Fusion 360 Electronics May 2022 update

[RichardHammerl]

Hi everyone,

the May update offers a bunch of new features and improvements. Now Fusion Electronics has a Layer Stack Manager with a Materials Library and we now support slotted pads!!  There is some more to discover in this post. I hope you will enjoy.

Layer Stack Manager

Laying out a circuit board does require that the electronic engineer follow specific guidelines to assure the circuit board is manufacturable. The guidelines include clearance between traces, trace width, annular rings, and many other rules that need to be considered. Before laying out your board, the first step is determining how many signal layers your board will need. The most common layer stack consists of 2 or 4 layers, Fusion 360 can handle up to 16 signal layers. In this update, you will now be able to specify the material used for your Surface Finish, the Conductive weight property for your signal layers, and the type of dielectric material (Prepreg or Core) used to separate each layer. PCBs that require high speed, such as DDR, will use very different layer stack properties than a high-voltage power supply design. With this implementation, your manufacturer will better understand your design's expectations and closer to reality simulation results.

Support for Slots

It is finally here, many of you have contacted us asking for support for slots, and we delivered. Slots are commonly used for components subject to manual interaction, such as USB-C connectors commonly used to charge your phone or audio products. I have seen many blogs explaining how to create slots in EAGLE and Fusion 360 using a workaround of a long pad with a manually drawn slot. For this update, that is all in the past; with support for slots, you are now able to have that USB connector with slots created quickly.  

Improved Handling of Panels  

The Fusion 360 electronic workspace is surrounded by helpful panels that make it easier to navigate your design. This convenience makes the Fusion 360 electronics workspace area crowded, especially when working on laptops or desktops with small monitors. You have asked for a better panel docking experience, and our team of developers once again has delivered. With the new panels, whether by drag and drop or by context menus, it is now easier to relocate and place them, and configure them per your preference to be floating or docked, tabbed or stacked, or collapsed or expanded.  Don't worry, your layout preferences are saved per environment/workspace and saved across sessions as well!

New Package Editor Template added to Library Workspace

Fusion 360 includes a large number of libraries that consist of parts created by our team of librarians and components added by our partners, such as TE Connectivity, Würth electronics, and many others. There will always be times that making your component will be necessary, and with Fusion 360 this tedious process couldn’t be any easier. The library editor does include a package generator that consists of several templates that only require inputting the mechanical specification. In moments, you will have the footprint, and 3D model created. We are excited to let you know we have now added a new template for Radial Dipped Rectangle parts with this update. This package style is different from the Axial component since the leads come out of one end vertical to the board. This component is somewhat different because its construction uses a plastic dielectric material made from a polymer. Radial dipped capacitors are highly coveted due to their low distortion factor and frequency characteristics. Such components are great for applications that require high voltage environments and high-frequency applications such as coupling/decoupling circuits, audio circuits, and many more.

New Fusion 360 Add-In: Ultra Librarian

The Autodesk Fusion 360 App Store is a marketplace that allows partners and 3^rd party developers to extend the capabilities of Fusion 360 by providing Add-In and Plugins. We are announcing that Ultra Librarian has developed an Add-In for our Fusion 360 users for this update. Ultra-Librarian has a significant amount of electronic CAD components available. With this new Add-In, you will never have to leave your Fusion 360 design environment to find the parts you need for your design. You can quickly find verified parts in their ever-expanding database of parts. From the search results list, select the component you need, and in moments, you will have the complete component created in your library, including the 3D model, ready to be used in your design. The component description includes links to the specification sheets and providers.

User experience improvements: New Icons

Our user experience team has improved the interface with a new set of modern-looking icons to make it clearer, and better distinguish the assigned command. 

Option to load 3D model when loading electronics design (Under Preferences)

Fusion 360 electronics is a design environment directly tied to the 3D model. Working with the 3D model provides you the convenience of getting a realistic preview of your design and e-cooling simulation capabilities. For your convenience, loading your design would automatically load the Schematic, PCB, and 3D model. Depending on the complexity of the design, loading the 3D model might take several moments. You could use this time to work on your schematic or layout of your board. With this update, you have a preference that lets you control whether or not the 3D model opens with the rest of your design files.  

Sync library index

For the past few years, the meaning of workspace has drastically changed. This could be working from home, the office, or on the road, including the use of multiple computers. By switching computers, it is relatively common that you might lose many of your design environment preferences. The foundation of electronics design is based on the libraries being used. From now on, your library preferences travel with you. They automatically load when you log into your Fusion 360 account from any computer. You will no longer have to navigate the repository of libraries to activate the ones you need to continue working. This feature makes Fusion 360 electronics portable and streamlines your design time by automatically loading your library status preferences.  

[jesper8W75R]

@RichardHammerl 
I find it almost offensive, that you come with this post and try to blow sunshine up our behinds.
Especially in the light of this disaster release.
Features isn't worth anything if the program cannot run propely.

I just spent an hour after a crash, trying to recover my work as the crash rendered my files totally out of sync.


What a great program, really love those icons, Richard.
Maybe a little darker red on the delete icon, then it'll be perfect.
Keep up the good work.

[RichardHammerl]

Hi @jesper8W75R ,

I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble with crashes and I guess you are already in contact with support to track this down. 

This post here is not meant to, how did you say?  "try to blow sunshine into....well, whatever."  No, it's a list of new features you / all our customers got with the May release. Our team is working hard, not just on a shade of lighter/darker colors for the icons, but also on improvements of existing features and on new features.

It's not fair to discredit all their efforts and actually I talked to some of them to explain that jesper8W75R is a nice guy who just wants to work with a perfect software solution for electronics design. Your expectations are legitimate and we would see issues fixed rather today than tomorrow.  Rest assured, we are working on it.....

Best regards,

[jesper8W75R]

@RichardHammerl 
I might come out most of the times I guess as a bit of an as*****.
But yes, I _am_ a nice guy.
I just get really pis*** when nothing happens on the bug fixing side.
Look at the forums ... Full of problems with this and that, especially with this last release.
And, as you know, since our video meeting a year ago, most of the bugs we talked about then are STILL NOT FIXED!
But okay, yes, you're working on it. 
Right.

And now you say: "Our team is working hard, not just on a shade of lighter/darker colors for the icons, but also on improvements of existing features and on new features."
Oh, I'm sure you are.

But, has it not occurred to you, and your colleagues, that maybe this is not really what we want?
We, or at least _I_, want a program that doesn't crash several times a day, gobbles up all my CPU and memory and which doesn't force me to jump on one leg while performing all kind of weird workarounds to get some work done.

IMHO, your focus is WAY off target.

I use a lot of VERY complex software on my Mac. 
They doesn't update every few weeks, simply because they don't need to!
There are ZERO bugs (well, I'm sure there is at least one, but no-one have ever seen it yet).
They work at reasonable CPU consumption and NEVER crashes.
I have NEVER lost any of my work with these programs, but I do with Confusion Electronics.
Almost daily.

So, PLEASE try stop developing new features until you have fixed what we already have.

Oh, despite what I have said earlier, I didn't mean to discredit the work of the developers.
I am blaming the management. 
I guess should have told Matt that 😉

[jonrbloom]

I think the problem is that some of your customers are beginning to get bug burnout. There are so many issues with the current software (even before this latest release) that it is getting depressing trying to work around them all, so we do get a bit short-tempered and a little sarcastic. And when we do work around the bugs we're left with a confusing array of UI related 'idiosyncrasies' that become intolerable when your patience has already been exhausted by the bugs. The last thing we want to see when we feeling this way is a jazzy announcement about wonderful new icons, instead of "We've been listening, no new features this time, just stability and bug fixes".

Justifying the bugs with "Well Fusion has a 6 week release cycle, and there are lots of different h/w configurations, so it is impossible to catch all of the regressions in that time" is not an argument. Autodesk chooses the release cycle, and force-feeds it down our throats whether we like it or not, with no way to go back to an earlier version. If it is not possible to properly validate in that time, then change the release cycle (don't merge the Electronics changes) and make sure it is correct, or give us a way to delay the update. This is meant to be a commercial tool, which means your customers will be using it in their jobs. If your forcibly break it every 6 weeks, it costs them money and eventually they will look elsewhere even if the competition doesn't have such pretty icons.

I'm lucky in that I use it only for 'fun' (Yeah, this is such fun), but even I can only take so much. The only reason I haven't given up is that I don't want to start my design (and libraries) from scratch on another package. For my next project, I will be extremely reluctant to even try doing it with Fusion.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @jonrbloom and @jesper8W75R,

Remember how on another thread I mentioned both the May and the July release. The july release will be a strict focus on stability. It's a general initiative for Fusion 360 to start regularly doing stability and quality of life releases(with little to no new features). 

We're working on the issues you and other have reported, but like I mentioned in a previous post we'll really see the stability improve after the july release. I know it's six weeks away, in the meantime there will probably be a hotfix or two that should holdover until then.

I'm reporting the thread up the chain as well, so this is being noticed.

Best Regards,

[silvio3105]

You have a beer for me if that update makes Jesper happy 😄

[matt.berggren]

It's ok Jesper, I may be a bit coy but I am always listening and reading posts -- outlook doesnt yet have good enough filters to let me gauge sentiment and read only the most urgent so I have to be 'the smoking man' some times and try my best each week to catch up.  I think it's only fair to say that Richard and Jorge and others can only do their best to anticipate when certain fixes will come out and some just take a bit to get right.  We are still actively refactoring a lot of the EAGLE code to balance a modern approach to architecture (the kinds of folks I can hire) with a more traditional "C with Classes" approach that was in EAGLE.  In some cases (more cases than we would hope) we are forced and quite willing to delay a fix until the fundamental problem is addressed.  In some cases we get it right.  Others we get it wrong.  But it's never something we do lazily.  Just cleaning up the layers to enable the layer stack editor was one example with very very long tentacles and which forced us to deal with a lot of stuff that was fine in the days of structs with color-by-number but which wouldn't enable the current layer stack system to come in.

Anyway, at the risk of saying something bold and getting in trouble for sharing too much:  July is one of several planned releases to address what we term Customer Debt (ie we owe you, not the customer owes us).  In this, you will see mostly fixes and small but useful improvements.  It is what in my previous life we would have called a 'get well' release or a 'fix it' release where we take the major items that we have within our control and tackle them.  It has been underway for more than two months so we are investing heavily in cleaning up some otherwise very painful things and moreover, streamlining the workflow.  We dont have a major release planned for June or this would be the June release.  It is something more than 60% of my dev team is working on.  It is how we repay you guys for the 'gentle' feedback and patience.  😉  (Sure hope you can take that the right way and not chop my head off for a bit of Friday humor.)

We know not every release is going to address the list of issues that are of most concern to individual people but I will stress that the recent issue with the licensing framework that is causing both you (Jesper) and RichieParis frustration is something I am seriously sorry for- and something which does sit within my team, but also doesnt sit well with me.  I am fighting hard to get this fixed because, alas, it hit me too and I am someone with less patience than you might expect.  I'll update you when I know more.

Best regards,

Matt 

[jonrbloom]

@jorge_garcia - I didn't see that post (or have forgotten), but that is very welcome news. Thank you.

[matt.berggren]

Quick note:  I said "does sit within my team" but truly, I promise - it doesnt!  If it did, I would be sharing an update on it regularly.  Yikes, what a difference spell check makes.  "I do...n't" 🙂

[matt.berggren]

I'll send two to all of you if that's the case.  July is shaping up with a lot of his 'major' items but not everything is on there.  I will reserve judgement.

[scott_j_swaaley]

Ugh. I'm crashing too.

See post: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-electronics/tabs-don-t-work-crash/td-p/11198659

I'm a paying customer and second everyone else's thoughts. I paid for a set of features - make those work reliably before you add more. Yes - the icons were confusing before. But that's way less important than things like repeated crashes and sluggish performance on something as simple as schematic.

[scott_j_swaaley]

@jorge.garcia - I appreciate your response, thank you. The only thing I'd add to clarify is that I think it's that exact prioritization that has people frustrated. From the perspective of customer experience, these low level bugs, crashes, and UI quirks are infuriating things we experience every single day. A new feature (like, literally - any new feature) is at best a nifty thing we might use one day ... maybe. It's like delaying a foot surgery so you can buy a Porsche. If this was open source and free, I'd shrug it off. But now that I'm paying for the software and trying to use it for my business, it's a different story. I'm half tempted to bail and just go back to Eagle. At least I already know those quirks and it won't change.

[silvio3105]

Well, I'm still on making my own libs. I encountered few weird UX decisions - https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-electronics/how-to-properly-import-symbol-and-footprint-am...
components have per footprint attributes, cannot import multiple symbols/footprints(and 3D packages) at once.

and only one bug that crashed Fusion - something with move command. If I click too much on the line(on other object) it will crash.
It's hard to reproduce, but that bug is not fixed for like year or so.

Other parts I did not use.

Also, I'm curious how dev team is divided- does Fusion has dev team specially for Electronics part or managers move devs from Electronics to other parts of Fusion and vice versa?

[RichardHammerl]

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Also, I'm curious how dev team is divided- does Fusion has dev team specially for Electronics part or managers move devs from Electronics to other parts of Fusion and vice versa?

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Hi @silvio3105 ,

there is a dedicated development team for electronics.  And in my opinion it's the best team I've ever seen and worked with. 

Have a great weekend.

[Behrouzakt]

I think most of the people commenting here are too nice.   I cant even get the basics to work.  I was hoping to use this version as i have a new project but it is so buggy that i cant risk using it.  I have already spent most of my day trying to get things to work.  I feel so ripped off you from Autodesk for putting so much  garbage out that I am forced once again to go use Kicad which I know that it works and its free!!!!!

I am looking at the some of the comments and I can tell you this is the worst quality ever produced by a team for software developers that I have ever seen!  To me a team of software developers is not just a bunch of coders but an entire process which includes all levels of testing (unit, module, system, regression).  It is obvious there is none of that in the electronics group and the quality speaks for itself! utter unusable garbage!!!    

[jesper8W75R]

I couldn't agree more.
It's sad.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @Behrouzakt,

I hope you're doing well. I encourage you to open a new thread explaining what issues you are running into so that we can help. I understand you are frustrated, but I need more info on the specific issue you are running into in order to help.

Best Regards,