Autodesk has introduced new changes to the personal use license terms of its widely used suite of CAD and CAM software, Fusion 360. The software will still offer free-of-cost non-commercial license for design and manufacturing work, but will include few very major changes.
The changes include:
- Project storage will be limited to 10 active and editable documents.
- Exports will now be restricted to a small number of files types but will still include STL files. DWG, DXF, PDF, STEP, SAT and IGES file type exports will not be available anymore.
- 2D drawings can now only be a maximum of single sheet and can only be printed or plotted.
- Leveraging cloud-based rendering will no longer be available and can now only be done locally.
- CAM support has been massively cut back.
- No support will be provided for simulation, generative design, and custom extensions.
Hackaday mentioned in a news release that most of the changes will come into effect from October 1, while the limit on active project files will come into effect in January 2021. Some of these changes could be huge turn-off for users.
To provide some compensation for these changes, Autodesk is offering a steep discount on the commercial license. Features removed from the free licenses, will remain in place for paid, educational and start-up license subscriptions.
