If you’re tired of searching Thingiverse for the perfect model, you’ll want to create your own design. In the following article we compare Fusion 360 and Blender to help you choose between the two.

Fusion 360 Blender

A refresher for CAD software.

Many hobby designers will look for models for 3D printing on one of the many websites for 3D models like Thingiverse, MyMiniFactory or Pinshape. But what happens if you get bored with all the STL files you find online? Or a downloaded 3D model does not quite meet your requirements? In these cases you should look more closely at CAD software.

Simply put, CAD (Computer Aided Design) software allows you to create 3D objects and export them as STL files for printing. In this article we take a look at two very popular CAD programs: Blender and Fusion 360.

Comparison criteria.

Each CAD software has its own strengths and weaknesses. We will make decisions between Blender and Fusion 360 based on several criteria, including:

  • Price and availability.
  • Functionality.
  • Learning curve.
  • Software support.
  • User community.

Historical context.

Blender (available since 1998), is an open source 3D computer graphics suite. Open source status means that the source code is freely distributed and open for customization, which has led to a wide acceptance of this software in the hobby community. It is designed to create 3D art, visual effects, animations, video games, and 3D printed models.

All in all, if you want to do 3D work on your computer, Blender has what you need. The people behind Blender have built your network far and wide, including 3D modeling capabilities, STL export, animation, image and video editing, physics simulation and game development.

Fusion 360, on the other hand, is a much younger, much more specific software. Autodesk developed the software in 2012 and released it for public release in 2013. Fusion 360 is a design, editing and engineering platform. Although it cannot create games or edit videos, Fusion 360 is one of the leading programs for 3D printing and is very popular among hobby designers.

Autodesk announced that Fusion 360 will be made available free of charge to hobbyists or start-ups that generate less than $100,000 per year in total revenue (this option will be available after the trial period ends). If you don’t fall into either of these two categories, then Fusion 360 will cost a total of €495 per year, although if your company makes more than €100k per year, then you can probably afford the fee.

UX in modeling.

Creating 3D objects in Blender looks natural and intuitive. The viewport is easy to manipulate, the default color scheme is stylish, and hotkeys make modeling complex objects fast and easy. An extensive selection of modifiers and community add-ons can transform your shape into a completely new being in seconds.

Blender has an undeniably “organic” feel. It’s easy to understand why many fantasy 3D artists and digital animators prefer Blender and even why huge studios like Ubisoft use Blender. Natural shape modeling is extremely fluid with Blender, and you can distort, deform and otherwise modify your shapes with unprecedented fluidity.

Fusion 360, on the other hand, feels precise. The standard white background, intuitive units, grid and snapping system make Fusion much more mathematical. It has a much more streamlined workspace, with many of the tools safely hidden behind a clear menu system.

The modeling is accurate – perfect for functional printing. With a built-in thread-generating tool, for example, you can turn any cylinder into a threaded housing for screws and bolts, a process that is quite complex at Blender. Fusion 360’s sketching tools are very powerful and can help you quickly go through multiple iterations of a design.

A history of your actions runs at the bottom of the 360 workspace, so you can easily retrace your past steps and correct any old mistakes that occur later. Combined with Autodesk dynamic cloud storage, you have excellent control over versions and variants of your model, which is extremely useful for prototyping ideas.

The most efficient workflow in Fusion 360 is drawing a 2D sketch and extruding it in three dimensions. While Blender makes it easy for users to dive right in and add 3D objects with little planning. The compromise here is precision.

Type of modelling.

In this section we will go deeper into modeling with Blender and Fusion 360.

Organic modeling.

Modeling a realistic tree in Fusion 360 would take a very long time. You would have to go through a complex series of random sketches and Boolean operations to get natural looking angles.

In Blender, you can use one of the trees to generate add-ons, or you can shape a series of cylinders and spheres to your desired shape. By modeling spheres and cylinders, a low-polarized tree can be completed in minutes, while a highly polarized tree can take several hours. The creation of add-ons, on the other hand, can take between a few seconds and a few minutes, depending on the processing power of your computer.

Functional Modeling.

If you’re an aspiring product designer and want to prototype something quickly and effectively in multiple iterations, Fusion 360 is perfect.

Fusion feels like it was designed for the functional product designer. The drilling, ribbing, ridge and threading tools can modify solid shapes quickly and accurately, while excess geometry is cleaned during machining. One of the most frustrating aspects of Blender is the removal of double nodes, moving edges and internal surfaces – all things that cause problems in 3D printing. In contrast, geometry created in Fusion 360 typically feels cleaner and causes far fewer problems in 3D printing.

Available features.

As mentioned earlier, Blender is heavily focused on animation, modeling, sculpting, and VFX. Although it is excellent for creating three-dimensional graphics, 3D printing is definitely neglected. However, you can enable a 3D printing add-on in the User Preferences to find intense overhangs, undistributed geometry, and other design flaws that prevent 3D printing from working.

However, Blender makes it incredibly easy to create organic shapes and textures. Dynamic Sculpting tools allow even novice users to create complex shapes with little time and effort.

Features of Blender:

  • Dynamic Sculpting Tools
  • Animation, Rigging and Shape Keys
  • Bold brush for freehand drawing
  • Camera and Object Motion Tracking
  • VFX and visual simulation
  • Video editing
  • Scripting
  • Rendering with Ray Tracing
  • UV processing

Fusion 360 is designed for product development. It is precise and has large tolerances. If you are an experienced draftsman or have spent a lot of time creating your own designs, then Fusion 360 is for you. You can quickly create 2D drawings, extrude them in three dimensions, and print them exactly as planned.

A big advantage of Fusion 360 is its integrated cloud platform. Projects are not automatically stored on your computer, but on Autodesk online storage, which makes it easy to collaborate with other designers on your team and store your work in a secure online environment.

Features of Fusion 360:

  • Precise 2D sketch
  • Easy export for CNC, waterjet, plasma and laser cutting
  • Integration with EAGLE (PCB design software)
  • Extensive version management
  • Cloud storage and offline work
  • real-time collaboration
  • Improved 3D printing tools with cutting preview
  • Technical Simulation
  • Basic Animation
  • Photorealistic rendering

How to make a decision.

As a rule of thumb, Blender is perfect for organic prints with many natural shapes and curves. If you are an artist learning CAD software to get into digital art, Blender is perfect.

Fusion 360 should be used for designing functional prints that require precise tolerances and specific angles. Every engineer or product designer needs to become familiar with Fusion 360. The toolset is comparable to the Autodesk inventor and bridges the gap between hobby design and professional engineering.

Ease of use.

Some programs are easier to use than others. If you’re serious about CAD design, it’s likely that with practice you’ll get better and better at both Fusion and Blender. Many of the skills you learn in one toolset are usually transferable to another.

Blender has a variety of features and toolsets that make the interface frighteningly simple for new owners. Since version 2.8. Blender has revised its user interface and developed a visually appealing program that is a little easier to use for new users. Blender also has an intuitive set of hotkeys that have been praised by the 3D modeling community. Once learned, these hotkeys become great tools for quickly manipulating 3D objects.

Fusion 360 is easy to use and has a customizable interface. Large drop-down menus clearly show what they can be used for and include 90% of all the tools you’ll ever need for 3D printing. Fusion 360 is simple and streamlined, with a smoother learning curve than Blender.

Community and support.

Blender has developed a huge community around it, with a wealth of information and user-oriented support. If you have a problem, there is a very good chance that someone else has the same problem, has found a solution, and has documented it in detail. In fact, searching for the “Blender Tutorial” in a Google search returns about 68 billion results.

Fusion 360 is maintained and operated by 3D design giant Autodesk, a multinational software company. On the Autodesk website you can find detailed tutorials, official documentation and a community forum.

Searching for the “Fusion 360 Tutorial” only returns about 14.3 million results. Without a doubt, Blender has a much stronger community, and because it’s open source, external developers are constantly building amazing add-ons to enhance your experience.

So which solution is the better one?

Both Fusion 360 and Blender are fantastic programs and they have their advantages and disadvantages. Both are (essentially) free and perfectly suited as CAD software.

If you are interested in digital animation, VFX and game design besides 3D printing, Blender is one of the best modeling suites on the market. There are many ways to get help through tutorials or forums. It takes a little getting used to despite the user interface, but it is still a very powerful program.

If you want fast and easy 3D printing, Fusion 360 is perfect. With your own designs, you’ll be up and running in minutes. Autodesk updates frequently and the software is better suited to your product design.

Many 3D printing enthusiasts recommend using Blender for artistic or organic-looking prints and Fusion 360 for functional prints. After all, they are both free for hobby designers, so we recommend you try both.

Thank you very much for your visit.