Thread: Sick of Fusion 360 / Affordable Alternatives

Originally Posted by woodchuckNJ

you obviously have no idea

You have absolutely gotta be kiddin' bringing this thread back to life with that idiotic tangent .....

Just what exactly are you trying to support?

I have heard so many complaints about every type of software and seen massive amounts of money spent in the programming department on things and inflated pay to these guys. One we had was much more interested in computer games when he was not begging machinists to make something for him.



When he would do something himself he often needed so much help guys just did the project themselves. And when they did not have time they had to clean up the machine the guy left dirty. These guys are wasted if they do not have close working relationships with the shop. Sorry but.....That is a must to have and in its absence nothing notable ever gets accomplished -got to have that cooperation working together.

Why don't you just shift to an Inventor license? It is a couple grand and it has the exact same CAM program as Fusion. Inventor is not a cloud system so all that internet nonsense goes away.

Originally Posted by vw_chuck

Why don't you just shift to an Inventor license? It is a couple grand and it has the exact same CAM program as Fusion. Inventor is not a cloud system so all that internet nonsense goes away.

$2085 annual subscription


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Originally Posted by vw_chuck

Why don't you just shift to an Inventor license? It is a couple grand and it has the exact same CAM program as Fusion. Inventor is not a cloud system so all that internet nonsense goes away.

It still requires an active internet connection to authenticate.

Unless you know something the Autodesk reseller doesn't? I spent several hours on the phone with several people from the reseller and autodesk trying to find a solution for an "offline" system.

I just keep adding whatever leftover funds I have to a SolidWorks fund.

My garage shop has no internet. It's in the boonies. And it's 100 feet from my house. I CAD/CAM in the house with internet, then bring my laptop to the shop. I often change my CAM in the shop using fusion without internet. I haven't really tried to FULLY use fusion without internet, but if my internet does go down for a bit, I can continue (without saving) as long as it's only temporary.

I don't pay for fusion. There are lots of problems with fusion and every other CAD program that I've used (inventor, solidworks, and way back pro-engineer?), but good golly, I am getting an amazing piece of software for free. I love it.

Originally Posted by mhajicek

Did you get any training? Ask your reseller? Ask on Mastercam.com or eMastercam.com? Mastercam is far from perfect, but it's by far the easiest to get help with.

I did my best to get help using the resources I had available. I don't know if those websites were active then or not, and the date was probably more like 2004 that I look into it. As a educational user, I probably didn't get as much attention as a for-profit user, but I had very little success getting call-backs from the reseller - he was quite busy. I didn't mean to bash mastercam, but it didn't work for me: I had a machine installed in January, the middle of a school year, I couldn't take a training class because I was teaching, and because after convincing the school to spend $$$, it seemed bad form to ask for more. I could tell that mastercam had huge capabilities, but I needed to make chips and I can't teach something that I can't learn myself, so I went the easy route. Fusion was a temporary solution (I was using solidworks at the time, I think), and it became permanent because the CAD is good and the CAM is well integrated.

If I was doing this for a living, I would probably invest in mastercam.

Originally Posted by empwoer

basic mastercam 3 axis package is right around 12k retail. not counting maintenance.

omg, that's soo much money. well for me at least

Originally Posted by Fal Grunt

It still requires an active internet connection to authenticate.

Unless you know something the Autodesk reseller doesn't? I spent several hours on the phone with several people from the reseller and autodesk trying to find a solution for an "offline" system.

I just keep adding whatever leftover funds I have to a SolidWorks fund.

Well, ADSK just [email protected] that up as well.
Until now, Inventor authenticated the installatation and obtained the license. After that it remained off-the-grid.
Sure, it wanted to call the mothership, but was absolutely fine without it.

Fast forward to the wonderful Named User Licensing Racket, and it NEEDS to authenticate every single sign-on through the online server!
That is to say even if the friggin' thing crashes, you need to be connected otherwise SOL and can't continue your work!

Originally Posted by SeeFair

I couldn't take a training class because I was teaching

Yep, there's your problem. Mastercam, being professional level software, and with a much higher degree of complexity and capability than hobby stuff like fusion, requires training. Resellers and others generally won't help someone if they haven't had any training, because the answer to your question is a couple solid days of training. Teaching you how to set the origin (for 3 axis work) would likely happen within the first half hour. Take some additional classes for 4 and 5 axis and they'll teach you about Mastercam's three different origin systems and how to use them.
Take that training, and then people will be much more apt to answer your remaining questions.

For what its worth I have just bought ZW3d
and I love it
regards
Bill

Originally Posted by Anvilstrike

For what its worth I have just bought ZW3d
and I love it
regards
Bill

Did you get a deal? Their list prices aren't cheap.

Originally Posted by jhov

Did you get a deal? Their list prices aren't cheap.

Not cheap-cheap but for what it is, not expensive, either

ZW3D Pricing

On the other hand, looking around this site,

TECH-NET

it's the only place I've ever seen promoting ZW3d, extremely opinionated, and some of the statements have me shaking my head - such as, ZW3d came from VX ? Which I was pretty sure was a later naming for Varimetrix ? In which case, it's anything but what they are describing ?

Anvilstrike ? Tell us more ?

Originally Posted by EmanuelGoldstein

Not cheap-cheap but for what it is, not expensive, either

ZW3D Pricing

On the other hand, looking around this site,

TECH-NET

it's the only place I've ever seen promoting ZW3d, extremely opinionated, and some of the statements have me shaking my head - such as, ZW3d came from VX ? Which I was pretty sure was a later naming for Varimetrix ? In which case, it's anything but what they are describing ?

Anvilstrike ? Tell us more ?

A few years back, their prices were much more competitive. And if you fit within one of their basic packages they're still not too bad.. but if you want any advanced CAD tools (sheet metal, weldments, surfacing, assemblies, etc) combined with 4+ axis milling with high speed roughing strategies, there are much better solutions for the price IMO.

Originally Posted by EmanuelGoldstein

it's the only place I've ever seen promoting ZW3d, extremely opinionated, and some of the statements have me shaking my head

Anvilstrike ? Tell us more ?

That was also my first, second and third impression.

Specially this part:

ZW3D has authorized TECH-NET to sell ZWCAD, an Autocad Clone. I have to tell you, I will not be supporting it since I am only 3D and have never used an electronic drafting package.
But I am sure you can get your answers from ZWCAD

Coming from a reseller, that one is rich!

Originally Posted by SeymourDumore

That was also my first, second and third impression.

It's fun to hear a CAD reseller openly calling Catia shit but he certainly does have a high opinion of himself ... maybe he's right, I dunno, Cadkey was definitely a winner in its day, but if we could get him and Jon Banquer together, that'd be entertaining

Originally Posted by Jaxian

I have been using Fusion for years but with the purchase of a 4th axis it's been really rough on more advanced stuff. I was trying get 4th continuous toolpaths on non circular objects and it just doesn't work. I tried the forums and had Fusion "geniuses" try to help but to no avail. Just want a damn chamfer to wrap around from the front to top. Driving me nuts.

So I went to test drive Alibre mid Dec of 2020. First off Alibre makes CAD. NOTHING else. All the CAM is 3rd party that can work with it. I didn't find it's CAD any better than Fusion but I don't do assemblies or high end stuff. Just one piece models. Hated that Alibre didn't have the timeline. But only used for about 3 days.

So they had about 3 different CAM you could use that basically just gave you a button in Alibre CAD that you could hit that would launch the CAM product and import the model for you. Not integrated like Fusion 360, just weird to have the CAM just be a dialog box. I took a test run of AlibreCAM 2020 by Mecsoft the others looked weak. It had like 11 4th axis toolpaths as compared to the one (Rotary)in Fusion. Yes Fusion can index, and other toolpaths can fake it but that's about it. I had about 2 days with it and then had my biggest customer give me a job that took a month. Software trial ran out and I had to put it on the back burner.

So about a week ago got sick of banging my head into the wall again with Fusion and called them to get things started again for a trial. So I check Alibre site and the Professional package is still there. On sale now for $750 down from $1000. I then check Mecsoft for AlibreCAM 2020 and it's missing. I check back on Alibre site and look at CAM under AddOns and they have Sprut and some other basic one listed. No AlibreCAM. Checked Sprut website real fast. No prices, RFQ. Immediately eliminated.

I call Mecsoft and they regret to inform me that they no longer are partnered with Alibre. They say their Visual CAD/CAM is the exact same product it just doesn't launch from inside Alibre. Price for the Professional, the first level with good 4th toolpaths is $5,000.

I have been just importing .stl from Fusion to test with, no CAD yet. There is a learning curve. Not nearly as polished as Fusion but if it will give me more control over toolpaths I will deal with ugly icons. Fusion did just add Trim and Extend or some such to better control toolpaths but it's all under the $1600 a year for the Machining Extension. With the normal Fusion price that is just of $2,000 a year so I am over the price of VisualCAD/CAM within three years. There is an option $700 a year maintenance on VisualCAD/CAM to get updates and help. Alibre I think it was like $300 a year for maintenance.

Just starting my due diligence. Trying to do the tutorials but they don't have the tutorial part files on their website. YouTube video say to email to get a download link. I did on Sunday and still no link. Weird to go from a huge website with tons of stuff and information everywhere on the web to basically being on my own. Going to keep going to see if it has good 4th axis toolpaths. Didn't pay $25k for a 4th so it would just be a glorified indexer.

You spend $25k on a 4th axis, but are unwilling to buy a premium CAM software to run it efficiently?
Just buck up and buy Powermill, Mastercam, or Esprit.
All of these will run it just fine. The cam software is as much a tool as the rotary table itself.

Man, I hesitate to even post this question..... but, here goes. First of all I'm not even a machinist. I was a flight test engineer for 40 years and when I retired 3 years ago I set up a small manual machine shop in my garage. I brought home a bunch of tooling when our plant shut down and I bought a mill and a lathe and I spend all my waking hours out sweating in the garage or watching YouTube machinists. I've been using Fusion360 for the last 3 years to do my 3D designs and produce dimensioned drawings and I was able to do it for free using the hobbyist license. I only use the CAD functionality. Now that free license option has evaporated and it would be $60 a month for a subscription. Granted, that's not a lot of money but it's a lot more than free and my wife will start "talking" about how much this hobby is costing and how I'm making parts for free for all my friends, etc, etc. Is there a decent CAD package (don't care about the CAM side and adaptive tool paths) that anyone could recommend as an alternative? I'd prefer to buy once cry once and only pay for upgrades as needed. Thanks for any help.

Look into Alibre Atom, it is aimed at the hobby market, only thing I see missing at a quick look is sheetmetal.

I have used Alibre expert for many years, never really had any issues with licensing. You are free to choose whether to keep up the maintenance or not,

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I used to use Alibre and it worked well enough.