Autodesk Fusion vs. Odoo Manufacturing

This software has been so easy to use from day one! I couldn't be more thrilled with it. Being an SME, it is offered on an annual basis free of charge. My network of engineers are amazed I am able to accomplish what I have using this software when the companies they come from are paying thousands for licensing. I also would like to note that Autodesk offer an incredible specialization to really round out your skills via Coursera.

Incentivized

Out of the box, Odoo Manufacturing has a lot of functionality and the flexibility to change the app on demand to meet your requirements. You can even change the MO requirements on demand, such as substituting one material for another. The only criticism I have is that child MOs (manufacturing orders) do not get listed more clearly. Out of the box, there is no way to jump to a child-MO from the parent-MO. That said, we largely mitigated this problem by linking all MO's together according to the sales order using studio. Our version, 13, there is a bug that when you reduce a material requirement (in order to substitute with another) it still tries to consume the original quantity. This has been fixed in version 14.

Incentivized

• The first PRO of Fusion 360 that always comes to mind is how versatile it is. Fusion 360 is the first CAD/CAM software that also includes other key features that CAD programs of this size don't have.
• Fusion 360 has a generous licensing structure that gives those just starting out a place to start with a professional level CAD program. As a result, this has helped build up a huge community and user base around Fusion 360.
• Fusion 360 is updated on a monthly basis. This has proven to be a huge advantage over Solidworks (something else I use) which is only updated once a year. The nice thing about monthly updates, other than regular bug fixes, is that the team can adapt quickly and no one is taken by storm with a big overhaul of the UI or features at the beginning of the year.

Incentivized

• Item Routing
• BoO integration with Studio
• Partial Production & Backorders
• Whole-System Integration

Incentivized

• Fusion 360 is a very simple program, so once you begin to draw more complex 3D models, the software gets sluggish and loses its fluidity.
• It would be really nice if Fusion 360 could output a model as a SolidWorks file so I can begin to draw something out in Fusion 360 and then pick it up in SolidWorks when I need to do some more advanced functions.
• Because Fusion 360 is a simpler program, there are a few functions such as 3D sketches that are not intuitive like all the rest of the functions are.

Incentivized

• Deeper integration out of the box
• Child-MO tracking

Incentivized

It does everything I need for great value.

Incentivized

Because the tool is very useful and easy to access, it provides very basic and useful tools to start in the modeling part despite being basic processing aspects. It is also very easy to get a free, temporary, or student license, which makes it a very good CAD tool.

Sometimes I like using it on Saturday nights. Unfortunately, they usually do their updates at this time and it isn't available to use.

Incentivized

It can freeze sometimes while doing heavy tasks.

Incentivized

Support is conducted via internet Q&A boards; newcomers to 3D modeling may find that articulating their questions in the language of CAD software is the tricky part — once they find the right technical term for what they're trying to accomplish, answers come quickly. Autodesk also provides a large library of educational tutorial videos that make the initial process of learning Fusion 360's interface much easier.

Incentivized

No. It is basic and straightforward.

Incentivized

Autodesk Inventor excels at daily core engineering tasks. When integrated with Vault management systems and part libraries, Autodesk Inventor is tough to beat when you need a mechanical design solution. When Inventor and Vault are setup properly it allows for a very efficient design workflow. I think it would be difficult to achieve the same amount of workflow efficiency with Autodesk Fusion 360, that said, Autodesk Fusion 360 offers a very good toolset at a much lower cost. I can maintain a yearly subscription of Autodesk Fusion 360 and get about 85% of the functionality that is available via the Inventor design suite for the cost of about 2 months of an Inventor subscription. I then also get access to manufacturing plugins with Autodesk Fusion 360 but lose a lot in the drawing environment. Inventor beats Autodesk Fusion 360 hands down when it comes to documentation.

Incentivized

We had previously used xTuple ERP for manufacturing. Odoo ERP is a big step up as well as a big savings. xTuple did have a robust manufacturing offering, but the Odoo Studio allowed us to do things we could never have done with xTuple, like integrate the BoO. xTuple never tracked product transfers either, so you had to manually track requirements or do detective work to figure things out. Odoo is a big improvement on that.

Incentivized

It offers so much already, and the reason being is that it showed promise early on.

Incentivized

• It gives me totally positive impacts. Its zero cost eliminates the need to search for other software to use.
• Fusion 360's Autodesk cloud solution enables me to use 3d files generated via other Autodesk design software that are widely used by my customers.

Incentivized

• >30% savings over our previous solution
• More flexibility when used with Studio
• Product transfers make tracking demand easier

Incentivized