If you’re currently using Fusion 360 for personal use and need to export your designs out as any of the formats mentioned above, you have until October 1st, 2020 to do so. The 10 active document allowance will be in effect on January 19, 2021. After this date, you will have the option to select which 10 documents you would like to remain active, and the rest will be stored in your account in an archived state. You can swap an archived document for an active document at any time. There is no limit on how many archived designs you choose to keep.
Sad news because simulation of milling tool paths is the biggest learning tool for aspiring machinist. So no more 3 axis milling, just 3d design and 3d printing. Right when I get a decent understanding of how to use the manufacturing side of their software.
They list “simulation” alongside “manufacture”, so I think what they mean the “simulation” tab, the stress/thermal simulation rather than the toolpath simulation.
That was pretty inevitable, there was a team who got permission to try out a new type of product with Fusion 360 but sooner or later the Autodesk board were going to look at it and either;
a) turn it off because it didn’t make enough money
b) turn it off because it was reducing revenue from another product
c) deploy the normal Autodesk license model where the pricing is deliberately byzantine and key parts of common workflows are spread across as many extra cost bundles as possible to extract extra revenue from anyone without an option to go elsewhere
The exec board don’t get yacht sized bonuses for ethics or decency, they get them for share price and dividend.
The thing is, a very high up at Autodesk promised that the Startup/Hobbyist licensing would stay and continue to be useful.
but am not finding the interview with the wording which I recalled. Not sure if that’s because the interview is off-line, or I’m not remembering accurately — see further down some interview links which accurately transcribe statements on what was then the current state-of-affairs, and note how Autodesk wanted to work with users to improve Fusion 360.
Of course, and they have not technically reneged on that. All they’re doing is redefining what “hobbyist” and “useful” mean.
Reading the post what appears to have happened is they’ve looked at lots of hobbyist users’ cloud accounts, seen the number and compexity of the models stored there, the amount they use the product etc. and decided that those people are now dependent enough on the product that they are a source of revenue. This use of the product is referred to as “misuse” of the hobbyist licensing.
“we need to eliminate both the confusion and the misuse that exists within our offerings.”
The misuse word keeps appearing, they want you to know that it’s not benevolent Autodesk who are moving the goalposts, it’s evil users who are at fault here.
I’m sure there are people out there doing commercial work on the personal license. This time around, unlike Microsoft and the single copy countries they had to give up on, Fusion was written to be cloud dependent, meaning fully enforceable licensing and no gold discs out there with a keygen.
What will be interesting to see is whether Google or somebody else with a “free” model fills the gap with a sufficiently functional product to force Autodesk to keep enough of Fusion free to be useful.
All that said, I have a good idea what the development and maintenance of this product costs and the current license costs (even without discount) are pretty good for what you get. What the Autodesk board does to them in the future when they really need a new lake house to park their yacht at on the other hand is anybody’s guess.
After seeing what autodesk did with sketchup, I am not really surprised by this and why I was a little hesitant to learn fusion 360 in the first place. I don’t mind paying upfront for software, but avoid subscription based software like the plague. Hopefully the removal of simulation is talking about FEA / mechanics not toolpath simulations. If toolpath simulations are removed I will just delete the software.
@dmouw25 Wasn’t it Google which made SketchUp free for long enough to get enough Google Earth modeling done that they tired of it, then sold it off to Trimble?
@neilferreri I believe that’s the case — I suspect that’s also why there’s no tool changes — can’t use a fast tool to move around, then switch to one at cutting speed.
