Printing Madness -

[beananimal]

Home/hobby license restrictions are insanely maddening.

All I want to do is print to a PDF printer or scale to a local laser. I need to print to pdf once in a blue moon.... shall I pay $600 a year to be able to export 3-4 8.5"x11" drawings a year?

Why cripple the home/hobby version like this with no PDF export AND cripple us with a useless print feature that can't open native print dialogs?

I mean one sheet is bad enough, but no PDF and no way to scale to local printer is just stupid, but par for the course for the decisions made by this team.

Anybody have a workaround?

[jhackney1972]

You did not say what your operating system is on the computer you are using to run Fusion 360 - Personal License.  If it is Windows 10, you can simply use the "Microsoft Print to PDF" built in printer.  Then you can use the free Adobe Acrobat Read DC to open and print it.  If you do not have this printer installed, there are numerous websites that tell you how to get it.  I do not use MAC but a quick search on the internet shows a few articles on this topic also.

[beananimal]

I am using a Mac (Catalina, 10.15.3)

OSX has a built in PDF printer that can be accessed from the native "pint" dialog in OSX for any application that supports the native printer dialog. F360 does not show the native print dialog.

Other PDF printers that install a driver can be selected, but since the license change, generate an error. All of these 
"PDF printers" also require their own dialog to pop open to select options/safe location. F360 for Mac does not appear to support this. The same appears to hold true for the native printer dialogs for scaling, pagination, plotter settings, etc.   F360 printing on Mac is "one click" with no options. Set the printer and click "print".  
 

[beananimal]

Going to bump this - 

The issue is much bigger than I thought. Printing on a Mac with the hobby license is almost unusable. No native or 3rd party print dialog is available, so there is absolutely no control over print quality, scale, pagination, or any other aspect of the print job. Just "print" and hope that the default driver settins are acceptable. 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Print > save as PDF

günther

[beananimal]

No Gunther... that is not an option on Mac OS 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

How should I understand this ?

günther

[beananimal]

The option is ONLY available in applications that use the Native Mac OS print dialog.

Fusion 360 DOES NOT use the native Mac OS print dialog.

[beananimal]

As usual, crickets from autodsek themselves... I am sure that the talent has better things to do like build facebook integration.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I'm in the same boat under Big Sur.

I know this has been provided free for hobbyists and home users for a long while, and I respect that Autodesk needs to earn money somehow. But considering the few hours a month I'm using this software, and the low amount of projects, files etc. in use, I really don't see the necessity of crippling the software to this degree, especially when it does not even offer printing/saving to PDF on macOS. 

macOS' native print dialog can save PDF, but you cannot use 3rd party "fake" printers on recent macOS versions, the drivers are prohibited by Apple. 

I use Fusion 360 solely for private/hobby use and I've loved the software, I've even suggested a couple of small companies to look in to your software and probably given you multiple paying customers this way. 

Every time I now open Fusion 360, another feature is gone, crippled or made my way of using F360 harder than before.

I'm sorry, but your attempt to force me into pay large annual fees to keep using the software has the opposite effect on me - I'll start searching for alternatives where my files aren't suddenly locked in your cloud, unable for me to export without paying for it. 

[emilianogh]

I'm facing the same issue on MacOS Monterrey, however, I found a workaround:

1. send to print to any printer, better if not available
2. open the printing feed, you will see the document (you can even quicklook at the file, it's a PDF)
3. now you just have to recover the PDF from the printer temp folder
4. open finder / Go to Folder "/private/var/spool"
5. there you have to select your printer, and username (you will see a log file)
6. press "CMD+SHIFT+." to see all hidden files
7. select the last folder, inside there you can find the PDF 🙌

[myaccount]

For me it was in a different location: /private/var/folders

I found the file by searching in the /var folder for the name displayed in the printer feed (Untitled.pdf) 

The rest of your instructions are spot-on!!!

[Anonymous]

Seriously. I know you feel ostracized. I do to every time I have to use a MacOS. I even have it spell checkered on the World Web. Macros.

[Anonymous]

In 2012 I found out I can recover prediction data from undefined memory modules. I don't have what it takes to open a sheet power point when someone is logged in.

[msm.neven]

Fantastic solution here. 100% correct for a workaround.
Confirmed on:
OSX 10.6.6
Fusion 360 2.0.12888 - Personal License

[salcom]

I too only want to print a template to test before 3D printing and finding out I have wasted my time. Its not worth the license fee to do this. Maybe Autodesk you can give us a "Private Use" license and then we pay a small amount to add each component we want to use in addition.

There is an app on the MAC App store called "PDF Printer Lite" (free). Install the app and then you will find a "PDF printer" is available when you go into preferences , printers and scanners and click on the "+" and add the PDF printer. 

You will then see a PDF printer as an option in F360 that you can print to. I haven't had any problems with it. I use Monterey OS.

[beananimal]

I am a paid customer at this point - but the fact that this application does not support the native print to PDF driver is still somewhat frustrating. Least of my worries though. Just getting the application to work as expected on a MacBook is a 5+ year wait.