Fusion 360 costs about $680/year just to share a 3D link. Here are 5 alternatives to share models with clients without a full CAD subscription.
Fusion 360's review links are genuinely good: recipients can view a model without an Autodesk account. The catch is that to generate them you must keep a paid subscription, and Autodesk Fusion runs about $680/year (roughly $85/month). You also accept US-based hosting and stay inside Autodesk's format ecosystem. If your only need is to send a client a 3D model they can open, there are much cheaper, format-neutral options.
This is a common pattern across engineering software: teams pay full-suite prices to unlock a single sharing feature. It matters because the underlying market keeps expanding, the 3D CAD software market was valued at USD 10.38 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 17.34 billion by 2030, which is exactly why lightweight, subscription-free viewers now cover the sharing step on their own. The five below are ranked by cost and friction for pure sharing, not by CAD authoring power.
OmniView 3D turns your STEP, GLB or FBX into an interactive viewer link in under 60 seconds. Models are private by default and links are revocable; recipients open them in the browser with no account and can leave annotations. Free Starter plan (3 models, 100 MB); Pro at $59/month excl. tax adds exploded view, dimensions, hologram mode, iFrame embed and white-label. EU hosted (AWS eu-west-1).
viewer.autodesk.com is free. If your workflow is 100% Autodesk it's a solid option, with a 1 GB per-file limit and US servers. It's the no-subscription sibling of Fusion's own sharing.
3DViewerOnline at $15/month (Premium) allows private STEP/IGES sharing, with a 100 MB per-file limit and US hosting.
The GrabCAD community library (still active) lets you upload and share 3D models for free, but only publicly, with a basic viewer and no private links. Fine for open reference models, not for client work.
Onshape has a free plan, but every document is public by default and private tiers start at $1,500/user/year. Not suitable for confidential design work.
| Tool | Subscription required | Private sharing | File formats | Hosting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OmniView 3D | No (free plan) | Yes, by default | STEP, IGES, GLB, FBX, OBJ + | EU (eu-west-1) | Client sharing without CAD cost |
| Fusion 360 | Yes (~$680/yr) | Yes | Autodesk + STEP export | US | Existing Fusion users |
| Autodesk Viewer | No | Link-gated | STEP, DWG, RVT | US | Autodesk-format files |
| 3DViewerOnline | From $15/mo | Paid plans | STEP, IGES, STL, OBJ | US | Budget private viewing |
| GrabCAD Community | No | No (public only) | Many | US | Open reference models |
Coming straight from Fusion? Export a neutral file and open a free STEP file in the browser. For the full workflow, see sharing a 3D model with a client and how to open a 3D model in the browser with no install. Weighing other ecosystems? Compare our Autodesk Viewer alternatives and Onshape alternatives.
Yes. Export your model as STEP or GLB from Fusion 360 (export is available even on the free personal tier), then upload it to OmniView 3D for an interactive viewer link. No Autodesk subscription is required and the recipient needs no account.
Autodesk lists Fusion at about $680/year (roughly $85/month) for the standard subscription. Sharing review links requires that paid subscription, which is why a free viewer is cheaper when sharing is all you need.
OmniView 3D's free Starter plan: it imports STEP, IGES, GLB, FBX and OBJ, keeps models private by default, and produces a revocable browser link that opens with no account, on any device.
No. Whether you use Fusion's own review links or a viewer like OmniView 3D, the recipient opens the model in a browser. OmniView 3D additionally lets them annotate and comment without signing up.
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