What did the developer say after he fixed bugs introduced by a clown?
« Back to Blog home page
April 13, 2016 Product Update – What’s New
The new Fusion logo is here
You may have noticed that your update now shows a brand new Fusion logo and icons!
Navigation Improvements
- Kb9ydn reported this issue where the orbit center (the green dot) doesn’t show up when you’re zoomed in too closely to a specific body that is part of a larger design. It was a bit shy, and now it’s visible regardless of how much you’re zoomed in.
- We updated the order of how the Pan, Zoom, and Orbit options are laid out in your preferences. This makes it a bit more logical to go through.
Better Data Options
- Many of you have reported an issue where you weren’t able to open or save designs created in old versions of Fusion 360 after the last update. Our bad – this is now fixed.
- Previously when you wanted to export a design from Fusion, IGES was the default file format that was selected in the file type drop-down menu. Why? No idea, so we changed it to the Fusion archive format (F3D) as the default.
- There was an issue where if you wanted to export a component, the export would fail if the component name was not a valid file name. This is now fixed, and even better, when you do an Export or Save as STL on a component, it’ll auto-populate the component’s name so you don’t have to type it anymore. Thanks eric.strebel for suggesting this in the IdeaStation woohoo for doing less (busy) work!
Better Measure Behavior
- Previously when you used the measure command, it was difficult to select the center of a circle or various snap points of interest. Now when you want to measure something, hovering over geometry will show you various points of interest where you can snap to, hold the Command/CTRL key to alternate between your snap points, and voila (just like how our Joint tools work). This should make it much easier to determine critical dimensions.
Graphics and Rendering Improvements
- We found a weird graphics issue where the filleted corner of a SAT file was not displayed properly, showing white jagged corners. This is now fixed.
- There was a weird bug where the quality setting of the ray tracing option is stuck in quick mode even if you have it set to advanced mode. Restarting Fusion was the only way to fix this, but now we nipped it in the bud and it’s fixed.
- You can now set your own rendering environment default settings in the preferences such as scene, background, floor and lighting settings for new designs. This way you don’t have to set the same environment settings every time you do a rendering. What’s even better is that if you log into a different machine, your preferences will carry over and if that machine doesn’t have the material you had set as default, it will automatically download that material for you. Boom.
CAM Improvements
- Thanks to adamvs for submitting this Ideastation post: you can now copy and paste toolpaths between open Fusion 360 documents! SO pumped about getting this out :thumbsup:
- Templates can now include notes, where they can be stored and reused.
- There was a strange graphics issue where if you started a turning operation and switched to the radii tab, the canvas grid showed its values all scrunched together and the Z axis arrow manipulator would appear massive and extremely pixelated. It totally reminds us of playing Turtles in Time and throwing Foot Soldiers towards the TV screen. Good times. Now it’s fixed.
A360 Enhancements – Sketchup Export
- Good news! Many of you have asked for it – you now have the option to export designs in the SketchUp format from their respective A360 pages.
Other fixes
- We found some wonky behavior around the getting started panel and how it would show up on every untitled document. That’s just silly, so now it only shows up when it’s supposed to.
- There was also a case where the settings set in the getting started panel didn’t always carry over to the actual preferences, which they should. This is also fixed.
- There was a crash issue where if you changed your active units in the browser and switched to the Animation workspace, back to Model, then back to Animation, Fusion 360 would get frustrated at you and crash. It’s now more mature and will no longer throw a fit.
- Brian.Elemental reported this simulation issue where the simulation report did not follow the deformation scale. We couldn’t have said it any better: “No matter what deformation scale I choose the report seems to pick it’s own scale”. This is now fixed by our Sim gurus.
What to expect in May
Our upcoming May update will include a boat load of 2D drawings enhancements.
Also good news for all you rendering addicts – background local rendering will also be landing in May, which means you’ll soon be able to render and work on the same design simultaneously. Yes, this means you can finally click around and not worry about the render starting over.
Thanks again for all your support and feedback, we love hearing from you. Stay tuned for the next update!
Cheers,
Keqing and the Fusion 360 team
Want to know what came before this update? Click here or the “Product Updates” category filter below.
Comments
Spkrman15
Keqinsong,
I always love reading the update comments. I was having a hard time figuring why a Video game was on a Fusion screen shot. Too funny.
to you and your team
Thanks for the work. Keep it up
Rob 🙂
keqingsong
Thanks Rob, appreciate your comment 🙂 I couldn’t help but think of that bug as something I’ve spent hours of my childhood doing (throwing Foot Soldiers at the TV screen that is).
tianle7703@hotmail.com
the biggest problem I have now when I am learning fusion360 is that I can’t use any video tutorials on the official website like the attachment shows.There are not so many video tutorials that I can find as I know. The step by step tutorial is missing now after I update my fusion360. why?
and can you teach me how to set up my own shortcut key? just because I am using the apple mouse, there is no middle wheel button for the orbit and pan, so I need to use a shortcut key .
Thanks again.
Coscor_NPL
Great (and funny) Post! even though I’m a professional, I love to get a little more silliness in my life 😉 AND is super stoked to hear more about the drawing update in may! – Thanks!
lisoboats
very good work, sad the folding or bending option is not made yet.
Coscor_NPL
Also, I think you forgot to mention that there have been (great) improvements to the measure tool 🙂 XYZ and snapping to points 🙂 or did I just miss that in the previous update?? anyways, this is great!
gearsoup
It is wonderful to see developers actually listen to their community and make improvements and chase down annoying bugs. I’m proud to be part of this community.
The humor injected into the Update notes really puts a human edge to the software/company/community and helps remind us that we are all people, not machines who only understand dry technical write-ups.
While we can all come up with an easy dozen things that we would like to see NOW, the fact that updates, bug fixes and improvements are very frequently being rolled out should give us all comfort in knowing that the software is alive and well, and growing
Coscor_NPL
Well put, Could not have said it better myself, tip of my hat to you good sir 🙂
keqingsong
Thanks guys for the comments! Really appreciate it 🙂
keqingsong
Updated 🙂 Thanks for the catch!
NYC_CNC
Love you guys – hilarious update 😉 NEW logo?!
j.beerstecher
Cannot wait for the may update ! Being able to make the drawings I need is still a sore spot in Fusion ! Adding some little but important things in the 2D departement would make Fusion a really competitive solution. And could even replace much more expensive CAD systems. I will stay tuned 😉
p.marion
For a man that’s “nerdy ’bout all things retro” you missed on “Nip it in the butt”
In the words of the immortal Barney Fife: “Andy, ‘Ya gotta nip it in the bud”
keqingsong
But don’t you just want to say “butt” instead of bud? 🙂
penci
You’re doing a fantastic job! This is a great design package! I’ve been using SolidWorks for 16 years and have just switched to F360 – very impressed.
RedDwarfLtd
Thanks for yet more work and updates, its always good to read through your list, and see what you guys have been fettling this month. But I am looking forward to the drawing enhancement, top of my list is multisheet drawings, as I use this in inventor with seperate parts lists or bill of materials. A must have I think. 🙂
larot13@student.sdu.dk
Oh boy, am I looking forward to the 2D drawing update! That might mean I won’t have to export to Inventor every time I make shop drawings.
I’m also digging the new logo. Pretty neato. You’ve done well Fusion 360 team!
keqingsong
Thanks Christian! Appreciate the comment 🙂 Our teams are working hard at getting 2D Drawings more robust and up-to-speed in terms of capabilities. Most of what is coming in May for Drawings are bug fixes and experience enhancements, and major new functionality like multisheets are still in the works. Rest assured, multisheet and many other features in high demand are attentively prioritized in our list of projects to complete and we are tirelessly working on getting them ready for prime time. The good thing is, since updates are going out every 2 weeks, we can put them on the update train and get them to you as soon as they become available 🙂
christianllewis@gmail.com
Any news on simultaneous 5 axis CAM? Really going to need it for business quite soon.
Check out the Autodesk Fusion 360 Design Differently Blog – Revit news | Beta
[…] April 13, 2016 Fusion Product Update – What’s New […]
kaden56
I just downloaded Fusion 360 like a month ago and have only spent about 4 to 5 hours of learning so I’m still in the extremely novice section of users. I already absolutely loved it then I just read this update and realized this is going to be a REALLY awesome piece of software to own. I had no idea that there would be such awesomely explained and specific updates! I’m just a college student/hobbiest cnc machiner. I feel humbled to use such a product. This is certainly going to be the whole package for me. When I finally land a job at some point I’m going to ask them if I can keep using Fusion 360 if they are big on Solid Works 🙂
cupracing
As designer render and animation is important for me. I think that fusion 360 render quality is great, but not the best. When i want create animation or better quality render i need to use inventor pro. So, if fusion 360 can have the same quality and function in render as inventor pro, maybe can be a very big improvement.
In the design mode add some tools to be more productive. I know that fusion is not inventor, but some function of inventor can be really useful to improve fusion as a concrete program for both designer and mechanical engineer..
tom_gdp
This update changed all of my default units for new designs back to the factory defaults of mm, etc.
artnoldy
Nice. Love it. Now, if only we could get a Maya/Max/Cinema4D navigation options that would be neat. Speaking as someone coming from these apps and wanting to dive into Fusion fully.
O.Tan
The better Measure tool just solved loads of measure tool annoyances. Well done Fusion team!
ylevine
Looking forward to 2D updates and really hoping it will include *patent drawing* features, especially the hatching/shading required by USPTO.
timwint
Thank you so much for the measure tool enhancements. That was driving me crazy, trying to measure center to center on circles.
jeffk412
I have been a LONG time user of PTC… since 1991. (dating me, yes I know). Along the way I have kept my eye on all developments CAD related. AutoCad was the evil empire, slow to get onboard with 3D (Mechanical Desktop?! ACK!). Looked at so many competitive approaches and then I saw Fusion years back as it was rolled out as a Labs project. Very promising. Well it seems Autodesk has turned some kind of corner and is not just innovating, but fast! Fusion is now a truly competitive product at a great value! This is NOT your father’s Autodesk! Well Done! Keep it up!
Big picture: Fusion is awesome for start ups and smaller companies, no doubt. My hope though is that it gains the power to rival truly enterprise design systems. Say what you will about PTC (heard it all) but as an enterprise solution, it works. Please keep developing Fusion so it can not just rival PTC, Solidworks, SolidEdge, etc, but DOMINATE.
Cheers!
Jeff
O.Tan
+1 jeffk412!
kmudgal
Your team is amazing, thanks for all the hard work!
lukepighetti
Please fix the OS X grab focus issue… 16 months and no resolution.
kakosko
New sketching tools for May? Oh by I hope 2d/3d helix shape will arrive!