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IndustryArena Forum > CAM Software > Autodesk CAM > Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    178

    Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?

    Despite all my resistance, this week I finally surrendered and moved my lathe CAM from Dolphin to Fusion. I had to mess with the post for a day, but now that's sorted, I'm impressed.

    I guess due to adaptive tool paths, I've been using Fusion for 3D mill for sometime now, but always kept Dolphin in the background for 2D, and VCarve for those 4th axis rotary wrap jobs. But years later and Dolphin still doesn't have easy to add tabs, and Fusion now has rotary wrapping (as well as indexing) which works unbelievably well.

    But the thing is... I HATE my CAM and my business being dependent on a company, the cloud, and available of it's software. I HATE it. So I've been looking around for perpetual stand alone with all the features Fusion offers over their $500 subscription per year. Simply put NOTHING compares, not even close... it seems there is NO alternative to Fusion 360 in both features and money.

    But if someone else knows otherwise please let me know?!

    I would like to hear your opinion? Has Fusion killed the CAM market?

  2. #2

    Re: Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?

    I use it where I currently work. I have fusion and inventor cam hsm as part of a package we bought. I can out draw anyone that uses inventor.

    The cad/cam function of fusion is where it excels. Personally I wish we had mastercam where I work. I still would put mastercam up against fusion anyday. It's really just a good modeling and cad software. It's machine time is an outright liar. It's also kind of clunky in for certain toolpaths.

    The fact that I can't export the model after it's machined for a second op with out modifying it pisses me off, and you can't take measurements in certain environments.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    178

    Re: Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?

    Quote Originally Posted by LetsGetHaasy View Post
    I still would put mastercam up against fusion anyday.

    The fact that I can't export the model after it's machined for a second op with out modifying it pisses me off, and you can't take measurements in certain environments.
    Trouble is mastercam doesn't even compete with $70 per month.

    Yeap, that's sort of my issue too. Once you go fusion toolpaths, your fusion forever with their fd3 format.

    And something else that baffles me about the CAM market is while I've been shopping around , both edgecam and ZW3D haven't even respond to my inquiries. Do they even care about SMB or are they just fat cats ridding companies like Honda and living of upgrades?

    Every time I ask Autodesk something... the response and support is nearly instantaneous.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Posts
    2

    Re: Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?

    Quote Originally Posted by LetsGetHaasy View Post
    The fact that I can't export the model after it's machined for a second op with out modifying it pisses me off, and you can't take measurements in certain environments.
    You can export a .stl file of machined stock and re-import it for use as a stock model. As usual with .stl files units are a pain to manage between export and import.

    I find the in-process models and rest machining works well as long as you protect operations that are complete so it's not constantly regenerating them.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Posts
    1206

    Re: Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?

    I had a feeling that Fusion was always a strategy to harm rivals both in CAD and CAM.It seems to be working.The next question is where the subscription level settles once the rivals have withered.Not that I'm too concerned because I use Freecad.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    178

    Re: Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?

    Quote Originally Posted by routalot View Post
    The next question is where the subscription level settles once the rivals have withered
    It's a good question. And maybe this will come sooner than later with an ever shrinking marketplace.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Posts
    1516

    Re: Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?

    Quote Originally Posted by routalot View Post
    I had a feeling that Fusion was always a strategy to harm rivals both in CAD and CAM.It seems to be working.The next question is where the subscription level settles once the rivals have withered.Not that I'm too concerned because I use Freecad.
    That's what I thought too.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    683

    Re: Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?

    Quote Originally Posted by routalot View Post
    I had a feeling that Fusion was always a strategy to harm rivals both in CAD and CAM.It seems to be working.The next question is where the subscription level settles once the rivals have withered.Not that I'm too concerned because I use Freecad.
    That's competition. Autodesk is a big player and bought up everything they could. Including my beloved Tsplines and HSMworks. They have done so much and give so much value I I dropped SW (still keep it for one customer) and that saves thousands of dollars a year in subscriptions. 5 axis programming, class A surfacing, FEA, and design for under $1000 a year is unheard of. I don't see Autodesk shooting themselves in the foot raising the price much more than inflation. They decided to focus on single person shops, and lots of them, while Solidworks (DSS) took a massive dump on sole proprietors and changed there licensing scheme a few years back. .

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    178

    Re: Has Fusion killed the CAM Market?


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