Autodesk Netfabb

Additive manufacturing build preparation and simulation, now sold only bundled with Fusion

As of 31 August 2026, Autodesk Netfabb starts at $4415/year. Autodesk build preparation software for industrial 3D printing: mesh repair, support generation, nesting and metal build simulation. Softwr lists it under Manufacturing. Autodesk Netfabb is made by Autodesk, Inc., available on Windows, Desktop.

Visit siteVisit Autodesk Netfabb

Overview

What Autodesk Netfabb does

Netfabb is a build preparation tool for additive manufacturing. It repairs and heals imported meshes, orients and nests parts in a build volume, generates and tunes support structures, applies lattice and shell structures, and for metal powder bed processes simulates the thermal and mechanical behaviour of a build so that distortion and recoater collisions can be predicted before machine time is spent. The simulation is what separates it from slicers. On a metal laser powder bed machine a failed build can cost several thousand pounds in powder, machine hours and a scrapped part, and Netfabb build simulation with automatic geometry compensation is aimed squarely at that. Few tools at this price point attempt it; most stop at supports and slicing. The product status is the fact a buyer needs. Autodesk retired Netfabb Ultimate: there is no 2026 Ultimate release, licences cannot be renewed, and holders of an active licence are left on 2025.1. Most Ultimate features were folded into what was Premium, which has been renamed simply Netfabb and is sold as Autodesk Fusion with Netfabb, a bundle that also carries Fusion and the Manufacturing Extension. Autodesk also ended development of the Selective Space Structures, Optimization Utility and Lattice Topology utilities. Buyers are metal additive service bureaus and industrial AM departments; the trade-off is a single-vendor bundle at four figures a year on a product line Autodesk has been actively pruning.

What people use it for

A metal additive bureau predicting distortion on a laser powder bed build before committing twenty hours of machine time
An aerospace supplier applying automatic geometry compensation so printed parts land within tolerance without iterative trial builds
A production department nesting hundreds of small parts into a single polymer build to raise volume utilisation
An engineering team that already subscribes to Fusion and wants AM preparation without adding a second vendor

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Autodesk Netfabb.

Netfabb Ultimate has been retired outright, with no 2026 release and no renewals, so anyone who bought Ultimate is frozen on the 2025.1 build and must accept the repackaged Netfabb instead.
Autodesk has ended development of the Selective Space Structures, Optimization Utility and Lattice Topology utilities, which removes capability some customers specifically bought the product for.
It is now only sold bundled as Autodesk Fusion with Netfabb, so a shop that has standardised on other CAD pays for Fusion entitlements it will not use.
At around 4,415 US dollars per seat per year it is far above slicer-class tools, and the pricing is per named user with no floating option in the standard subscription, which hurts teams where the AM engineer role is shared.
Machine coverage is broad but not universal, and the newest printers from smaller manufacturers often reach their vendor own preparation software long before a Netfabb profile appears.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Autodesk Netfabb

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Autodesk Netfabbvs
Ultimaker Cura
Ultimaker Cura: If you print polymer on desktop machines and need a slicer rather than metal build simulation
Autodesk Netfabbvs
PrusaSlicer
PrusaSlicer: If the requirement is free, open slicing for FFF machines
Autodesk Netfabbvs
Fusion 360
Fusion 360: If you want the design and manufacturing platform itself and can prepare builds in your printer vendor software

Pricing

What Autodesk Netfabb costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Autodesk Fusion with Netfabb

$4,415 /yr

Single-user subscription
Netfabb build preparation, formerly Premium
Selected functionality from the retired Ultimate edition
Autodesk Fusion and Fusion Manufacturing Extension included
Multi-year terms available at a discount

Netfabb Simulation

On request

Metal powder bed build simulation
Quoted through Autodesk sales, no published price

Capabilities

Features

Mesh repair
Automatic and manual healing of broken STL and mesh geometry
Build orientation and nesting
Packing of parts into a build volume with orientation optimisation
Support generation
Parametric supports tuned per process and per machine
Build simulation
Thermal and mechanical simulation of metal powder bed builds with distortion prediction
Geometry compensation
Automatic pre-distortion of geometry so the printed part lands on nominal
Lattice and shell structures
Internal lattice generation for lightweighting
Machine library
Profiles and toolpath export for a range of industrial AM machines
Fusion bundle
Includes Autodesk Fusion and the Manufacturing Extension in the same subscription

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Is Netfabb discontinued?

No, but Netfabb Ultimate is. There is a 2026 release of Netfabb, sold only as Autodesk Fusion with Netfabb. Ultimate licences cannot be renewed.

What does it cost?

The Fusion with Netfabb single-user subscription is listed at roughly 4,415 US dollars a year. Netfabb Simulation is quoted separately.

Is there a perpetual licence?

No. Autodesk sells subscription only across its product range.

Do I need Fusion to use it?

You do not have to use Fusion, but you now pay for it, because the bundle is the only way Netfabb is sold.

Keep looking

Where to go from Autodesk Netfabb

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Autodesk Netfabb, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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