Dont add new actual files, add new components.

When you work in one of your ten permissible fusion files, it helps to think of components as files. I have files for wood shop, metal shop, garage, household, ebike. Then just add components like 'Lathe' and Mill' and sub components 'spindle mount' One way to defeat the 10 file limit when designing new small parts for different things is to create a new project, entitled 'The Universe' for instance, and then create a new file entitled 'The Shop'. I maintain an XP desktop and a windows 7 (IIRC) desktop to use exclusively with my last paid versions of autocad. I started on CAD when the programs were still DOS based. once they moved to software as a service they lost me. I've been buying commercial cad programs from autodesk for 3 decades and have spent thousands and thousands on upgrades.

The new software as a service model sucks. Renewals can be a pain as my last one was, but it is worth it for free. Think of it as their 'new coke' experiment. autodesk quickly backed down and wont ever revisit this. I posted this in a 3d printing thread but it is more apropos here:Ī word about Fusion 360, renewals, and the limit of 10 editable files.įirstly, Autodesk pondered eliminating the free hobbyist license and found that they'd lose their entire hobbyist market to other vendors all too happy to take over the gateway to commercial licensing. I'll maybe try the CAD functionality this weekend.Īfter seeing all the fancy features during my cursory look, the 'FREE' part sounded to good to be true so I went through the registration process, selected the free option and the '30 days evaluation' part in the title bar disappeared so apparently I'm now the proud owner of a free Fusion360 Ultimate.Forgive me if posting this same info twice violates the rules. It's also supports something called 3+2 (5-axis positioning) for both 2.5 and 3d strategies which might be handy of you have a 4th axis on your machine. Its got sort of a Google Sketch-up look and feel. The tutorials worked flawlessly and nothing crashed or broke and its relatively easy to get going, so I like it so far. Definitely worth a look for 2.5 and 3D CAM as its got a lot of the high end CAM strategies like Adaptive Clearing, Pencil, Scallop, Spiral, Radial etc. Installed it and played a bit by working through some 2.5D and 3D CAM tutorials and wow, I'm quite impressed.

Fusion 360 free hobbyist