High CPU and blasting fans on Mac with Fusion 360 at or near idle

[john7DGQX]

First, I've reviewed old forum threads related to this topic in case there were any obvious solutions there. Nothing seemed particularly relevant.

Setup:

• I'm running the Fusion 360 trial, just installed a few days ago.
• Hardware/OS: 2019 16" Macbook Pro w/ discrete GPU, 32G RAM, macOS 11.6.1.

With an empty Fusion 360 document open, it runs consistently at 100% aggregate CPU, load distributed largely evenly across all six cores. Worse, it tends to keep the system fans running all the time, from low- to mid- level by audible volume. If I have the temerity to actually do anything, e.g. making a few lines and boxes walking through a tutorial, the fans scream at near maximum. Other CPU intensive work doesn't, e.g. big compiling jobs, don't tend to spin up the fans like Fusion does at idle. I'm quite familiar with parametric CAD suites; no other suite I've used demonstrates anything like this kind of poor performance behavior. That includes a web-based competitor.

Any advice?

This is not acceptable performance. I'm seriously evaluating Fusion 360 for CAM and possibly migrating some/all CAD workflow over from another tool.  But cranking up a high-end laptop's cooling system like this when barely using the software is ridiculous. What am I to expect when I start to push it?  Will it just fall over? Will my work be blocked?

[john7DGQX]

Any ideas? Are other Mac users seeing this problem (or NOT seeing it)? It’s not even clear whether my experience is an anomaly, “just what we put up with”, or something between.

Happy to provide further info to assist triage.

[sgingras]

Have you tried reinstalling Fusion?

How-to-do-an-automatic-Clean-Uninstall-for-Autodesk-Fusion-360.html

[john7DGQX]

Thanks for the reply.  I followed the macOS manual uninstall process, then reinstalled via a newly downloaded trial installer.  Result: No change; running 100% CPU at idle with a new empty document, fans immediately started whirring away.

Fusion 360 > About reports:

2.0.11894
Active Plan: Fusion 360, Trial
macOS 10.16 x86_64 (20G224) on MacBookPro16,1

[john7DGQX · Accepted solution]

For posterity: I filed a support ticket on this. Autodesk Support (thanks Tom!) quickly triaged the problem to an out-of-date SpaceMouse driver that had a known bad interaction with Fusion 360.  The resolution is to either update the driver, or remove it. I chose the latter course. Since this is on a Mac, that driver is located at /Library/Frameworks/3DconnexionClient.framework. Move "3DconnexionClient.framework" to the trash and (if needed) restart Fusion 360.

Now with a fairly complex sketch in flight, Fusion 360 is cruising along at a much more reasonable 3-5% CPU.

[michael55SE4]

As far as I know, what you're experiencing isn't normal behavior for Fusion360.  Until upgrading a couple of months ago to a new M1 16" Macbook Pro, I used a laptop very close to yours and didn't experience anything like that.  

[john7DGQX]

Thanks Michael. Note that I just posted the solution above, based on working with Autodesk Support. Root cause was an outdated and buggy 3Dconnexion Space Mouse driver framework. Smooth sailing now that the culprit has been identified and removed.