Autodesk Fusion vs. SolidCAM

Most of my work with Fusion 360 has focused on its 3D modeling capabilities, and its liberal licensing policies for hobbyists has made it popular in that space. It focuses on a "mechanical engineering" approach to modeling rather than artistic, organic sculpting. While it's less rigid than its big brother AutoCAD, making the most of it will require thinking about the structure of your model rather than simply its appearance. That emphasis means it's fantastic for producing mechanical parts, and it can simulate how multiple separate parts will interlock and work with each other in 3D printed devices. This makes using it to design hinges and other moving mechanisms orders of magnitudes simpler; it also preserves an ongoing, editable history of the part being modeled. Realizing you need to tweak the tolerances on a part halfway through the design is fairly easy; you can go back any number of steps in the model's creation and modify the parameters used on a specific part, changing a hole's width or a groove's depth without altering any other parts of the model. The downside of this CAD-like power is that it's much less capable of "sculpting" organic models. Tools like ZBrush, Rhino, and even Blender are a better choice there.

Incentivized

• Fusion 360 is incredible at enabling me to quickly and efficiently capture the ideas that I have in my head and output them as 3D models without having to do any intense drawings. I use this all the time to model small, less important parts of our products during the prototyping phase.
• The software is really good at helping even the least experienced designers get acclimated to the software extremely quickly. Having a quick-access help manual and easy to navigate functions made the software feel almost second-nature the first time I used it.
• Fusion 360 has the functionality to save all of your files online, so you can draw something out on one computer and move to another one that has the software and pick up right where you left off. I use this function all the time when I am when I work at a computer that is not mine.

Incentivized

• Even though it has a very good cloud software, Fusion 360 gets very laggy when using slow internet connections.
• Fusion 360 uses a vast amount of your device's memory. It is recommended to select the RAM value as high as possible on your device.
• Fusion 360's sculpting and retopology features are behind the competing software on the market.

Incentivized

It does everything I need for great value.

Incentivized

Because the tool is very useful and easy to access, it provides very basic and useful tools to start in the modeling part despite being basic processing aspects. It is also very easy to get a free, temporary, or student license, which makes it a very good CAD tool.

Sometimes I like using it on Saturday nights. Unfortunately, they usually do their updates at this time and it isn't available to use.

Incentivized

It can freeze sometimes while doing heavy tasks.

Incentivized

Support is conducted via internet Q&A boards; newcomers to 3D modeling may find that articulating their questions in the language of CAD software is the tricky part — once they find the right technical term for what they're trying to accomplish, answers come quickly. Autodesk also provides a large library of educational tutorial videos that make the initial process of learning Fusion 360's interface much easier.

Incentivized

No. It is basic and straightforward.

Incentivized

No we can’t compare these softwares from each other’s but yes this Autodesk Fusion [360] is a great tool for printing 3d models which gives you full control over elements

Incentivized

It offers so much already, and the reason being is that it showed promise early on.

Incentivized

• Fusion 360 has had a positive impact on our ROI. Specifically, being able to cut down on iterations by presenting 3-Dimensional designs to stakeholders earlier on in the process.
• Fusion 360 also has had a positive impact on our ROI in terms of manufacturing. Although not all manufacturers have in-house personnel trained in Fusion360 specifically, we have found that it is so easy to pick up if one is experienced in another CAD program. Its ease of use and ability to share files with others has saved a ton of time and money.

Incentivized