Multiple Instances of Fusion 360 on Windows?!

[tookemtoni]

I've been working with Fusion for 2 years and I didn't know about this until a friend just told me: You can run Multiple Instances of Fusion 360 on Windows. (I don't know about Mac)

It's been great especially when work between a part and assembly.  Or assembly and a drawing.

I am sure that others didn't know about this so I thought I thought I'd share it.  (and I didn't see any threads about it)

[TrippyLighting]

This is a very bad idea!

At the very lest you should N.E.V.E.R work on the same data set with two different instances of Fusion 360!!!

The reasons are so obvious that I don't see a need to even explain why!

@jeff_strater 

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

I probably wouldn't run multiple instances on the same machine, mostly because of compute/memory resources.  If you are working with a large model, Fusion can consume large amounts of memory.  I would tend to just have different models in different tabs in the same instance.  But, I suppose there is an advantage of running different instance on different external monitors.  I would be hesitant on that, as well, just given the problems Fusion has had over the years running even a single instance on multiple monitors.  If you are very careful not to try to edit the same model on different instances (use external components, open a child component in one instance and the top-level on another), you might be able to get away with it, but I agree with @TrippyLighting - this is not something I would recommend.

[3d_low]

Hello fellows.

I've been doing that for the last 3 years. Main assembly in the left, sub assemblies in the right.
Or Assembly on the left and drawings on the right. Or different sets of drawings on 2 instances. The fact is, the 10-15 seconds fusion is busy calculating something is time i can spend doing something else on another fusion. 

I make a modification to the source and get latest on the right after that. While one fusion is "frozen" calculating ill use the other one . It's been working flawlessly and i havent melted a computer nor have i had a major problem. I'll have to clear cache from time to time since it bloats up but thats all. I would never work on the same assembly on two different instances at the same time however. 

I say that this boosts my productivity by AT LEAST 25-35% which is absolutely worth it considering my hourly rate. I can't figure out what would be so dangerous about it. I can't possibly understand why someone would not benefit from this and i was completely shocked when i learned that people were not leveraging this. 

The funny thing is that i got the idea from ADSK. I linked the original picture that gave me the idea.  ^_^

[laughingcreek]

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@3d_low wrote:... i was completely shocked when i learned that people were not leveraging this. ...

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So far I haven't found a windows programs that  WON"T work in multiple instances.  I also do this all the time with pretty much everything I use.  

[lance.carocci]

Part of the issue is that Fusion 360 locks and writes to files with the assumption that it is the only Fusion client session doing so. While this could (and maybe someday need to) change, there is some architecting needed under the hood to truly support it as an intended user workflow.

In most cases, Fusion 360 will continue to run happily and won't implode, especially if the app sessions do not touch the same data; but every now and then...

[matt.fame]

FWIW I'm running two instance of Fusion for the first time right now. One file will probably be converting for a couple hours, then the second instance doing normal daily stuff. The project files are unrelated. Right now I'm 45% RAM of 32GB and no problems. I'll update if something goes south but hey, it works! I thought I'd check the forum to see if this were possible / problematic / or ill advised.

From what I remember, Solidworks did NOT run multiple instance. It seemed to lock the toolbox and other stuff so the second run wigged out and threw errors.... But that's been awhile so maybe the newer version can handle it or maybe there was a work-around.

Update

Yea, I run several mesh operations which at LEAST took an hour each. CPU load seemed pretty light on that Fusion instance but RAM loading was pretty heavy. I highly recommend this trick for efficiency. After the operation I switched back and forth as I had time.

[deses12]

How do I run multiple instances, then? Do I need to install the program two times? 

[TrippyLighting]

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@deses12 wrote:

How do I run multiple instances, then? Do I need to install the program two times? 

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If you read through this thread, you'll find that this is not recommended. Since the time of my comment in this thread I had conversations with several other Fusion team members who strongly advised against it!

On a Windows computer you simply start Fusion twice. Not only is it that simple, it is also exceedingly simple to discover! Again, I would not recommend it. Anecdotal reports  of it "working" do not alleviate any of the risks involved! You have been warned!