Work Saving Scheme

[sevenboarder]

I'm using Fusion for Mac and have come to realize that the software is very buggy and I often get crashes, probably hourly.  I'm fine with this considering what I'm paying to use it.  What I'm not fine with is losing work.  Almost every time I close my laptop and come back, Fusion crashes and I have to restart it (I'm guessing I should close Fusion before closing my laptop?).  On these laptop restarts and regular crashes while using the program, I often lose work.  Recently I lost about several hours of work which prompted me to find a fix (I figured an auto sync/save would have happened).

Is there a proper way to proactively save work in Fusion that isn't creating a new version?  I'm thinking it would be a cloud sync button to sync your workspace before leaving your computer or before running a CAM simulation (often crashes).  

I'm sure this is simple, I just haven't been able to find anything in my searches.  Thanks!

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @sevenboarder,

Welcome to the Fusion 360 Community!

I'm sorry to hear you are crashing so much! Hourly crashing is very atypical so I would like to address this issue. I checked your crash error reports (the error report dialog that pops up after you crash) and were only able to find two from earlier this month. Just to check - when you say crash, is it forcing you out of the program, or is it just hung where Fusion is in a "thinking" state (may turn white/data panel black). The only reason I ask is I will troubleshoot this issue a bit differently depending on what is happening. Also, if you are crashing (where the CER is generated), can you please submit those so I can review them. I do know that sometimes there are issues when leaving your computer idle too long and then coming back to Fusion after you computer has woken up from sleep.

As far as losing work goes - are no recovery files generated from this? I know in my preferences I have Automatic Recovery Save Time interval set to 5 minutes (so that a recovery will be saved during that interval). As far as auto-saving without versioning your design, I believe this is what you are looking for! (as when opening a recovery file it will just reopen that file and then you can save it as a new version if you wish after). To access your recovery files, go to the File menu and select Recovery File. 

Thanks,

[sevenboarder]

Good Morning @James.Youmatz, 

Thanks for the quick reply. Regarding the crash logs, yes, there has only been a few times that Fusion crashed and I got the error report prompt and Fusion quits.  The other "crash" modes usually consist of all the content in the Fusion window disappearing (usually while switching windows between apps).  I can't do anything to get it back besides quite the application and restart.  I would say it is a similar behavior to when opening/closing my laptop.  I click my Fusion session and all is blank.  I'll try and get  a screenshot next time and will for sure submit all crash reports.  If there is any log file I can send when this happens, let me know.

Regarding recovery files, this morning I had a crash and a recovery file was generated.  Unfortunately it must have been towards the end of the 5-min interval as I lost about that much work in CAM settings.  Is 5 min the minimum interval?

The crash where I lost a few hours of work, recovery files must not have been saving (maybe my internet connection dropped?).  In that scenario I finalized a CAM scenario, exported the post file and closed my laptop about an hour later.  The next time I opened my laptop Fusion had the blank screen, so I closed and reopened it.  I loaded my project and noticed I was missing several hours of work.  

As long as my instal of Fusion is unstable, I think I'll just keep versioning like crazy after any significant edits.  Thanks again for the help!

FYI, here are my computer stats:

Mid-2012 Macbook Pro

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

2.3GHz i7

16GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512 MB

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @sevenboarder,

Not a problem! Hmmm, that does sound strange. Definitely send a screenshot next time this happens! I would be curious to see. Also, my recommendation is to try to not leave Fusion idle/wake it up from sleep - just to save/quit Fusion before closing and then relaunch the software upon next use. I am curious to see if this is affecting performance. I have seen some other users post in the forums about this as well. 

Regarding the recovery save interval - 5 minutes is the lowest threshold that it can go. As you mentioned - I would continue to just keep versioning (and add notes! These will be helpful for organization) whenever you make big changes to your model. Also, give my idea a try of not leaving the computer idle for so long (but instead to relaunch the software. 

Let me know if that helps!

[ahsan.autodesk]

Hi @sevenboarder,

You can perform Ctrl-Shift-S anytime to force a crash recovery backup to be created for your file. So, if you think you've reached a point in your design that you definitely want to capture, but don't want to create a version, you can use this shortcut. The same shortcut on Mac is Cmd-Shift-S.

Thx and regards,

[sevenboarder]

Good Morning @James.Youmatz,

I've been closing Fusion every time I leave my computer and did have a crash last night.  As you mentioned before, crashing this often is rare.  Do you believe it could be my Fusion install or perhaps something in my model?  I've been using the same model the whole time and its kind of a mess.  

The whole reason I'm using a Mac is because of their insane reliability over PCs.  I'm not used to this much crashing.

Thanks,

-Keith

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @sevenboarder,

Hmmm, that's very interesting that it is just happening to one model. Perhaps there are some timeline errors or something along those lines there. Do you mind inviting me to the project (my email is james.youmatz@autodesk.com). What is the name of the file/the operation you perform in order to reproduce the crash.

Also, I checked  your crash error reports, but still nothing new has been submitted. Did you submit a report with your last crash? Also, can you private message me your email that you use for Fusion 360 - perhaps I am checking the wrong one.

Thanks,

[sevenboarder]

@ahsan.autodesk Perfect, I'm going to be using this a ton!

Thanks!