Fusion 360 Announcement

Lancastrian

Lancastrian

Western Thunderer
All,
I saw this included in the information about the latest update to Fusion 360.

After the March 2023 product update, Fusion 360 will no longer fully support the OS versions listed below:
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows 10 (Version 1803 or older)
  • macOS 10.15 (Catalina)
Ian
 
G

GrahamMc

Western Thunderer
V1803, four years ago. I started with Fusion 360 but wanted something that I could download and keep so switched to Solid Edge. It's not supported on Windows home editions but it's free and it works as do other free programs. It's a bit of a pain having to switch but it might be worth considering.
 
Suffolk Dave

Suffolk Dave

Western Thunderer
Learning some 3D CAD skills has been on my mind for sometime. In my research I discovered Ian's post about future updates and realising my Mac was running on soon to be outmoded Catalina, I've just done an upgrade to the latest operating system, Ventura.

Feeling I'd got ahead of the curve I was about to download Fusion 360 when I checked the system requirements and discovered Ventura was not yet supported! Reassuringly, it states certification is coming soon.

I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer.

Fusion 360 System Requirements
 
Bill Bedford

Bill Bedford

Western Thunderer
I've been using Fusion 360 on Ventura since the latter was released. The lack of certification will only be an issue if you do high-end, enterprise-level work. I wouldn't even know who to approach to certify my stuff.
 
mike evans

mike evans

Active Member
My desktop Mac is ten years old and cannot be upgraded further than Catalina.
So it seems that if I want to continue to use Fusion 360 I will have to spend a lot of money or would it be cheaper to buy a Windows machine, then again I haven’t used windows for 10 years.
At my time of life I am not keen on learning a new bit of software.
Has anyone any thoughts or suggestions on my predicament?

Mike
 
adrian

adrian

Flying Squad
mike evans said:
My desktop Mac is ten years old and cannot be upgraded further than Catalina.
So it seems that if I want to continue to use Fusion 360 I will have to spend a lot of money or would it be cheaper to buy a Windows machine, then again I haven’t used windows for 10 years.
At my time of life I am not keen on learning a new bit of software.
Has anyone any thoughts or suggestions on my predicament?

Mike
Click to expand...
I wouldn't panic too soon. It says support will end, this usually means that any new updates won't be guaranteed to work with the older systems. The new versions may still work with your old operating system or if it doesn't then you may be stuck with the version you are currently using. It doesn't mean that it all stops working when the new version is released.
 
Suffolk Dave

Suffolk Dave

Western Thunderer
Bill Bedford said:
I've been using Fusion 360 on Ventura since the latter was released. The lack of certification will only be an issue if you do high-end, enterprise-level work. I wouldn't even know who to approach to certify my stuff.
Click to expand...

Those are encouraging words Bill, I shall press on rather than waiting for the certification.
 
mike evans

mike evans

Active Member
adrian said:
I wouldn't panic too soon. It says support will end, this usually means that any new updates won't be guaranteed to work with the older systems. The new versions may still work with your old operating system or if it doesn't then you may be stuck with the version you are currently using. It doesn't mean that it all stops working when the new version is released.
Click to expand...
Thanks Adrian.
I only use 360 occasionally-it comes under the ‘nice to have’ heading.
It’s akin to buying a piece of equipment for the workshop and hardly ever using it, but when you do need to use it, it’s the ‘best thing since sliced bread’ or so to speak.

Mike
 
Chris-Draw

Chris-Draw

Member
This week on my PC (win 10) at start up. Win 11 was pushing to be loaded. I stopped and contacted AUTODESK about my copy of Inventor 2018.
They said if I upgraded from Win 10 to Win 11 on the same PC. Inventor 2018 should be fine. If I wanted to be sure, to upgrade my Release of Inventor. £6,000 for 3 Years subs! Sorry but no chance.
What I think I will do is keep this PC on Win10 and buy a new home PC Win11 for just over £1k and use that for all other stuff, keeping this one alone for 3D CAD. Same with Fusion 360 I think they will eventually stop anyone using a fee free copy. Difficult, we need them to keep going but Hobbyists should be able to have a Cut Down release of any 3D CAD system. Hope this helps.
 

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adrian

adrian

Flying Squad
Chris-Draw said:
This week on my PC (win 10) at start up. Win 11 was pushing to be loaded. I stopped and contacted AUTODESK about my copy of Inventor 2018.
They said if I upgraded from Win 10 to Win 11 on the same PC. Inventor 2018 should be fine. If I wanted to be sure, to upgrade my Release of Inventor. £6,000 for 3 Years subs! Sorry but no chance.
What I think I will do is keep this PC on Win10 and buy a new home PC Win11 for just over £1k and use that for all other stuff, keeping this one alone for 3D CAD. Same with Fusion 360 I think they will eventually stop anyone using a fee free copy. Difficult, we need them to keep going but Hobbyists should be able to have a Cut Down release of any 3D CAD system. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
To be perfectly honest this is one of the reasons I started my 3D modelling learning curve with FreeCad FreeCAD: Your own 3D parametric modeler

Yes it might not be as polished as some of the more commercial offerings, it might not have all the fancy bells, whistles or support of the comercial offerings but it does job for me. The learning curve was probably steeper than Fusion360 but there are plenty of tutorials now. However it is open source so there is no subscription service, I will always have access to the current standard and probably many of the future developments. The application is truly multi-platform so it works the same on my Apple laptop, Linux / Windows dual boot desktop. I have no concerns of being locked out of my CAD files the documentation says

Files​

The models and other files produced with FreeCAD are not subject to any license stated above, nor bound to any kind of restriction or ownership. Your files are truly yours. You can set the owner of the file and specify your own license terms for the files you produce inside FreeCAD, via menu File → Project Information.
Click to expand...

So probably not the option if you've invested time in learning Fusion360 but for beginners it's an option worth considering.
 
NickB

NickB

Western Thunderer
We can only speculate about Autodesk and their plans for F360, but the free version has been in existence for seven years now, and I would think its continuing existence and use has more pluses than minuses for them. It costs them almost nothing to support us and we contribute to the development by engaging on Autodesk's support forum. It is a recruitment tool. A fraction (only Autodesk knows how many) of users try the free version, like it and convert to a paid licence. Another fraction do commercial work using the free version even if they shouldn't, but Autodesk have tuned it very carefully to make that difficult by limiting the import and export file formats, limiting the CAM features, etc. There are workarounds to many of the imposed limitations, but they take time, and time is money in commercial work. Soon you're losing more money that way than the cost of a licence. We advertise the product by discussing it on forums like this. Thanks in part to us, F360 probably has the best brand recognition of high-end CAD systems. If they were to close down the free version, they would drive many of us away to their competitors.

Despite appearances, I'm not an apologist for Autodesk. They are a very hard-nosed company with a laser focus on their bottom line and they will have done a cost benefit analysis of the free version. Circumstances may change and they may kill it tomorrow. I just don't think that's very likely.

Nick
 
NickB

NickB

Western Thunderer
If you are on Autodesk's mailing list, you will receive/have received and email announcing price increases for F360. Fear not - the version for personal use will remain free. All users have benefitted from improvements in responsiveness, but most of the product developments have been and will continue to be at the high end and in some of the more esoteric functions. Hardly likely to affect most of us hobbyists. It's possible we may see some additional features moving from the free to paid versions in the future, but again, unlikely to have any serious impact on us.

Nick
 
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