Can't make a g-code file?

[Anonymous]

Hi, I took a month break and I came back and it seems like either I'm doing something wrong or there's been some massssssive restrictions put down on the personal use version of Fusion.

I have a file I'm trying to do that has a rough pass and a fine pass with a smaller bit.

It tells me I can't do tool changes in a single file??? So in the free version, my project needs to use the same bit all the way through?? How am I supposed to try out the program to see if I want to eventually subscribe if there's massive limitations that prevent me from using the most basic functions of the program?

It seems like it's not only tool changes, it's simply I can't have more than ONE operation in a single file??? So I need to make like 15 files just to make one simple thing? Isn't this as simple as just combining all the text files into one? Please tell me they didn't tweak it so it refuses to combine the G-Code files because that's not a feature, that's just a time saver theyre taking away. I hope I'm doing something wrong and this isn't the case.

Weirdly, 2 nights ago I was able to make a file with 5 tool changes just fine, so is this a new thing that was put into place on friday?

[seth.madore · Accepted solution]

Per THIS POST, restrictions have been placed on the Personal Entitlement. This includes tool change limitations. 

No, you are not limited to one operation per setup, you can have 1,000's. The only stipulation is that they all use the same tool.

If you are selecting the same tool out of your library each time, it's actually creating unique copies each time. Select the tool once from the library, and then any further operations you should select the tool out of the active document.

This change went into effect in early October.

[Anonymous]

So every time I switch tools, I need to make an entirely new file, have my router initialize, load an entirely new file, and go through the starting stages??  This isn't a feature removal, I can still do the things I want to do, it's just an update to artificially increase the time it takes to set up.

It does kind of seem like they're ripping the bare necessities away to get people to pay for the commercial license. This is going to add massive time onto every project. Pretty rough thing to do especially in the middle of a pandemic to try and juice a sub from personal users just so they can have a basic function.

Can't I just edit the NC files and combine them into one file for the same effect? I'll likely do that, but it really seems like a low blow to remove that feature.  I just can't bring myself to spend hundreds of dollars a year for something I barely use. I spent a lot of money on a router in the first place with the thought that I'd be good to go (because I was)

My confidence is low that if they're willing to do this, they won't keep stripping features and add a second tier subscription on top of this one. 

Yikes, Just feels nasty. I'm not impressed and this alone is enough to strip my confidence that this company isn't going to keep stripping features during a pandemic for monetary gain. I can't see myself paying for a sub when they'd do that. I'd always feel like they'll eventually add a second tier 1000$ per year sub and strip features from the lower tier.

[seth.madore]

The changes were legitimately done to curb abuse. There are shops that had no issue ripping a free copy and running several $100k+ machines off of it.

Yes, you CERTAINLY can post out several programs and stitch them together.

[Anonymous]

I assumed so, I just don't see how removing tool changes really curbs abusers. If I can stitch together toolpaths, I'm sure they can write a macro to do it too. Seems like it'll inconvenience them slightly and outright turn hobbiests away.

All big programs have abusers, it's part of software.  It just feels a little bad that a few abusers losing the company out on a few thousand dollars is screwing over the thousands of people who just wanna make a cute sign. Maybe it'd be nice if instead of the massive subscription, you could choose the features you need and the cost would be based off that. I don't mind supporting the company, but 600 bucks a year for making a few little projects in my off time is just too steep. Seems like this update is just there to waste my time. Any abuser mass producing stuff on a $100k machine would just set up a macro to run all their files and they won't be inconvenienced at all. In fact, all they need to do is export each tool, stitch them together once and that file is good to mass produce forever. This only punishes hobbiests who make 1-off projects

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

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@Anonymous wrote:

All big programs have abusers, it's part of software.  It just feels a little bad that a few abusers losing the company out on a few thousand dollars is screwing over the thousands of people who just wanna make a cute sign. 

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This is guessing on our end. That "A few abusers" are screwing over "Thousands of people". Could just as well be "Thousand abusers" screwing over those "few hobbyists users". What I'm meaning to say is that I don't think Autodesk has taken this decision lightly and there must be a solid foundation to it as they know the hobbyist community has embraced them and Fusion since its start, and helped them to where they are now.

[johnswetz1982]

But here is the thing with any perceived abuse. As part of your license you agree to being audited by Autodesk for license use and such. I know because one day when tried to get a project finished I was no longer able to open Revit as Autodesk was doing an "Export Audit" to see if I exported (from the country) a license.

It would be real easy to see who is on a hobby/personal license and using it for more than 8 or 16 hours (or whatever) a week and focus efforts there. I think that this was a fresh out of college accounting major trying to make a name for themselves with their new boss and some middle manager trying to show how much new revenue they are pulling in and trying to get a promotion.

All Autodesk did was prove everyone right who said they were just going to do a bait and switch by getting everyone hooked then make it painful to export all their work and switch softwares.  

[seth.madore]

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@johnswetz1982 wrote:

 I think that this was a fresh out of college accounting major trying to make a name for themselves with their new boss and some middle manager trying to show how much new revenue they are pulling in and trying to get a promotion.

Sorry @johnswetz1982 , that's factually incorrect, by orders of many magnitudes.

[Anonymous]

So tell me how not allowing tool changes is aimed at stopping abusers.

Abusers, I assume you mean would be people using the personal license for business by making files and mass producing items for profit.

So all they do is design an item with all the tool changes they'd like, using the hobby license. Now, they need to export each set of actions on each tool rather than the program doing it all for them. Next, they edit the code files, add a few lines to trigger tool changes, combine the exported codes into one file. It's annoying, can probably done in 20 minutes, 10 minutes if you know what you're doing. Bam. They now have a single file with multiple tool changes that they can run into their expensive routers thousands of times and mass produce their items. Thousands of products later, they only lost 10-20 minutes of their time.

Now, for actual hobbyists who are making one off signs and fun items can do the same, except EVERY time they make one project, they need to go through this 10-20 minute process. If I make 20 projects in a year, that's 200-400 minutes of my time wasted. If that abuser makes 20,000 items and abuses the personal license, they wasted 10-20 minutes of their time total. How does this change make any sense? It was either a lazily thought out change, or it's a change to try and get desperate hobbyists who don't have enough hours in the day to drop 600 bucks on the license just so the program will stitch their files together for them so they can save some precious minutes in their already busy days.

[seth.madore]

Regardless of what changes we implement to cut down on abuse, there are those persistent enough to work around any block. Tool changes, rapids, file limitations, there's always a way. A job shop typically doesn't make one program and run thousands of parts, their programming day in and out. So, it's not a 10-20 minute penalty once, but many times over.