Fusion took out the "save as" button. Sigh

I get why, they want to limit the format saved…but I make boxes of various sizes.

Create a template, then ill change dimensions save it as a new one and I dont have to redo 75 toolpaths.

This is slightly frustrating /rant.

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Would making the template parametric solve the issue?

I thought they had taken that out also, but in my case I had 10 files editable & just had to make one readable before being able to saveas. They did take out the ability to open .f3z files, but I had exported them as .step files also. I only have 6 of these files on my disk.

Save as is still in the menu on mac anyway. I haven’t used up my 10 docs at the moment though. Fusion have menus on windows?

Not to be a jerk, but it may be time to try free cad. 0.19 is coming out soon.

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You are correct. If I make it read only, I can then save it as a new file and edit the new one from there.

Guess that will work for now.

Fusion changed their licensing right at the point where I was teaching myself CAD, so I switched to FreeCAD then.

I’ve used too many products where the “free licensing” structure changed, and eventually went to a paid only model, and it wasn’t cheap. I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop with Fusion.

I have a free license, and it’s installed on my machine, but I haven’t got much past the very basics in Fusion, and I haven’t loaded it up in some time. I’m giving serious consideration to just removing it and not looking back, but I’m kind of holding out hope that they’re not going to screw over all of their free license users. Still, it’s Autodesk, and it amazes me that TinkerCAD hasn’t moved to some sort of paid licensing model. As soon as they mess with the TinkerCAD licensing, I’ll be deleting all of my models from there.

I dont design in it. I design in solidworks, but I use it for toolpathing.

I’ve been using the pre-release (build 23756) and haven’t had any problems. And I just checked, looks like the latest stable version is 0.19.1 on their D/L page.

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Nice! and very timely, the release notes indicates that was just released today!

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About a month or so ago, I thought they had taken out copy & paste between sketches on different models. After I rebooted my machine that problem went away. I could see them taking out that feature & that would be a pain. I quite often redraw a model from scratch to clean up all the sketches & extrusions I did not use and copy & paste between the models as most times just deleting those unused sketches or extrusions screws up something else in the model. Think I will try the latest FreeCad this week to see if I can get past the learning curve. Seems like the Fall the last 2 years is when Autodesk makes their changes to this license.

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Fusion is still growing quickly and they are adding functionality all the time. That means they tend to break a lot of stuff, too. Some of it on purpose, some of it not so much.
I tried freecad 19 again when fusion pulled the license update late last year. It’s really good. My only gripe is the sketching environment. Needing a separate sketch for each extrusion is A HUGE pain, and the constraint tools aren’t as smart. Aside from that, it’s come a long way, and if it didn’t take me so long to learn things, I’d be on it right now. I think having integrated CAD and opensource makes it a huge winner.

I used free cad 18 for years, switched to fusion last year and have had a ball with it. Fc was way more clunky with respect to reference geometry. Maybe 19 fixes that? There are still things I use fc for, like mesh Booleans when needed. Maybe I will upgrade this week and see what 19 is like, but I am not expecting miracles. Seems like it would take one to make fc better than f360 imho.

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I think they made some big changes to 0.19. They have had a lot of new support since the fusion freemium incident.

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Jeff, I don’t actually keep tabs on everyone on this forum, but weren’t you an Onshape user? Are you still or have you gone completely to FreeCad?

I have become reasonably competent in Onshape from a zero experience position last November, however I think I like the idea of proper licensed freeware instead of waiting breathlessly to be booted out when conditions change!

I do still use onshape. I have freecad and I used it for some stuff. I will eventually move over. They aren’t that functionally different (some, but not much compared to the power of designing my own things).

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At this point in time I think I will follow you! However I am still on a few very steep learning curves, and don’t want to bite off too many more mouthfuls…

Now completely off topic, Kiri-Moto looks to be my style of software - simple GUI and integration with Onshape - so for now I think I will pursue that duo. (as the need arises!) Once both are mastered, I will be in a position to move on perhaps.

AS long as Onshape doesn’t change any rules any time soon I’ll be OK. :wink:

For me what drove me crazy dealing with freecad 18 was the lack of what I think the devs called “naming”, or something like that. It is a thing that F360, solidworks, and the others have that allows you to more freely use referenced geometry (like projections from a body onto a sketch for example). As a workaround when I used 18, I had to basically parameterize every single dimension using a spreadsheet, and write out equations to convert the numbers on that sheet into actual dimensions used in different sketches. To add to this, I had to wait off on fillets/chamfers until the end, because whenever I did them too early and made changes higher up the history tree, the fillets would break and sometimes make the entire file corrupt and not useable. Having to wait to the end for all fillets/chamfers, my designs almost always end up more limited/less elegant.

I felt like I was blessed when I first started learning f360… freely using my mind to design the way my mind works… reference geometry and all… without any “hang on you can’t do it that way here” BS (can you tell how frustrated I was with it? :wink: ). As such, f360 has really done a lot to unleash my potential as a designer to be honest. If FC19 added “naming” so I can just start drawing/dimming like I do in f360, then I’m all for switching back. F360’s continuous pull back of features feels like water torture… slow and painful with an unglamorous ending. So far none of those pull backs has been a deal breaker for me, especially thanks to Don’s work on the PP. If I can pull out of that now and continue where I’m at design wise with fc19, that would be perfect.

Well, it is definitely a different software package. And it is not trying to be fusion lite, or some kind of pirated version of fusion. So, of course, it will have differences. But I haven’t spent enough time to talk directly to what you’re wanting.

In onshape, I don’t do fillets or chamfer until the end. Maybe because of these reasons. I had to install a plugin to be able to make a variable from an existing length of an edge, or whatever. I do use the “Use” feature in sketches a lot, which lets me project or trace points or lines into a sketch plane from a solid object or another sketch.

I haven’t tried 19. I need to so I can answer these kinds of questions.

I installed 0.19 Sunday.

So far, I can see an improvement, but still, wait until the end to add fillets. Some it still doesn’t do though I know it should, or you have to do it from one particular segment for it to work. Better than before though.

My spool holder was my first project using it, but that was just a 2d drawing to send to EstlCAM, so hardly counts.

I’ve been down the ride of “Free for personal use” to “Paid only” too many times, and what Autodesk is doing is how it always seems to start. I’m sure Fusion 360 can do stuff it isnt easy to do in FreeCAD, but if I am learning g a package, I’d rather learn the one I’ll be able to keep using.

I’m not against paying for software. I paid for EstlCAM, but for what I want, a license for Fusion is too much, and I can’t help but see the free version crippled or vanishing in the future.

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