Fuso Frame drawing on Google Sketchup

[dan85]

internet marketing ambiguity?
One page for education
https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/students-teachers-educators
another for hobbyists
https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/fusion-360-for-hobbyists

but now I'm researching step 1 "check if you qualify" on a page that doesn't mention hobbyist.
Just suspicious having been caught by conditions that change - the investment of time required to learn and use complex software is sufficient to require some indication that the conditions on which I start will prevail for many years. Always suspicious of "bait and switch".

Ive been using it now for 18+ months and alot of people in the 3d printing world have been using it for years without issue. its a similar type of operating system to acad and bricscad. once you get the method and lingo for one of the more proffesional packages they are all reasonably similiar with slight differences in the UI.

 

[gait]

I remain unconvinced ..... "Fusion stores all files exclusively in the cloud"

 

[Aussie Iron]

I remain unconvinced ..... "Fusion stores all files exclusively in the cloud"

That's my thoughts as well. I'll store my own files please and process on my computer.

Dan.

 

[dan85]

fair enough and I share your distrust of the cloud but for most things it probably doesn't matter if they take your designs. it depends what your budget is and what you are trying to achieve. if you dont want to pay for solid works but want alot of the functionality including FEA and simulations then fusion is a great package at the right price. if you just want base drafting then most things work ok. if you want to be fast and have a bunch of features and the like then your going to have to pay or accept terms like fusion offers. sketch up works ok but its feature set is limited and is therefore slow and can mean a more complex workflow. I use a mix of packages depending what Im trying to achieve as nothing is perfect but I also have paid software which forms the bulk of the drafting work i do especially for things I want to be sure wont be shared.

 

[gait]

just by way of a more complete explanation .....

current cost of mobile internet to me at my level of use is A$3.75/Gb, with special offers $1.67 for next 8 months.

1966 when I first sat in front of a drawing board with first and third angle projections.

about 1982 when I wrote the capital request for the first version of Autocad, about A$15,000 plus hardware, to support a draftsman. The training courses I hid in the operating budget. It wasn't my money, but even back then I questioned the monopolistic business model with proprietary file formats. I lied in the justification, the draftsman took about two years to become comfortable. Productivity didn't improve. For me the challenge was in creating the mental picture of the requirement but the limits of human communication aren't typically discussed in this context.

Its been interesting watching the development. Reading engineering and electrical drawing all my working life and less so in retirement.

I realise Fusion will store files locally and synchronise to cloud later, I spend long periods away from internet. Its that the rules will (not may) change, that's bait and switch.

Structurally, a 3D drawing is just like any other collection of nodes and links, a network to me a graph to americans, with parameters for both, plus functions to manage the parameters, and an accessible interface to manage the parameters then a data exchange format for the next step in the chain.

I'm looking forward to low cost satellite internet, lots of low orbit satellites from perhaps the Airbus provided satellites, probably others. But not yet.

I'll continue to resist having accounts with all and sundry and being stalked across the internet - yes, I know its called tracking and its in my interests, but I don't need a relationship with my software providers, I need an arms length sales transaction not a set of marketing handcuffs and a one-sided agreement.

 

[dan85]

Im with you on the subscription model I hate it. if you are looking to buy something try bricscad. autocad style interface, .dwg format compatible, not a subscription and reasonably priced. place i used to work was mainly microstation based but was considering adding acad to the mix but didnt like the $7k a year subscription. we trialed bricscad and bought it and it worked well. We could even use all the acad plugins like autoturn/aeroturn etc on it. They also have a fairly solid online community and a reasonably large plugin library (some paid some free) I use bricscad for alot of my 3d printing and modelling work with good results and can be done pretty quickly. another decentish package which is not subscription based (or wasnt last time i looked) is turbo cad which was pretty cheap last time i looked at it.