New content storage standard

[sjeffffautodesk]

I'm a bit furious about this e-mail I received from Autodesk and would like to know how this sentiment is felt across the Fusion community. I use Fusion periodically (whenever I need to do some 3D work), it is already annoying that I can't use this tool like a hammer. Buy it once, use it up whenever I need it and store it for the majority of the time in a shelf. Which isn't possible with this subscription based service.

I already found it insane that I had to store all my projects in Autodesk's without the possibility to store it locally on my own devices. But this new change made it in my opinion 10x worse. Since now they will delete all of my projects if I don't look back at them within the time-frame they determine (of 1 year). Without the option to easily download my projects!!!

I understand that storing data comes with costs, but as an user I didn't want this in the first place, and the responsibility Autodesk takes for this change is insane, using a no-reply as the reply-to: email adress. Also the notification that this change will take effect immediately....

 

[mbrandonisio]

I agree 100%.

I pay for the account and storage. WHY DOES AUTODESK MAKE IT THEIR BUSINESS to manage how I use my PAID SERVICES???

It makes not sense.

[mbrandonisio]

I'd like to add that I'm now looking at other tools that are not Fusion hoping to find the hammer model or at least local storage model you mention.

This drives me nuts. Makes me mad and pisses me off that I have to find a replacement because AutoDesk has lost its mind or least is not thinking what is good for the user. IT IS A PAID PRODUCT. AUTODESK ALREADY BUILT IN STORAGE COSTS AND NOT WANTS TO DOUBLE DIP.

You wait and see, the next option will be buying long term storage without idle limits. New revenue to autodesk.

[-KyleWilliams-]

Hey all,

For personal users, logging in will be necessary for us to understand that your account is active.
If you are a paid subscriber this won't apply to you since as you mention, you're active by the sole fact you are subscribed.
Hope that helps. 

[sjeffffautodesk]

Can I get my data out of the cloud, so you won’t have to deal with the associated storage costs and I will take my own responsibility for it?

[-KyleWilliams-]

You can always download or export your data.

Thanks

[mbrandonisio]

I saw this from my post from RajkumarIlanchelian.

If you go into the FAQ https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/FAQ-for-Fusion-Con...

you will see that as long as the subscription is active (even if you have not logged in over 365 days) this will not apply to you. It is only when the subscription has expired that this policy kicks in. Please let us know if you have any other questions. 

What is the Fusion Content Storage Standard?

For Commercial, Start-Up, and Trial subscribers of Fusion: Your Fusion Content and Fusion Hub are considered inactive once your subscription is expired or cancelled.

[eerier_bleach0f]

The problem with this is that every now and then someone will post to the forums saying "I had auto renew set up but my subscription didn't auto renew".

[mbrandonisio]

Correct, that is why this is bad.

[Gigabeast]

I don't mind setting reminders on my system to ensure I don't go 365 days without logging in. But the no-reply email I got today about the "content storage standard" was frankly pretty difficult to understand. I have to assume that what it means is you still need to renew a PersonalUse registration every 3 years but now ALSO have to go no longer than 365 days between logins or risk your data being wiped. They say you can restore full access by rejoining but if they keep the files anyway so you can access them again after rejoining for PersonalUse then they haven't been wiped and they're not actually saving any storage space at all, so what on earth is the point in that?

Count me also as absolutely hating the fact that my live data is only easily accessible online. Yes you can download a copy of all your files BUT that's only any use if you don't alter any of them - change one and your local copy is out of date and you have to download them all again to be sure you have the latest copy locally.

Apparently there is a local copy somewhere but it's buried DEEP in Users/<username>/AppData/Local/Autodesk Fusion 360/<meaningless characters>/W.login/F/<filenames> where the filenames are your project names but with a stack of extra codes and then ending ...pim.xx so may not even be loadable or importable anyway. 

I've enjoyed my first 12 months or so with F360 as it allowed me to go much further than I could with TinkerCAD but with this sort of faff to make sure my data is under MY control and not in the cloud where a company can mess it up or wipe it at will, it's about time I started looking at other options. 

[rileyefawcett]

Hi Kyle,

Is the bulk download functionality available to those of us who use the "Free for Personal Use" version of Fusion? When I select all projects, my options look different from yours:

With the change in storage standards, I would like to be able to download all of my projects in one go so I have a fail-safe in place, just in case. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

[-KyleWilliams-]

I believe you're just one level lower than I was in the project.
But I have since modified my reply as it doesn't quite meet the needs of a bulk download. This will need to be done individually.

[kmyYPP2A]

If you want to save storage costs, why not provide us a bulk download option?

If I want to use the free personal version, will you keep my data, as long as I log in every 365 days?   I doubt I'd ever go more than 365 days without logging on.   🙂 

[Gigabeast]

Even better, why not offer a local-only storage option. Then Autodesk wouldn't have to store my data at all. I certainly don't need to have my designs stored in the cloud - I'd rather just have them on my machine. I can certainly also see why some people would want to have the live copy in the cloud for collaboration etc but surely the average personal-use-only user would be happy to have the data stored on the local machine where it can be automatically backed-up along with all other local data. I'd also have no problem with having the live copy locally AND in the cloud and have them keep in sync, and then if either dataset is lost it can simply be resynced. Having only one live copy, and having that copy completely off the local machine is just asking for trouble! 

[Phil.E · Accepted solution]

As a user of a free personal account myself, I understand your concern, and want you to know that Fusion is designed to allow local storage for designs without external references, aka .f3d files. It works just like a traditional application when creating, editing, and saving Fusion .f3d files on local disk.

Here is my workflow:

1. Design something new, in an untitled document in Fusion

2. Export the design to local disk each time  you need to save. Overwrite the local file, or add your own version number to create unique saved versions.

3. When it's time to work on it again: Start Fusion, then open the design using File>Open, and in the Fusion dialog box, use the "from my computer" button. 

4. Browse to the local file and pick it, click OK.

5. Edit it, export each time you want to save progress.

Articles:
Saving locally
Opening locally

Also, you mentioned something related to Fusion's offline cache. When Fusion designs are opened, or you manually cache them locally, they exist in a local folder. This enables better file open performance, and also allows them to be opened while working without internet. Also if Fusion is in an "offline" state (as set manually by using the Fusion offline control). Normally you should never need to manually access the offline cache, but Fusion will do this in the background during normal operation. Anything you're working on, that is saved to the cloud recently, is also saved on the local machine where it was last opened.

More information about offline cache.

In my spare time I design things I like, like this guitar. This is stored locally on my local drive any time I want to open it and make edits, or renderings, etc.

Example of a locally saved Fusion design

[Gigabeast]

Ok, thanks, I see what you're doing there.

It's not really QUITE like a traditional application in that you have to export the file to the appropriate location on your local drive instead of saving it, which is a bit more fiddling around. Of course if you save it as well, then you have the cloud backup too, BUT you have to remember to save it both ways each time or they won't be in sync. 

Also, all you get when you go to open a file from the local computer is the filename, while the cloud Data Panel list shows nice thumbnails of the designs which I find easier to scroll through than trying to remember the name of the file I saved months ago, hehehe,  I have about 120 designs now!

Rgds,

Tony.

[Phil.E]

I also have a ton of designs in the cloud. The guitar is admittedly a special case for me. But it is possible, and I do use it that way. I test a lot of workflows with Fusion, even when I'm working on my own designs.