Reading some of the threads on this subject on Hacker News
There are already several people who have scripted Bulk exporter scripts for f360 on github. I added the one by Jnesselr to my add-ins/scripts directory and let it run.
Since the script need to run f360 in the foreground don’t expect to use your machine while its backing up, I didn’t time it, but it backed up the 24 or so designs I had in about 10 mins.
Backup folders contain .igs, .stl, .stp, .f3d and sketches subfolder with .stl, .dxf.
Has anyone figured out (or read or heard officially) how toolpath generation is affected? Last time I generated a toolpath, I spotted a notice that suggested I wouldn’t be able to do this for free much longer. Does the $300/year include the toolpath generator?
At this point, I’m not -too- deep into the Fusion 360 learning curve, so maybe it’s time to explore competitors. I was impressed with OnShape, which has also trended towards pay-for-play (no surprise), but they nickel-and-dime you with add-ons, and I’m pretty sure in their world, toolpath-generation is an add-on.
Free and open-source CAD software, of course, exists, but it also comes at a “price.” We all have to ask ourselves: what is my “free time” worth, and am I willing to waste it because I don’t want to pay 1/3 of cup of coffee a day for a CAD tool? Yes, I don’t like to pay for something I’m not using, and that is something that always happens with side-projects, which is why I abandoned Adobe CS long ago.
Is sounds like tool path generation is mostly unaffected for our caliber of machine. They are removing support for rapid moves, which is annoying. As @krkeegan said, it might be worth just editing in the G0 moves in post.
Depending on how the 10 doc limit thing is implemented, these changes may not impact too many people using it for Maslow. I guess we’ll all see come October. I’m not ready to write off F360 just yet until I see what my new workflow looks like.
I made my first part in FreeCAD after getting a basic understanding of how Fusion 360 worked and the workflow used in GUI CAD tools. I was quite surprised at how similar the workflow was and spent most of my time figuring out where the particular feature I needed was. I have some things to figure out like how to get the Shell/Thickness operation to make a hollowed part instead of one with a bottom or top surface.
But so far I’m quite impressed and especially so with what’s been done with constraints. FreeCAD has come a long way in the last year or two and from what I’ve heard, there are a number of useful CAM output capabilities worth looking into.
Lars Christensen posted an interview with VP of AutoDesk Fusion360 team and clarifies some of the changes. Looks kinda like a damage control for AutoDesk. The good news is that they have reversed their decision on removing STEP export.
I am still hedging my bets and spending time learning FreeCad. I have experimented with exporting a step file out of F360 and imported it into the FreeCad Path workbench and produced gcode file with the grbl post processor. The nice thing about working of a STEP file is that all your 3D geometry is there, including depth of your work piece.
I can’t yet produce designs in FreeCad as fast as I can in Fusion360, so for now I will continue to sketch in F360. But it’s nice to know there is a truly free and open source solution available if AutoDesk decides to change course again with the personal licence.
What are your thoughts on the changes now that it’s done and you’ve had time to let this sink in and see the impact to your workflow?
The only thing that’s affected me is the removal of G0 moves. I ran a simple job the other day with 6 profile cuts. It took me all of a 5 minutes to search out the G1 travel moves and change them to G0s. If it were a bigger job, I would have used md8n’s tool. Even then, that probably took more time than what I would have lost if I left in the G1 moves.
I have switched to FreeCAD. Autodesk has shown the color of its spots and while they put STEP export back they have shown how the view the DIY maker community and the techniques they’ll use to get their “customers” to pay annual rental fees.
But it was not just that which sent me packing. It was also the fact that they are using file format incompatibilities to force dependency on the versions they want you on. For example, I INSTALLED F360 version 2.6.19 when it was new and for 3 months used it to take classes on F360 but ran into a problem doing something and asked the instructor for guidance. He found a work-around and posted his file but I could not open it. He was using the latest version 2.6.21. Even if it were v2.7.x I might not have an issue but literally just a few months old and major.minor version is incompatible.
So I just don’t trust them to be enablers of the DIY makers, I believe they will change things again to limit what DIY makers can do with their software, I don’t like renting tools for access my property(CAD designs) I’ve created and don’t like requiring others to do the same when my designs are posted to the open source community and their software development practices are very poor. And if I’m going to have to change my own workflow around failures in their software(IIRC it had to do with intersecting holes in a rotated pattern) I have no problem if the same pops up in FreeCAD. And the FreeCAD forum has been amazingly responsive. Would also feel far better sending $100, $200 or even $300 to FreeCAD developers than Autodesk.
