Fusion 360 for FIRST Robotics team

[Anonymous]

I am trying to setup our First Robotics FTC team for remote season (because of COVID-19) and wanted to use a software where the robotics team members can collaborate on the design of the robot and the coaches can teach how to use the tool and review the designs.  I followed the link from FIRST robotics to https://www.autodesk.com/education/competitions-and-events/first/recommended-software which has Fusion 360 under "Free software for FIRST".

I setup Fusion 360 with personal license, created a team and tried to share the team with other coaches and team members and encountered a "Basic Access" problem.  This means I am the only one who can edit any designs in this team and others can only view.  I read up on this limitation and it looks like I need to buy a license per team member to fully utilize Fusion 360 for FIRST robotics - even though the page linked above states it is Free for FIRST.  I contacted support and Kalyan N from support reiterated what I feared.  If you are not a student/educator/IT-admin of an accredited institution, then you get 30 days Free and have to buy a license after.

I have raised this with FIRST Robotics FTC North Texas coordinator for clarification and I would also ask Autodesk to reconsider the licensing scheme to allow FIRST Robotics teams to use Fusion 360 regardless of their school.

[DarrenP]

there are other threads on this already

here is one: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/installation-licensing/first-robotics-team-s-community-mentor-has-no-...

you will have to wait for an answer from Autodesk they seem to be quiet on this

[TrippyLighting]

@James.Youmatz @brianrepp Can either of you try to help out and direct this to the right folks within AD, please?

[gmelantoni · Accepted solution]

As the lead of a team that's working on FIRST, you should have chosen an Education license. One of the roles is Mentor. That one should work for you and give you access to all features available to students (this includes the collaboration that's missing in the Basic Access on Fusion for personal use. 

Go here: https://www.autodesk.com/education/edu-software

And choose Design Competition Mentor on the drop down that you will get once you apply for the EDU entitlement.

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @Anonymous ,

EDIT: Guillermo is spot on with his comment. Let me know if you need any help with this process.

Not a problem. Thank you @TrippyLighting for the tag. Justine - can you shoot me an email at james.youmatz@autodesk.com so we can chat about your FIRST robotics team, and see how we can get you all set up on the correct license type that allows for collaboration within your team?

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all, especially James who helped me get the account setup to help my FTC team.

[Anonymous]

We are a new FTC team, can you please help us also configure our team and permissions, because we still run into some "basic access" problems. 

[matt_hansonS]

I tried choosing "Design Competition Mentor" as my educator role, and it said to choose another product because Fusion is not offered to that role. I'm not sure if I made the wrong selection, or if Autodesk is no longer interested in working with FIRST Robotics teams

[jfryeZKFLY]

I found the same issue, when I selected "Design Competition Mentor" in the educator license portal, I got the following response:
"At this time Autodesk does not offer access to the selected products to Design Competition Mentors. Go to products to make another choice."

I am a FIRST Robotics Competition mentor and would like to get a license to continue using Fusion360 on our team!

[bryson_james]

I also have the same issue, as a design competition mentor, I cannot get an educational license for Fusion 360. Is there anything that can be done to fix this?

[entropic_fluctuations]

I had subscription issues for the past 2 weeks. Every attempt to renew subscription through the site failed. I contacted support and they reset my account numerous times (didn't lose data). In the process, attempts to use the Mentor in the drop down field would provide a message saying Autodesk did not provide Fusion licenses for competition mentors. After 2 more account resets and failures (and being told to use the student access), something changed server side and clicking through the educational license as a student allowed for reverification of my account. I only have 1 seat available (which is fine for me) which might be why they had me use the student account. 

TLDR: contact support and expect it to take a number of back and forth emails to get this resolved.