F360 2.0.3620 global UI bug: window unresponsive!

[teknoel]

I have confirmed a pretty nasty bug in this release for Mac OS X. I'm running OS X 10.11.6. I've confirmed the bug on two separate machines. A MacPro 2012, and Macbook Pro 2010. Both have the bug.

The entire 3D design window becomes unresponsive. I've spent a day trying to figure out the exact trigger to bug.

1) have F360 as active OS X application, running in foreground

2) switch to another OS X application that covers up the F360 main window. (or perhaps hide F360 with CMD-H)

3) switch back to F360

4) window rollover and click in F360 window contents is unresponsive. 

5) use menus in F360 to create new empty 3d design tab

6) switch back to original 3d design tab

7) now window contents in F360 are responsive.

This is a nasty bug!

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

Thanks for posting! I tried to recreate this behavior on my Mac (with OSX 10.11.6) but was unable to. If you can use the process you described in the original post to trigger Fusion to become unresponsive, please record a screencast illustrating this and attach it to this forum thread - it may help us recreate to look into your exact workflow.

We have seen a few forum reports in which Google Chrome specifically has caused Fusion 360 to become unresponsive when switching between the applications - this has been discussed in this forum thread as well as at this link. 

When you noticed this issue, were you using Google Chrome? If so, did you have many tabs open in Chrome? It seems that other customers have been able to avoid this issue by minimizing Chrome (to the dock) when it is not in use - if you minimize Chrome (or whatever other application you are testing with) to the dock, are you still required to create an empty file before Fusion regains focus? What if you shut down Chrome entirely?

This issues with Chrome has been logged internally (FUS-36422) and development will be looking into resolving these problems moving forward. While they address this ticket, I hope that minimizing the other windows to the dock (instead of leaving them up behind Fusion) will help you avoid this behavior. If you have not been using Chrome in your tests or feel that you may be experiencing something different, please attach a screencast of how you are recreating this issue - I am happy to have a look!

[teknoel]

Hi Paul, this issue has nothing to do with Google Chrome at all. Happens with any other app, Safari, Excel, Cinema4D, doesn't matter.

I just captured the bug with the autodesk screencast application. For this test I just opened Microsoft Excel and also Apple Safari to as another application. It doesn't matter what you're switching to from F360. I'm convinced it has something to do with window redraw when another applications window covers F360's window? I could be wrong. 

http://autode.sk/2iBZs6j

http://autode.sk/2iAZJGB

I'm honing down on the exact trigger of this bug. However, I did catch it on video capture more than once. It happens on two different macs with the same OS and same F360 version. 

- Noel

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

Thanks for the response! While this does not use Google Chrome, it does exhibit the same behavior as that issue. Would you mind trying to minimize the Excel and Safari windows instead of keeping them up behind Fusion? If the lack of focus in Fusion does not occur after minimizing these windows to the dock, we could be looking at the same behavior and issue discussed in my previous post - it may occur with any program, not just Chrome.

We appreciate you looking into this issue and sharing your findings! Please let me know if you have any questions.

[teknoel]

So does that mean this bug is already in the dev teams todo list?

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

If minimizing the windows instead of simply having them behind Fusion works to eliminate the focus issue, I believe you are experiencing the same behavior that our development team is aware of with Google Chrome. I will make a note of this on the ticket for FUS-36422 and am happy to log a new ticket if development would like.

We appreciate you bringing this to our attention!

[teknoel]

It seems to be the same bug... Minimizing windows is not an idea workflow
in reality though. More clicking than dealing with the F360 window refresh
bug itself.

- Noel

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

Thanks for the response! Fully minimizing the window is not an ideal solution, but may work to help reduce the effects of this problem while our development team addresses it. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause you.

[teknoel]

Hi Paul, I was wondering if you have an update on this nasty general bug... It's truly crimpling Fusion 360. I've never seen this kind of bug with another big app.

- Noel

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

Thanks for reaching out! Our development team is still working to research this behavior and has not been able to provide a solution at this time. As we have been having difficulties reproducing this issue, any further specifics you can provide about what exact processes are running on your system may be helpful for us.

I did notice you said this happened on a few different systems - do all the systems you have tested on have any specific applications that could be triggering this behavior? These could be peripheral drivers, screen-logging softwares, etc. 

I apologize that I do not have a solution to share at this time - the development team is researching this behavior and will continue working towards a solution. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

[teknoel]

Hi Paul,

I know that the issue is very pronounced on multiple machines. A Mac Pro,
and also a MacBook Pro. I upgrade to newer Mac OS and it still didn’t help.
It doesn’t even make a different if any other app is running behind F360.
F360 UI locks up so easily.

I don’t run any system gimos or fancy utilities at run-time. My machines
are extremely lean.

- Noel

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

Thanks for the response! While this issue has been consistent for you, we have been having difficulties reproducing on a number of different Mac systems. We will continue looking into this behavior, but I do think that it is possible that something unique to your computer may be triggering this behavior. We will keep researching the issue in hopes of finding the root cause - please reach out if you find a correlation to any process on your machine.

In the meantime, does minimizing the windows fully (as we discussed earlier on) work to help you avoid this behavior?

[teknoel]

I just find it hard to beleive…Every Mac I’ve seen it on does it. I will
try another machine yet to confirm this bug. If I must I will spend some
more time, getting to the exact trigger of the bug.

One thing I do a lot is use the Mac OS Dock. I use it to switch apps. I
OPTION click on a app icon in the Dock, which immediately hides the active
app, in this case F360, and then brings the next app to the foreground.
Perhaps this is the definitive trigger to killing F360 UI. This switching
behavior is built-into OS X since v10.0.0 over 20 years ago so it’s not a
new thing.

- Noel

[paul.clauss]

@teknoel

I have attached a video showing how the same behavior does not occur on my system to this post. This video should follow the steps in your earlier screencast, please let me know if there is any place our workflows differed. I did test the option>click in the screencast, as well as a normal click on the icon, but neither triggered the same behavior you are experiencing.

You mentioned that you have this issue on two separate machines - would you mind sharing the graphics information about both machines? Also, I would be curious to know what video card you are using - please post your graphics diagnostics on this thread.

[teknoel]

Hi Paul. I saw your video capture. I'm so jealous!

The bug is still big time on more than one Mac. The option-clicking in the Dock has nothing to do with it, I think. I just triggered the bug by bringing the Apple Finder to the foreground and then bringing F360 back.

I've enclosed my info for my two machines. Please see the attached file.

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

Thanks for sharing the system information! While the 512MB card is at the bare minimum of Fusions requirements and the 1GB video card is on the lower end, Fusion should still not be exhibiting this focus issue.

I did see that one of our QA professionals was able to reproduce this issue on their system after switching back to Fusion from Chrome after about a half hour of inactivity. The development team will be using this information to continue researching this behavior and I will share any updates with you on this thread. I apologize for any inconveniences this issue has caused - unfortunately it has been a difficult one for QA to reproduce and it may take some time for development to find a fix.

Does this issue occur if you only have two applications running? We have discussed this before, but are there any applications that are run by default on your computer that could be interfering (like Box Sync or a different cloud drive, display drivers, 3rd party antivirus..)? Any further information you can provide about when this occurs is always helpful - don't hesitate to reach out.

I'd also be curious to know if opening Fusion in low resolution or reducing the resolution of the entire display screen will help eliminate this behavior. Please try reducing the resolution on the monitors and let me know if it seems to help.

[teknoel]

Hi Paul, so sorry for the delay.

I have some good news that I've definitively found the trigger of the dead/stuck UI bug! To confirm and clarify this nasty bug, I decided to take a hard drive, wipe it, install a fresh MacOS system on it, and install Fusion 360. That's it. This would put an end to the issue of third party conflicts. The test machine was a Mac Pro (2012) with 48GB RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 (with 1GB). 

Again, this UI but shows up on multiple machines are various screen size etc. It shows up on an iMac, Mac Pro, and two Macbook Pros.

So, the trigger for the UI getting stuck is very bizarre. You don't even need to run any other application to make the bug show up. Merely having the Apple Finder is good enough to demo the bug.

Let me back up and explain what seemed to make this UI bug surface. I work with the Mac OS Dock in automatic "hidden" mode. The Dock slides onto the screen when your cursor gets close to the bottom of the screen. By default, F360's main window sizes itself to just above the OS Dock. If you resize the F360 window to maximize the window to the almost the same height as your complete screen, then the bug surfaces! I've reproduced this bug on various Macs here, all of which exhibit the bug with 100% probability.

I was going to use Autodesk ScreenCast to record this, but ScreenCast doesn't want to capture my full screen. This was important to illustrate this UI bug.

I had to resort to running a third party utility to record the entire screen. I know you may be jumping to the conclusion that this third party app may be causing the UI bug. However, remember, the bug shows up on a brand new system disk, fresh system with only F360 installed. 

I've uploaded the screen capture to my vimeo account as I didn't know what else to do here.

I truly hope this video helps show the cause the of bug.

https://vimeo.com/252248622

- Noel Rubin

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

Thanks for posting! We appreciate the sleuthing you've done on this bug and your persistence. I was able to follow the steps in your video and reproduce the behavior exactly - I have passed this workflow along to our development team, who will be working to resolve this behavior. 

I'll keep you posted on this thread when I have more information about a fix! I am very happy we have been able to recreate this on our end - I apologize for the inconveniences this behavior has caused you.

[teknoel]

I appreciate you forwarding my video... It took a lot of work to figure out the trigger. Please do keep me posted about a fix! 🙂

- Noel

[paul.clauss]

Hi @teknoel

I was just playing with this a bit more and found that, if I initially click in the design timeline area (doesn't need to be on a feature), that there are no selection issues after doing so. This is clearly still a bug, but making a habit of placing a click somewhere in the grey timeline area may prevent you from having to create a new file tab every time this occurs while it is addressed by development. Thanks again!