Fusion 360 is a single platform that lets you take control of your entire product development process, but that doesn’t mean one size fits all. We understand that for specific applications, some of our customers need access to the most advanced capabilities in the industry—the type of tools that usually cost tens of thousands of dollars to acquire and use.

That’s why we want to begin offering some of these very advanced and, in some cases, specialized capabilities right within Fusion 360. Most importantly, we want to provide these to you in a way that gives you the complete freedom to pay for what you need, when you need it.

Rest assured: nothing is changing with your current Fusion 360 subscription. We’re not taking anything away from it and we’re not increasing the price of it. We’re simply providing a new way for you to extend your Fusion 360 experience in a way that gives you more control. Let me explain.

I Stream, You Stream

Like hundreds of millions of people around the world, I have an Amazon Prime membership, part of which gives me access to Amazon Prime Video. I also subscribe to Hulu. Why?

Aside from letting me watch my favorite shows, both of these online TV streaming companies make it easy to customize their services to my tastes. Features like on-demand selection, flexible subscription terms, and support across devices give me a seamless experience so I can access and enjoy my content with ease. Overall, I’m a happy subscriber to both of these platforms. So what do they have to do with Fusion 360? Let’s break it down.

Pay-As-You-Go

As an Amazon Prime customer, I can watch any of the TV or movies included with Prime Video. But on occasion, I may want to watch a movie outside of the free Prime category. So I pay a one-off fee, watch the movie, enjoy, and that’s it.

This is similar to how Fusion 360 works for you today. Your subscription includes access to a range of tools for design and manufacturing. It also gives you the option to access advanced features like generative design, advanced simulation, or cloud rendering by paying an additional fee, just like with Prime Video.

Delivering these powerful capabilities with a pay-as-you-go approach helps us democratize tools like generative design, so you can be more innovative and increase productivity as a design and manufacturing professional. But in certain instances, you might need access to more specific tools for specialist applications. 

Extending Your Experience

Now let’s take a look at my other favorite streaming service, Hulu. Hulu provides a broad library of TV shows and movies in its basic subscription offering. But if I want to watch live sports or HBO®, for example, I can activate premium content add-ons for my subscription with just a few clicks.

As a design, engineering, or manufacturing specialist, you might occasionally need access to specialized tools that are tailored to your expertise. Wouldn’t it be great if you could extend your existing Fusion 360 experience by tailoring it to your specialist application—paying for what you need, when you need it?

We’re now making this a reality by introducing extensions for Fusion 360.

Extensions represent a way for you to switch on groups of high-end capabilities in Fusion 360 to complement particular industry specializations. You can enable extensions right within the product by paying with Cloud Credits, all while maintaining a seamless experience as you activate and begin using the technology in an extension.

To give you flexibility, you can activate extensions on a short-term basis, meaning you can tailor usage according to your changing business needs. You can decide whether to switch on an extension sporadically based on project demands, or keep it activated on an ongoing basis. It’s your choice.

So while extensions give you flexible access to advanced capabilities, you still have access to all of your normal workflows and project data with the same unified Fusion 360 experience, from the design phase all the way through to manufacturing your product.

Unprecedented Value

Whether you prefer a pay-as-you-go approach like Prime Video or Hulu-style extensions for your Fusion 360 experience, we’re on a mission to deliver unprecedented value to you, whichever way you like it.

The first extension we plan to introduce will focus on manufacturing capabilities. This is just the beginning and we’re excited to share more soon. Gone are the days of configuring a costly stack of tools from disparate software providers in the high tens of thousands of dollars, just to get the job done.