Cloud prices and local solving

[hoegge]

After shape optimization has been removed from the free licenses, I became painfully aware of the high price tag for cloud credits. Cloud solving should be an option, if you want to  buy computer power, you cannot supply yourself. It was "nice" with free generative design before New Year, but I didn't spend time using it, knowing how costly it would be to use after that period - so why bother. A cloud credit costs 1,4 Euro ~ 2 USD, and a generative design solution cost 100 € - which in my world is a lot, especially if it did not solve your problem and you have to try several times. I guess this really point to where AD plans to earn the money on this product. Now a lot have invested time in using Fusion, and when effectively locked in, prices go up.

You should really allow everything to be solved locally on the powerful CPUs and GPUs people have nowadays. If people do professional work, and time is of essence, the cloud solution is great. I'd rather pay a reasonable yearly fee for my license and then have all functionality available, running on my own hardware than paying unreasonable prices for renders, shape optimizations and generative design. Especially since it takes a lot of trial and error to learn how to use those tools well - which would set you back thousands of dollars.

If you read AD's reason why you can't do things locally the explanation is:

Doh! This is not an explanation - at all. That is a "super arrogant non-answer markting bs answer". Pardon my French, but come on. I guess the real answer is: "This is the way we plan to earn money on Fusion, after getting people hooked with reasonable (or even free) license costs" 😉

I love Fusion - and using it at home for free, made me ensure my the company I was working in bought Fusion licenses for 3D design work. I.e. - a free license for me resulted in 2-3 paid licenses. That is a very good marketing strategy, where AD gets passionate enthusiasts promoting Fusion for "free" and also get thousands of hours of work testing and giving feedback for free. But cloud prices are a joke.

Best 

Hoegge