high DPI scaling completely broken with most recent update

[8261989]

It was previously possible to fix fusion 360 scaling for high DPI monitors using the windows compatibility settings by selecting "override high DPI scaling behavior: Scaling performed by Application". With the newest update, this no longer works. We are now stuck with incredibly blurry or blocky icons, text, and models. Is there any fix for this?

[elcrni]

Yep, the Fusion team seems to focus more on super urgent and more than important new features like browser sign in. Who needs usable and high DPI user interface... 

We had a solution, at least some solution while they work on proper scaling ability, now they disabled that temporary but great working solution, seems to me like "hey, what we could do to reduce the number of Fusion users?" kind of thing. 

[MAS.DPL]

Since April Update we've found that on 4K monitors, Win10/11 , Nvidia

The 'display scale' MUST be set to 100% to fix -  either Fuzzy display (over anti aliasing) or pixelated display (under anitialiased).
Where previously scale  could be any % without affecting Fusion.

DPI windows preview, and other windows tweaks  no longer make  much/any difference.

BUT at least latest Fusion now works well on 4k monitors with small text etc.  even if other apps follow windows settings... 

[Anonymous]

I would like the scaling to work, its super annoying to have to change the windows scaling from 150 to 100%

[8261989]

I'm having the same experience. I was previously able to use 125% scaling with no display problems for many years.

[lance.carocci]

If possible, do any of you have screenshots of what Fusion looked like for you prior to this update?

[8261989]

Here is a screen capture from a while ago. I was using Fusion at 125% scaling. Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots of the UI.

Basically the takeaway is the interface was properly drawn pixel for pixel previously. Now it's a smeary mess.

[lance.carocci]

Perchance, did it look like one of these images?

[8261989]

It's hard to tell given the smaller size of the images. I believe the bottom image would be indicative of the proper scaling you could previously achieve at say 125% -150% Windows scaling. The top image looks more like a proper 100% scaling which still works fine.

It's always possible to get a crisp display if you accept 100% scaling. The problem is that so many modern monitors, especially laptops, are so pixel-dense that the interface becomes impossibly small at 100% scaling.

[lance.carocci · Accepted solution]

In that case, could you try setting a Windows environment variable, restarting Fusion, and see what improves?

QT_ENABLE_HIGHDPI_SCALING = 0

[shipman_matt]

I'm not the original poster, but I can confirm that for my system setting the given environment variable restores the pre-April UI scaling behavior of Fusion (a huge lifesaver for me).

I observed the following behavior with display scaling set to 125% in Windows:

With QT_ENABLE_HIGHDPI_SCALING set to 0, the HighDPIScaling preview feature ENABLED in fusion, and 'Override high DPI scaling behavior' UNCHECKED in Windows compatibility settings, the interface renders at 100% scale.

With QT_ENABLE_HIGHDPI_SCALING set to 0, the HighDPIScaling preview feature DISABLED in fusion, and 'Override high DPI scaling behavior' UNCHECKED in Windows compatibility settings, the interface renders enlarged and blurry.

With QT_ENABLE_HIGHDPI_SCALING set to 0, the HighDPIScaling preview feature DISABLED in fusion, and 'Override high DPI scaling behavior' CHECKED (Scaling performed by: Application) in Windows compatibility settings, the interface renders at 100% scale.

Tl;DR - Your suggestion makes the UI behave exactly as it did before the update.

I really appreciate that you're looking into this; it was driving me nuts all week!

[lance.carocci]

Thanks for your confirmation. We will be deploying this change in an upcoming release, so it should not be necessary to use this variable long term - I recommend deleting it after updating.

[8261989]

I can confirm that F360 behaves exactly as it did before the update when adding that environmental variable. Thank you for the quick fix!

[CADacombs]

On a 1080 display with 125% Windows scaling, adding QT_ENABLE_HIGHDPI_SCALING set to 0, and enabling HighDPIScaling preview also sets the display to pre-April update state.  No Compatibility High DPI settings are enabled in Fusion's Application Properties.

Are Fusion's toolbar buttons supposed to be scaled per the Windows scaling?  Excel scales its buttons, but Fusion hadn't been before the April update.

[shipman_matt]

My solution was to drop a batch file on my desktop and write the following:

setlocal
set QT_ENABLE_HIGHDPI_SCALING=0
call %appdata%\..\Local\Autodesk\webdeploy\production\df098dc22bdb0532c3884db0a2d6182c8f8678de\Fusion360.exe
endlocal

(might need to fix the executable path on different systems)

...but for now that keeps the QT_ENABLE_HIGHDPI_SCALING environment variable from applying to any other apps utilizing Qt (and I don't have to worry about forgetting this has been set at the system level, later).

🙂

[lance.carocci]

---

Are Fusion's toolbar buttons supposed to be scaled per the Windows scaling?  Excel scales its buttons, but Fusion hadn't been before the April update.

---

Fusion 360 does not yet support DPI scaling by default on Windows. The Preview feature in Preferences applies to text, canvas, and UI, but icons are currently still 100% DPI PNGs (this will eventually change). As a result, while the entire UI will scale larger, the icons will become pixilated.

The result of the Windows-level override is more of a happy accident - it's a UI state I consider to be a bug, but I can see how it is an improvement if you prefer small, crisp icons to larger, pixilated ones. We should be able to restore this state, at least until high DPI support is ready for primetime.

[mbelusa.mail]

Somebody from development team save the fusion, dpi override already works again! Thank you 🙂

- change apperance also fixed!

[CADacombs]

After Fusion updated from 2.0.15775 x86_64 to 2.0.15995 x86_64, I deleted the QT_ENABLE_HIGHDPI_SCALING from the Windows Environment Variables and restarted my PC.  Fusion's GUI remained crisp.  I then disabled the HighDPIScaling preview, but the fuzziness returned.  I reenabled it, and the GUI is crisp again.  Again, I am using a 1080 display with 125% Windows scaling.

I'm happy with the GUI and am posting this for others.

[MAS.DPL]

I thought April 2023 Minor Product Update (V. 2.0.15995)  fixed this, BUT after windows reboot the problem still persists. 😞  

[MAS.DPL]

Here is a work-a-round solution to get BOTH 125% scaling on a 4K monitor (which is the default for people with normal eyesight) AND sharp Fusion360 - WITHOUT  'Jaggy' (no anti alias)  ..OR.. Fuzzy (low rez). 

The issue seems to be that Windows resets the 'High DPI set' in preview, preferences on every boot up.

SO:

1. Use 125% scaling on the 4K monitor - which will work well for all other apps, desktop (and now fusion).

2. Set Fusion to start with windows (or manually start)  (eg put a shortcut to Autodesk  fusionlauncher.exe into startup folder0

[ Fusion is:  in C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Local\Autodesk\webdeploy\production\6a0c9611291d45bb9226980209917c3d\FusionLauncher.exe  and Startup is: C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup ] 

3. With Fusion booted without  'High DPI set' in preview - now set  'High DPI' in preview to ON (tick) .. and restart as asked. 

4. Fusion is Sharp (no jaggy or fuzzy screen) - as it did before April 23 update. Remember to turn off 'High DPI set' in preview before Fusion is shut down, ready for next day .. 1. 2. 3. 

I  hope this helps until the issue is fixed without windows messing with 'High DPI' in preview