Fusion360

[marcos-diaz]

Intro

Fusion360 is (or was) Autodesk's hobbyist CAD solution. But it grew so popular that it became Autodesk flagship.

As for today Fusion360 is a full featured CAD application with all the tools required for professional CAD work.

Requirement notes

• Multiplatform: 🔴
  • Only for Windows and MacOS.
• Free / Open source: 🔴
  • Free version for hobbyists maybe? they changed the pricing model many times already.
  • Not open source.
  • Cloud-based.
• Active project: ✅
  • It is possibly one of the most profitable Autodesk software, so it is going to be around for years.
• Low entry barrier: ✅
  • It has a lot of users and therefore a lot of tutorials online, some of the tutorials may not be free. -UI and UX is good and intuitive.
• Non-linear: ✅
  • Fusion360 allows to use a mix of different paradigms, but the main one is non-destructive parametric modelling.
• Fast prototyping: ⚠️
  • While the interface is good, the limitations of strict parametric modelling are possibly still holding it back as a good tool for fast prototyping.
• Collaboration: ✅
  • Cloud-based collaboration and iteration management.
• Assembly: ✅
  • Full featured regarding mechanical integration, material simulations, etc.
• Common tools: ✅