Fusion 360 new pricing

[RB211]

Well, I like the EAA.org deal where you get the latest version of Solidworks Student Premium every year for the cost of membership to the EAA, which is around 40$.

[Paul Alciatore]

I have been using it free for about 2.5 years now and my free license still works. I even downloaded a fresh copy for my laptop yesterday and it ran just fine with my original license number. So I think that one year subscription is some kind of legal thing so that they can, not necessarily will, but can change their minds when they want to. Perhaps if they find that someone is using it to make money and still not paying.

If you are a hobby user, I would not worry too much about the one year thing.

Old thread, but the right topic ...

The F360 website offers a free personal/hobbiest 1 year subscription. So, after a year, you gotta' pay? Anybody run into this?

[Paul Alciatore]

I think Autodesk has a good policy here. I have always thought that the software companies were loosing business when they demanded full price just to try out a program, Way back when Lotus 123 was king and Excel was trying to take over, I used a broken copy of 123 to create a spreadsheet for scheduling operations at work. They liked it so much that the company purchased at least two legit copies that I know of and probably more. At that time there was a lot of the attitude that computers were a time waster at work and many in management did not want to see them being used. "All you do with that is play games!" I think I helped break that attitude, And Lotus benefited,

Autodesk seems to have a good policy. Students and people who are not making a lot of money are allowed free use. The only thing missing is the personal tech. support and some add-ons. Then they get used to it and like it. Some will develop good things with it, And if and when they get to that point where they are making $1000 a year with it then they should pay. I think it is a good way to get future paying users. And it also generates good word-of-mouth advertising which is what is happening here.

But it took software companies a long time to realize that allowing free use of their programs was a good thing for them. And some don't know it even today.

[Bob Engelhardt]

Old thread, but the right topic ...

The F360 website offers a free personal/hobbiest 1 year subscription. So, after a year, you gotta' pay? Anybody run into this?

[RB211]

Hey RB, seems you left Turkey just in time. Was just reading about a large earthquake in turkey that killed 18.

I'm staying in Istanbul, not sure if this will affect me or not for my return back.

[Glug]

I think I've mentioned this here before: SOLIDWORKS MILITARY EDUCATION SERVICES PROGRAM
US$20 /CAD$40 for active or former US and Canadian military

I had a dream a few nights ago that I had joined the Army. It did not go well and I remember thinking that I really had not thought it through. It was such a relief when I woke up.

Those hours in 'dream' boot camp were probably not enough for the discount

[Sparky_NY]

Hey RB, seems you left Turkey just in time. Was just reading about a large earthquake in turkey that killed 18.

[RB211]

I was flying. Sitting in Cairo right now. Too bad it's night, supposed to be able to see the Pyramids during the day when you fly in. When I jumped through the hoops the first time, via email they sent me both licenses. The reason I don't use Solidworks on the road is because I have a Macbook. Fusion is cross platform.

[genea]

I think I've mentioned this here before: SOLIDWORKS MILITARY EDUCATION SERVICES PROGRAM
US$20 /CAD$40 for active or former US and Canadian military

[Sparky_NY]

Ah... that's something to consider then. Thanks for the info.

I use Alibre, but SWX I have used also, and it might be nice to have at a low cost.

Some info here http://eaaforums.org/forumdisplay.ph...ddd41eb8cc7e60

Looking again today, I DID find references to CAM being included in the latest EAA version. For only $40 to join EAA and download solidworks, I might just do it to look it over closer.

[J Tiers]

Ah... that's something to consider then. Thanks for the info.

I use Alibre, but SWX I have used also, and it might be nice to have at a low cost.

[Sparky_NY]

Yep, they do it to get more committed users (people who know how to use it) They don't have to offer every option (and there are $35k worth of them if all enabled)

Reading on the EAA website, some members expressed a desire for the electrical drawing option in solidworks, solidworks added it for them. Solidworks has been very accommodating to the EAA in particular for some reason. I am sure solidworks won't give away the entire farm, but they have been very generous to the EAA.

[J Tiers]

You would have to ask Solidworks why they offer it for free to EAA members. I merely pointed out that it does not have CAM capabilities which some hobby users need.

Sometimes even free isn't a bargain if something won't do what you need.

Yep, they do it to get more committed users (people who know how to use it) They don't have to offer every option (and there are $35k worth of them if all enabled)

[Sparky_NY]

It actually does have CAM, at least they gave me a license for the CAM.

Do you have any links to that? You mentioned this a while back and I looked around pretty hard but could not find any references to CAM except the autodesk product that supports solidworks files. If I could confirm Cam for solidworks I will take the plunge for sure. I want to be sure before joining EAA and getting solidworks.

[nickel-city-fab]

Hand coding is all well and good but many complex 3d toolpaths can be several thousand lines of code. Hand coding 3d paths, engraving paths, adaptive type clearing and such would take prohibitively too long to code manually (months/years?). These sort of toolpaths often run for several hours, one member here on the forum has commented in the past that he sometimes runs code files of around a million lines.

For simple things, hand coding has its place AND it is always beneficial to know and understand g code regardless.

I should note that I am speaking primarily of milling toolpaths. Lathe toolpaths are usually much more simple and hand coding is often a viable option, but not always, depends on the part.

Actually we did engraving toolpaths on flat surfaces, among other things (final project was a progressive stamping die). Typically we never had more than a few hundred lines of code, it just got to be too much after that.

I think the way to go is use a decent CAM program, then hand-tweak it to suit conditions. For example, we were using the tool wear allowance to split tenths, etc. and achieve nice fits.