My question is can I use one CAD program successfully across different cnc and 3d printer platforms? My
ideas would involve using a 3d printer and/or cnc laser / cnc platform systems. If so what program(s) are
suggested. I can't justify an unlimited budget right now but am willing to spend some money on a program
and training if I can find it and justify it. I did use fusion 360 when it was free for a while but did not stick
to it long enough to print anything. My son did stick with it for a short time and still prints things occasionally.


In more detail I'm trying this in baby steps. If I can stick to learning and using a CAD program it may involve my
next business idea or use it in my resume after closing my current business.

If doing CAD and CAM I'd probably do F360.

CAD only I prefer SolidWorks. But that's just me.

Won't I still need CAM to run whatever machine I'm using?

Pretty sure F360 has built in toolpathing ability.

@Rat_Patrol uses F360 and can chime in.

Fusion 360 does have a built in tool path. I've tried it out on a Hasse simulator and it seem to work fine.

Anyone know if fusion will still run on windows 10?

Hell of a time to ask. Already downloading now


Done. It works

Anyone suggest who to watch on youtube or other source for learning fusion360?
Is Lars Christensen still gtg?

Thanks. Going to tackle tonight

I use F360 for CAM and CAD at work.


The CAD side is mediocre. The 2D drawings side is an absolute joke they should be paying me $500/year to use and the assemblies are terrible, again, should be paying me to use it.

The CAM side needs a LOT of work to be consistent and relatively simple paths take a long time to generate. Took over an hour to generate a path yesterday that would probably have been an hour for me to manually machine.

Lots of simple things need to be fixed. Things like requiring me to have my cursor in a text box to type in it but then I leave the cursor in the text box a big help window comes up and covers everything so I can't see what I'm typing or where.

The 2D drawings are laughably horrible. Spent half of yesterday fixing an entire drawing package for a very simple machine because it randomly forgot what part was on what page and put the entire assembly on every page that I have to manually go down the list and uncheck everything I don't want on the page to have what I want stay. Pain in my ass.


I also have solidworks. For anything I care about I use SW. At home I use the free version of Solid Edge. Still loads better than that 360 shit show.

Yeah I use both and much prefer SW but I only do CAD, zero CAM.

BTW SW offers a hobby license for $99/yr but it's $49/yr to renew. I find it worth it.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot

Does SW save your stuff locally?

Looks like they're running a $49 special.

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Yes, it saves locally. You have the option to save to the cloud but I save all my stuff locally.

I'm glad I clicked on this discussion.

I was a professional CAD/CAM engineer 30+ years ago. CADAM and CATIA all on mainframe. I left that world completely although I still design stuff mentally and sometimes sketch it out manually or in Excel.

But recently I have a design which I want to submit a patent for which would be best to provide proper plans for. I had started using the free version of Fusion 360 but quickly started running out of space. From what I am reading here it looks like buying a non-commercial SW would be my best option. I like that the files can be saved locally too.

I've been using Fusion 360, just saw the $48/yr on SW so I figured I'd give it a try.  We'll see if it pulls me away from F360.

I've been a loyal SW user since 2005. I highly recommend you all moving away from the dark side.

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The only downside I see is that you can't share files with a full boat solidworks license, like at work.
I use Alibre at home.  It will open solidworks files from my work install, and I haven't had trouble saving files from alibre to open at work.
It goes on sale for 15 to 20% off near most holidays.

Edit for the mod: there is an ecad module, but I've never used it.

Full version for sure does. I'm not sure about the maker version.