thanks to you, guitar dude!

[SpokenBroke]

Subscription based software sucks and was the end of my usage of all Adobe products.

[bfrank]

Yeah, I spent a few months battling with fusion 360. It just seemed really unstable, and i just could not work out how it was inteneded to work. It clearly was intended to work differently to Solidworks, but i couldn't develop a clear mental model of the software, especially the assemblies. Also found the cloud based storage really confusing. Overall fusion 360 was clunky, unintuitive, confusing and unstable. I've been dabbling a bit with FreeCAD recently, and think that might become my go to CAD software.

[kencrisp]

Fusion 360 wouldn't even install on my MacBook Pro, which has much more than the minimum requirements. After trying unsuccessfully to troubleshoot it for over an hour, I decided it was a sign of what to expect with Fusion 360 and decided to look for a different CAD app for my amateur woodworking projects.

[LogicSpeaks]

Financial expenses aside, I think I generally disagree with complaints that Fusion can't do certain things, but I do agree with specific bugginess that I've found for using it on and off for years - and I would STILL recommend fusion 360. Its gotten so much better over the years and anyone complaining about lagginess just needs to invest in an up to date computer. Lets also not forget - even an older computer with a quad core (I was using my Phenom II AMD processor - approx 11 years old now) and it ran perfectly fine - it just took a long time to process some complex tool-paths).

What I agree on: there are convoluted error explanations - simply not enough info to full understand where the problem lies and there is another issue I simply cannot explain and haven't found an answer to. When one draws and dimensions things within a sketch and everything is "defined" and then you decide - hey maybe I need to change a couple of things on the drawing and you change the current definitions to something new like hole size or you might even add another circle and then once you start defining - out of no where other portions of the drawing begin to be unconstrained. Suddenly things that were constrained are no longer constrained. Then no matter how many constraints one adds it stays unconstrained. Whats more odd is that if I delete the unconstrained item and redraw it and add constraints (the same constraints the prior piece had) it constrains the item like its supposed to.

Some told me its because you may have too many constraints (which doesn't make much sense because the program tells you when something is over constrained). Anyway - it gets complicated.

The point though - is that when the program works, it works wonderfully and when you have a complicated drawing, the timeline does wonders.

I just had my job buy me a subscription to Fusion 360 and it saved me hours of drawing/machining compared to using Vcarve. Vcarve is amazing for most simple carpentry drawings and even artwork - Vcarve is wonderful. But when it comes to efficient machining - Fusion is a go to. So I guess it all depends.

On a final note: comparing Fusion 360 value to the adobe suite and saying adobe gives you more for the money is untrue. Fusion does everything from drafting, to machining to simulation, and much more. Just because you don't use the functionality doesn't mean its not there.

[chumleyspedalboards]

For an Autodesk product, its very clunky. I used to be a Mechanical Designer and have used lots of software, but Fusion 360 was a huge disappointment for me.

[xfhghe]

Fusion could do a better job in creating training videos for it's cam software. I had a very difficult time learning how to use it. But once I got it figured out I found it to be a very easy to use software. It takes me about an hour to teach it my students the basics and they are able to write a program and machine their first part on day one. Then they are able to go on to complicated parts after that. I find the organization to be excellent, graphics are informative, and there are enough tool paths to program most any part. It's also very easy to set up your WCS and origin. But I can see people getting frustrated over details that aren't highlighted because that's what made my learning experience so tough. In the end it's your machining skills that will determine what you get out of this or any other software.

[AP-vtwv]

Quite funny to see the comments of people struggling with F360 workflow... i never had any issue with that. I understand the logic of he software and its purpose. F360 is NOT a design iteration software, not an exploration software, is not some software where you figure out what you want to do.
Fusion 360 is a parametric modelling software for engineering applications, where you design something you already KNOW how it must look like. And then prepare it for whatever manufacturing process...

People who use F360 to figure out their design are mostly the ones getting stuck. People who think one CAD software should be enough.
In reality, you need a mesh modeler (blender, sketchup, etc) that will help you figure out shapes. Alternatively, a nurbs modeller, like Rhinoceros or Moi3d can take this place, depending on what the designer/artist is doing. And then, for manufacturing, a software like F360, SolidWorks, FreeCAD is needed. But you can't do everything in any of the above. Each of them is best suited in some part of the design process.

[qyrgntl]

I also run Rhino and Meshcam. Rhino is the only program that clicked with my mental wiring, and Meshcam is just so simple.

Tried Fusion with some success, but zero intuition and high learning curve.

[solarguy]

I am right in the middle of this decision mess. I am building a cnc plasma table. I had planned on using Fusion 360 when the free version was pretty capable. Then they drastically changed their business/pricing model. The free version is very limited now. Oh by the way, it's now $85 a month for the paid hobbyist version, or $680 for the one year license. For a small side hustle for somebody starting out, that's too much money. No thanks. And I will never forgive them for pulling the rug out from under me. Never again.