Hacker News Reader

Comment by tinus_hn | Hacker News Reader

Wonder how many companies will be forced to drop the app because they don’t allow their designs to be uploaded to the cloud.

View on HN

Was that something you could ever do with Fusion 360? Fusion 360 was my introduction to CAD and it has been very cloud-heavy since I started using it. I think they must have some other product for actual companies, competing with Solidworks.

Inventor is their direct competitor to Solidworks, which afaik can still be run offline.

You can export local f3d files (also STEP, STL, etc, but f3d contains the necessary bits for timeline, etc).

I assume AutoCAD is the closest equivalent to SolidWorks that they sell, but I'm not certain. That's the first CAD software I used- back in middle school, so mid-to-late 1980s. They added 3D support and I think it uses the same underlying code to handle 3D structures. Again, not certain- it's not a product I pay any attention to.

FWIW, I spend a bunch of time in Fusion 360 and I hadn't really done anything with simulation (it's on the bucket list, but not a priority).

I feel the same way about simulations. People are mad that Fusion 360 started turning the screws on hobbyists. It is ridiculously expensive for noodling around with your 3D printer once a month. I paid rather than learning some other piece of software, and whether or not simulation is free is not something that particularly bothers me. I'm always considering jumping to something else in the back of my mind; OpenSCAD is most appealing to me, but I like the 2D sketch + extrude model.

(All the cool kids are using Onshape now, but I just can't get excited about a browser app. So I keep using Fusion 360, and honestly, I still like it, even if Autodesk is not a shining paragon of software and social excellence.)

For sketch + extrude FreeCAD really isn’t bad once you get over the slightly quirky UI.

As a hobbyist, you still don't have to pay for fusion 360. There are a few annoyances like only having 10 active files at a time, but otherwise, most features are still there for free users.

It's not quite the same niche and it costs $1K, but Rhino might do what you want, you will own it, it has a great user community and is very responsive to its users. For making things to 3D print it should be great.

Inventor is their closest solidworks equivalent. My understanding is that you can do 3D in AutoCAD but probably don't want to. The only thing I've personally seen it used for is factory layout.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com