Fusion 360 makes the parts. PlankCAD makes the price.
Fusion is parametric CAD/CAM built for manufacturing. It will not tell you whether the job clears your margin. That is a costing question, and it is the one PlankCAD answers.
Fusion 360 is a serious parametric CAD and CAM environment. If you are driving a CNC, generating toolpaths or working to tight tolerances, it does things no estimator can.
Costing is not part of that job. Shop rate, waste allowance, overhead recovery and target margin live outside the model — usually in a spreadsheet that is rebuilt per job and quietly drifts.
Fusion 360: you engineer it
Parametric CAD with integrated CAM. Sketches, constraints, assemblies and toolpaths. It answers "will this part be made correctly", not "will this job make money".
PlankCAD: it prices it
Four tools in one workspace. A deterministic estimator: you enter the costs your shop actually pays — materials, hardware, labour hours and rates — then apply waste, overhead and a true gross-margin target. A quote builder that issues that estimate as a customer-ready PDF, freezes the payment terms it was sent under, and keeps a revision history of what each customer was actually told. A cut list and sheet optimizer that nests those same parts onto your real sheet sizes with kerf and grain respected. And an offcut rack, so what one job leaves over is stock on the next.
Where the two differ.
| Dimension | Fusion 360 | PlankCAD |
|---|---|---|
| What it produces | Parametric models and toolpaths | A priced estimate, a customer PDF quote, and a cutting plan |
| Cost lines | Not its job | Materials, hardware and other costs, each with quantity, unit and unit price |
| Labour | Not its job | Entered as hours against an hourly rate, shown separately |
| Waste & overhead | Tracked by hand, if at all | Applied as explicit percentages you can see and change |
| Margin | Spreadsheet, usually | True gross margin — profit over selling price, not markup over cost |
| Output for the customer | A drawing or model | A PDF quote with scope, line items, tax, total and terms |
| Runs in | Desktop application | Any browser |
When Fusion 360 is the right tool
- You are producing CNC toolpaths or need CAM simulation.
- The work demands parametric constraints, assemblies or tolerance analysis.
- You need engineering-grade documentation of the part itself.
Using both
Keep Fusion for the geometry and the machine. Bring the resulting material and labour figures into PlankCAD to price the job and produce the customer quote.
PlankCAD and Fusion 360.
No, and it is not trying to be. Fusion 360 is a full parametric CAD and CAM environment covering far more than woodworking. PlankCAD is narrow on purpose: furniture and cabinetry, with wood species, joinery families, grain direction and sheet stock as built-in assumptions rather than things you configure.
PlankCAD does not export DXF or generate toolpaths — keep using your CAM tool for that. What it gives you is the part list: every piece with its finished dimensions, grain direction, edge banding and quantities, exportable as CSV. Most shops take that into their CAM or cabinet software rather than redrawing it.
No. PlankCAD runs in the browser. There is a free tier with three generations and no card required.
Build your first estimate free.
No credit card required. Price the job, save the draft, and export the customer quote.
Deterministic Estimate Math · Your Quotes On Your Account · No Hidden Fees