Hobbyists will no longer have access to converting Solidworks files into fusion.

[Anonymous]

Once our current term ends, we (hobbyists) will no longer be able to upload a SLDPRT file to be converted to the fusion file. This is very upsetting considering that I and many others at home use this feature to edit or customize designs that have already been made. I know I certainly cannot afford $500+ a month to have one feature that I really do use of all the features they are getting rid of for the hobbyist version, nor can I up and start a business to obtain the "startup" license. I understand that Autodesk needs to make money, and maybe these features are abused by those who dont acquire the correct licensing, however it'd be at least nice to have a one time fee to get this specific feature, or perhaps a reasonable subscription price for hobbyists. Personally not a fan of subscription based services, but I understand it from a business side of view. Autodesk, please implement some way us hobbyists can convert files.

[jeff_strater]

just a point of clarification, @Anonymous - the cost for a commercial license is $500 (actually $495) per year, not per month.  

[Anonymous]

thats what I meant, thanks for the correction

[TheCADWhisperer]

You can’t afford $1.36 a day?

[Swarfmaker]

There are very many retired people who still like to be mentally active who cannot afford the 'personal' license since their pensions got so badly hit in previous financial crises. $1.36 may not seem like much for a daily fee, but how about all the days when other things are occupying you and that fee is still being paid. Makes the times that you are using the software seem a bit more expensive. Psychological I know - but it still is a fee too far!

[Anonymous]

lmao um no I cant. $1.36 adds up. Also you dont pay by day, you pay by month, year, or 3 years. Sorry not everyone who does cad at the hobby level can afford what you can. But good on you for being able to. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

I learned how to draw on the drawing board using pencil and paper back in the last century.

Back then economics was still taught in schools.

There are costs associated with everything.

We were taught to make a cost/benefit analysis.

We were taught about profit and loss.

We were taught how to calculate break even point for a product.

Brave new world this 21st century, were the expectation is everything is free of costs.

My 2 cents.

[Anonymous]

I dont expect anything to be free. Autodesk has offered their program free to those in school and hobbyists. They now are pulling some features from hobbyists. If Autodesk didnt want to offer their program for free for those who are not profiting, then I'd move on. I am not stuck up or feel owed. I am taking advantage of something offered to me. I happen to like the specific feature they are pulling and am hoping for a way I can still affordably use this feature. never said free, I said I'd pay for this feature if reasonable. And no I'm not one to want everything for free. I think taxation is theft, people should pay for their own schooling, living, and transportation. I however AM NOT against someone offering their services free of charge. something that costs nobody a dime. No one asked you to pay for my fusion license. and no one asked for your two cents. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

...I however AM NOT against someone offering their services free of charge. something that costs nobody a dime. 

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Who is paying for the development costs of Fusion 360.

Even the mechanism for hosting the download installation and cloud computing must cost something?

I suspect that it is not free.  That cost must be paid.  By someone.

[HughesTooling]

I guess they could use cloud credits for translations. Need to cost enough to stop someone abusing the system and use it for commercial work though.

I am a commercial user and at time cloud translations can take 5 to 10 minutes, perhaps now it's only available to commercial users that will improve.

Mark

[Anonymous]

yes, development does cost money, they have to pay their employees, but I never asked them to give their software license for free to students and hobbyists. They are doing that on their own terms. Their product their money. As far as cloud services go, yeah, I'm not a fan of cloud services. not a fan that I have to be online to use the tool, not a fan that they use the cloud to convert files. I'd prefer my pc to do all the hard work. when I render I use my pc, not cloud. perhaps they could make money by making people pay for the cloud service while still licensing to students and hobbyists. tons of students and hobbyists want/need those cloud services. some of us dont. I never fully understood why everything needs to be cloud.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, its applicable to commercial and start up. And you are right, I've had one take up to 15 minutes. Would be cool to see them have the option to be client side in the future. Like how they do for rendering

[motorhobo]

I think anyone who thinks Fusion will stay free for anyone forever is fooling themselves. As soon as Fusion becomes ready for the big leagues, i.e. equal in stability, functionality and usability to the commercially dominant CAD players like Solidworks, it will be SAS for a fee only, and the only free version will be the browser-based consumer variant. Truth is, we are all doing free wide-scale beta testing for this product. Once it's ready for prime-time, the beta phase is complete and we will start getting a bill. I think all 'free' Fusion users should be prepared that the better the product gets, the less free it will be, and 'free' subscription plans will be trimmed accordingly. At some point, we will all have to make a choice how much to pay and for what. My $.02...

[Anonymous]

While I fully support a company doing what they want with their product, I think they know as well as the next that when all of the half decent products cost money and no one is offering a free version for those who cannot pay for the license, people will just crack and pirate the best version that cost the most. and the only way to stop people from pirating would to either a) offer an affordable version b) make absolutely everything down to the 2D sketching through cloud, or in other words web based. Not saying that theft is okay by any means, but people do it. If Autodesk chooses to charge for the hobbyist version, more power to them, more money in their pocket. To me this product is good enough that I'd pay to use it, just not $500/year good

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

.....people will just crack and pirate 

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I don't know, perhaps that is part of the cloud strategy?

I suspect predict that within the next 5 yrs software companies will crack this pirating issue.

[motorhobo]

I think if nobody could crack and pirate software, that would severely limit the number of people who could learn to master incredibly complex software like this. Firms like Autodesk, Maxon, Solidworks have a vested interest in non-commercial entities being able to  access their software. It's really the only way to build a user base with marketable skills because even a 60 day trial isn't enough time to even get your fingers dirty. They just want to insure that once the income starts flowing, they get their fair share from the businesses that use the software to make money.

WRT Fusion, while I appreciate the development team's hard work and effort, the object management functionality and keyboard support is so miserable that if they were to charge me for it, I wouldn't be using it.  IMO it's still a long way from being worth more than $300 a year. If I ever start generating $100k annually, Fusion in its current development state wouldn't be my first or even second choice. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@motorhobo wrote:

I think if nobody could crack and pirate software...

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So illegal/unethical means should be encouraged rather than legal and ethical means to promote the product?

This thread is not about hobbyists or startups not having free access for more than 30 days.

This thread is about conversion of files from another professional MCAD software.

Beginners still have free learning access to native Fusion 360.

[motorhobo]

I agree this thread has moved completely off topic, and I in no way condone any illegal means of accessing software. I'd appreciate it you'd desist from projecting that onto the words in my post. What I did was respond to your prediction that 'within the next 5 yrs software companies will crack this pirating issue', which was where the off-topic meandering started. I was suggesting that maybe software companies don't have as much incentive to completely eradicate illegal use of their software as some people might assume. But like I said, this thread has moved off topic and is now just an opinion piece. Moving on...

[Anonymous]

@TheCADWhisperer 5 years is not a long time at all and unfortunately it wont be a solved issue within that time frame. Every program is written with strings of code, telling it what they want it to do. I mean just a quick look on one of the most popular pirating websites, you can pirate the top version of solid works, latest build, and with a crack to where the files are modified to trick it into not going online to use it, therefore not verifying its license. this stuff has been going on for over a dozen years. And a quick look into fusions history, before they were free to students and hobbyists, they were the most pirated CAD software out there. Now fusion is one of the top CAD softwares in the popularity contest and one of the least pirated. 

@motorhobo  I agree with you completely. and to hit on the point of being off topic, it actually kind of started when @TheCADWhisperer was suggesting that I'm just another free loading entitled kid, and that I shouldn't speak up when I have an opinion on something. That us as consumers should stand by silently and watch rather than to at least find a solution so that everyone is satisfied. 

to be back on track, I use the conversion feature a lot. I download files to modify them as a solid so that I dont have to modify them as an STL in 123D Design, a horrible, abandoned method and software. Unfortunately the types of objects I modify, for some reason, were made by people who used solid works, an incredibly expensive program that is also just a bad program to use even if I could afford it. I am not the only person that converts files into fusion, and it is a very useful, common tool. Quite frankly I dont understand why this feature is being taken away. even if it is cloud based, the code is still there, it wouldn't be hard to just integrate it to be client side ran. it just seems odd to me that of all the features, this one is the one thats being stripped from us. Yet it will be free to use for start-up use? And all of fusion is completely free for startup until that startup has made over $50k/year using the software. 

[motorhobo]

OK back on topic... I have downloaded STLs, imported them into Fusion as BRep meshes and then used the projection feature in Fusion to basically copy the STL, creating a native Fusion design. Are the Solidworks models you work with too complex to do that? It is time-consuming but you get more flexibility to modify the model as you wish. I have never converted or imported a Solidworks file, but I find it hard to believe that it would convert and import as a clean, fully-editable f3d.