The first was a limitation on the number of active files, going from unlimited to only ten. Two limitations in particular were of interest to the community. Autodesk is not being “evil” here they’re just trying to force a few advanced freeloaders onto the pay version where they should have been all along. One fellow attempted to start a #LiberateFusion360 thread, but was quickly shot down by all responders.

It seems they realize Autodesk removed features that don’t really affect their workflow in almost all cases. I’ve checked through a number of discussion threads to see what level of anger exists after the announcement, and it appears that most hobbyists understand the new restrictions and even accept them.

That’s a natural reaction because this exact scenario has occurred in the past with other software.īut did Autodesk really do that? It turns out no, the limitations they imposed on the personal use license were actually reasonable: the features clipped off were almost all used only by advanced users who really shouldn’t be living on a free license. They fear they will be forced into paying for a license to use something they previously had at no charge. When a company announces a change of this nature, the immediate reaction among users of a free plan is fear and possibly anger. The intent of Autodesk’s personal use license is exactly that: for a person. Things like team functions, for example, are not possible, and that makes sense: if hobbyists are building projects that require multiple team members, perhaps they should be using a paid version.

This evaluation caused them to trim off certain advanced features from the free version. They seem to have made an evaluation of how hobbyists and personal users would normally use the software.

Fusion 360 personal license