UPDATE Sept. 25, 2020: STEP Export stays in Fusion 360 for personal use
STEP export will remain available for Fusion 360 for personal use. This removal of STEP export was previously announced as part of the changes to curb misuse of Fusion 360 for personal use by commercial users. This change had unintended consequences for the hobbyist community. For this reason, we have made the decision to continue to allow STEP export for personal, non-commercial users. It remains in product unchanged and will not be removed as other announced changes roll out this October and January.
We want you to know, while the changes to the personal use entitlement were necessary, we remain committed to our community. You will continue to see development and investment in Fusion 360 for personal use.
UPDATE: There have been lots of discussions on social media and on our forums. We understand the emotions you’re all going through, so in the spirit of clarity, I want to break it down for you with the most accurate information about what is changing, directly from our team.
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Here are 8 quick answers to the most common questions we’ve seen in the community.
1 – Is Fusion 360 for Personal Use still free?
Yes. Fusion 360 for Personal Use remains free. It’s not going away.
2 – What does the 10 active documents change really mean?
You still keep your data and can have unlimited number of documents (3D design, drawing, PCB) as well as projects (top level folders in your data panel) in your account.
- Today all your designs and documents are active by default. You can open any design no matter how old or new and they will open.
- What this change means:
- 10 active documents means that you have 10 spots for any document to open and be editable at any given time. All your other documents will be stored in your projects in a new inactive state. They will remain yours, saved in your projects.
- When you reach your 10 document capacity, and you want to revisit an older design and open it up, you can do so by deactivating an active document and activating the inactive one to swap places with. Again, you continue to keep all your designs and projects with no limits on how many you can have in inactive state.
- PDFs, images, presentations, spreadsheets, etc do not count towards the 10 active document allowance.
- If you have an assembly with referenced designs in it, the assembly and each reference (if opened) will count as 1 document each. Assemblies can reference active and inactive documents. You will still be able to edit the referenced designs as long as they are also active. If your referenced designs in the assembly are inactive, you can still open your assemblies, but the references will be read only.
- Electronics Design Library, schematic, 2D PCB count as 1 document.
- How would this work?
- The interactions of how you do this is still being worked on, and any existing experience around archiving projects from Fusion Team is not indicative of what this new interaction may be, that’s why it’s slated for January 2021. We hope that you understand that we are trying to put limits in place to stop commercial mis-use, while still enabling the vast majority of hobbyists to continue to design and make with little to no impact.
3 – Can I still machine parts?
Yes. 2, 2.5 and 3 axis milling will still be available in the new Personal Use offering.
- More advanced manufacturing functionality such as 3+2 axis, 4 axis, and 5 axis milling will only be available in the paid subscription.
- Toolpath simulation in the Manufacture workspace is not going anywhere and will still be available.
- Automatic tool change capability will not be available, and rapid feedrate are limited to cutting feedrate.
4 – Can I still 3D Print?
Yes, STL Export will still be available in Fusion 360 for Personal Use.
- You can still use Fusion 360 for 3D printing with File > 3D print > send to print utility of your choice, File Export > STL or Save As STL
5 – Can I still laser-cut or do 2D routing?
Save As DXF is still available from sketch.
- DXF will not be a supported file format from File > Export, but you will still be able to right click on a sketch in the browser and select Save As DXF for your laser cutting and routing needs.
6 – Can I still export my designs as STEP?
Yes, STEP export will still be available from the in-product File > Export dialog as well as Fusion Team.
Export of STEP will be not be available from the in-product File > Export dialog on Oct. 1, 2020. After Oct. 1, You can still export your designs as STEP file formats via Fusion Team in your browser. This workflow will remain until Jan 19, 2021.
To get to your Fusion Team page, open the data panel, go into one of your projects, and click on the “Open on the Web” icon.
7 – Does Extension Access mean Scripts and Add-ins?
No, you still have access to scripts and add-ins downloaded from the Autodesk App Store, there is no change here.
- You will still be able to leverage our API as well as the add-ins available on our App Store.
- Extensions in this context refer to the Manufacturing Extensions available to purchase. These are the capabilities like Probing, 4 axis Rotary, 5 axis Steep & Shallow Strategies that extend your manufacturing capabilities with more convenience, faster machine times, and higher quality finishing.
8 – Are there changes to Education, Startup, Trial & Paid Subscriptions?
There are no changes to these offerings.
- Just to clarify, this change does not impact the trial, Education offering, Startup offering, or the Paid subscription. Product updates will continue to be delivered to all of our offerings, additional advanced functionality may be excluded from the Personal offering moving forwards.
- We will continue to support the Personal Use offering with product updates, improvements, fixes, as well as new features moving forward.
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Hey everyone,
As announced on the blog, soon we'll be making some changes to the Fusion 360 for Personal Use offering. We’re making these changes so that we can continue to offer Fusion 360 for Personal Use free of charge, clearly differentiating between what’s available in each offering, which we hope will reduce confusion, misuse, and abuse, whether it was intentional or unintentional.
Don’t worry - Fusion 360 for Personal Use is not going away, it will still be free for anyone working on non-commercial hobby projects so you can bring your ideas from concept to creation.
If this is your first time hearing about this announcement, we encourage you to check out our blog post for the full announcement as well as our FAQ, where we answer more specific questions in detail.
