Fusion freezes when saving auto recovery

[novec001]

A few updates ago Fusion started taking auto recovery very seriously, refusing to acknowledge my existence while it's doing its backup. Depending on hardware specs and model complexity, it stays unresponsive anywhere from a blink of a drousy eye to quite a few seconds.

Is there a good reason for this sudden change of priorities? While a robust auto recovery feature is indeed important, an apparent program freeze does lead to the occational mild panic attack in the oblivious meatbag (me). As said meatbag's reaction time doesn't quite rival that of current (or previous) gen silicon, the sudden interruption can also lead to unintended clicks and key presses, with subsequent cleanup. These constant workflow interruptions plays none too well with already frayed nerves.

Is there any chance that auto save will go back to its previous, unobtrusive behaviour?

[paul.clauss]

Hi @novec001

Thanks for posting - I am sorry to hear that you've been experiencing problems with auto-recovery in Fusion 360. 

I haven't noticed any changes in the past few updates with recovery save times, so I wonder if this could be a network issue. I would recommend first checking your network settings against our guide for Fusion 360 - hopefully this will improve performance.

Understanding how recovery saves in Fusion work can also be helpful in avoiding these hangs. There is some good discussion around this on the forum thread linked here. From the sounds of it, increasing the recovery save interval and using the manual recovery save shortcuts may allow you to avoid the hangs while ensuring recovery files are created (albeit manually in some cases). Fusion needs a break in active commands to get the recovery file saved, so making a point to occasionally slow down when working with a large model can go a long way.

I hope this helps! If you feel like the hangs when saving are longer than they should be, please feel free to attach your diagnostic log files to this forum thread - I'm happy to have a look and provide any perspective I can.

[bmxjeff]

This is driving me nuts. It used to work in the background. Now it's every 5 minutes Fusion is stalling. @LibertyMachine mentioned he was having trouble with it too. 

It might be linked to a 3D controller? I see it the most when I'm closing the CAM Simulator. The simulator for Mac is already ticking me off : ) No defaults yet like the widows version. @jeff.pek Said they are working on this. 

Lets me know what I can do to help wrap this one up! I'll do anything!!! haha. 

[paul.clauss]

Hi @bmxjeff

Thanks for posting - this can be frustrating. I'll make sure the data management team sees this post - we appreciate you reaching out. For the time being, editing the auto-save interval to be greater than 5 minutes can reduce the hangs.

[LibertyMachine]

Sorry Jeff, my problem went away an update or two ago. I still have spots of lag at the autosave, but it MIGHT be all of 3-5 seconds. I can live with that. What you are describing..... /shudder

[bmxjeff]

@paul.clauss

Thanks! This was not an issue until a major update. They changed the way Auto-Recovery files were handled somehow. It was night and day. Honestly, it probably helped some people and Killed us. : )  

It occurs on Multiple machines I have. 3 Macs. All the same. Started at the same time after an update. I've flushed my cashes, and reinstalled fusion.

If there is any info I can provide, let me now. Thanks for working with us on this.

@LibertyMachine Better do more than "LIKE" my comment. Use your influence: ) 

[LibertyMachine]

@bmxjeff I can only do so much. I'm still a mere community member, just a slightly more vocal one 🙂

[bmxjeff]

Seth!

I'm trying to wrap my head around this one. You're right. It's only 3-5 seconds. It only happens in the CAM environment so far, when I close the simulation. They must be "Trigger" points for when it could crash, so they added in an autosave.

Getting a bug fix for CAM users is always slower, ... Same with Mac users... and I'm both : )  Double low priority. haha. 

[jeff.pek]

Hi Jeff -

We've been kicking this around, and so far have no idea what might be going on. We certainly haven't added any auto-saves.

Do you have crash reports submitted? 

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Right now it's pretty horrible to be honest. I'll draw for 3 or 4 minutes and then wait 2 minutes until the auto-save is complete. That feature is wasting 30% of my time, which costs a lot of money in the long run.

[LibertyMachine]

@Anonymous are you on Mac or PC?

[Anonymous]

PC. It seems like this only happens in "older" design files, as I created one today and went by uninterrupted

[paul.clauss]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks again for reaching out. I know that @James.Youmatz is continuing to investigate this issue with the team.

It may be helpful to have a look at your diagnostic log files if you could attach them to this forum thread. I'd also be curious to know the name of the old and new files - we should be able to look into any differences between the auto-save for the old file (in which the problem is occurring) and newer files.

A screencast illustrating the lag may also be helpful - our team has still not seen this problem first hand as we've been unable to reproduce.

I appreciate your input and look forward to hearing from you. Please let me know if you have any questions.

[Anonymous]

Well making a screencast would be difficult, but I took two screenshots

Imagine this happening for 2 minutes every 3 or 4 minutes

This is what using Fusion 360  has been like for the past... two or three months? I don't remember when it started

By the way, it hanged up again as I'm posting this. It's "Saving a Recovery File"

[bmxjeff]

Nice to see this is still a topic because it’s still an issue for me. I wonder if it’s not just older files but more related to larger files, maybe with more versions? 

[ahsan.autodesk]

Hi @bmxjeff,
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Can you please post your diagnostic log files so we can investigate this further?
Thx much

[bmxjeff]

No inconvenience Ahsan,

Keep in mind, I use a 3D connexion device. My model is always on the move. So, when Fusion goes unresponsive I notice right away. Maybe, making it seem more inconvenient. : )  

Our internet connection in Chattanooga TN is 10 gigabits a sec. So, there shouldn't be a lag on our side. 

Thanks for looking into this! 

[ahsan.autodesk]

Hi @bmxjeff,

Thanks for the diagnostics logs. Unfortunately, I don't see any issues related to auto-saves. I went through all the (hundreds of) auto-saves that were logged to the diagnostic files, and can see that auto-saves are properly getting triggered after every 5 minutes (which is what your "automatic recovery save time interval" preferences is set to). Also, each auto-save is taking only a second or so. It is possible something else is going on here. Can I request you to increase the automatic recovery save time interval on your machine to something higher? Say 15 minutes? That should definitely reduce the number of auto-saves for you.

Thx and regards,
Ahsan

[novec001]

Back when I first reported the issue, it seemed to be directly related to model complexity. Saving larger models would require more processing, maxing out one CPU core for however long it took to do its calculations, thus being more pronounced on my slower computers. Seeing as the autosave is purely local, internet speed should have little or no effect.

I don't know whether the number of versions have any impact, mostly because very few of my models have more than 10-20 versions.

Lately the problem seems to have improved drastically. I'm mainly working on one of my more complex models, on its 34th version, and the lag never seems to last for more than a second or two. It's hard to say whether that is caused by an actual improvement in Fusion, changes in my design strategy, or the fact that the model was created in October, several months after the problem arose, but the fact that a manual "autosave" is equally swift on some of my older models points towards the former. I haven't had time to work on them and give Fusion some actual changes to chew on when saving, though... I'll do some more testing in the coming days and report back.

[ahsan.autodesk]

Thanks for your feedback @novec001. It helps in knowing that recent changes have helped improve the save/auto-save experience. We have plans to further improve save performance in the next few releases. As you mentioned, model complexity (and size) has a direct impact on save timings. If you come across a model that is particularly slow, it'll be great if you can share it with us.
Thx and regards,
Ahsan