Fusion 360- 10 best alternatives

[Gene Uselman]

This is another All3DP.com article which may be useful to some.
When I decided that I needed to be able to 3D model in order to make useful items on my Prusa 3D printer, I looked around and was even more confused than normal and finally took the leap into Fusion 360. I have found this a fascinating program, your results may vary. This article compares several programs to Fusion, which I kinda wondered about... did I make the right turn or not?

https://all3dp.com/2/10-best-fusion-360 ... -401580393

[Mike Henry]

I've used Alibre Design for years, tried F360 and now use Onshape for most of my public domain projects. The All3DP review is in error and the free version can be used by anyone that doesn't their designs being publicly viewable. You don't get the Enterprise functions that paid users get but most free users wouldn't need those functions anyway.

CAD is like many other types of programs, different folks prefer different work flows and, hence, different programs. If you find one that you are comfortable with, be happy and use it. F360 just rubbed me the wrong way, though I still have a paid license, just in case.

[Tim Mellor]

Reasons NOT to use Onshape. On the 'Free' version you give away any and all rights by forced open sourcing of those designs. The second is a trap and yes you could ignore it but if you want to make even $1 from one of your designs you are in breach of the TOS. There is a couple of youtubers who were effectively going to be forced to buy a licence to continue to use it even though their designs were always open source due to the you tube $ from those videos showing the designs.

They went to Fusion as the 'free' tier allows use for $ and no forced open sourcing.

For any new Public Document owned by a Free user created on or after August 7, 2018, or any Public Document created prior to that date without a LICENSE tab, Customer grants a worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to any End User or third party accessing the Public Document to use the intellectual property contained in Customer’s Public Document without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Document, and to permit persons to whom the Document is made available to do the same.

Trial or Free Versions: Trial and free versions of the Service are made available by Onshape. Trial versions of the Service are intended for evaluation purposes, and may be used for commercial or non-commercial purposes during the evaluation period. Free versions of the Service are intended to support (a) creating and editing intellectual property for non-commercial purposes, and (b) viewing, commenting and import/export for commercial or non-commercial purposes (to the extent the plan offers those features). If you intend to use the Service outside a trial context to create and/or edit intellectual property for commercial purposes (including but not limited to developing designs that are intended to be commercialized and/or used in support of a commercial business), then you agree to upgrade to a paid subscription to the Service. Trial and free versions of the Service are otherwise subject to the terms of this Agreement.

[Gene Uselman]

I totally agreed with
'CAD is like many other types of programs, different folks prefer different work flows and, hence, different programs. If you find one that you are comfortable with, be happy and use it.'

What you use if for will also be a large part of how it works for you.

[Mike Henry]

I've had no problems with public files on my free Onshape license, but can see where some folks would.

[Tim Mellor]

For me too I don't have an issue with a lot of what I do being shared and like a few designs I have dropped here and a bunch on eevblog where I hang out a lot (generally STL's for 3D printing but also complete Fusion Cad files).

The issue becomes some of what I do is for $ that then get made by me or others for sale and some of the designs are one offs for clients who may or may not be fine with those jobs being in the wild. So on both counts Onshape 'free' is a no.

It is also the semi hidden nature that Onshape has used in the past to mask the changed limits of their TOS and that anyone reading this or other topics with reference to Onshape need to be aware of. The last thing anyone should want is if they create a million $ idea and have it swiped or have onshape come after you for some of the $ should it get to being manufactured.

As to the software it seems to work well and that is not any sort of reason not to use it for home or private use.