Changes to Fusion 360 MAC installer

Not sure how many are on a Mac, but updates are no longer available through the Mac App Store.

This will be interesting to see how it shakes out -- I've been using Fusion for about 3 years, and for the first 18mo or so, I ran the installer/updater from the Autodesk site. I had ongoing issues with Fusion -- crashes, weird behavior, multiple Dock icons, etc. I finally decided to nuke it, and install from the Mac App Store and all my problems disappeared. ZERO crashes or problems since.

Now... just tonight, I *had* to update because my PC laptop is an update ahead of my Macs. I wiped, and installed from the Autodesk site's installer per their instructions. So far (30 minutes in), it's OK, however I do now have THREE Fusion360 icons in my Dock. (??)

I "believe" that the previous ongoing issues I had (before I switched to the App Store version) have something to do with where the Autodesk-supported installer places all the files. They are NOT placed in the normal Applications folder where all programs are installed ("/Applications" folder). The Autodesk installer places an alias in the "/users/<your_name>/Applications" folder, but not sure where the main app lives. I have suspected in the past that this somewhat unconventional installation process and file locations may have something to do with the buggy, crash-prone performance I experienced in the past.

I *hope* that Autodesk has solved these issues. THREE Fusion icons showing in my Dock does worry me a bit that I may be back to the same old issues. Hopefully I'm wrong...


How many of you are running it on a Mac, and which installation method in the past? Rock solid experience, or buggy?

thx
PM

I'm not running on Mac but my Windows installation of Fusion 360 updates itself automatically. Can the Mac be set that way?

David

I run it on Mac and Windows.

I don't use the App Store install. I just downloaded the installer from the website and ran it. The App Store situation has always kind of annoyed me to be honest. Especially when software like MS Office (Mac) has it's own standalone updater.

I find the updater annoying on both platforms, mostly in that I end up with new icons when they've been deleted, or on Mac I might end up with multiples on the dock. I just delete the old one and pin (can't recall the Mac word for that) the new one to the dock. Otherwise, i experience a lot less issues on the Mac install than I do windows. On multiple occasions I have had to find help documents to fix Fusion on W10 machines. The Mac install has been damn near perfect for me, I can't recall a single crash. I'm on a 2011 MBP 17", so pretty old hardware but it runs awesome. My main W10 work station definitely outperforms it for simulations and CAM, otherwise they are equal.

Good feedback, thanks! To me, the update process when run through the Mac App store seemed "cleaner" and faster. Doesn't matter any more though, as that option is gone. Possibly Autodesk might have had to pay Apple for every download/update that passes through the App Store, hence the end of that path?

Just recently picked up a Win10 laptop, and so far... Fusion has been rock solid on that. I wonder if AD has any info on what percentages of users run PC vs. Mac?

PM

I'm sure it's way biased towards Windows. I however much prefer OS X. That said, I can't justify buying a new Mac. I'm definitely not a fan of some of their hardware choices these days.

Fusion has been great for me, especially so in the last year. For a while it was a little buggy.

Ah... that was about the time I changed installer method on my Macs. Maybe I'm reading my own issues wrong, and it was just coincidence that Autodesk sorted out a few bugs about the time I made that change.

Understood on the "new Mac" comment. I'd *love* to have a new iMac Pro, but the pricing is beyond unrealistic (for me anyways).

My boss used iMac (with windows unfortunately) for something like five years. The hard drive failed and because the screen bezel is glued to the case it couldn't be serviced in house. It's a beautiful machine that worked very well, ultimately we ended up getting him something else. I took the iMac to Apple and they repaired it for like $375. Keep in mind he paid like $4k for it new.

A friend of mine just bought a new MacBook 15". It has hands down the worst keyboard I have ever typed on. It feels like keys on a children's toy. Also, it's all soldered.

The reason my 2011 MBP still works well is because it has 16gb of RAM and a 1tb SDD, that's the same or better specs than the new machines. With the soldered RAM and soldered SDD's you spend insane cash to get the top level stuff or cheap out get inferior performance. With the old ones I'd by the smallest HD, lowest RAM, best processor. Then i'd upgrade RAM and HD on my own for 1/3 the price.

Again, I just have a hard time justifying the current models. My bosses 27" iMac is sitting on a desk in my office, it hasn't been used in almost a year. I'll eventually take it home or sell it on craigslist.

fwiw The displays are easy to get off. (just make a paper thin pizza cutter wheel out of a piece of delrin -- I can send you a picture of the one I made... works much better than the iFixit one).

I had the 3TB Fusion drive fail on my ~2013/14 iMac, and I peeled it apart, dropped in a new drive, and now the display is just held on with blue masking tape on 3 edges. (didn't want to glue it back together in case I needed to ever take it back apart).

That's interesting. I probably could have looked up a tutorial and tried to repair it. Sometimes it's just easier to drop it off and spend company cash.

His was a fusion drive too. I wonder if those were consistently troublesome for Apple. Same time period for purchase too.