Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

[NyxOne]

Autodesk fusion 360 is free for the hobbyist (and startup) and unlike Sketchup which is very limited this is it's a real CAD software with powerful 3D CAM functions built in.

It's harder to learn than Sketchup but it's a 100 times more powerful and you can find a lot of tutorial on youtube.

Note: I'm not affliated with them, I just like the software.

Enjoy!
NyxOne

[ani_101]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

Autodesk fusion 360 is free for the hobbyist (and startup) and unlike Sketchup which is very limited this is it's a real CAD software with powerful 3D CAM functions built in.

It's harder to learn than Sketchup but it's a 100 times more powerful and you can find a lot of tutorial on youtube.

Note: I'm not affliated with them, I just like the software.

Enjoy!
NyxOne

I am also trying this out, but yes it works very differently from sketch up.... Still trying to catch up

[NyxOne]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

This might help in case you didn't already know.

Fusion 360 Training And Fusion 360 youtube channel

NyxOne

[ani_101]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

This might help in case you didn't already know.

Fusion 360 Training And Fusion 360 youtube channel

NyxOne

thanks I will try it out. The issue with sketchup, other than being completely useless for complex models, was that it didn't create solid objects for 3D printing. Had to run the STLs through third party to fix it, before it could be used.

[NyxOne]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

thanks I will try it out. The issue with sketchup, other than being completely useless for complex models, was that it didn't create solid objects for 3D printing. Had to run the STLs through third party to fix it, before it could be used.

I ran in similar problems when I was trying to machine 3D parts (eg:waveguide). The problem with sketchup is that it can't draw true arc/circles, instead they're represented by a series of segment. Although it looks good in sketchup it's a total mess when you export your file and open them in CAM software! You can add more segment but for complex parts it complete nightmare. It makes my CNC very twitchy! :(

Eg :


NyxOne

[andy19191]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

Autodesk fusion 360 is free for the hobbyist (and startup) and unlike Sketchup which is very limited this is it's a real CAD software with powerful 3D CAM functions built in.

It's harder to learn than Sketchup but it's a 100 times more powerful and you can find a lot of tutorial on youtube.

Thanks for the link. I downloaded it and gave it a brief try.

Firstly, the CAD that I tried seemed straightforward and worked well. The interface is busy and a bit irritating but I expect I would soon get used to it.

The first problem was that it crashed my graphics card. The card recovered without requiring the system to reboot. It has only done it once so far.

The second problem was that my first test case has not been saved in the cloud but my second one has. They both exist locally in the cache but not remotely. Running off line it will not let me save to the local computer. There seems to be a sync bug.

I exported successfully to my computer as IGES and STEP files but importing STEP files failed and with no error message saying why. I checked the files with a couple of different readers and they were fine. I managed to read back an IGES file that was written by the program. Then I did tried with a more complicated STEP file and it seemed to work. But then a file appeared containing an error message saying it was an unsupported version of the file format. So no message with errors but when it works you get an error message.

The remote data GUI can create new folders but I can find no way to select them to delete or rename. How do I get rid of a bunch of folders called New Folder (...)?

The data handling looks flaky, the GUI a bit irritating but the difficult CAD stuff looks good. If I could find some way to reliably save my work I would be tempted to give it a proper go with a real project.

[NyxOne]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

Fusion 360 do have a few bugs from what I've read (although I didn't experience any so far) and the problems that you reported would be an issue for anyone paying for the product. However, as a hobbyist, I haven't been able to find a free product that can do better than sketchup. This product offers a lot more than sketchup 3D wise and has CAM features builtin which is a big deal for me.

For the price I don't see how I could complain.

NyxOne

[andy19191]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

For the price I don't see how I could complain.

From experience I can assure you that quite a lot, possibly most, of given away for free software is more expensive than charged for software when used for work rather than entertainment. If after a lot of invested time it fails to produce results that is expensive. If it takes a long time to learn and is time consuming to use to produce results that is also expensive.

My guess is the core of this software is well developed but the top level GUI and data handling is new, developed by relatively inexperienced but cheap programmers and has been barely tested. The people using it for free may help with the testing but I doubt many will convert to paying customer's if it loses data and cannot work with existing CAD models as seems to be the case at the moment.

It is interesting to see that a number of non-toy CAD packages are starting to be made freely available in what looks like an effort to capture some of the 3D maker and DIY market. It will be interesting to see if this is one of the packages that grows.

[ani_101]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

From experience I can assure you that quite a lot, possibly most, of given away for free software is more expensive than charged for software when used for work rather than entertainment. If after a lot of invested time it fails to produce results that is expensive. If it takes a long time to learn and is time consuming to use to produce results that is also expensive.

My guess is the core of this software is well developed but the top level GUI and data handling is new, developed by relatively inexperienced but cheap programmers and has been barely tested. The people using it for free may help with the testing but I doubt many will convert to paying customer's if it loses data and cannot work with existing CAD models as seems to be the case at the moment.

It is interesting to see that a number of non-toy CAD packages are starting to be made freely available in what looks like an effort to capture some of the 3D maker and DIY market. It will be interesting to see if this is one of the packages that grows.

That remains one of the biggest issue. Good 3D modelling software costs in 1000's not in 100's whereas a couple of grand gets you a mini cnc router or 500$ gets you a 3D printer.

[andy19191]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

That remains one of the biggest issue. Good 3D modelling software costs in 1000's not in 100's whereas a couple of grand gets you a mini cnc router or 500$ gets you a 3D printer.

The $2k cnc router and $500 rapid prototyper are suitable for hobby work but not commercial work. You would need to pay perhaps an order of magnitude more for suitable hardware. It is not much different with software. There is free or cheap hobbyist software around but supported easy to use software suitable for commercial work is significantly more expensive.

[dcibel]

Re: Autodesk fusion 360 (it's free)

Autodesk Inventor offers a free 3-year licence for educational purposes. I'm a big fan of Inventor.