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Yeah. A major "cost" of CAD software is the investment in learning it, which is made much cheaper by having others learn it whom you can interact with, an ope

Yeah. A major "cost" of CAD software is the investment in learning it, which is made much cheaper by having others learn it whom you can interact with, an open community to ask questions of, etc. That's part of why it hurt so much when Autodesk crippled the hobbyist version of Fusion 360. All the stuff it can't do now no one can help you learn.

dekhn 5y ago
I didn't use Fusion 360 back when the hobbyist version was great. I actually pay $500/yr for Fusion 360 (it's one of the only pieces of software I use that costs money out of my pocket) and to me it's worth every cent. It's a phenomenally powerful program. Now what I don't like is that advanced features are extra (on top of a single seat license); like, certain toolpaths cost extra money. But so far, the amount of features in the single seat license version has been good to me.
- Accujack 5y ago
  I do the same, although I got it on sale for about $300. The specific features that are missing which I really wanted to be able to use are multi-axis tool paths. Autodesk seems to think that only "professional" users will have a 4th axis, which really isn't the case any more. Likewise on the more advanced high speed tool paths, although I could mostly live without those. The biggest problem for me with both of these features is that to get them you need to pay yet another subscription fee for an extension and also pay for "cloud credits" to use it which are yet more money and which also expire after a year whether you use them or not. You can't just buy what you need and do without upgrades and patches and run it standalone like you can with Siemens NX (for example). You have to pay and keep paying or otherwise go through the effort to download everything stored in their cloud and move to another package. I like how the software functions in general although it's less "pro grade" than NX or Solidworks. If they offered a stand alone version that stored data and processed things locally and had basic multi-axis support, I'd be quite happy with paying up to about $1000 for it as a one time cost and more to get support. I hate getting locked into recurring costs that may change at the whim or need of the company supplying the product, especially if that company is as untrustworthy as Autodesk.

dekhn 5y ago

I didn't use Fusion 360 back when the hobbyist version was great. I actually pay $500/yr for Fusion 360 (it's one of the only pieces of software I use that costs money out of my pocket) and to me it's worth every cent. It's a phenomenally powerful program. Now what I don't like is that advanced features are extra (on top of a single seat license); like, certain toolpaths cost extra money. But so far, the amount of features in the single seat license version has been good to me.

Accujack 5y ago
I do the same, although I got it on sale for about $300. The specific features that are missing which I really wanted to be able to use are multi-axis tool paths. Autodesk seems to think that only "professional" users will have a 4th axis, which really isn't the case any more. Likewise on the more advanced high speed tool paths, although I could mostly live without those. The biggest problem for me with both of these features is that to get them you need to pay yet another subscription fee for an extension and also pay for "cloud credits" to use it which are yet more money and which also expire after a year whether you use them or not. You can't just buy what you need and do without upgrades and patches and run it standalone like you can with Siemens NX (for example). You have to pay and keep paying or otherwise go through the effort to download everything stored in their cloud and move to another package. I like how the software functions in general although it's less "pro grade" than NX or Solidworks. If they offered a stand alone version that stored data and processed things locally and had basic multi-axis support, I'd be quite happy with paying up to about $1000 for it as a one time cost and more to get support. I hate getting locked into recurring costs that may change at the whim or need of the company supplying the product, especially if that company is as untrustworthy as Autodesk.