This is a weird take for me. Compared to the time I save with fusion360, even just as a tool for solving geometry problems, it is easily worth the fees. If you need to both design and either print/cut/machine in the same tool, it is a fantastic value. I wish they made some different decisions, but their product is great value.
There’s a large contingent on HN where if a company is at all successful at making money, they are of the opinion that that company is evil.
Only the companies, organizations and products that fail to earn can be morally good.
Interestingly, it is also the case that the failures are usually caused, not by any fault of the failure itself but rather by the antagonistic, evil behavior of the successes.
Nobody has a problem with companies that make money by offering a solid product that people buy. The anger comes from companies gaining money by other means. Any of these might qualify:
- Selling my data.
- Buying out the competition and letting the products die.
- employing manipulative tricks to get extra money from people (especially children).
I’m sure there are many more examples. HN readers don’t hate success, they hate success at any cost.
Exactly. A lot of us have no problem with making money by delivering value on straightforward terms. It's the underhanded shit that receives richly-deserved scorn.
Autodesk: "Oh no no no, you didn't BUY this software CD in a shrink-wrapped box. You just rented a 'perpetual license' and how dare you attempt to recoup that if you end up not using it."
And Autodesk managed to finagle a ruling that utterly tramples a consumer's right under the Doctrine of First Sale:
"The first sale doctrine, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 109, provides that an individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a copyrighted work from the copyright holder receives the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, notwithstanding the interests of the copyright owner."
That's not the problem. I suggest looking at the history of Autodesk's attacks on their own customers, and the way they inveigled yet another ignorant judge to rule in their favor against every software PURCHASER. You could buy a shrink-wrapped box of software from Autodesk, never open it, but then be prevented from selling it to someone else to recoup your costs if you ended up not using it.
I know because they pulled this shit on me when I put an unopened copy of Inventor or 3DS Max on eBay. Their lawyers contacted eBay and threatened them, so of course eBay instantly folded and took down the listing. This violated my rights under the Doctrine of First Sale:
"The first sale doctrine, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 109, provides that an individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a copyrighted work from the copyright holder receives the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, notwithstanding the interests of the copyright owner."
I had the last laugh, however.
Meanwhile, Autodesk also attacked a kid who had put up a 3DS Max fan site, offering tutorials and tips. They seized his domain.
Autodesk was the vanguard of anti-consumer, trash software and media companies that have continued to take advantage of hopelessly ignorant judges and legislators to rip people off.
All the while our zeitgeist is that we should be paid large salaries for flexible remote work on things we enjoy without any input from project managers or business owners :-). These salaries should come out of some bucket of money other than "corporate business profit" , ideally :-)
The thing that’s frustrating about Fusion is how badly it performs even on very capable machines. There’s not really a good reason for that, even if it is a high value product.
The #1 frustration is that it's online only, and Autodesk won't let you e.g. use simulation features with local hardware. You HAVE to buy their cloud credits and you HAVE to use their cloud system to use the software beyond the basic features. It's not cheap, unless you're making products with it or are wealthy it's out of reach.
I have a decent computer with plenty of hardware for simulation as long as I'm willing to wait for the results... like a half hour or more in even simple cases. But because Autodesk wants lots and lots of money, they removed the ability to do that from the software. Fusion360 could already do it, but not any more.
Interestingly, in the time frame between when Fusion360 went pay to play for more than very basic features and now, Autodesk (ADSK) lost almost 40% of their corporate value.
When the hardware keeps getting better, but the software is still slow for even the simplest things, you know they're cutting a lot of corners. Decades of CAD research and industry investment should have amounted to something more. The priority was obviously locking you in to their cloud.
It is good value, but I don't feel it's worth the $70 a month they charge, especially when compared with other subscription application prices. The Adobe Creative Cloud subscription at $54.99 includes quite a few applications, and while they have their issues as well I'm not sure I'd put Fusion 360 above in value. Of course it depends on what you do with the tools.
Fusion 360 is the cheapest useable MCAD package by a considerable margin. It might not be worth the price to you, but it's an incredible bargain compared to any of the alternatives.
While histrionic, the person you're replying to sounds a lot like many Maya users. It's really shocking how low-quality Maya is compared to how much it costs.
