Autodesk Fusion
Ranked 12 of 27 CAD software by recommenders
Parametric CAD app that people find precise and capable for modeling and toolpaths; the common complaints are crashes, lost model data, and licensing changes.
Parametric CAD app that people find precise and capable for modeling and toolpaths; the common complaints are crashes, lost model data, and licensing changes.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong parametric CAD modeling
“If you use something like OnShape or Fusion, you could easily get comfortable enough to model those parts in about a day.”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “GenCAD” “I've locked myself into Fusion for now, but I do quite enjoy modeling by hand in it.”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support?” “Autodesk Inventor, Fusion, etc. have good constraint solvers.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Parametric CAD in Rust” - Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “Hold on to Your Hardware”
Precise procedural node workflow
“copying nodes/layers/effects and getting plaintext in your clipboard is EXTREMELY powerful and underused”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “ArtCraft Apps – open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust” “the procedural graph workflow is more precise”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe” Good for video and VFX compositing
“it sits somewhere between After Effects, Fusion, TouchDesigner, Blender (with nodes), and Resolume”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Tixl: Open-source realtime motion graphics” “it works very well to edit a photo in a compositing program”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “For video and vfx work fusion is great.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “State of Kdenlive” Fantastic experience for users
“I'm having great success with Fusion (formerly known as Eagle)”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “This PCB is brought to you by Fable 5” “our experience with fusion has been fantastic”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve 21”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Crashes and lost model data
“I have frequent crashes with Fusion that seem to be related to specific nodes”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve 21” “the time that Fusion lost a whole part of a model”
Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler” Licensing changes and free model limit
“Their licensing and changes to their hobbyist offering were no longer tenable for me”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “Blender 5.0” “the 10 model limitation for Fusion”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler”
Other CAD software people recommend
The four most recommended other CAD software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeCAD | 199 | 95 | 68% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | Approved |
| OpenSCAD | 173 | 87 | 66% | 12 | 9 yrs4 owners | — |
| Onshape | 65 | 21 | 76% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Autodesk Fusion 360 | 60 | 37 | 62% | 12 | — | — |
| Autodesk FusionThis page | 18 | 10 | 64% | 10 | — | — |
What people said
26 of the 32 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I've locked myself into Fusion for now, but I do quite enjoy modeling by hand in it.”
“I am never touching Fusion again.”
“copying nodes/layers/effects and getting plaintext in your clipboard is EXTREMELY powerful and underused”
“I'm having great success with Fusion (formerly known as Eagle)”
“Stremio and other apps like Fusion have gone up and been (reasonably quickly) taken down off the App Store though.”
“every time I come back to programmatic CAD”
“our experience with fusion has been fantastic”
“I have frequent crashes with Fusion that seem to be related to specific nodes”
“If you use something like OnShape or Fusion, you could easily get comfortable enough to model those parts in about a day.”
“the procedural graph workflow is more precise”
“For video and vfx work fusion is great.”
“it works very well to edit a photo in a compositing program”
“the subtle but annoying ways in which the software can work against you”
“There is a ton of insane potential there!”
“while clunky it was the only program that could reasonably accommodate my needs”
“I often create under-constrained sketches in Fusion, then change a dimension, which breaks the geometry”
“I typically have CAM toolpaths generate in seconds”
“The Fusion implementation sucks. A spreadsheet is a far more natural way to do this”
“shitting the bed when you try to run anything like Fusion or Docker”
“the time that Fusion lost a whole part of a model”
“the 10 model limitation for Fusion”
“Autodesk Inventor, Fusion, etc. have good constraint solvers.”
“it sits somewhere between After Effects, Fusion, TouchDesigner, Blender (with nodes), and Resolume”
“Disappointing that the 3D design files are Fusion”
“Their licensing and changes to their hobbyist offering were no longer tenable for me”
“i really enjoy using them”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.