Fusion 360 Offline and Hardware integration

[Anonymous]

Hi,

This is a general question but I wonder, how does Fusion 360 work in offline mode? (is there even an offline mode?) as everything is in the cloud. Also, the software processing is done via the cloud or via the host computer? As even on my Late 2013 MacPro, I'm surprised that they're occasionally lags which is a real pain to use and a real shame that my hardware plays no role into how well the software runs. 

And out of curiousity, do Fusion 360 even makes use of OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch? 

Thanks.

[Phil.E]

I can answer your question about offline mode. Fusion app (the CAD portion) runs locally.

To use it:

This is truly a local mode. You can create designs, save them to projects, and open files you have been recently working on. There is a preference setting for how long data is cached for offline.

Because you aren't connected to the cloud you lose all the cloud benefits: multiple version storage and use, collaboration, cloud services such as rendering, etc.

If you are experiencing poor program performance, is it during save (upload) or open events? Or during general modeling?

This "And out of curiousity, do Fusion 360 even makes use of OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch? " I do not know enough to answer.

[Anonymous]

Ohh, thanks, at least now I know the CAD processing part is done via hardware and not internet connections which tends to be finicky at times.

Usually it's during open events, once the model loads it takes awhile (from a few secs to minutes) for the model to begin operating smoothly. During the moment, rotating the model and even drawing new things, one will notice a considerable lag in mouse movement to whatever action you're doing.

Well somehow I do hope Fusion 360 being a software written from ground up will make use of the latest architectures, it's frustrating in my opinion that CAD softwares isn't that optimized for multi core and CPU + GPU usage. It's just either or. I'm sure it's not easy to program it but it's also disappointing to know how underutilized or under-optimized our hardware are.

[AlexPetak_Autodesk]

Hi,

the Fusion has offline mode which looks similar to online mode - just try to disconnect Your WiFi or cable connection - the change to offline mode will happen automatically after few seconds.

Or use the menu option shown by Phil.

Online mode has natural effect on speed of opening and saving Fusion models, this is of course depndent on speed of internet connection and the size of the models.

Offline opens and saves the models usually faster, the hardrives are many times faster than typical internet connection. Of course the disadvantage is that You are limited to work with Your own models - until You reconnect to online mode. 

From what I read it looks like You are experiencing lags in model manipulation after load of the model.

This model rendering and manipulation speed is reall not depnedent on online / offline mode.

This should be dependent solely on speed of Your computer and Your graphic card.

However if You would like to try something I would be highly interrested in this:

1. Switch to offline mode (either by disconnecting or by the option in the menu as shown in Phil's post)
2. Open some model where You experienced lags before.
3. Try to play with it and write us if You still see the lags while You are in offline mode please.

Thank You,

Alex