Screen Shot Issues (Mac OS X)

[Anonymous]

Dear Autodesk Fusion 360 team, 

I've got a question regarding to Fusion 360 (latest version) and screen shots on Mac OS X (10.11). Selective screen shots for windows aren't working for me. The output file is just the modell view window without the side menu and toolbar. It seems both are implemented as seperate UI's. 

But I really need to make screen shots on smaller window sizes than my full screen resolution of 2560x1440 pixels. For demos and providing some help for our FabLab community. 

Can someone fix this any time soon? 

Best

Markus

[Phil.E]

Thanks for asking. Just to be clear, did Share Screenshot work as you expect in the past?

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Ahh there is another method 🙂 Good to know! 

That's not what I'm looking for. I need the menu and symbol bar to make sure everyone understands the single steps. Producing screen recorings costs much more time, bandwith and is not useful for a very quick overviews.

I prefer the system wide default keyboard shortcuts for doing screenshots:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201361

Especially Command-Shift-4 and than space key. 

[Anonymous]

This is happening because the toolbar and browser are hovering over the main window. the Cmd+Shift+4 then Spacebar keyboard shortcut you are using is to take a screenshot of single windows. If you were to use this on your mac desktop you will find that you can separately select the desktop background, individual files, and the dock as well. And you will have the same efffect in applications like say AutoCad where the toolbars and layers are floating windows over the main drawing space.

If you omit the spacebar you could drag a selection box of the part of your fusion window you want to capture. the issue will be that its not as precise as you won't always be able to select exactly the same area every time. 

Alternatively you could temporarily change your screen resolution to a more appropriate size, then full screen your fusion window and use the Cmd+Shift+3 shortcut instead to caputer the whole screen. (in system prefs you could set the dock to autohide so its not in view)

I understand this may not be what you are looking for, but the reason Cmd+Shift+4 then Spacebar is not working for this purpose is not the fault of Fusion, but more a shortcoming in how that shortcut is inteded to work.

Niels

[Phil.E]

One free alternative is to use Autodesk Screencast and just provide entire videos.

https://screencast.autodesk.com/

Screencast by itself is a terrific teaching tool because it captures keyboard events along with mouse clicks. I use it to teach Fusion and Inventor all the time.

You can embed the Screencast videos too! Here is an example of me showing how to work with sketches and sketch dimensions without actually editing the sketch:

Here is a screenshot of what you see on the Screencast web site:

Also there is a little trick I use to capture active dialogs and dropdown menus: use Screencast or JING (also free, by Techsmith) to record a video then play back the video and pause it when I want to take a screen shot. One thing this allows me to do is perform the entire workflow and take my screenshots in a separate workflow. JING also takes screenshots and will focus on an entire window without any random dragging a selection box. So you can get consistently sized images for your entire workflow.

Thanks,

Phil

[Anonymous]

I'm not a huge fan of the Autodesk Screencast utility. 

It looks and feels extremly "beta" and everone who wants to use it have to upload their screencasts to Autodesk. Post Production, let's say with FCP X, seems to be impossiple and embedding those movies into our Discourse community like every other major VoD content is a terrible. Sorry, but that not my taste. I guess a lot of you Autodesk guys are also unhappy about this utility. 

Maybe some suggestions:

 1. Fix the default way of doing screenshots. You're user base will thank you!!! It is a problem of Fusion 360. The menu bars didn't belong to the right hierarchy of you're model view controller. You'll need to integrate the meues into the main window and not as an extra fancy overlay window. On OS X, that's the most common way to do this. I didn't know ANY other application with this kind of behavior. Except some very old multi window apps from Adobe (yeah, that kind of company that failed with Flash and is loosing more and more shares)

2. The share menu: It's nice to crap some screenshots of the model. Indeed. But how can I simply save this screen shots to my desktop? Do I always have to share it on you're way? And how can I disable the grid lines and turn the background to a png alpha channel? This is what I'm expecting from this kind of menu. 

3. You've cited AutoCAD. The app is hundrets of years old (in IT time calculation). It's one of my reasons why I switched to Fusion 360 (<333 ). Please don't use it as example. 

4. Why don't you integrate you're Screencast utility (with improved export functionalities) into Fusion 360 and other apps? The current version is about 60 MB large. 

5. JING: It look like, I need have Flash on my system. No, thanks. I don't want flash "movies". I prever h264/h265 and html video players. Another single-feature-app for just doing screenshots is somthing a windows user could handle. Thats one of the reasons why malware is so prominent on windows. No, thanks. I want it natively. PLEEEEEEASSE! ❤️

Thank you all in advance,

Markus

[Phil.E]

Markus,

Okay, one at a time.

Screencast is a free utility that is designed to record and upload to the cloud. This cloud upload is on purpose, it is the primary function of Screencast - sharing. As a free utility that does so much (mouse and keyboard capture) it is really only designed to do that task and us used primarily for education. It's not a fully featured video editing software, for that I would recommend you buy Camtasia. Is there some other free video utility that I could compare Screencast to? Can you explain what makes it feel Beta? Thanks, your opinion helps and I can pass it to the Screencast team!

I also found another way you could try. Did you ever try Shift + Control + command + 4? This lets you draw the bounding box and will capture all menus and dialogs that are showing. You must paste the results into another program.

For your points:

1. No. The way the UI is laid out is not likely to change. It's not an accident and easy to work around. Other than your ability to record screen captures, what purpose do you think our user base really wants it all on one layer for? I'm interested in your opinion of this because I've never heard it.

2. If you just want to save to your desktop, have you tried Capture Image? It's on the file menu. This also allows for transparent background, look for the setting in the dialog.

Here's the dialog:

Results:

PS: if you just want to turn off grid for any reason, use the grid visibility control in the Navbar menu (center bottom of screen).

3. The other user cited AutoCAD and appropriately so regarding this discussion. We love all of our products, btw. Glad you found Fusion!

4. Screencast is integrated into Fusion, you just have to install it. Your suggestion would put that extra 60 MB into each Fusion installation and not everyone wants it. We like to provide the fastest download we possibly can for all customers and allow for Screencast integration for customers who like it.

5. Other than JING and other solutions provided here, I know of no other free utility that will do what you want. If other users can help I would encourage them to chime in. Otherwise, you may need to find a professional (i.e. paid) solution to do the very specific things you need.

Thanks for all the feedback, please let us know if you have more questions or comments!

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Thanks for you’re reply.

My current workaround for doing all sorts of screen captures on OS X is via Quick Time Player. Apples app is providing this feature for free.

I know the Command-Shift-4 (control is not necessary) key binding. This is working, except you’re app is positioned on one of the four screen corners which are activated as “hot corners”. Than it will become annoying and even through it is, because every single screen shot has not the same dimensions. They vary a little bit. Therefore screen shots looking some kind of unprofessional.

Regarding to you’re screencast utility and why it feels so “beta”:

1. The UI is inconsitant. Dropdown menus, backgrounds have different colours. Typos have different sizes.
2. The system wide default for accessing the settings is not listed under the upper menu either the key binding of CMD + Comma
3. Under settings > storing local data: I would expect h264 output and some folder where I can review / post process my content before uploading it.
4. I would like to have some other VoD provider like YouTube or Vimeo for a wider range of clicks, views and user base at all. There is more than the A360 universe.

Thanks so far.
It’s getting late here at Germany. Maybe we continue some day.

[Phil.E]

Glad you have a free solution that is working for you. I'll have to give Quick Time Player a try.

1. Not sure what you mean, a picture or two would help. Thanks!

2. Sounds like a needed improvement, I'll tell the Screencast team.

3. Again, this is not a professional video editing tool, it's supposed to be free and easy. Would you pay for a more highly developed version, similar to Camtasia, if we developed it?

4. Thanks for your feedback and we're happy for you to use what ever tool best suits your needs. I hope we make Fusion and all Autodesk products work well together and also with other products. This is important to a great experience for you, the user!

Thanks again for your candid feedback. I'll be sharing this thread with the Screencast team so they can respond or just be aware of your ideas.

Good night and take care,

[Anonymous]

I don't think you can really fault Fusion for the way that Cmd+Shift+4 > Space screen capture behaves. The menubar ribbon on the top and model browser on the side are not part of the main window for good reasons (you can undock an move across you outside the window and over to another screen for example). You can find plenty of other software examples that use the same interface paradigm. For example in Sketchup I like to have my layers palette of my second screen, or in Sketchbook Pro I move my tool palette around which is a floating UI element. None of these would show up in Cmd+Shift+4 > Space screenshots either.

But even if the toolbar and browser were part of the main Fusion window, you still wouldn't be able to capture any dialog box related to a tool or feature you were performing on your model. The same would be true for say Rhino, if I was doing a loft or other function, this would spawn a pop up with parameters related to the loft. 

However, as a potential solution, I found an application called SimpleCap (http://xcatsan.com/simplecap-en/download.html) which allows you to take a screenshot on a per application basis. This way ALL instances, floating elements, and dialog boxes belonging to a particular application are captures into one image. Also It lets you set up a predefined region as well. I think this may be what you are looking for. Its a bit old, but still works for me on Yosemity. 

Hope this helps,

Niels

[Anonymous]

To conclude this discussion;

Doing some simple screen captures isn't easy at all.

- Video captures with Autodesk Screencast utility are limiting users in post production and publishing ways. Otherwise it’s free and cross-platform.
- Video captures with Apple’s Quicktime player (OSX only) are pretty quick and everything I’ll expect from such kind of utility.

The most important feature, doing screen shots, is pretty annoying me.

OS X, and that’s one of the reasons why I pay x-times more for this system instead of using Windows, is the seamless user experience. The window system of Autodesk Fusion 360 with multiple toolbars and menus – THAT ARE BY DEFAULT DOCKED TO THE MAIN WINDOW – makes it impossible to do screen shots at once. I bet with you, that 95% or more (I guess you can measure it) aren’t undocking those toolbars from main window. And that’s why I stay at my opinion: This paradigm is soooo 1990’s in user experience. None of my current apps providing me relevant elements on separate windows. – EXCEPT one example: The system wide color picker. But I guess, that’s the very only exception.

I will remind you, why it’s so bothering me:

I’m doing a lot Fusion 360 introductions (advertisement!!!) at our FabLab and under my fellow students. I really love the concept of community-driven, cloud storage and cross-platform capabilities. ❤️

Therefore I’m very disappointed about the whole line of this discussion:
“Go, and look for some other screen shot utility. It’s not our problem at Autodesk. That’s how we do and we’re not interested into screen shots. We want movies and all of them at our platform”. – That’s my impression.

Advanced OS X users will understand me. Screen shots with “CMD + SHIFT + 4 + SPACE BAR” are the most beautiful way of doing them: No need for additional apps (potential malware), time, money and resource investments (like this discussion), and last but not least they are looking (with shadows) and alpha channels so damm pretty, that I’ve always been asked for…

I attached a screen shot for the Windows users, why I’m so happy about the OS X benefits of doing them this way:

[Phil.E · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your feedback and for the most part I agree, but one thing you said is not fair.

"Therefore I’m very disappointed about the whole line of this discussion:
“Go, and look for some other screen shot utility. It’s not our problem at Autodesk. That’s how we do and we’re not interested into screen shots. We want movies and all of them at our platform”. – That’s my impression."

Your success is our problem here at Autodesk. We take it very seriously. This is why you got instant attention to this post and several very detailed options were described for you so you can have the best possible experience, right now. I could tell you your suggestion was our number 1 new goal, and you would still need to do your screenshots today. So we're trying to help you today.

The fact is, we are not going to change the toolbar behavior any time soon. If you want to make a suggestion, place it on the Idea Station and make a good case, perhaps other users will find some reason to bind the dialogs and toobars as you suggest to solve your own problem.

Here is the Fusion 360 Idea Station:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation-request-a/idb-p/125

Here is the forum for Screencast, you can also let them know what you need. I'm sure they would love to hear from someone like you who needs better tools for education.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/screencast-general-discussion/bd-p/58

Thank you, and I mean it. Obviously you have a passion for Fusion and a passion for the work you do. We truly have to serve many customers as well as just one, so by changing the entire UI architecture to help you, if it were possible tomorrow, we'd do it. We can't right now.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much Phil!

I really appreciate you're attitude, time and support. Autodesk is THE most honorable company in this business sector related to education and modern tools. I'm studying Medical Engineering Science in northern Germany. Doing rapid prototyping, image analysis and combing diffrent modalities like CT and MRI images with features all together into CAD models is my personal passion. Our university has it's very own focus on medical imaging and medical education. Therefore it's a pleasure for me, to introduce my fellows into the field of medical 3d printing, CAD construction and a lot more machinery options.

Fusion 360 is due to my work here at the FabLab our primary and highlighted star of software recommendations! We simply love it. ❤️

Thank you and you're team all in advance!

[Anonymous]

On almost any occasion I require screenshots of webpages, mobile apps or other software. It’s not always possible to get it done on pc, let alone do this for free. Over the years I’ve tried all sort of tools like Skitch (part of Evernote if I’m not mistaken), Skim (based on Ghostscript) or iCapturer. They are generally ok, but many of them are based on taking snapshots after having opened the image in an external tool like Photoshop or Gimp.

In short, with Quick Time you can do screen recordings with audio and saving the movies in AVI-, MP4- or MOV-format. You can also take screenshots of your screen while recording what you hear. 

Also it is very easy to take screenshots on Ma using these steps: https://themacios.com/take-screenshot-on-mac-crop-screen/

[TrippyLighting]

This thread is absolutely ancient!

I've worked with Fusion 360 for years on macOS (and still do) and Have not encountered any problems.

In fact, the out-of-the-box screenshot functionality in macOS is much better than the stuff that comes free with Windows 10.