Install Fusion 360 to a different drive

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me how I can install Fusion 360 onto a drive that is not the default C: drive? I have very limited space left on my C: drive and would like to install onto a different drive, but I am not given an option to do so during installation.

Thanks in advance.

[leowarren34]

You should be able to provided its configured right however some space is needed on C:\\ to store some essential files

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

Welcome to the Autodesk User's Community..

Fusion 360 can only be installed on the "C" drive.  This has been requested to have Fusion 360 installed on other drives but at this time you can only install it on the "C" drive.

Granted this posting https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/installation-licensing/out-of-disk-space-during-installation-to-another-disk-drive/td-p/3759083 deals with installation other Autodesk software and out of disk space but there are items in there so you can clean up your "C" drive and secure more disk space.

[Anonymous]

That's unfortunate. I appreciate the information though, thanks!

[Eatonasher]

They still haven't addressed this? They even give it as a reason for uninstalling in the feedback menu...

[zacdbg]

This is absurd, imagine every program I install "needed to be installed on C: drive" then I'm left with no space on disk.

Cleaning is NOT a solution. There is nothing left to clean because 20 apps suddenly needs to be installed on system drive and 256GB of SSD is gone.

This needs to be fixed. Multiple drives were supported in windows for 20+ years!

[mateusz.ptak.stud]

Imagine paying hundreds of $$ to not be able to instal software on drive other than C:

[djfliq1]

Who creates software you can only install on one drive? AutoDesk! Not Cool!

[j_eversheim]

Its even possible to not have a C-Drive in Windows.... 

[mdavis22569]

@j_eversheim 

No, it has to be installed on the C: Drive 

[133038]

bruh

[mdavis22569]

?   

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@133038 wrote:

bruh

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[jonathanulrich]

You can move the files anywhere you want, and then create a symlink back to where you moved it:

mklink /d C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Autodesk F:\Autodesk

[phillipJSCHJ]

It's almost like this feature has been highly requested, a feature that has been wildly standard since the 1990s. It's exceptionally common for workstations to have a small boot drive and large storage drive, but how did Fusion's programmers think that installation, directory, and backup folders should ALL be on the same boot drive?

Do you people actually use your products?

[kjisungAMPPL]

In a meantime I've found the way to execute custom install FUSION onto other drive.

Go to your profile -> then check Product and service menu -> you will find "custum install" -> click it.

in the custum install page, you will find Fusion in the list. -> check it and click next -> finally you will find the option to define your own install path. 

I hope it will help you. 😄

[grURN8F]

For me, it only shows HSMWorks - Ultimate there. No Fusion 😞

[jean-michel_legoff]

Hi,

I'm not sure that this option exist for Fusion:

you have only a "Download" option, not an installer with the "Custom install" option.

[ralph_smith8YPFD]

I have the Not for Commercial Use version of Fusion installed and nothing is listed when I select Custom Install.

[javier.rodas]

mklink /d C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Autodesk D:\PROGRAMS\Autodesk

This is actually the only possibility that currently works (on 16th January 2025) using the regular version "Fusion" which still does not allow to do a "custom install" from the "Products and Services" panel. 

It is unfortunate that Autodesk still hasn't provided a solution to a request like this after so much time, especially when it is well known that with large electronics designs (like the ones I work with), the folder in AppData/Local grows to exceed more than 20GB easily. For some people with laptops that have SSDs with limited capacity in the Windows C: partition, it is sometimes impossible to free up that much space.

I see other similar requests where almost the same response has been given: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-support/how-can-i-move-fusion-360-to-my-d-drive/td-p/7573714

As a suggestion, other manufacturers provide "portable" installations (such as Microsoft does with Visual Studio https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/portable), which allows the creation of a "data" folder to store all the contents of "AppData/Local" and the "extensions" too. This way, you could move Fusion 360 between computers or between drives on the same device (with larger capacity). I mention this just as a suggestion, in case Autodesk gets a lightbulb moment and comes up with an elegant and convenient alternative to support this functionality of installing Fusion 360 on a different drive.

I hope this suggestion doesn't fall on deaf ears, and that someday Autodesk provides a real alternative to installing all the AppData/Local content on the C: drive.

[rkeckBZUX3]

I have found the mklink option to work mostly. However, some upgrades to Fusion 360 seem not to work if you use a symbolic link, in which case you have to move everything back, update it, move it again and recreate the link. It is outrageous that Autodesk has still not added an option to choose the install location.