I Am Starting To Learn Fusion 360 Now

[Joe Jones]

I downloaded Fusion 360 and began the learning process via their 30 day trial. I am at a crossroads where I have to choose SolidWorks or Fusion 360. I bought SolidWorks in 2013, but I never took the time to LEARN the program. I can revamp SW 2013, but somewhere in the past ... 9 YEARS that I have not used the software, it has been deleted from my hard drive, probably because the update removed "unused programs."

Fusion 360 is more affordable than SolidWorks, but I am still divided on which platform to dive into. It all boils down to money at the end.

Joe

[martyy]

I tried and did not do so well as far as the CAM portion. Kind of lost motivation after numerous features were removed from the free version. Best of luck to you.

[adbuch]

I tried and did not do so well as far as the CAM portion. Kind of lost motivation after numerous features were removed from the free version. Best of luck to you.

Marty - Fusion 360 is offered free for hobbyists and also free for educational use. I personally use the Educational license version and it does everything needed for cnc plasma cutting, 3D printing, and so on. They have made improvements to the CAM portion over the last several years - making it easier to use. There are also some great tutorial videos from the likes of Langmuir Systems and Arnold Rowntree. I have studied the videos from both and they are very well scripted. I also have a SolidWorks license and have been using that since 2016, but have pretty much made the transition from SolidWorks to Fusion 360 as the Fusion 360 user interface is much more straightforward. Plus Fusion 360 includes the cam and post processing, which would be additional add-ons for SolidWorks.
David