student version

[ronald.edwards]

I am currently using the student version of Fusion 360. I downloaded it before I was given access to the subscription. The question I have is how can I use the subscription version. I am missing out on the update dates like the ones that were discussed at the A U last week. (Generative design) for one.

Thanks

[Steinwerks]

You should only need to log in to Fusion 360 with your standard email address attached to your subscription. In the upper righthand side of the window you will see your name; click that and select 'Log Out' to exit the .EDU subscription.

[ronald.edwards]

The email tied to the subscription is the one tied to the student version

[LibertyMachine]

From the FAQ:

"Note: Generative Design technology for Fusion 360 will only be accessible to commercial customers."

Doesn't look like students get Generative Design. I wonder if that's an "across the board" thing, or do educational institutions also have no access to that.

[ronald.edwards]

The company I work for has a subscription to Autodesk. I downloaded the student version of Fusion before I was given permission to access the subscription, now it seems like I am stuck with it. Other Autodesk products are not an issue, they work off the subscription.

[michele.mk]

Hello @ronald.edwards,

You may need to have your student entitlements removed to unblock the paid version. I would recommend to open a ticket for the correct support over this link and to include all the relevant data from the student account as well as the contract number for the subscription.

I hope this is helpful.

Best regards,

Michèle.

[Fully_Defined]

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@michele.mk wrote:

Hello @ronald.edwards,

You may need to have your student entitlements removed to unblock the paid version. I would recommend to open a ticket for the correct support over this link and to include all the relevant data from the student account as well as the contract number for the subscription.

I hope this is helpful.

Best regards,

Michèle.

---

And I did exactly that. It took about a day, and all of my old Autodesk student licenses were gone, POOF!

With that, I lost HSMWorks for Solidworks, and to be honest - if I had a minute longer to think about it - because of this I may not have done it. I hadn't realized how limited HSMXpress was, and that led me to exporting solids to Fusion 360 for CAM, which is what I do now. It's been a mixed bag.

[jeff.pek]

Hi -

Assuming that you're not still a student, you are eligible to purchase a subscription to the Product Design & Manufacturing collection, which includes (full) Fusion, as well as both HSMWorks and Inventor HSM (and Inventor). Not sure if this is useful to you, but I wanted to point it out.

Jeff

[Fully_Defined]

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@jeff.pek wrote:

Hi -

Assuming that you're not still a student, you are eligible to purchase a subscription to the Product Design & Manufacturing collection, which includes (full) Fusion, as well as both HSMWorks and Inventor HSM (and Inventor). Not sure if this is useful to you, but I wanted to point it out.

Jeff

---

That has been the standard answer I've gotten. Nothing personal, but it's ridiculous.

The usual justification is how much each one of the applications would cost on its own, but that argument only works if I want any of the others, and if it were even possible to buy any of them on their own - which it isn't, which is my whole complaint!

I paid $279 for Fusion 360, and it includes HSM baked into it. Tell me why you think the Solidworks plugin that does the same thing is worth $2500.

Not having to think about this is why I shouldn't have deleted my student account and bought Fusion. 

[Steinwerks]

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@Fully_Defined wrote:

The usual justification is how much each one of the applications would cost on its own, but that argument only works if I want any of the others, and if it were even possible to buy any of them on their own - which it isn't, which is my whole complaint!

I paid $279 for Fusion 360, and it includes HSM baked into it. Tell me why you think the Solidworks plugin that does the same thing is worth $2500.

Not having to think about this is why I shouldn't have deleted my student account and bought Fusion. 

---

The point of the suite is to allow flexibility and choice between products, and of course encourage adoption of Autodesk's platforms while allowing users to stay on SolidWorks for the time being. Whether it works or not is probably up for debate.

It is useful though to have HSM in a local environment only regarding concerns such as ITAR requirements or cloud storage concerns (plenty of people still use this as a reason they will never use Fusion).

That said, if one is not a student, one should not be using a student account. That educational institutions are lax with their assignment of .EDU email addresses and Autodesk is lax about enforcement is really just a boon for people who take advantage of them. I don't know if you are a student or not, the statement stands on its own I feel.

For people not using them for profit there is always the Enthusiast license structure.

[Fully_Defined]

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@Steinwerks wrote:

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@Fully_Defined wrote:

The usual justification is how much each one of the applications would cost on its own, but that argument only works if I want any of the others, and if it were even possible to buy any of them on their own - which it isn't, which is my whole complaint!

I paid $279 for Fusion 360, and it includes HSM baked into it. Tell me why you think the Solidworks plugin that does the same thing is worth $2500.

Not having to think about this is why I shouldn't have deleted my student account and bought Fusion. 

---

The point of the suite is to allow flexibility and choice between products, and of course encourage adoption of Autodesk's platforms while allowing users to stay on SolidWorks for the time being. Whether it works or not is probably up for debate.

It is useful though to have HSM in a local environment only regarding concerns such as ITAR requirements or cloud storage concerns (plenty of people still use this as a reason they will never use Fusion).

That said, if one is not a student, one should not be using a student account. That educational institutions are lax with their assignment of .EDU email addresses and Autodesk is lax about enforcement is really just a boon for people who take advantage of them. I don't know if you are a student or not, the statement stands on its own I feel.

For people not using them for profit there is always the Enthusiast license structure.

---

If you don't know if I'm a student or not, why are you even bringing it up? It's probably better to assume I'm telling the truth; otherwise this kind of thing - forums - don't work. Maybe that's the problem here.

Frankly, Autodesk did themselves a favor by giving me a student license when I was a student, because I later sought out their products as a professional. It baffles me why they're not interested in having me as a customer because they refuse to sell me the only the product I actually want to use. Seriously, it's nuts.

Whatever. I paid for Fusion 360 personally, and I use it for CAM at work because it's the only 3-axis CAM that isn't overpriced, or whose price is a mystery.

[Steinwerks]

@Fully_Defined wrote:

If you don't know if I'm a student or not, why are you even bringing it up? It's probably better to assume I'm telling the truth; otherwise this kind of thing - forums - don't work. Maybe that's the problem here.

Frankly, Autodesk did themselves a favor by giving me a student license when I was a student, because I later sought out their products as a professional. It baffles me why they're not interested in having me as a customer because they refuse to sell me the only the product I actually want to use. Seriously, it's nuts.

Whatever. I paid for Fusion 360 personally, and I use it for CAM at work because it's the only 3-axis CAM that isn't overpriced, or whose price is a mystery.

---

You only mentioned that your student licenses disappeared without much context, and I know from direct anecdotal experience that there are people using educational licenses who are no longer students at all, and how they manage to continue using their .EDU email addresses long after leaving their institution(s). I never said you weren't telling the truth, because you did not state whether you were a student or not (or an instructor, to which an educational license would also apply).

Another experience is that my last job was using HSMWorks for a few years until Autodesk decided to rebundle everything into the manufacturing package (or whatever it's called), and we went from a Premium license to an upgraded Ultimate license and paid no more than we were before. It added functionality for us which increased our capabilities. It also bundled in a license of F360 which I was trying to get others to use as a training aid for HSM since it could be logged in from anywhere on any computer.

Cost is always going to be relative to needs and ability or willingness to pay. I'm now using Hypermill on a regular basis and while its interface leaves a good deal to be desired, its functionality in some workflows is leaps and bounds beyond HSM or Fusion; so is the cost, but it has been deemed appropriate by the market for what strengths it brings to the table (pun intended). Honestly its 2.5-axis is a PITA and it uses Volumill of which I am not a fan.