Fusion 360 Toolbar Icons Disappeared After April 2021 Update

[dan62Q5E]

Good afternoon. Since the update, I cannot see the icons in the Application Bar, Tool Bar, or the Timeline. The bars themselves are visible as grey strips and the functions are *there* and can be clicked even though they are not visible. I'm using a PC with Windows 10 Pro, 32GB RAM, and a GeForce 1660 6GB graphics card.

It just so happened that my Hobbyist/Personal licence expired today. I renewed it and the licence shows it is now valid until 2022. I don't *think* it's the cause but I thought I'd mention it in case I'm wrong about that.

So far I've tried a number of things to correct the problem but have met with no success. Things I've tried:

1. Restart Fusion 360.

2. Restart my PC.

3. Log out of Fusion 360 then Log back in. This caused the program to get stuck at the launch screen but I was able to correct that by logging into the Autodesk Desktop App and then launching Fusion 360.

4. Uninstall/reinstall Fusion 360.

5. Update my Nvidia GeForce driver to the latest version.

6. In Fusion 360, changed my video driver from DirectX 11 to DirectX 9 and even tried the OpenGL driver.

7. Uninstall/reinstall Fusion 360 using Fusion 360 Cleaner uninstall tool.

I've attached a Screencast capture of my dilemma to illustrate the problem. I'm not sure what else to try and would be grateful for suggestions.

Thanks,

Dan

[dan62Q5E]

Hi @lance.carocci 

First, the graphics diagnostic data from Fusion 360:

[GPU Information]
GPU Device: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
GPU RAM: 6016 MB
GPU Driver API: DirectX 11.0
GPU Driver Version: 461.92
GPU Driver Date: 03/13/2021

Second, the graphics driver information from Windows:

v.461.92 Date: 03/17/2021 (why the date differs between Fusion 360 and Windows, I'm not sure).

Third, switching back to English from French results in the affected UI elements disappearing again.

Fourth, clicking on the new document "+" sign (or rather, the blank space where it should be) results in new documents being created. I can tell because as I glide the pointer across the screen I see Name: Untitled (read only), Name: Untitled (read only)(1), and Name: Untitled (read only)(2). I can switch between the open documents but the UI elements are missing no matter which document is selected.

Finally, about that screencast…

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/bae317a7-ab1b-4fe8-a24e-8cd404e4b702

[dennish2001]

I have Windows 10 20H2 and have exact problem.

[Bt_HU]

  I solved it on my own machine. I was lucky because it didn’t cost me money (which I don’t have right now).
The source of the problem was the Nvidia GeForce card with 1GB of RAM, for which the 2017 driver was the last one released (which produces enough functionality with any other SW anyway).
It now has 2GB of RAM with AMD Radeon Vega 11 Graphics, it works with the current driver.
----
For program developers if you help
- the management of the language interface is not uniform
(all languages worked, only the default English didn't - I think it's directly programed in source, not a data).
- due to the above drive replacement, it is not clear whether the RAM / manufacturer / driver caused the undetected error.

[jamesdickerman]

Windows 10 is not secure. Other countries have warned companies NOT to upgrade to 10.

Is there a way to undo updates or stop future ones for those of us with older machines?

[jamesdickerman]

0

[jamesdickerman]

Only screwed up in english mode.

[Anonymous]

When changing the language, everything is displayed correctly. For example French.

[r.j.v.benthum]

After some help on installing Desktop App I was also able to sign in again and come back into Fusion360. 

Still ending up with the with bars as mentioned. Switching it to the German language as suggested brought back all the bars and icons. At least I can continue again, but hopefully a fix will be found so that the English UI also works again.    

[lance.carocci · Accepted solution]

Hi all,

We have identified a possible cause, workaround, and upcoming fix for this issue.

For the most part, the impacted GPUs are legacy, and may not support DirectX 11 - it is unclear why newer cards like the GeForce 1660 would be impacted, especially with newer drivers. Normally, Fusion can catch this and fallback to a compatibility mode, but it seems like this is not happening, resulting in a failure to initialize rendering of the toolbar UI.

---

One potential workaround is to force Fusion 360 to use software rendering by setting a system Environment Variable.

1. Right-click on My Computer/This PC on the Desktop or in the Start Menu and select “Properties”
2. In the left column of the System window that appears, select “Advanced System Settings”
3. Within the System Properties window that appears, click “Environment Variables” in the bottom right
4. Within Environment Variables, click “New…” under the System Variables section
5. For Variable Name, enter QT_OPENGL
6. For Variable Value, enter software
7. Click OK to save the new variable
8. Launch Fusion 360

---

If this is indeed the cause, we should hopefully have a permanent fix in an upcoming patch that would allow you to delete this environment variable. Please let us know your results.

[dan62Q5E]

Success!

My missing UI elements are once again visible in English. Thank you very much for figuring this out; much appreciated!

ETA: This ALSO FIXED my problem with Meshmixer 3.5 which would crash IMMEDIATELY on launch. Sadly, it also broke my Chitubox slicer but that's something that I can live with until a patch is released and I can delete the environment variable.

[xelinik]

Works for me, graphic card - 9600GT.

[dennish2001]

Thank you, It worked for me

[lance.carocci]

---

This ALSO FIXED my problem with Meshmixer 3.5 which would crash IMMEDIATELY on launch. Sadly, it also broke my Chitubox slicer

---

That's good to know, but unfortunate about the slicer. QT_OPENGL is a framework-level variable that most Qt-based apps likely respond to - for better or worse, as you've experienced. I will connect with someone on the Meshmixer team in case they are experiencing a similar issue.

[dan62Q5E]

The Meshmixer issue has been plaguing people for a long time so I'm sure they're aware of it (and will likely be happy to hear that you've discovered a fix for it).

The slicer problem isn't a big deal. I don't use it on my main PC anyway because it already didn't render correctly (which their team is looking into) so no harm, no foul; having Fusion 360 back is far more important to me at the moment.

[iridaHE6ZM]

yes that has fixed the issue for me also, all the icons and timeline are now back in english, thanks you for the effort in finding out the problem and providing a solution

[Papaul]

Lance   This fixed my problem on both of my Old HP  Windows 7 Machines running a NVIDIA FX 4600.  Thanks for getting back up and cutting chips.   Paul

[livitabre]

Hey,
Unfortunately it didn't helped in my case... 
Do you have any other ideas? 
When I switch to italian, it works great. But as soon as I get back to english it disappears... 
I'm running Win7. The garphic drivers are updated, I already reinstalled Fusion.

[lance.carocci]

@livitabre would you please include a screenshot of the Environment Variable window, and remind me of your graphics card and driver information?

[livitabre]

@lance.carocci  thanks for the fast reply.

Unfortunately this is in polish (my mather tongue), but "Zmienne systemowe" simply means "System Variables".

About the graphic card - it's some internal Intel device. I believe it's very old, but it worked so far. I tried to click on "driver update" from menu below - it answered with dialogue that the driver is already updated. 

[jeff.pek]

Have you tried "software" instead of "angle" for the QT_OPENGL environment variable?

  Jeff