Stability Issues on Mac - Looking for Recommendations HW/Platform?

[Anonymous]

Hej Guys,

I've been working on Fusion 360 for the past two weeks and I have been experiencing quite a bit of stability issues, especially when an assembly reaches quite a few components tied together with a complicated geometry component (large hole pattern component, like a air vents). Almost everything I do (adding a base view in drawings, hiding/showing parts, adding new features etc. etc.) will crash the software or it takes a long time for models to load. 

I will admit I don't have the 'latest' MacBook Pro (late 2013, Core i7 2,3GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 750M) but I'm surprised how much it struggles compared to using other CAD software on the same machine. I know another Mac user that shares the same experience compared to our Windows wielding friend. 

I don't expect the Mac version to magically work over night, nor my HW to get any faster, so would the performance improve if I run native Windows on my machine? Secondly, what do you guys recommend when it comes to building a work machine for Fusion 360? Is there any benefit selecting AMDs multi threaded performance over Intels single thread performance?

Hopefully one day OS X will be just as good as Windows for 3D applications, but I'm not holding my breath.

BR
C

[TrippyLighting]

Can you share that assembly ?

I cannot say that Fusion 360 is less stable on macOS than it is on Windows. I run a Bootcamp installation of Win10 on the same machine  but mostly work on macOS.

[Anonymous]

I'd rather not share the assembly as I'm working for a startup with 3d modelling. 

Could the issue quite simply be that my HW spec is too low?

BR

C

[TrippyLighting]

You could share screenshots of your timeline, maybe the browser structure and the number of components and bodies in your design.

In my experience many users coming from other CAD platforms have developed workflows that are suboptimal in Fusion 360.

Also, you can share designs privately. While your IP is save with me be advised, however,  that I am "just" an Autodesk Expert Elite, not a Autodesk employee.

[Anonymous]

So the timeline is pretty long and difficult to screenshot. It could be as you suggest, the structure isn't optimal for Fusion 360, I didn't create it but I am working in an assembly that includes 52 parts embedded in the assembly file i.e. the different parts aren't linked to separate files.

Do you have any suggestions or if you can point me to the right direction of how Fusion prefers to structure assemblies for future use?

Thank you for the help, and I wish I could just share everything as it would be a lot easier...

Br

C

[TrippyLighting]

52 ports is very light for an assembly and on its own should not create a performance problem.

You mentioned patterns. Are these based on sketch patterns or feature patterns ?

Also, if you have contact sets enabled, turn them off!

[Anonymous]

It's a large part containing a feature pattern for hexagonal grill holes, so it has many holes and a lot of geometry. In this case I understand a performance drop, however it seems to cripple my system when working with the file. The assembly doesn't have Contact Sets in it, only rigid joints.

I have in the past made more advanced hole patterns (using Rhino/Grasshopper and CREO2) within larger assemblies and my trusty MacBook has been fine. However at some point I guess HW becomes obsolete and this is the main culprit in my mind as optimizing 3D software for 5+ year old Macs isn't that feasible considering the entire product support system.

If you have any tips for performance gains I'd be very happy but I might also just bite the bullet and get a new system at some point. 

Thanks for the help and all the best,

Christian

[TrippyLighting]

If you don't need to modify the part that contains that pattern, then you could set that part to "unselectable". This will speed up viewport performance.