Inventor AND Fusion 360

Ever since Fusion 360 was introduced, Inventor users have begun asking, "When is Inventor going to be replaced by Fusion 360?"  I will admit, I had the same thought on a few occasions.  The products are so similar that you begin asking yourself, "Why do we have both?"

Autodesk describes Fusion 360 as their next-generation CAD/CAM/CAE software.  With every product we use, someone somewhere is working on the next generation of that product.  I think cell phone companies launch three next-generation cell phones a year.  So it makes sense that Autodesk, and their competitors, would be doing the same thing.  As someone that uses both Inventor and Fusion 360, Fusion 360 feels like what Autodesk would create if they could develop Inventor from scratch knowing what they know now.  

I want to purpose that we need to stop thinking in terms of Inventor OR Fusion 360 and starting thinking Inventor AND Fusion 360.  There are great workflows that support using both tools.  Currently, we can leverage both tools in CAM, Generative Design, and Simulation.  Autodesk has created several different ways to seamlessly connect Inventor and Fusion 360.  If you are using Fusion Teams, you can jump seamlessly between the two products with file associativity.

The latest way to connect the two products is through Inventor 2022's Send to Fusion command.  If you are working with Inventor 2022 and have access to at least one Fusion Teams project, you can push your Inventor model directly to that Fusion Teams project.  It is as simple as pushing a button, once you have picked the Team and Team Project.  From there the file can be placed into a Fusion 360 design file or opened.  Either way, the placed file will remain linked to the uploaded IPT.  If a new version of the file has been uploaded, Fusion will recognize that there is a new version of that IPT and prompt the user to update so they can be using the latest version of that file. 

If you want to see this in action, I have created a video that illustrates the process inside a CAM workflow.

Using Inventor and Fusion 360 gives users greater flexibility in their workflows.  The ability to jump between the products allows users to collaborate even easier, especially if they are collaborating outside company walls.  In my video, I used the example of sending the IPT to a company that is going to program and machine the part for me.  With one button, I was able to send the file, then it only took one more click to send the updated model after I changed the part.  It can't get any easier than that, right?  On the CAM side, the user was alerted that a new version was available.  After they updated, they only had to regenerate the toolpath to reflect the new geometry.

Another benefit is that a seat of Fusion 360 is more affordable than a seat of Inventor.  So if there are users, in your company, that are dedicated to CNC programming or FEA analysis, they don't need a seat of Inventor, they just need a seat of Fusion 360.  Even though I can create the CAM toolpaths with Inventor CAM and do FEA analysis in Inventor, Fusion 360 is capable of those same functions and has a smaller yearly subscription cost.

Fusion 360 will also give you access to Generative Design, which is something Inventor is not capable of at this time.  Since Inventor and Fusion 360 make it easy to share files between the products, you have the flexibility to design your preserves and obstacles in Inventor before sending the file to Fusion 360.  Alternatively, you can send the model to Fusion 360, then design your preserves and obstacles in Fusion 360.  Since, this workflow retains files associativity between the products, if the Inventor model changes, Fusion 360 can be easily updated to reflect that change.  This is such a powerful workflow and because I strongly feel that Inventor users should be looking for ways to incorporate it into their workflows, MESA has created a class on Generative Design for Inventor Users.  

Here is an overview of what is covered in MESA's Generative Design for Inventor Users course.

I still remember when I started using Inventor, AutoCAD users were asking, "When is Autodesk going to stop making AutoCAD and make me use Inventor?"  That was over 13 years ago and I don't see that happening any time soon.  I feel the same about the Inventor or Fusion 360 discussion.  So we can stop asking Inventor OR Fusion 360 and start thinking in terms of Inventor AND Fusion 360.  The two products work very well together and are so similar that users should be able to jump back and forth without much effort.  By finding ways to leverage the strength of each tool, users will be able to design and manufacture better products easier than they were just using Inventor.