Fusion 360 replacement

[xpylonracer]

Hi Nibby, you wrote:
Worst thing for me was customising the CAM post processor for my home built CNC mill controlled by LinuxCNC

Are you prepared to share the details of the CAM post processor to use with Linux please ?

xpylonracer

 

[firebird]

Hi

Thanks for the offers guys. Re the Coreldraw files I can use the old XP computer in the workshop to open the old files when needed. I have managed to open them with some other programmes but they are not always 100% successful. I think my main point was that you pay your money to a company only to find that they change things later and want more money. Way of the world I suppose.

Cheers

Rich

 

[CFLBob]

I think my main point was that you pay your money to a company only to find that they change things later and want more money.

I've been using Rhino since version 3. I had bought a cheaper program (TurboCAD) first but I just couldn't get anything done in it. I didn't think like it wanted. Rhino was instantly useful for me. That was easily 10 years ago. I updated to 5 when that came out, and was still happy with it.

A couple of years ago, they started on a major update to bring it up to Rev 6. I'm sure they did more fixes, but 95% of what they talked about was making prettier renderings. They added a whole new language to draw things. From what I can tell, not one thing to make it more useful for CAD and nothing for CAM.

You pay your money, then you pay more when they update the software only to find some things you like or things you used a lot stop working but they added features you don't care about.

 

[Nibby2226]

Hi Nibby, you wrote:
Worst thing for me was customising the CAM post processor for my home built CNC mill controlled by LinuxCNC

Are you prepared to share the details of the CAM post processor to use with Linux please ?

xpylonracer

Possibly, but my post was derived from the Autodesk EMC post processor, so is very specific to my machine. I used VSC a plugin to debug the post processor and test my edits - this really helped as I'm not familiar with Java script and the Autodesk developer manual was a bit unclear in places - probably me rather than the document.

 

[Richard Hed]

Hi
Not sure if this will be of any use. I was a user and fan of Coreldraw for years. I owned a legit copy that I was happy with, it did every thing I needed. After years of happily using Windows XP my old computer died. I invested in a new all singing and dancing PC that came with windows 10 pre installed. Great bit of kit but guess what, the Coreldraw version I have doesn't work on windows 10!!!!! I contacted Coreldraw who said that as an existing user they could upgrade me to a new version at the special offer price of £600!!! Shove it. Unfortunately the new version won't open the old files (which are all saved in Coreldraws own format) so I have years of work that I can't get at. To get round the problem I now have an old computer in my workshop which runs on XP which is great I can now open all my old files. Not very convenient on a winters night when I want to sit in the comfort of my home and do a bit of drawing. To get to the point I came across a programme called Inkscape. Its a free download and is open source, has no restrictions and so far with my limited computer skills I have managed to do a few drawings. Takes a bit of learning, things are not where you think they are but there of loads of videos and tutorials out there.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Rich

I have similar problems: Good (even GREAT!) software that won't run on microsux's new versions. They make new versions just to be making something lest they go out of business. It is a strangle hold on the customer. I for one, don't want or need a new version of windows. I have a legit (bought copy) of XP I can use in an emergency but all the new computers come with the latest version installed, which as a buyer, we have no controll over and are forced to pay for somethign we don't want. All the software makers love that system as they are needed to touch up their versions for huge sums every time a customer's computer goes tits-up. So, I, like so many others, have moved to LibreOffice, GIMP and other free software. They may not get it right the first time, but eventually, they workout the bugs. Libre and GIMP are both GREAT software that do every thing I need in that area. I am a screen writer as well, but I do not use Libre for that. There are some semi-free softwares out there that work fine.

 

[comstock-friend]

Not just software. I had an HP scanner that was fine for what I was using it for. Comes Windows 10 and the scanner no longer works. Ask HP if a Win10 driver was available. No. Interestingly, a third party was selling a driver (for $75!) to allow it to run. Last HP device I'll own...

 

[David Hothersall]

Hi
Not sure if this will be of any use. I was a user and fan of Coreldraw for years. I owned a legit copy that I was happy with, it did every thing I needed. After years of happily using Windows XP my old computer died. I invested in a new all singing and dancing PC that came with windows 10 pre installed. Great bit of kit but guess what, the Coreldraw version I have doesn't work on windows 10!!!!! I contacted Coreldraw who said that as an existing user they could upgrade me to a new version at the special offer price of £600!!! Shove it. Unfortunately the new version won't open the old files (which are all saved in Coreldraws own format) so I have years of work that I can't get at. To get round the problem I now have an old computer in my workshop which runs on XP which is great I can now open all my old files. Not very convenient on a winters night when I want to sit in the comfort of my home and do a bit of drawing. To get to the point I came across a programme called Inkscape. Its a free download and is open source, has no restrictions and so far with my limited computer skills I have managed to do a few drawings. Takes a bit of learning, things are not where you think they are but there of loads of videos and tutorials out there.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Rich

I'm a lurker here but I wonder if this might be of assistance to you in loading/converting your old Coreldraw files. Going to a PDF means you can often import/convert that file using a more recent programme.

https://www.zamzar.com/convert/cdr-to-pdf/

 

[kquiggle]

Since the subject of LibreOffice Draw came up, I'll mention that I used Draw for many years (and still do from time to time) for simple 2D drawings. Of course it should be noted up front that Draw is not CAD software (and certainly not 3D CAD software), but it is very capable drawing software, and a good way to get familiar with computer assisted drawing. I found that a lot of what I learned using Draw was a big help in eventually learning 3D CAD.

I wrote a bit more on Draw here:

https://sites.google.com/site/lagadoacademy/libreoffice-tips/libreoffice-for-cad

 

[lemelman]

Have you considered installing Win7 as a virtual machine running under Win10? I'm in UK and have just received issue 309 of PCPro magazine which contains a 3 page article about how to do this for free, using a program that can be downloaded from a link supplied in the magazine. Since I don't know your location I have no idea if you're able to get the magazine, sorry.

 

[RM-MN]

Have you considered installing Win7 as a virtual machine running under Win10? I'm in UK and have just received issue 309 of PCPro magazine which contains a 3 page article about how to do this for free, using a program that can be downloaded from a link supplied in the magazine. Since I don't know your location I have no idea if you're able to get the magazine, sorry.

PC Pro offers a digital subscription so it should be available world wide.

 

[fabricator]

I don't really use it much but I downloaded Fusion 360 for free. They allow individuals who are not using it in a for profit type situation free licenses. I get regular update emails for it also.

 

[kquiggle]

If you really want to jump through all the hoops just do a search for "Download Windows 7 ISO, Legally and for Free" - and yes, it is legal and free. I actually did this a while back because I needed to test some windows-only software one time. But when it came time to start learning 3D CAD I went with OnShape because it's just a whole lot easier - launches immediately in the browser and I can easily have multiple windows open on multiple monitors.

Having said that, I think that Fusion 360 is the more mature software compared to OnShape, and has a bit more functionality. But at my level, the differences are inconsequential and not worth the hassle of running another VM. I routinely use VMs to try out complex software so I don't have to worry about messing up my working computer, but every VM has to be maintained with updates, etc. and becomes just another housekeeping chore.

If Fusion 360 was still available in Linux flavor I would probably have given it a try. Since that is no longer an option I took the lower hassle option of going with OnShape, and so far I have not regretted that decision. At this time, I have been using OnShape for less than a year so I still have much to learn, and I don't think I will be hitting a ceiling any time soon. It took me less than a month to be able to start using the software to do useful things, so it was well worth the time investment.

My conclusion: Pick Fusion 360, OnShape, FreeCAD, or whatever and dive in - you'll learn some useful skills and maybe have some fun doing it.

 

[firebird]

Hi
Thanks for all the feed back guys

I have tried running it in compatibility mode and under win 7 but no joy. I have several other programmes I use, Myford gear calculator, model engineers utilities etc that are XP only so my workshop computer handles them.

I think my main point was that these companies who produce drawing/cad programmes seem to think they can dictate to us whenever it suits. For now I am happy to stick with Inkscape for free

Cheers

Rich

 

[awake]

Rich, Inkscape is a great program, but as you know it is not primarily designed to be a CAD program. Have you tried LibreCAD? It is 2d only, but then again, so is Inkscape. It does require a somewhat different way of thinking than Inkscape, so a bit of a learning curve, but a very capable CAD program.

 

[dazz]

I use Design Spark Mechanical.
It is free, does 3D and outputs 3d printer files.
I also sometimes use FreeCAD.

Dazz