Just checking out more CAM options for our shop. I like the concept of Fusion 360 and will probably try the trial. Is anyone using it in a production enviroment? Is it hobbyist only? We have a license of Gibbscam, but needing something more for solids. Thanks!
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Is Fusion 360 Suitable for Production Environment or Hobbyist Only?
- Thread starter munruh
- Start date
- Replies 22
- Views 9,207
m98custom1212
Stainless
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2011
- Location
- Toledo, Ohio
What type of parts and machines?
You can certainly create complex parts and assemblies with it, so I think it comes down to a referendum on two aspects of the software: 1)the cloud, and 2) HSMWorks/Inventor HSM.
If you are bringing in models from outside, then it depends on your customers and any agreements on confidentiality and the like. The software itself is local but file/document storage is cloud based. If you are just doing work for yourself, then its your own comfort zone.
The CAM engine is from the aforementioned HSMWorks/InvHSM. The basic Fusion package has 2.5D, 3D, 3+2, basic lathe, plasma-laser or router cutting. What's missing is simultaneous 5 axis, 4 axis wrap, and the backplotting editor from Cimco (this is caused by the need to run on Mac, backplotting editor does not exist - ii is replaced by the Brackets editor). Some of the advanced features such as 5 axis simultaneous will only be available in the premium edition of Fusion - $1,200/yr vs. $300/yr for the standard version.
Maybe I should ask...what constitutes 'hobbyist only'? Anyway, HTH.
Fred
If you are bringing in models from outside, then it depends on your customers and any agreements on confidentiality and the like. The software itself is local but file/document storage is cloud based. If you are just doing work for yourself, then its your own comfort zone.
The CAM engine is from the aforementioned HSMWorks/InvHSM. The basic Fusion package has 2.5D, 3D, 3+2, basic lathe, plasma-laser or router cutting. What's missing is simultaneous 5 axis, 4 axis wrap, and the backplotting editor from Cimco (this is caused by the need to run on Mac, backplotting editor does not exist - ii is replaced by the Brackets editor). Some of the advanced features such as 5 axis simultaneous will only be available in the premium edition of Fusion - $1,200/yr vs. $300/yr for the standard version.
Maybe I should ask...what constitutes 'hobbyist only'? Anyway, HTH.
Fred
imported_brian_m
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2006
- Location
- Oregon
We run a business where in-house machining ability is an important part of the operation. We are not a machine shop because we do not do outside high volume work but we are not a hobby set-up because the work we do is quite complicated and it is critical to our small business.
I have been testing Fusion 360 as a replacement for Solidworks/HSMWorks.
Overall Fusion360 is a great idea but it is going to need a lot of work to get it into the big league. Presently it feels like a program with great potential that is in an ongoing Beta testing environment using thousands of users as the testers. Quite literally I would say that there are hundreds of details that need to be reworked. It looks as though Autodesk has some smart people working on the project but they have an awful lot of work to do.
It feels as though Autodesk decided that they had to have a program that was visually different from both HSM and SW to be more "modern" or "refreshed". Unfortunately, as a result they lost some of the logicality and clarity of the other programs.
Worth trying and using - yes.
Slick, efficient, in its present form - no.
Great potential - yes.
Feeling that the design team is on-the-ball - most definitely.
Support from Autodesk - good but not great, mainly simplistic videos.
Support from user community - very good.
CAD - I would say overall not as good as SW.
CAM - very good but needs tidying up. They would have been better of just grafting on HSM exactly as it was and then adding some upgrades.
.
I have been testing Fusion 360 as a replacement for Solidworks/HSMWorks.
Overall Fusion360 is a great idea but it is going to need a lot of work to get it into the big league. Presently it feels like a program with great potential that is in an ongoing Beta testing environment using thousands of users as the testers. Quite literally I would say that there are hundreds of details that need to be reworked. It looks as though Autodesk has some smart people working on the project but they have an awful lot of work to do.
It feels as though Autodesk decided that they had to have a program that was visually different from both HSM and SW to be more "modern" or "refreshed". Unfortunately, as a result they lost some of the logicality and clarity of the other programs.
Worth trying and using - yes.
Slick, efficient, in its present form - no.
Great potential - yes.
Feeling that the design team is on-the-ball - most definitely.
Support from Autodesk - good but not great, mainly simplistic videos.
Support from user community - very good.
CAD - I would say overall not as good as SW.
CAM - very good but needs tidying up. They would have been better of just grafting on HSM exactly as it was and then adding some upgrades.
.
DavidScott
Diamond
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2012
- Location
- Washington
I've been using Fusion for close to 2-1/2 years now. My biggest complaint is the lack of learning material. Not just the amount but the organization of it. It is getting better but still miles away from adequate. Yes it is a work in progress but I love it, keeping in mind it is only $300 a year. Even if I was paying $1000 a year I would still be using it. How much is just maintenance for SW? If you have your cad computer hooked up to the internet, in any way, or email your cad files, then there isn't much to debate about cloud security, IMO.
When I have really needed technical help I have been very happy with what I get from the Forums. If you are in a hurry then squawk a lot and someone from Autodesk will show up within an hour or two.
IMO it is a viable production ready program for milling, I have no experience with the turning part of it. You can create some very clean efficient code with it.
When I have really needed technical help I have been very happy with what I get from the Forums. If you are in a hurry then squawk a lot and someone from Autodesk will show up within an hour or two.
IMO it is a viable production ready program for milling, I have no experience with the turning part of it. You can create some very clean efficient code with it.
imported_brian_m
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2006
- Location
- Oregon
David,
I agree on the efficiency of the code but the interface is certainly not efficient.
Take editing a sketch as an example. You zoom into the detail you want to edit, select "edit sketch" - just fine, but when you click the mouse button the view jumps to another part of the model for some reason. Now you have to select the "Pan" function to bring the view back to where it was.
Not exactly efficient and there are several similar examples I can give to you.
dkmc
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2002
Interesting thread....will have to give it a try.
DavidScott
Diamond
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2012
- Location
- Washington
You need a 3D mouse!
I just did my first surfaced mold with a cnc mill, I have made plenty manually in another life. Anyway both halves were pretty similar so after programing the A side I just chose "duplicate" and then in each operation I had to redefine the new body for the B side, plus a few surfaces, and the B side was programmed. The B side only took around 10 minutes, yipee!!
Since I didn't "Ground" anything I am now doing it again, it seems my part body moved .0312" in the Z axis. I will be paying more attention to "Ground" in the future.
athack
Stainless
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2009
- Location
- Michigan USA
We have it and use it. It is the first modeling and CAM program we have used so can't give input about how it stacks up to other programs. But that being said we have been able to model and cam and take the program to machines successfully.
rklopp
Diamond
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2001
- Location
- Redwood City, CA USA
This happens to me, too. It is annoying but not annoying enough to make me give up and spend >4 times as much money going back to SW, which won't run on a Mac anyway.
Atomkinder
Titanium
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- May 8, 2012
- Location
- Mid-Iowa, USA
Winterfalke
Stainless
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2011
- Location
- Huron
The impression I get, at this point, is that a new user should be able to learn Fusion 360 just as fast as a Solidworks/(Your Cam Package Here) combination to a usable degree. The problem comes in when you get to the level of refinement and support; Solidworks has it, while Fusion 360 doesn't. If you have a lot of time and no money (like me) Fusion is fairly usable, but if you have actual deadlines and a need for some control over your data you might end up pretty screwed relying only on Fusion.
imported_brian_m
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2006
- Location
- Oregon
AK
The problem should not occur in the first place, patches after that are a waste of time.
You will notice I never said not to use Fusion 360. What I said is I like it, it is potentially great, but do not be surprised if you find a bunch of quirks that need to be fixed.
I am in the free test period presently but I will be taking a subscription as long as I see progress in some of the more annoying problems being fixed. Fusion 360 certainly has a place in my computer. Some of the good bits are really good, the bad bits will hopefully be fixed over time.
Winterfalke,
Yes, you may in fact have an easier time with Fusion 360 if you did not start on SW. My feeling is that if Fusion had just been coupled to HSMWorks with the same user interface as HSMWorks it would have been a lot easier to use (although some good features have been added to Fusion that I do not think were in HSM). Remember how people raved about how simple HSMWorks was to use? Now we have things like toolbars that will not stay in the place were you last left them and annoying little selection boxes that dance all over the screen and get in the way of your work.
I genuinely hope that such problems will all be fixed over time.
The problem should not occur in the first place, patches after that are a waste of time.
You will notice I never said not to use Fusion 360. What I said is I like it, it is potentially great, but do not be surprised if you find a bunch of quirks that need to be fixed.
I am in the free test period presently but I will be taking a subscription as long as I see progress in some of the more annoying problems being fixed. Fusion 360 certainly has a place in my computer. Some of the good bits are really good, the bad bits will hopefully be fixed over time.
Winterfalke,
Yes, you may in fact have an easier time with Fusion 360 if you did not start on SW. My feeling is that if Fusion had just been coupled to HSMWorks with the same user interface as HSMWorks it would have been a lot easier to use (although some good features have been added to Fusion that I do not think were in HSM). Remember how people raved about how simple HSMWorks was to use? Now we have things like toolbars that will not stay in the place were you last left them and annoying little selection boxes that dance all over the screen and get in the way of your work.
I genuinely hope that such problems will all be fixed over time.
Atomkinder
Titanium
- Joined
- May 8, 2012
- Location
- Mid-Iowa, USA
I presume you were talking to me.
When you go into the edit sketch mode the software repositions you parallel to the sketch plane. Is that the movement you're talking about?
imported_brian_m
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2006
- Location
- Oregon
AtomKinder
No, or at least that may be part of it.
I am presently working on a model 6 inches long with a complex feature about 1.5 inches in from one end. If I select the appropriate plane for the sketch so that the view is exactly square with the face of the model and then select edit sketch the model moves on the screen and stops at a point about half way along the model (I have not checked but this near the origin position). I then need to pan the view across to get back to the sketch position. Interestingly, if you enter the sketch the view moves, if you exit the sketch immediately the view returns to the sketch in the view you were working with before you selected edit sketch.
This is a very marked and annoying movement if you are zoomed in to fine detail. After the tenth time it happens I get pretty uptight.
Just checked. It seems that under any circumstances the model moves towards the center of the screen when you select edit sketch. If you are not zoomed in this is not much of a problem. If you are zoomed in the movement takes the area you want to edit off the screen.
Since I have just moved the same model from Solidworks to Fusion 360 I carried out the same test. In Solidworks, at the same zoom factor, the model does not move.
.
No, or at least that may be part of it.
I am presently working on a model 6 inches long with a complex feature about 1.5 inches in from one end. If I select the appropriate plane for the sketch so that the view is exactly square with the face of the model and then select edit sketch the model moves on the screen and stops at a point about half way along the model (I have not checked but this near the origin position). I then need to pan the view across to get back to the sketch position. Interestingly, if you enter the sketch the view moves, if you exit the sketch immediately the view returns to the sketch in the view you were working with before you selected edit sketch.
This is a very marked and annoying movement if you are zoomed in to fine detail. After the tenth time it happens I get pretty uptight.
Just checked. It seems that under any circumstances the model moves towards the center of the screen when you select edit sketch. If you are not zoomed in this is not much of a problem. If you are zoomed in the movement takes the area you want to edit off the screen.
Since I have just moved the same model from Solidworks to Fusion 360 I carried out the same test. In Solidworks, at the same zoom factor, the model does not move.
.
Atomkinder
Titanium
- Joined
- May 8, 2012
- Location
- Mid-Iowa, USA
Well, have you brought it up on the Fusion forums? That would be a much better place to either report a bug or gain insight than PM.
So I have used Fusion now on a couple of projects. In general I am favorably impressed. I love the cloud concept and how easy it is to share and communicate design concepts with customers. My biggest complaint is drawings, and it may likely keep me from switching over completely to Fusion yet. At this point you cannot modify the title block to suit your needs, you cannot print a drawing without first saving it to a pdf, you cannot add pages to a single drawing. I really think though it has become one of my tools to use along with some of my other softwares.
I think it is something you need to figure out for yourself. It really depends on the work you do. I like many of the features Fusion has and the cam is decent. However the last project I did I considered using it and without standard hole sizes for fasteners and having to download fasteners from McMaster Carr made it not so good for the project and I used SolidWorks.
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