I just discovered this through my local hackerspace in St.

General CNC CNC Routers
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I just discovered this through my local hackerspace in St. Louis:

Have you all seen this? CAD, Simulation, CAM, Rendering… free until your business makes over 100k? Free to hobbyists? Is this really happening?

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-differently/how-and-why-we-re-building-fusion/ba-p/5496355

What are your thoughts?

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@Gene_Jordan_GeekTink I have the $300/yr subscription for Fusion 360 Ultimate. I was able to get in before the the price rose to $1200/yr. I have used it for several projects and find it the easiest CAD/CAM package I have use to date, beating out Solidworks and Geomagic by a wide margin. Fusion 360 still evolving with updates coming every other month or so. Well worth the money if you got the $300/yr deal or are doing the hobbyist/start-up (free) deal.

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Free for a limited time. Then subscription fee. I would only change to this tool if the learning curve is flat enough and what i have seen so far, it’s not as flat as i hoped for.

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My thoughts are, they have found a way to make a shedload of money.

I don’t think that most of the world will be able to afford US$300/yr, so you North Americans enjoy your new toy, I’ll just have to work harder on something that is free or very, very cheap.

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The CAM module is great.
CAD not so much, in my opinion. I only use it for resizing holes if necessary.

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Further down in the comments, someone from Autodesk clarified “free”:

Startup license is available to you and all hobbyists, makers and emerging business for as long as you/they need it.

The language that you referred to indicates that startup license is for 1year but can be renewed any number of times as long as you qualify; i.e. you use it for a hobby or for a startup that generates less than $100K revenue per year.

Pretty good deal I think. Also, the “free” version is the Ultimate, so it comes with all the bells and whistles.

Hopefully I can carve out some time to try it out. Thanks to Gene for posting about this.

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Yes @Henrik_Larsen , it is free for a year since the first use. I installed that app like two months ago when I first got the news it was free; but I’m saving that year until I have my CNC ready for aluminum

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I still scratch my head on this one when people say it’s too expensive. Free is too expensive? And anyone that says that Fusion’s CAD is no good have probably written it off before giving it a decent go.
I use Fusion 360 and it is bloody good. I’m self taught with Fusion with no real prior experience (a little time with Solidworks and Solid edge) and I did this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xW6cC7KTz4