[09-23-2025] Community Modernization - Communications, Updates & Discussions

[Tarek_K]

Hi all,

as discussed in the previous topic here we wanted to start a new thread to keep everything sorted and clean, so it is easier to follow and helps transparency. 

Overall, you will find in this topic community identified issues or improvements asks listed, which can be provided either as a post through this topic, or through the feedback form (or both if you want, but then please be so kind as to indicate in the post that you also submitted the feedback form). If you are reporting things here in the thread please make sure to provide a clear description of the behavior or issue, with screenshots (full browser screen, please, as this is always better) or video to help understand what you see and why to be able to reproduce.

EDIT:  Adding here that as we work through some of these issues, and suggestions and post that they have been resolved or added, through the monthly Blog Posts from our Product Team (listed below), keep in mind that it is always a good practice to clear your cache / cookies from time to time, as not doing so may prevent things from working even after they have been "Fixed".  PSA.  Thank you! (8/15/25 - CGBenner)

In addition to that, you will find here the consecutive list of all blog posts linked when it comes to platform updates around the community! We also will keep editing this topic with new blog posts released for convenience having it all in one place 🙂 

Navigable list of community issues or improvements mentioned including status:

Listing of all the blog-post regarding updates to the community and modernization in order oldest to newest:

• Community Redesign - Updates Since Launch - 12/06/24
• Community Redesign – New Releases & Office Hours Recap For This Week. – 12/12/24
• Community Redesign – Final office hours for the year – 12/20/24
• Community Redesign – Modernizing the Autodesk Forums – 01/10/25
• Community Redesign - February Release - 02/11/25
• Community Redesign - Update on Progress for Reported Issues - 04/04/25
• Community Redesign - April Release: Industry Hubs are live! - 05/07/25
• Community Redesign - May Release: We´re making important behind-the-scenes updates to the Autodesk C...
• Community Redesign - May Release: Migration Updates and what to expect this week - 05/22/25
• Community Redesign - May Release: Final Migration Round and what to expect this week - 05/28/25
  
• Community Redesign - June Release: Upcoming Improvements to the Community Experience - 06/26/25
  
• Community Redesign - July Release: Autodesk Community Platform Updates - 7/17/25
• Community Redesign - August Release: Improvements to the Community Experience - 8/8/25
• Community Redesign - September Release: Updates to Community Experience - 08/29/2025
• Community Redesign - September Release: Faster Community Experience and a Sneak Peek at Customer Ins...

Additional Notes:

Also, people you will see engaging with you in this thread will be @CGBenner and myself @Tarek_K. So please feel free to add us if there is something super urgent or elements you want to highlight. We are also highly proficient community users, but don't have the ability to fix things on the fly (where we can we will. :D) but we make sure that internally all goes into the right venue, will be looked at and discussed so you will see elements mentioned in the update blog-posts and also in the updated list above. 

So, let´s keep this new thread a single source of truth for the discussion moving forward - all from the old topic you should see reflected in the list, which we regularly update. 

If you have questions, or you think I should add something to this post let me know! 🙂 Thanks a lot for your support, patience, understanding and working together! 

[CGBenner]

@a.laasW8M6T 

Hi, Andrew!  Thank you as always for sharing your thoughts on where we are going on this.  It's great to hear the bad and the good.
We have checked on the breadcrumbs issue, and that one has been raised with our Product team and is on the table in this thread in Tarek's first post... Line #19 as I am told.  That means it is going to be looked at, but I don't know exactly when at this stage. 

The header is a slightly different thing, and is not yet on the list shown above.  We have some people looking into it as I write this, so hopefully I'll be able to give an update fairly soon.

[a.laasW8M6T]

Hi

thanks for the quick reply.

I am aware the breadcrumbs have been an issue on mobile for some time but what I am describing is new behavior, maybe only a couple of weeks old that there are now just .... instead of a partially cut off Fusion forums. 

Although now I think about it it could be due to having a new phone that has a smaller screen. 

[CGBenner]

@a.laasW8M6T 

LOL.... new phones are always an adventure.  In any case, your post has brought this back to their attention and we can make sure that they are aware of the behavior you are seeing now.

[a.laasW8M6T]

It seems both Issues are related to the different phone screen size

Nokia X20 Was what I was used to(6.67" Screen):

New Google Pixel 9a(6.3" Screen):

[CGBenner]

@a.laasW8M6T 

So, I have passed this information along to the team, and as I suspected it should be responsive regardless of the screen size.  But, thank you for sharing that as it might help as they dig into this new issue.  It is being logged as I type this.

EDIT: Line # 137 in the table in the top post.

[Simon_Weel]

Been a while. And when I was looking for this board, it was pretty hard to find? mentioned it before, but getting here is by far intuitive. Mainly because of this:

This branch only shows four boards:

The current board (meet & greet) is not included.

And then there's this:

A cluttered page with all kinds of seemingly random topics? But again, the current (this) board isn't there.

IMO, get rid of the branches Community Topics and Community Central and have all community forums gathered under Community Hub.

[a.laasW8M6T]

Good to see Pinned posts Back in the correct place.

Unfortunately there are now only 3 Pinned posts, I understand not wanting to have a large number of pinned posts at the top but 3 really isn't enough

You could quite easily fit more in if the formatting of the forums was more compact.

The old forums was quite nice and compact and allowed form many more Threads to be viewed in the available space.

The new one still suffers from a lot of wasted space

You might consider moving these sections up inline to save a line, there should also be a Bold bar between the pinned posts and regular posts to delineate them.

@CGBenner I was trying to find the thread with the A/B feedback from last year where I had Screenshots comparing the old/new format but I can't find it any where?

Another issue I have noticed is loading times for the Activity Feeds are often very slow now and seem to be getting worse

Also loading images that have been attached to threads has also become very slow.

Ideally people wouldn't attach images but would  add them inline by pasting from the clipboard or adding  here

Is there a way to suggest/prevent images from being attached here?

(this issue doesn't really relate to the Forum upgrade but could be improved)

[Cadguru42]

When is the huge, wasted space going to ever be fixed? Will it ever be fixed? It's been 9 months since Autodesk claimed to be working on it. Why is it taking 9 months to get basic UI design done? This is the state of the C3D forums as of 2025-08-20. Still can't even see a forum post without scrolling on a normal 24" screen.

And now after doing a full page scroll we can only see 3 full posts and a partial 4th post. Pinned posts finally got moved to where posts are (why was it ever moved in the first place?), but due to the absurd wasted space it now takes 3 full page scrolls just to get to user posts. 

The original post date STILL doesn't follow the user settings for date format after many, many months. 

As @a.laasW8M6T stated, the performance of the forums is worse than before this modernization fiasco. It takes longer to load posts than it used to. Pasting an image into a post takes 5-10 seconds before the image even shows up. There's no indication if it's working, either. I'm old enough to remember learning patients with dial-up, but this is 2025, not 1995.

I understand Autodesk is a $60 billion dollar plus software corporation and there's tons of red tape to go through, but after 9 months the forums should not still be in this state.

[a.laasW8M6T]

Hmm so that original thread is no longer able to be accessed

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/community-announcements/we-re-testing-a-new-forums-experience-feedbac...

Here's an example of a nice compact forum format that uses more of the screen, conveys more information and has more features

• No white space on the left
• Sticky vs regular threads are clearly identified
• Page numbering at the top for the "Activity feed"
• Page numbering in the thread  for the last 3 pages, makes it obvious the thread has multiple pages
• More Threads listed in the same page area

Even with the ad there are 10 threads shown here

vs 6 for autodesk:

The Autodesk Forums seem to be prioritizing aesthetics over Functionality

The reason I'm still pushing this is I remember how good the Forums used to be and how awful they are to use today.

[kerry_w_brown]

---

@a.laasW8M6T wrote:

<snip>

The Autodesk Forums seem to be prioritizing aesthetics over Functionality

The reason I'm still pushing this is I remember how good the Forums used to be and how awful they are to use today.

---

I'm afraid that I'll never see  'Aesthetics' and 'Functionality' in the AutoCAD Forum design, and Ive given up the battle as a waste of effort . I've lost any enthusiam I had for participating in the peer support forum.

Live long and prosper,

Regards,

[Cadguru42]

They deleted the original thread? Why? The only reason I can think of is to hide how long we've been asking for basic things to be fixed and they still haven't done it. 

[CGBenner]

@kerry_w_brown @Cadguru42 @a.laasW8M6T @Simon_Weel 

First and foremost - Thank you all for your passion when it comes to helping others on these community forums. 

Rest assured we are working daily with our Product team to address the issues on the list contained at the top of this thread.  As you would expect, serious issues and bugs are prioritized over cosmetic or aesthetic fixes/requests.  We try to keep this group as up to date as possible to what has been fixed and when, and I have tried to be as responsive as possible to new issues or reports of fixes that are still not working.  Reports/requests on the aesthetic look and feel of the forums are passed along, but to be honest these are very subjective.  6 people may have 6 different opinions on what the proper look and feel is.  We are trying to focus on the best mix of form and function based on the feedback we have gotten from a lot more than 6 people. 

The original thread from the A/B test was not removed to hide anything.  We don't work like that.  Everything from those older threads that got reported was captured and passed to the Product team, and is reflected in the list at the top of this thread.  The original thread got rolled up into the archive in order to start this Announcement forum fresh for new users.

Change is never easy.  I've been in these forums since 2006 and I have seen them change many times; sometimes for the better, sometimes not.  I try to keep perspective though on the weight these changes carry in my life.  If the forums aren't as pretty as they used to be that's not going to stop me from trying to help people.  I didn't take this job because of the look and feel of the forums, I took it to serve this community.  I get the passion coming from this group, but I know at the end of the day helping others is what you are all about.

Keep the ideas coming, keep the reports of what is broken coming, and I/we will keep doing our best to maintain a flow of communication.

[kerry_w_brown]

[quote]

 The original thread got rolled up into the archive in order to start this Announcement forum fresh for new users.

[/quote]

The 'archived' argument was used 12 months or so ago with the removal of forum discussions . . .  that's when this whole agravating redesign fiasco started.

[Tarek_K]

Hi all, 

the latest blog-post has just been published and added to the list of blog posts in the topic - also sharing here: 

• Community Redesign - September Release: Updates to Community Experience - 08/29/2025

The release should happen next week! 🙂

On a different note, there is no intent to hide anything; once you mentioned the topic was not accessible anymore, we saw that it was in the locked part of the community, which was due to the backend migration from months ago. So, again, no intent to hide, censor, or anything, and also back here in this board now for consumption.

Also, all the embedded list is updated with your mentions here! 🙂 

[kerry_w_brown]

@Tarek_K , @CGBenner 

1.) I access the Forum pages from a browser Bookmark to facilitate fast and direct access ( I imagine this methodilogy is used by numerous people )

Currently the actual fourum activity pages are not showing when the page displays . . . a regeneration of the page is required to display complete content.
[ using win 10 and latest chrome browser]

/////////

2.) I am disappointed that the much requested page navigation wigit has not yet been included at the top of forum pages

 

Regards,

 

[Tarek_K]

Hi @kerry_w_brown , 

I am trying to get to the bottom of the activity feed one - is there any chance you can when it possibly happens next time in a screen recording and send me? Also happy to have it via PM if you dont want to share broadly. Just trying my best to get something into hands which make it reproducable for the team - I have only managed to get the issue once and not afterwards anymore and tried in different ways people seem to experience it; so there must be something else going on. Every detail helps here. 

On the page navigation though it is on the top under the initial post, which is the prominent one all pages. Is it not showing for you or do you mean something different?

Hope that helps! 

Tarek

[kerry_w_brown]

@Tarek_K 

Today the Active Feed contents is displaying fully correctly on the initial browser load.

//-

The page navigation wigit is  displaying for Topic threads when the post count exceeds the "Linear Format: Posts per page when viewing a topic" <20>

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/net-forum/migration-guide-net-framework-to-autocad-2025-net-8-0/td-p/...

The page navigation wigit is  NOT displaying for Active Feed page when the thread count exceeds the "Display Settings:Topics/Threads per page " <30>

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/net-forum/bd-p/net-forum-en?page=4&tab=all

Regards,

[Curtis_Waguespack]

---

@CGBenner wrote:

Change is never easy.  I've been in these forums since 2006 and I have seen them change many times; sometimes for the better, sometimes not.  I try to keep perspective though on the weight these changes carry in my life.  If the forums aren't as pretty as they used to be that's not going to stop me from trying to help people.  I didn't take this job because of the look and feel of the forums, I took it to serve this community.  I get the passion coming from this group, but I know at the end of the day helping others is what you are all about.

---

@CGBenner, @Tarek_K , just some feedback...

This has never been about fear of change, or the forums "looking pretty" and I'm disappointed to see users' feedback being characterized and minimized in this way here.

This is, and always has been, about the fact that so many of the changes have not been improvements, and have degraded what was working to fix what needed improvement. And how these changes have severely impacted the user experience, and how the changes and the communication around those changes have fallen short of the quality expected from Autodesk.

Personally, I think the forum aesthetics have improved, and overall the site really does look better in my opinion. But it's harder to locate things and the degradation of functionality and navigation, along with the long succession of severe bugs introduced has caused and continues to cause usability issues.

To be abundantly clear, too much white space and the excessive scrolling it causes is not about aesthetics, and if you are hearing that, please take this moment to reset that notion in your mind, and truly listen to what users have been trying to communicate for all of these months. The feedback has always been about functionality, and about how the community teams have not been responsive to the community of users who have had to suffer from the compounding of the all of problems introduced... and how the changes continue to fall short of the stated goals of improving the use and navigation of this site.

The impact to the user experience of trying to use this site and these tools to both find and provide information about Autodesk products that Autodesk customers have paid for is very real, and there seems to still be responses like the one I am replying to that seek to admonish users for providing feedback. Throughout this there has been a demonstrated, on going effort on display, to ignore and not reply to user feedback.  But now it seems there is an effort to tell users to 'just be quiet if you can't be like me". 

anyway back to why I am here....

I came to this thread looking for a link or information for the community "Customer Advisory Board" that @Tarek_K mentioned at some point, that was going to be set up to help better connect users with the teams making changes. But I don't see any information on that here.

Does that exist yet?

If so, pointing people to that here would probably be a good idea.

If not, can you provide a status update or information about that here, so that users who are still interested in engaging in feedback can be aware?

[Cadguru42]

After Benner's response I am not going to do any more feedback. It's obvious that our feedback is being ignored and even attacked. Good luck everyone. 

[kerry_w_brown]

It makes me wonder what the functionality and aesthetics of the site site would have been like  without the constant input of the dozen or so people who cared enough to spend time providing feedback for this adventure.

I'm reminded of the 'trials of Sisyphus'

Stay well,