Why is Fusion 360 so Slow on a Brand New Macbook Pro???

[tranq006]

Hello All,

I have used Fusion 360 for years, and  while it has never been the fastest/smoothest program on Mac, I recently got an MacBook Pro with M2 max chip and 48GB RAM, and Fusion is still laggy all the time. Is this just inherently a problem with Fusion and Macs? I have the fastest Mac on the market and yet the program is slow. Any thoughts? I often get the spinning color pinwheel after doing simple commands like escape, orbiting, or doing a feature. And it is not constant but is off and on, still very annoying

[Drewpan]

Hi,

One thing I do know is that sometimes the default settings on PCs and Macs do not suit the software and need to be

manually changed. An example of this is that many apps will only run on a single processor core unless you change

that setting. This is certainly the case on the PC and probably similar on a Mac.

Another common issue is that the graphics card drivers definitely need to be the latest and if there is an option to

optimise the driver for certain apps then this also needs to be manually done. It isn't always about actually getting

under the hood to optimise these things, just press the button and the system does it for you.

Finally, sometimes the OS will run apps in a virtual machine that is not obvious to the user and again is a setting the

user needs to change manually. So you might not have all the memory available to the app because the system has

only allocated a portion for use.

In my experience with a new system it is almost always these annoying things that you have to change because Apple

and Microsoft both set things up so that most programs will RUN, not necessarily run WELL.

Cheers

Andrew

[TrippyLighting]

@tranq006 that is definitely not normal. Would you characterize this as graphics-based?

I remember another poster also reported similar problems.

I cannot confirm, however, that Fusion has not been the fastest or smoothest on macOS. I have performed extensive performance tests in the past to see if there are any differences between Windows and macOS, and there aren't any to speak of!

Can you share a model that exhibits such problems?

@Drewpan , I am not going to state that your assessments about Windows and Fusion are nonsense; they are just not my experience. At all!

Your assessments about Apple hardware and software, however, are pure speculation and do not reflect reality! 

[Drewpan]

Hi

I don't want to start an Apple PC war but while I am a PC user, I am also familiar enough with Macs to know that Apple

specifically does not allow certain things to be done with the UI that can be done at the underlying level that you can

access from the command line. Apple does this because under some instances with some software it will break the OS

so Apple restricts it for ALL instances. This is something they have ALWAYS done with Macs and it wasn't until they

started using OS X, which is based on a version of Unix, that the underlying changes were made more available to

"power users". There are certainly things that can be set at the command line level that the User Interface will not

allow you to change.

The default settings on ANY OS are typically default because it causes less conflicts with buggy hardware or badly

written software. Apple "just works" more readily than Windows because Apple restricts the amount hardware

combinations and tests them all. This is something that is impossible with Windows because there is so many

different vendors it is impossible to test it all. Hence Microsoft also defaults OS settings to the combination that

leads to less conflicts and lets hardware and software vendors work it out.

In my experience, many people go through these type of issues often when they get new hardware and software. They

then go looking for a solution, find it and move on and forget all about the fact it was an issue until a similar issue

prompts then sometimes years down the track.

The forums of the internet are full of user supplied power user and work around fixes. Some of these forums exist

because Apple and Microsoft refuses to support these fixes because it would break their OSs for the common user.

Some people do some very specific things with their systems and sometimes a default is the one thing holding them

back from squeezing out maximum performance. It is not unreasonable to point to default settings as the root cause

of issues and Apple is far from innocent in the way they set things up.

My Dad was a Mac Man and I spent many years doing technical support with him solving problems he had with his

Macs. On many occaisions a switch or setting fixed the issues. It seemed pretty real to me at the time.

Cheers

Andrew

[TrippyLighting]

I agree with anything you said in your post, with the exception that, in my experience, it does not apply to how Fusion runs on a particular piece of Mac hardware. I've used (and still do) Mac computers since approximately 2008.

The entire reason I got into Fusion was that the CAD software of choice needed to run natively on macOS.

If there would be any OS setting that would make a significant improvement to how Fusion runs on a new M1 or M2 mac, then I am sure the Fusion team would have released some information about that. Quite a few of the Fusion team members run new Apple hardware! I am speculating here so I am going to tag @lance.carocci to confirm 😉

On a PC, that can be a different story, but even there, it almost exclusively relates to graphics hardware and driver issues.

The OP stated that "...it has never been the fastest/smoothest program on Mac." This can be misinterpreted as meaning that it is faster/smoother on Windows. That is not the case on an Intel MacBook Pro. Most of the feedback I've gotten is that runs very well on Apple silicon. 

The OP's post contains little useful information.

The are some very rare M2 Mac-related issues.

However, then the OP complains about needing the Escape key to interrupt an operation. This usually happens when the geometric modeling kernel encounters problems, and it often happens when less-than-ideal modeling practices are at play.  In my experience, 90%+ of performance issues can be tracked down to less-than-ideal modeling practices. 

That is what I want to get to the bottom of 😉

[laughingcreek]

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@TrippyLighting wrote:... 90%+ of performance issues can be tracked down to less-than-ideal modeling practices.....

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We should sell this on a T-shirt.

[tranq006]

It is not repeatable enough to pin it to happening with a certain feature or command (other than escape key out of a command often causes a lag), but randomly during use the screen will freeze up for a second and then get the spinning color pinwheel (indicating loading/lag) and it can be really annoying when I am in the zone and trying to work. 

[tranq006]

The vast majority of lags and spinning loading wheel is when I hit escape key to get out of, for instance, orbiting, a dimension, a sketch command, etc.

[MichaelT_123]

Hi Mr LaughingCreek, TrippyLighting, Fellows

... and 10% on the back 🙂 ... and a golden F tattoo on the forehead if one is F_Orthodox. 

I think the performance issue is a multidimensional one.

• Modelling practices ... absolutely,
• The structure of the Fusion's modelling method paradigm (there are many) ... for sure,
• The quality of individual algorithms and their implementations ... can not be denied,
• A model itself ... could be pretty demanding,
• Because it is Friday ... time is stretched out,
• Because it is Monday … and a head is still under the spells of Friday
• The moon and planets are misaligned ...
• Put your legit reason here …

Regards

MichaelT

[MichaelT_123]

Hi Mr Tranq006,

... on such intermittent occasions, quickly check a performance monitor ( or whatever it is called on Mac).

Such events also happen on Windows, when a bloated team of cleaners, sanitisers, and now cookie gatherers unleash their AI potential.

You can not wrangle with them, can you?

Regards

MichaelT 

[HughesTooling]

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@tranq006 wrote:

The vast majority of lags and spinning loading wheel is when I hit escape key to get out of, for instance, orbiting, a dimension, a sketch command, etc.

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The creation of backup files can cause this. Backups cannot be created while commands are active so quite often when you exit a sketch backup is triggered, the bigger and more designs open the worse the freeze. I've also noticed if you try manipulating something in the browser while Fusion is frozen it will cause a crash. I've noticed this when I click to expand a folder or change visibility, nothing seems to happen and if you click again Fusion crashes!

[tranq006]

I'm talking this will happen frequently throughout the design process, including at the very start of designs. So this rules out modeling practices, model complexity, etc. 

I will literally start a brand new design and frequently getting the spinning loading pinwheel for lags

[laughingcreek]

just troubleshooting here.  try working offline for a while and see if your getting the same issues.

[RajkumarIlanchelian]

@tranq006 I am catching up on this thread (thanks @TrippyLighting for pointing me to this thread) but we would like to work with you to understand what could be happening here. 

For starters, are you seeing long launch time? The next time you hit this lag, go to Fusion- help- support and diagnostics - service utility - gather system info- this will generate two zip files, please attach both the files here. 

Likely we will have to go over this log files a few times before we can start looking at patterns on when you are experiencing this slowness. We have many of our engineering teams that are on Macs with M1, M2 and M3 and we do not notice these slowness in the production environment. 

I will also be forwarding this thread to our engineering team that looks at Fusion performance for guidance. 

[LishuangLu]

@tranq006, Would you please try below two things in your side and see if the performance can be improved?

1. Change Fusion into Offline mode 
2. Disable High-resolution canvas graphics on high DPI display from Preferences->Graphics->Display. 

Thanks, 

-Lisa

[tranq006]

Still have same issue, it most often occurs when hitting escape key within a sketch

[LishuangLu]

@tranq006 Thanks for your quick feedback! 

So I think your current result is with both offline mode and High-resolution canvas graphics options disabled. 

Would it be possible for you to record a video and share with us? Meanwhile, what about uncheck the sketch Profile, is that helpful? 

Thanks, 

-Lisa 

[tranq006]

Here is an example of a typical lag, this is just one example 

[tranq006]

This video perfectly represents the lags I get in regular simple workflow, it is so irritating! Simple parts, sketches, and commands, and constant lags. Tried working offline same thing