Comparison / Fusion 360 alternative
No install. Parametric history that holds. Bryan builds.
Fusion 360 is marketed as cloud CAD, but it is a desktop application with a licensing daemon, no Linux build, and a design history that has frustrated long-running projects for a decade. solidSF opens in a browser, keeps references stable in its server-side Rust kernel, and gives you Bryan to draw parts, grow lattices, generate drawings, and design fluid manifolds — no extension stack required.
"Cloud" that is really a desktop install. Fusion downloads an installer, runs a licensing daemon, manages its own update channel, and models against a local cache that syncs to Autodesk hubs. There is no Linux build, and the iPad app is a viewer. If your team is on an M-series Mac, a Linux workstation, a fresh ChromeOS device, or an iPad, that experience ranges from inconvenient to impossible. solidSF runs in a tab on every one of those platforms — nothing to install, nothing to license, nothing to sync. And when you want a native app instead of a tab, we ship local desktop builds for Windows, macOS, and Linux, so Windows stays fully supported — you are just no longer locked to it.
Parametric history that drops its references. Fusion's "Capture Design History" is well known for fragility on long parts: features lose references and edits cascade unpredictably, and the common community workaround is to turn capture off entirely — giving up parametrics to keep the part stable. solidSF's server-side Rust kernel stores topological IDs in a half-edge structure, so downstream features hold their references through upstream sketch edits without forcing you into a do-not-capture mode.
The AI is narrow. Fusion's AI auto-constrains sketches and runs generative topology optimization as an extension. Both are useful point tools. Neither builds the feature tree from a prompt. Bryan calls 55 typed CAD tools and actually builds — sketches, extrudes, holes, fillets, patterns, drawing views, and CAM setups.
Capabilities are fragmented across extensions. Advanced CAM, simulation, generative design, and management each live behind a separate Fusion extension. In solidSF, the suites below are part of one workspace.
Here is the product, feature by feature. Every capability below is available from the browser workspace and reachable through Bryan, while geometry stays on the server.
The through-line is Bryan. Because solidSF owns and hosts its Rust kernel, Bryan operates real server-side geometry through typed tools instead of suggesting from a side panel. The work compounds: generate a part, lighten it with a lattice, route a cooling manifold, and produce the drawing — without leaving the workspace or buying another extension.
| Capability | solidSF | Fusion 360 |
|---|---|---|
| Runs in browser | Yes | No (desktop install) |
| Linux support | Yes | No |
| iPad | Full browser workspace | Viewer only |
| Parametric stability | Persistent topology IDs | Capture-history fragile on long parts |
| AI | Bryan: 55 tools that build | Auto-constrain + generative topology extension |
| Generate a part from text | Yes | No |
| Artistic / text-to-3D | Yes (SDF) | No |
| Generative lattice / SDF | Yes (core) | Topology optimization (extension) |
| In-browser CFD / manifold suite | Yes | No (separate simulation extension) |
| CAM included | Yes | Advanced ops behind extension |
| Drawings (GD&T, BOM) | Yes (20 annotation types) | Yes |
| Kernel | In-house Rust B-rep | ACIS + T-Splines (licensed) |
| Install + licensing daemon | None | Required |
| Native desktop app (optional) | Yes (Windows, macOS, Linux) | Required (Windows, macOS) |
Migration off Fusion is usually a deliberate move for a team that has hit the install, parametric, or extension ceiling.
Fusion 360 has a wide, deep portfolio. If you need generative topology optimization tied to Autodesk's solver, additive simulation specific to Netfabb, Eagle PCB integration, the Nesting extension, or Inventor-class assembly motion studies, those are real reasons to stay. solidSF's roadmap covers many of these surfaces, but if you depend on a specific Fusion extension today, verify the equivalent in solidSF before you move the work that needs it. For the typical hardware engineer or small team that wants modeling, generative design, drawings, and CAM in a tab — with Bryan building beside them — solidSF is the move.
Open a tab, import a Fusion export, and ask Bryan to add a feature. The difference shows up in minutes — no installer, no extension prompt.