If you're on a Personal license version of Fusion 360 then you've probably gotten the nasty-gram from Autodesk that they are essentially crippling the program. It has me strongly considering jumping to another program for my 3D printing and CNC modeling needs. I'm wondering what options others in this situation are considering. This question will obviously be influenced by the type of work one does. I've gotten pretty comfortable using it for my 3D printing needs but I'm literally just starting out with CNC projects on my BlackBox-powered Workbee 1515, thus switching to something altogether different isn't a huge problem. I can't yet justify the expense of something as nice as V-Carve Pro and I don't have any experience with the various open-source tools that are out there, so any suggestions by those further down the path than myself would be greatly appreciated. I'm not opposed to paying for software and I realize Autodesk isn't keeping the lights on by appeasing "freeloaders", but the way they are handling this leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. To their credit, they are offering a paid license at a substantial discount if you pay for a full year up front. But they've shown an obvious willingness to twist the screws with minimal advance notice, and if they do it when you're just a few months in on a year-long subscription, you'll be both up the creek and out the money. This was not how I planned to spend my Sunday. :-( Jon
Having recommended Fusion to hundreds of others I share your feelings about the way Autodesk have handled this, but the underlying problem is the number of commercial users who have cheated by signing up for a personal use licence. The changes are not (as yet) going to cripple Fusion for hobby users - it will be a bit inconvenient, and may slow things down a bit . Like you I have doubts about long term use of Fusion for those who (like me) can't afford a commercial license fee and I will be looking around for alternatives, but I would expect Fusion to remain a viable piece of software for hobby users for a year or two yet. Alex.
I was also looking for other options, but I do not think it will affect me much. Other than my current redesign of my CNC router, I rarely do complex designs with multiple moving parts. Most of my stuff involves cutting parts for one project and when I do that I usually create multiple sketches in the same drawing which can each be saved as a .dxf for cutting. I use Estlcam for all my CAM needs so all I really need to do is make a 2D .dxf file. I rarely model "flat" parts in 3D anymore unless I need a drawing to explain something to someone. I did buy Vcarve so I may be making the move that way for woodworking projects.
Well I all ways thought the Fusion 360 was extremely powerful for what you got for free.I am not complaining and I am not surprised to tell you the truth the route it has taken. Personally I would pay $100 to $150 a year for a sub for it. Call it a personal paid license for hobby users. Not $495, That's way too much. Even at the current sale 40% is to much for the year for hobbyist. I don't need there tech support or expertise on function. There are plenty of Youtube instruction for that. I also believe in when there is a good product or software that it should have a price for all the hard work and design in to it. Originally when I heard they had it setup free for hobbyist my first impression was it was a customer grab. Drag as much customers in for free get them hooked and then blame it on something else and start charging. It might have been a calculated maneuver from a business side of things. Of coarse I am not big business kind of person. But just thinking.
It is still free for Makers and if you are using it like a hobbyist, the functionality is essentially the same. I understand why they did what they did. I see a lot of youtubers using the free license in monetized videos. If you are truly running a business I do not see why $495 is unreasonable, especially if your business relies on it. It is after all, not an open source software. If you do not like the limitations on the CAM (rapids etc) and do not want to edit the Gcode to change the rapids, Estlcam is only $59 for a one-time payment. Openbuilds has a free CAM generator.
Right! If your a business $495 is a small price for what you can do with it. Totally agree. It's just I would be willing to pay them 100bucks a year for the hobbyist license not the business price. So I have looked at Estlcam and CamBam. Both are not bad prices. Just seems easier since I been working with F360 for while. One software bounces between multi different functions. But I guess the day will come where I might have to switch or pony up and pay the price.
I use Fusion 360 to do the design work, but I find Estlcam to be way easier for CAM generation. A while back I quit actually going through the process of designing 3D parts in Fusion360 to then generate tool paths for cutting plate. Now I just create a dxf and import it into Estlcam to generate the tool paths. What I like about that is I can change material thickness and cut the same part without having to go back into Fusion360 and redesigning then generating new tool paths. I have not yet cut anything using the Openbuilds CAM, but it looks similar to Estlcam.
So we cant use fusion anymore? I post process a design then open in opencontrol and it will render a design in the 3d space but when i go to run to program it doesnt do anything anymore!!! Whats going on!!??
Nothing that changed in Fusion today should have affected creation of g-code for Openbuilds Control. What post processor are you using? Alex
Still using the Swarfer post processor that ive always used. Ive tried uploading files to OBC that i PProccessed a couple weeks ago and they still work fine. starts right up and wants to go. Tried using the one i created today with the new software and nothing happens. I mean it exports. it opens in OBC. It generates the tool path in 3d render. doesnt move. doesnt turn on spindle. steppers dont move. Has anyone tried since the update?
Ok i figured it out. So I opened the file text editor and deleted a paragraph that ive never noticed before. After the first g21 the paragraph about movement speeds i deleted and resaved in the text editor. opened that up in OBC and it worked just fine. Not sure if it was becuase i deleted the paragraph or if its because i opened and resaved in the text editor. Either way problem solved. Hope this helps someone else.
I don't use OB control, and I haven't post processed any files today, but I'll tag @David the swarfer and @sharmstr in case it's an issue they can deal with. Alex.
Any chance you could post the original (that didn't work) in case it's a change by Autodesk that's going to affect lots of people. Alex.
Excellent. Have him message me if need any more info. I verified that the paragraph does need to be removed for it to work on my setup anyway. Syntax looks good to me though but im not a professional. maybe just needs to be moved up.
--text in red has to be deleted to work-- (Made in : Autodesk CAM Post Processor) (G Code optimized for OpenBuilds OX,Workbee,Sphinx,Lead with BlackBox GRBL V1.1 controller) (Program Name : 1001) (1 Operation (1 : 2D Adaptive3) ( Tool 1: Flat End Mill 2 Flutes, Diam = 1.587mm, Len = 12.70mm) ( Spindle : RPM = 15000) ( Machining time : 6 min 2 sec) G90 G94 G17 G21 (When using Fusion 360 for Personal Use, the feedrate of rapid moves is reduced to match the feedrate of cutting moves, which can increase machining time. Unrestricted rapid moves are available with a Fusion 360 Subscription.) (Operation 1 of 1 : 2D Adaptive3) G90 G53 G0 Z-10
Hmmm. Its obviously a Autodesk injection. The comment looks good, so not sure why Control is complaining about it. Inspecting the gcode via Control doesnt offer any clues. I dont have my xPro card handy ATM so can't really debug it for you. Also dont see a way to suppress it in Fusion or anyone complaining in their forums about it. Peter?
The comment by Autodesk appears to be just one line - is it the length of the line that is troubling control? Will let you know how my (rep-rap Duet) workbee responds later (after breakfast ) Alex.
I suspect the original file had that all on one line, and that would be too long for GRBL. (edit, yep, 227 characters, that will error GRBL for sure, a peek at the terminal should be informative) I will fire up Fusion just now and check on it, this is obviously part of the new restrictions, but I am not sure I will see them since I have an educational license which AFAIK is excluded from the new restrictions. In that case I will need to register with a new name for personal use and see what I can do with the post stuff.
control is not complaining (I think, unless control is stopping without a message), GRBL just dies when it gets a 'much too long' comment, that is what I saw, nothing in terminal, it just stops
yes one could, but maybe we can filter it in the post.... but maybe control being aware of ultra long lines is also a good idea.
Duet (rep-rap g-code) runs fine with the comment in. One person has reported grbl runs ok - waiting to check what g-code sender they used (and double check it was a newly processed file) Alex.
Could the post just rephrase it so that it still conveys the same information to the user but without the extremely long sentence? So (When using Fusion 360 for Personal Use, the feedrate of rapid moves is reduced to match the feedrate of cutting moves, which can increase machining time. Unrestricted rapid moves are available with a Fusion 360 Subscription.) becomes something like: (Fusion 360 Personal Use: Rapids will be reduced to feedrate speeds, increasing machining time. Unrestricted rapids are available with a Fusion 360 Subscription) If that's short enough. Or- there's a lot of different feed rates in that file. Is one of them the max machine speed in the machine library, and the others are operational feed rates? Might be able to put rapids back in with that...
so my new code will transform that (and any other) long message into (When using Fusion 360 for Personal Use, the feedrate of rapid) (moves is reduced to match the feedrate of cutting moves, which) (can increase machining time. Unrestricted rapid moves are available) (with a Fusion 360 Subscription.) S1270 appears to be the max feedrate specified for this job/tool. for a part with origin specified at the top of the material any Z move from negative Z to 'positive safe height' (Z5.08 in the given code) signals the start of a rapid move, so maybe all we need to know is the safe height? do I see a state change machine in our future.... (apologies to Dexter )
Apparently the comment appears after each toolpath if you process more than 1 to a G-code file. Alex. Edit; just ran a simple job through my post processor (modified version of Ooznest's one) and I have two G0's at the beginning of the file, but the last one has been changed to a G1.
