Fusion 360 in place of Solidworks and PDM?
@Anonymous
"What does the forum say to these options??"
That's a loaded question without more information.
Is Fusion 360 capable of doing your current sheet metal designs?
I only ask this because currently it has limited tools for sheet metal.
If it can....then I would say that it COULD be a replacement, but....
1.) Only if you can handle stuff getting broken from time to time.
2.) Some internet outages and cloud being down.
3.) Some missing functionality.
4.) Limited print making capabilities.
5.) Other small things...
Dev team has said many times that Fusion is still fairly new in development terms and it is hard to say when missing functionality will make it's way into the program or at all.
Some people will tell you, Yes it can others will say No it can't, but at the end of the day it all comes down to can Fusion do what you need right now, and only you can answer that, because you know what you need.
Phil Procario Jr.
Owner, Laser & CNC Creations
The first question you need to answer is whether you can create these same complex sheet metal designs in Fusion 360. If you can, the next question is whether you can do that with the same efficiency and quality as it can be done in Solid Works. Evaluate completely across a complete project incl. technical drawings.
If there's a loss in efficiency you need to estimate how much that is and put a monetary number to it so you can assess whether the lower efficiency can be justified by the lower cost of Fusion 360. And vice versa.
Then you can take a look at how to manage all the data. Again, you should probably work on one or two complete projects in parallel with Fusion 360 and Solid Works PDM. Fusion is a subscription based product. If it does not work simply don't renew the subscription.
I am not sure what Solid Works pricing model is but I am sure they would extend a trial period to allow you to thoroughly evaluate.
Here is just a bit of personal advise:
1. Do not trust marketing materials, whether these are created by Autodesk or Dassault System. They all lie! They tell you what the software is capable of and tend to stretch the truth to the breaking point and leave out inconvenient details. They don't tell you it's limitations, however, the latter is what you definitely need to know, thus the need for thorough evaluation.
2. NEVER replace a functioning system in a running business with a new one without having a solid backup plan. Again, given that Fusion 360 is a subscription product, before replacing anything, just use it across a complete project , extrapolate the learnings across the entire business and see if it still works.
