Anybody using Fusion?

[byte]

Boy Genius is gone.. this is a different guy ... Excel Wizard ... he does not know the first thing about Cad-Cam software

Excel wizard!!  

[Dan_AKA_ROY23]

Our Plant Manager has been spending too much time on YouTube
This morning he announced we are switching to Fusion.
My reaction " Kill me now"  

Can't he do the more sensible thing and buy ONE seat? Try it out awhile?

I had Fusion for one year. Honestly, never used it much to give any opinion on it.

Mastercam and SolidWorks gets the job done for me.

[gcode]

I think posts will put an end to the idea
we've got 20+ mill posts included six 5axis posts
and 15+ lathe posts, including C axis VTLs and 5axis VTL
I don't think Fusion can support all these machines
and it would cost a fortune and take years to get them all dialed in if it could

[TSmcam]

[quote="Thee Byte™" post_id=10722 time=1620231123 user_id=50]

Boy Genius is gone.. this is a different guy ... Excel Wizard ... he does not know the first thing about Cad-Cam software

One of the major drawbacks of fusion is the cad-centric nature of the software, constraints can be a major annoyance and the need to create a sketch then create geometry can make it a bit tedious.

I used it for a month then returned it and bought mastercam, I hated it.
[/quote]

The drawback of constraints may be present in Fusion, but TopSolid is CAD-centric, and it just works. Constraints *can* be an annoyance, but the annoyances are easily remedied.

I used to be a huge believer in seperate CAD and CAM applications. Never the twain shall meet in my view. However, I have come to realise that having the power of CAD within the CAM environment provides way more capability, especially with the same assembly structures are used for CAM, Tools, Machines, Fixtures etc. And that in turn has increased programming productivity.

[byte]

The Api for ad creates constraint free geometry, which further clouds the workflow, since if you use add-ins, you won't know what is constrained and what isn't.

[TSmcam]

[quote="Thee Byte™" post_id=10752 time=1620254755 user_id=50]
The Api for ad creates constraint free geometry, which further clouds the workflow, since if you use add-ins, you won't know what is constrained and what isn't.
[/quote]

Well, that is AD I'm starting to see a bunch of disillusion with Fusion from a growing number of users. Cheap or Sheep isn't always best

[gcode]

It's been a couple of years since I looked, but back then a full industrial seat was not cheap
The annual rent was the same or more than maintenance on a seat of Mastercam
I believe you can get Mastercam on a subscription basis now too.

[gcode]

Here it is

https://www.mastercam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Licensing-Options.pdf">https://www.mastercam.com/wp-content/up ... ptions.pdf">https://www.mastercam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Licensing-Options.pdf

This could make sense if you had to bring a couple of guys in for a big project but
didn't want to buy 2 full seats.

[HTM01]

Our Plant Manager has been spending too much time on YouTube
This morning he announced we are switching to Fusion.
My reaction " Kill me now"  

our old owner did that with Camworks he saw at a show
brought it back and handed me the dongle and said this will do everything for you
ah hello we don't get 3d models from our customers

[JParis]

Our Plant Manager has been spending too much time on YouTube
This morning he announced we are switching to Fusion.
My reaction " Kill me now"  

Tom, I see why September is looking like a long stretch for you...

If you can pull the "retirement" trigger, it would seem that you finish out the summer and ride off into the sunset...

That is just so short sighted and stoopid, near beyond belief but as they say, "a fool and his will soon part"

[gcode]

Our Plant Manager has been spending too much time on YouTube
This morning he announced we are switching to Fusion.
My reaction " Kill me now"  

Tom, I see why September is looking like a long stretch for you...

If you can pull the "retirement" trigger, it would seem that you finish out the summer and ride off into the sunset...

That is just so short sighted and stoopid, near beyond belief but as they say, "a fool and his will soon part"

I suspect the boss got all wound up over an old Titan video.
I'm pretty sure I'll be able to talk him down.. if not  "shrug"
It's not my $$$ and I'm rapidly running out of GAS (give a shit)

[JParis]

As they say

"We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."

[CNCAppsJames]

[quote="Thee Byte™" post_id=10723 time=1620231205 user_id=50]
And their api works only in metric, which is not my unit of choice most of the time.
[/quote]
It's worse that that... last I checked, it's "native" units were CM not MM.  

I saw that and asked a guy I know that works with Dev... "WTF Carl?"    

Crickets.

[gcode]

I reject all AD products on principle. AD is a predatory beast slowly consuming the Cad/Cam world.
I followed HSM for SolidWorks with great interest. I nearly bought a seat  and always hoped Mastercam would buy them up.
Instead AD snapped them up, piously stating the existing HSM for SW users would be taken care of.
Go on the AD website today and see how those people are taken care of.
They are pretty much screwed and if AD will screw those guys they'll screw anybody else
to put a couple of bucks in their pocket

[CNCAppsJames]

The reality is Fusion360 is just like every other CAD/CAM software package. It's got plusses and it's got minuses. The plus side IMHO is you've got a pretty robust Assembly Modeler at your fingertips if you like the "keep CAD and CAM together" workflow. Another plus is that there are a LOT of folks banging on it right now so development will accelerate faster than we've seen a CAD/CAM product developed before. Despite AD's massive pockets, ad budgets, Social Media presense, etc... it will STILL have to stand (or fall) on it's own merits in the market place. That's ALWAYS a good thing.

Minuses, it's cloud based. It is subscription only. Your data is not your data. It's stored in the could and secure as it may be, cloud based data is ALWAYS vulerable to attack, corruption, your subscription payment, etc... Granted, you can still store your CAD in a neutral format on your local machine/network, etc... but if you're progamming, CAD is only part of the equation.

For the shop on a pretty tight budget, for the shop not worried about ITAR, DOD, etc..., for the shop looking for a pretty full featured integrated CAD/CAM package, it's a viable product. In my world however... it's just not gonna fly in 90+% of the situations I live in.

I am however teaching my son Brian (Service Tech at Selway) how to use Fusion360 AND Mastercam. May as well hedge bets eh?