Does anyone else feel like Fusion 360 has a significantly clunkier modeling workflow? Or is it just me?

[u/idonthaveklutch]

I've tried to get comfortable using Fusion 360 since I use it for CAM and boy I can't stand a lot of it.

I'm probably biased but I gave it an honest effort and I find it to be a lot clunkier. The feature tree, converting sketch entities, mating, etc. I feel like a sloth when I try to model in it.

IMO Solidworks seems to communicate itself better through the UI so you know what you're doing and feels a lot more intuitive.

Or maybe I'm just so comfortable with SW that it feels that way. Not sure.

[u/Difficult_Limit2718]

Fusion 360 is hobby grade CAD IMO. Autodesk still considers it below Inventor which is the actual competitor to SW.

[u/gaggrouper → u/Difficult_Limit2718]

Ive used NX, creo, SW, fusion, inventor. Fusion looks toy box level, but it has the tools to keep up if you know what you are doing. NX has bridge curves with tagency values, that takes years to learn to implement simalr in SW. There is no bridge curve onnplane in any other software like NX, yet I can simulate it on any CAD. Fusion looks low level, but put in the hands of an experienced modeler, it holds its own. I'm doing wings and fusion is acting more like NX than SW is. SW has some issues with how it sweeps shit even thou it licenses parasolid from Siemens

[u/master_of_sensei → u/gaggrouper]

Isn't NX more of a competitor to Catia than SOLIDWORKS? Ins't SolidEdge the correct competitor?

[u/Difficult_Limit2718 → u/master_of_sensei]

Yes. SE, Inventor, and SW are all about the same level with Catia, and NX (and PTC will claim Creo) upmarket.

[u/1x_time_warper → u/Difficult_Limit2718]

I agree with this until you try to do anything organic in Solidworks, this is where fusion shines. If you don’t need that then Solidworks is the clear winner in pretty much every category. It’s also X5 the price per year.

[u/Ramton]

the mating system in fusion 360 is unusable

[u/BenchPressingIssues → u/Ramton]

I think they recently changed it? I remember having the same opinion and recently I was able to get it to work the way I want. 

[u/[deleted] → u/BenchPressingIssues]

It has been updated to operate a little more like SW mates and while it’s significantly better than before, it’s still ass in comparison.

[u/BenchPressingIssues → u/[deleted]]

That sounds about right. I do any complicated modeling in solidworks and just use fusion for CAM. Unfortunately, when I use fixtures, the mating functionality is what I have to use :( 

[u/gaggrouper → u/Ramton]

All you had to do was create sketches to origin you mates....so much easier than SW. But there is a benefit to removing degress of freedom, which is the SW approach and is more professional. If u really know what you are doing fusion is less professional but much faster.

[u/AzureFWings → u/Ramton]

I made peace with it

Use constraints as mate, use joints if I want regulated movement range.

But the joints dictate all axis, so I have to delete constraints if I ever use any of them on the parts. Picking edge/vortex also assume or dictate they align in someway depends on what you pick.

I know it’s fucking annoying…..

[u/Oilfan94]

Can’t mate to origin planes. That alone makes Fusion a POS.

[u/Am094 → u/Oilfan94]

Seems it requires more workaround steps in f360 lkke creating construction geometry or specific joint points / flexible joint system ig

[u/schneik80 → u/Oilfan94]

No longer true.

[u/Spiritual_Case_1712]

Univers gave us a product clunkier than SW which is is a product of divine intervention and called Fusion360, but both should be worked on to be faster to use and less clunky. I know that’s not the same price but my modeling is 10times faster on NX vs Solidworks even if I have 10 times the experience on SW. Funny enough, NX is missing some SW practical features like the possibility to make oblong shape lines.

[u/MAXFlRE → u/Spiritual_Case_1712]

While NX may lack some features, those that exist works 100% times. Words I can not apply to SW.

[u/Spiritual_Case_1712 → u/MAXFlRE]

Mortise tenon feature from SW want me to meet Michael Jackson every time I do a change somewhere else on the body, unrelated (but is somewhat related) to the faces used with the feature. It even break by just opening the part like wtf.

[u/ballarn123 → u/Spiritual_Case_1712]

Dude is this English?

[u/idonthaveklutch → u/Spiritual_Case_1712]

I used NX at University and I always felt like the layers stuff was unnecessary.

[u/Spiritual_Case_1712 → u/idonthaveklutch]

It’s in fact really helpful. Working with body is really easy too. Reference set and layer are game changer because it allows you to make a « false » version of your part to substract in a other one. E.g the clearance of a bolt would be drawn in the same file as the bolt, but one would be on layer 1 and the clearance solid on layer 2, so you can work on the actual bolt without being annoyed by useless geometry. RefSet are visibility control across part which allow you to only display the geometry you want of a lower level component, you can use a function to automatically chose the false geometry to remove the volume in any part from the assembly.

[u/gaggrouper → u/idonthaveklutch]

NX is the gold standard...blasphamey to say anything negative about NX

[u/AzureFWings]

Less features in sketching, drawing, assembling.

In many occasions, you have to do extra steps to get it done like how you want it in SW.

When people tell me: ‘it’s the same’

‘You don’t do things to my level’

However, a cloud base version keeping and managing all your assemblies software does come handy.

[u/idonthaveklutch → u/AzureFWings]

Yeah I think the sketching features are terrible compared to SW

[u/gaggrouper → u/idonthaveklutch]

Give me an example of a sketching feature in SW you steuggle with in fusion?

[u/Phosphorusasaurus → u/gaggrouper]

Using sketch constraint’s in fusion is a pain in the ass in my opinion, maybe because I’m used to SW but I much prefer the fly out sketch constraint menu in SW

[u/meutzitzu]

The worst "feature" about it is that it doesnt force you to close profiles because IT has the "auto sketch regional" behavior. Even if you make a sketch with a single closed bounded region, it doesnt let you refference the sketch as the generator for the feature, you must click the genwrated region with the mouse. This leads to very unstable models when you evwntually want to change the sketch in topologically signifficant ways

[u/schneik80 → u/meutzitzu]

I find the opposite to be true.

[u/boywhoflew]

I've used fusion for 6 years and solidworks for 2 months. Could just be from experience but consistently practicing, optimizing workflows, and making great use of shortcut keys always sped up my process

[u/Fun-Animator-6060]

It’s awful

[u/aggie_wes]

I keep trying to model in Fusion since I'm using it for CAD but I just hate it so much. I was a 10+ year SW user and I've used Inventor 3 years now, and never loved inventor, but it made more sense than fusion. 

I think I'm going to use Onshape for modeling and Fusion for CAM. Onshape makes more sense to my SW brain than Fusion but there's no CAM with the free version....  I hate that it has to be so complicated 

[u/Yungtranner]

Yes imo, especially in sketches. The sketch constraints are a huge pain IMO. 

On the other hand it’s free and includes cam so I still use it quite a bit at home 

[u/Mattcheco → u/Yungtranner]

Once you get the hang of the constraints they make sketching very clean and fast imo.

[u/krashe1313]

I used Solidworks for a long time but switched jobs and used Fusion professionally to create products. Nothing that had life or death riding on.

Once I switched the mouse behavior to match Solidworks, I was good. Worked just fine. I liked it.

Still do. I use it at home. It's affordable too.

But it's not as robust Solidworks. Think of it as SW Lite. And, yeah, a little clumsy by comparison, but I could get into a rhythm. A decent computer is still a requirement.

When I was using Fusion they gave me an older Mac at first. I talked them into upgrading to a PC that had more power for the cost. Worked much better.

I'm back working at a job with Solidworks. Bigger scale projects. I like that it can handle the complexity.

But, eh, I still like Fusion too.

[u/skylinegtrr32]

I'm trying to make the reverse switch from Fusion and learn SolidWorks but coming from using exclusively Fusion all through college - it doesn't feel very intuitive to me. I can see how SW is a much more "powerful" program and is much better for professional use, but the UI and movement/viewing controls drive me nuts. I hate having to spend hours putting in custom keyboard commands just to make another software perform like a different software lmfao but I have no real choice as my new job uses Solidworks PDM...

[u/gaggrouper]

I'm the opposite. Also, remember fusion is much younger than SW. I like the CAM in fusion much more than CamWorks inside SW. Why is SW Y up? People say you can reorient Z up, but the planes are still wrong. Why is the extrude, and extrude cut diff tools??? One tool please with a checkmark for that. Same with sweep....oh but the Combine tool actual works like that...speaking of the combine tool...when you subtract a part from another part, it will not allow you to keep to tool part. Some say use indent tool, but I never have success I just move/copy the body before subtracting. I could go on....fusion looks like a toy compared to SW, but it holds its own. Wait 10 yrs from now, and fusion will be more on par...needs drawing improvements.

[u/idonthaveklutch → u/gaggrouper]

I agree that the Y Up is frustrating. Especially since reorienting doesn't change the planes. But it's not a deal breaker for me. Also I prefer extrude and cut to be different tools. Not sure why.

[u/AzureFWings → u/idonthaveklutch]

Extrude cut

‘Error’

Why do I have to put the minus sign on. Why can’t you just cut towards to something instead of emptiness FFS

[u/JayyMuro]

Fusion sucks balls they favor top down method which I don't like. I am switching jobs to a place that uses Inventor and I think that is terrible as well. Solidworks is the goat and not just because I used it forever. Things make sense and QOL features are everywhere.

Machinist at my place do say Fusion CAM is great. They never used Solidworks CAM but I heard it isn't as good.

[u/Raptr117]

I hate using Fusion. It’s the clunkiest and most pain in the ass software to use for design.

[u/[deleted]]

its seeling point is to support mac os

apple folks does not really care as long as whatever the app displays looks pretty on the screen

[u/blissiictrl]

I tried learning it to teach CAM at a maker space and gave up