Autodesk have announced their new policy for Fusion360 Personal licensing and it dramatically impacts Fablab users who are not in a university.
They lose:
- 4 and 5 axis machining making the Roland Modela useless
- CNC toolchanges meaning one tool per gcode file
- CNC rapid feeds slowing down CNC machining, especially on bigger machines
- STEP, IGES etc file export making collaboration between projects harder
There are more but these are the ones that affect my lab.
In addition, their new licensing terms seem to suggest that Personal use applies only to home fabrication. i.e. every user of a Fablab needs a professional subscription.
I note that Autodesk is supposed to be partners with the Fab Foundation. What does that mean in practise? Should registered labs get software? Do fablab users qualify for an educational license?
In the absence of answers to these questions, my lab has cancelled it’s next Fusion360 training courses.