OSX 10.14.6 Mojave crashing with 2.0.7400 and 2.0.7421

[randyT9V9C]

Last week I upgraded twenty Macbook Air (2015) laptops from High Sierra to Mojave 10.14.6 in anticipation of the February rollouts. I also updated to Fusion 360 2.0.7400 (Lab Install). After the update I started getting numerous complaints of crashes while using Fusion. Several reported being booted to the OS login screen while using Fusion. A few noted the screen looked like an old fuzzy TV just prior to the login screen appearing. Some users could use Fusion for a long time and only crash while orbiting. Others were crashing immediately upon opening their models. A couple crashed while saving. A few also reported crashing while updating components and a few while updating graphics.

Today we pushed out 2.0.7421 and instead of improving the crashing issues they escalated. 

The issue appears very similar to this issue:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-support/fusion-360-crashes-when-using-quot-orbit-quot-tool...

Unfortunately, the Macbook Air specs are quite a bit different with an Intel HD Graphics 6000 video card, rather than the OP Nvidea.

Being that I suspect the issue to be video related I have seen some relief by switching to Simple display style along with turning off some other stuff. Is there any other changes that I can do to improve stability?

[randyT9V9C]

De-tuning the video settings has NOT helped. We have even turned off Display Transparency. At this point I have 20 computers that are NOT usable. Please help!

[phill_scott]

If it helps, I've just had the 2.0.7421 update on my mid 2015 MBP running OSX 10.15.2, and something appears to have changed. 

The program now takes all of my CPU, the fans spool up in response and Fusion reacts to any command only after multiple second pauses.  It's like I'm trying to use the program on my previous gen MBP from 2009.

I am using the standalone R9 GPU and changing settings doesn't appear to have any effect.

If I switch to firefox (for instance), the CPU usage drops and the fans switch off within a minute.

[randyT9V9C]

Hmm... now I'm really worried. We discussed rolling out 10.15.2 but Tech is hesitant due to some unrelated issues they are seeing with 10.15.2 and our network environment. 

Tech did try moving the application bundle to the desktop and verified it wasn't a permissions issue. Crashed immediately drawing a 3D cube. Sketches worked fine.

It appears to be working fine the Macbook Pros with the same version of Mojave and Fusion. The pros have the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 1536 MB graphics. The Macbook Airs have the Intel HD Graphics 6000 card.

[randyT9V9C]

One more piece of the puzzle. The majority of crashes that result in the kick back to the OS login screen are new users in the last two weeks, since the update to 2.0.7400. I have second semester students that are largely unaffected using the same machines. It would appear the older accounts may have some kind of different settings and/or cached stuff.

I'm working on comparing the folder structures today to see if I can find something distinct between working and crashing users.

I'm running out of ideas. Any other mac users having issues? Anyone from Autodesk have any ideas?

[randyT9V9C]

It appears that that enabling Limit effects to optimize performance under Graphic Diagnostics has stabilized Fusion for most users. Tech would like to know which preference file and/or .plist they key and value is stored so they can apply the fix to all users?

This is a diagnostic dump from one of the Macbook Airs that has been constantly crashing.

[GPU Information]
GPU Device: Intel(R) HD Graphics 6000
GPU RAM: 1536 MB (Integrated card)
GPU Driver API: OpenGL Core Profile

[Graphics Effects Settings]
Use high-resolution graphics: Off
Anti Aliasing: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Object Shadow: Off
Ground Shadow: Off
Ground Reflection: Off
Selection Display Style: Simple
Transparency Effect: Better Performance

[Limit effects to optimize performance]
On

[randyT9V9C]

Using the check box Limit effects to optimize performance has NOT worked. While there have been fewer crashes I still had a handful of users dumped back the OS login screen at random while using and/or saving. These crashes, because they drop back to OS login screen, are not generating the CER error reports.

[randyT9V9C]

Yet more issues. Consistently, on my Macbook Pro (2017) if I insert a McMaster-Carr component 6680K14 (7203 bearing .step file) and attempt to joint it I get Updating Graphics in the bottom right. The other day I let it sit for over an hour. No joy, had to Force Quit Fusion 360. Tonight I was updating another model and inserted the same bearing and the same lock up. No CER report box appeared after the force quit.

But, if I insert the component, save the model, and then join the part it works fine, nice and quick just like I'd expect.

Why would it work fine if saved prior to joining but hang if not?

[randyT9V9C]

Quick update. It appears the jump from High Sierra to Mojave may have missed some critical firmware updates in the middle. A clean install of Mojave appears to sort the issues. We are in the process of reloading the lab clean. The few that we've done already are working well. Improved speed and stability. The users that were crashing constantly have reported no issues since the clean install of Mojave.

Initially the issue appeared to be Fusion related because it was constantly crashing while using it but over the past couple weeks we logged number of similar crashes while using Chrome, without Fusion running at all. One user discovered the machine would crash while using zoom/pan on ncviewer.com. It was clearly a video driver or hardware issue. 

High Sierra has been super stable for us and really the only reason we moved to Mojave was due to the February deadline for Fusion. Hopefully the clean installed Mojave will prove equally as reliable.

I hope this helps others who may be experiencing similar issues.

[randyT9V9C]

The clean install of OSX Mojave and Fusion 360 is still having issues of crashing to the OS login screen. No CER reporter. It has been a miserable few weeks since we upgraded to the latest version. Is there anyone at Autodesk that could help me resolve this issue. I'm running out of ideas (and patience).