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Official Linux support through Wine

Official Linux support through Wine

This has been asked in some form a couple of times in the past.
Though I would like to add some arguments why this should maybe taken as a serious request.

I get that Linux does not seem like a typical target platform for mechanical engineers but especially Fusion 360 touches an audience that may have previously not engaged too much with mechanical CAD at all but has now embraced Fusion 360. I know from personal experience that at least in my industry many colleagues have and that the wish for a Linux version is much bigger than one might expect.

I for once use Eagle professionally at work a lot and the interconnection between the tools is a super exciting feature but the fact that I have to boot a VM for Fusion is a huge hurdle in the workflow.
A lot of my work revolves around Linux for various reasons, one being f.e. that all the good open source software for working with embedded systems runs best or only on Linux, so using Windows or Mac professionally would never be a serious option for me.

 

I'm sure people of other professions who might not immediately identify as mechanical engineers are also profiting from a good and lean mechanical CAD tool in their work and might already do but also boot into a vm or dual boot to run Fusion at the moment. Just think of all the people doing research. Any scientific research that takes place in the physical world profits from easy and rapid physical prototyping. The success of desktop 3D printing and desktop mills like the Bantam/Othermill in this areas is proof enough that there is a large demand for this. On the same side a lot of researchers utilize Linux in their work because it makes their work easier or even possible at all.

 
Now the interesting thing is that the support for Fusion through Wine is actually very far already. There are mostly rather minor things that keep it from running flawlessly. I would never expect Autodesk to write a native port from scratch, unless your toolchain would offer an easy path for this I can't imagine this would ever be profitable for you.

So I want to suggest that Autodesk might approach Codeweavers to do a full 'port'. Codeweaver does this as a commercial service and they are largest maintainers of wine and have made windows software work for a lot of large enterprises in the past.
You can find more details here: https://www.codeweavers.com/porting

 

I have no affiliation with codeweavers other than that I am a user of their software Crossover.

I hope you give this a thought and at least get in touch with them.

17 Comments
MESO-DI
Enthusiast

I want to add that port in this case means adding features to wine and fixing bugs. So there is not necessary a code change in Fusion itself needed or maybe minor things.
So in terms of maintainability that is a whole different game than a true native port.

Performance wise Wine is top notch nowadays, especially since the great work of dxvk and Valves proton which made DX11 a very stable and performant technology in Wine.
With Valve this technology already has an industry giant backing this technology and is continuously improving it.

sonstwienix
Enthusiast

Perfect suggestion.  Maybe Autodesk could ask for a price and even crowd-fund the whole thing in part. I sure would give -  because i am currently a hobby user and havent paid for the software it would seem a fair thing.

(Although i have made my employer purchase a license to let me play with it a work.)

It is soohh important to support Linux in light of what Windows has become.

awernerCX5EF
Explorer

I agree. In my robotics research workspace everything related to productivity is Linux based. For now I am running a VM (VirtualBox) just for Fusion. Fusion is just the right CAD for this - small snappy new age CAD for a wider audience.

walbert.schulpen
Community Visitor

I run 100% on Linux for design. Until recently I used blender for 3D cad, but F360 is much more convenient! F360 is the only reason I run a windows VM again. I would love a 100% wine compatible F360.

Anonymous
Not applicable

After reading up on aan article about Non-planar printing my interest for Linux just got a bit higher again.

So what are the chances that Autodesk will support Fusion 360 trough Wine?

Should be easy enough, because in WineHQ it gets marked Silver.

When it is gold/plaitinum then it is useable for production.

 

Until then I need a VM i'm afraid.

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Welp... My whole work was dependant from Fusion360. After I switched to linux, lack of support for F360 is actually making me really-really sad. 

AutoDesk, I completely understand your position on Windows, but Linux gained much more support, "thx" to Windows with it's messed up system. If you make a port for Linux users, that will be gamechanging for us. Linux community NEEDS a good and modern CAD.  

Personally, I just don't want to touch Windows ever again. But as most of Linux users here, I'm running a VM for it. 


Make our dreams come true, please 🙂

jounathaen
Explorer

+1

Linux has a non-negligible status in the maker community.

Anonymous
Not applicable

In WineHQ there is a status of silver.

So I guess that it should be possible for people to get it to work for the near mortal people on Linux.

Maybe this helps?

https://lutris.net/games/autodesk-fusion-360/

 

Don't know if it works for you.

timW73UW
Community Visitor

+1. I run it in a VM now, but wine would be preferable, though a true native port would be the best solution.

Anonymous
Not applicable

I did get fusion 360 running on Linux today.  I spent 7 hours trying to get Lutris working on Ubuntu 18.04.  Here is what worked.  I'm sure Autodesk could make this easier for us by working with Lutris.  There is some random cutoff text and the icons are tiny on my 4k monitor, but I was able to open a file and create a turning setup and facing op.  Too late to test further tonight. 

 

1 Install Pop!_OS (I hate the way its layed out but I can probably fix later)

2 Install WINE developement v4.17 through Pop!_shop

3 Install Lutris through Pop!_shop

4 Install Fusion 360 through Lutris

5 Click next a lot

6 change preferences in f360 from automatic to directx9 (read that i needed to do this, didn't try without.)

Anonymous
Not applicable

It seems to be working, except that I can't get it to postprocess to a usb.  It seems that the file posts, but it can only be found through fusion 360/wine. 

sonstwienix
Enthusiast

I switched to Linux Mint and installed Fusion360 via Lutris too. I laughed hard when i saw the perfect startup while remembering how broken the window-drawing is in Win10.

Not everything works however. Some overlays do not minimize correctly and when you move tool windows, they randomly jump around... and some sketch lines are not drawn correctly. Maybe that is due to the new 2px wide line drawing that they felt necessary to hard code. 

However i rather deal with those problems instead of Windows..

 

It is a bit crazy that Autodesk does not support Linux. It is a valid choice for makers.

Anonymous
Not applicable

I did figure out the problem with post processing to a usb.  It was in one of the WINE settings, and I just tell Fusion 360 to post to E:\ and WINE saves it to the USB. 

 

I do have some problems with menus remaining when F360 is minimized.  Also the microscopic text is iritating on my 4k monitor.

 

I didn't bother to post again, because I wasn't sure anyone was paying attention. 

MESO-DI
Enthusiast

@Anonymousthat is great news! Thanks for posting your updates, I'm sure this will be helpful to others.

sms043
Participant

I tried fusion 360 yesterday and I was so impressed. The part I had worked on for 4hr in freedCAD only took 1hr in fusion. What a great product. I like fusion 360 but don't like windows. IMO many in the maker community support non-Microsoft OS. I wish autodesk would support running fusion 360 in wine or even native Linux. 

I would even be happy with the fusion 360 web version, hope autodesk gets it released! 

 

BTW I am a long time ubuntu user with a dual boot system. My PC feels faster on linux and I can run my old games in wine that no longer work in windows 10. 

 

Steve

joao_mamede
Enthusiast

DirectX9 doesn't stick anymore in new fusion360 versions. I disabled all the DLLs and that happens.

 

The software runs with dxdv. but that initial fusion360 logo keeps flickering in. 

Anyone knows how to manually switch to dx9 in a configuration file?

sonstwienix
Enthusiast

I am having the same problem. Additionally Fusion crashed on window/drawing-area resize, so that i cant even open my project browser any more.

I am not sure what changes. Since Fusion refuses to update on Linux, i am not sure if it is an Autodesk doing or if Wine changed. There is some coincidence that this happens right after the end of Win7-Support. Either this changes stuff, or the influx of new Linux users gave too many crash reports that are technically not supported but change their statistics...

 

Btw, th DX9/DX11 option is not the only option that is forgotten, try changing the UI-Language - not happening  😉

I very much regret now now having a backup of my WINE-environment 😞 It would be easy to go a few weeks back and check.. sorry.

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