UI Theme Preview (dark mode) - Feedback & Discussion

[keqingsong]

*March 25, 2025 - Fixed for March 2025 Product Update: 
• Timeline scroll bar is no longer missing.
• Highlight colors for activated component are now correctly themed.
• “Read Only” or “Editable” drop down menu in document thumbnail is now correctly themed.
• Version icon is now consistent across themes.
• Activated and inactive Simulation Study and Load Case highlight colors are now correctly themed.
• Render On Save text is no longer missing.
• Command dialog slider arrows in Render are now more visible. Render Viewer dialog is now correctly themed.
• Render Settings dialog is now correctly themed.
• Text highlight color in Save version, Save As, and other dialogs is now darker.
• Timeline tooltips on hover are now correctly themed.
• Text in Dialogs for New / Edit Plastic Rules are now correctly themed.
• Text for “Pin to Toolbar” and “Pin to Shortcuts” flyout text are now more visible.
• The “No components in design” dialog is now correctly themed.
• Activated Fluid Conditions highlight colors are now correctly themed.
• Document type icons (design, electronics design, PCB, and Schematic) in Data Panel are now dark theme compatible.
• Close, Search, Update, Refresh, Open, and Milestone icons in Data Panel have been updated to dark theme compatible versions.
• NC Program dialog experience is improved and now correctly themed in dark mode.
• NC Program dialog is no longer missing border space around the edges of the dialog.
• NC Program dialog layout is now correctly aligned in dark mode.
• Fixed an issue where the Expression Editor dialog made the toolpath dialog go blank.
• Icon for Manufacturing Assistant is now clearly visible in dark mode.
• Process order number column header now has correct colors on Windows machine when Dark Blue theme is active.
• CAM setup name in the browser is now more visible in light gray mode.
• Machine Library dialog experience is improved and is now correctly themed in dark mode.
• Hole Template Editor experience is improved for dark mode. 
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If you try the UI Theme Preview (dark mode) and see any weird behaviors or issues, please report them here. Screenshots are highly encouraged. Our developers are watching and engaging with you; what you submit will help us prioritize future improvements.

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Many of you have been wishing and waiting for dark mode for a long time, so we hope you'll be excited to know the rumors in the community are true: UI Theme (aka dark mode) is finally coming to Autodesk Fusion.

We’ve been working hard to get you the ability to switch themes in Fusion and we’ll soon be making it a preview feature, available to try as part of a staggered rollout. This means that not everyone will get access to the preview at first, but more and more of you will eventually get access as we continue to mature the experience.  This way we can ensure the functionality is working in tip-top shape when it becomes available to everyone.

To check if you have access, Go to your Preferences > Preview Features > UI Theme. If you see the UI Themes Preview option, checking it and then clicking on “Apply” will turn the option for you to change themes. Navigate to General section of your preferences. You should now see a Theme option. Change from Fusion Classic to Dark Blue and click “OK” and you should be ready to go. 

 

Note: If you previously changed the Display Settings Environment to a different canvas color, your previous settings will be retained.  To have the canvas color follow your chosen UI Theme, go to Navigation Bar > Display Settings > Environment and select Theme (default).

We’re still actively developing this feature, and we want your feedback

As stated above, theme switching is not done; we are actively improving the experience. Due to the expansive nature of Fusion and all the workspaces, we’ve primarily focused on fleshing out the Design workspace and the most common workflows. We want to make sure dark mode works well for every aspect of Fusion, across macOS or Windows, and with whatever machine you’re on.

If you try dark mode and see any weird behaviors or issues, please report them here. Screenshots are highly useful. Our developers are watching and engaging with you; what you submit will help us prioritize future improvements.

Thank you for your help and support! 

 

 

 

[FrodoLoggins]

No reason for this to stay highlighted:

Created a cylinder and Fusion just keeps it highlighted. I can hide every component, hit the escape key. Only thing that will make it go away is to reopen the file. What a joke of a program

[FrodoLoggins]

I've worked on more than just this. Thanks for clearing all my recent data........

This isn't a beta it's an alpha

[jordan783ZS]

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@FrodoLoggins wrote:

The 4 bugs I talked about exist when literally turning every preview feature off. They just also exist with the new UI theme alpha

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In that case they are unrelated to this thread, like many of the other complaints you've made in the comments section previously.
We all get annoyed by bugs, but we don't bog down unrelated threads with them, there is a dedicated forum for that.

[FrodoLoggins]

Why aren't my selected faces blue?

Should look like this:

Why did I have to hide/reshow the bodies then remake my selections for them to show up? Is it cause this update like all the others was rushed out and untested? @keqingsong when can I go longer than 5 minutes without noticing a bug? 

[mac_ito]

March 28 2025 @keqingsong 

The highlighting of selected items in the timeline is still so low contrast, it's chaotic to navigate. It's an aberration that something so obvious was released like this day-one and worse that it still hasn't been corrected.

Right click menu, same thing.

[keqingsong]

Got it, we have this captured and is on our list to fix. 

[jordy_keller]

First, thanks for to finally bring a dark theme to Fusion but it seems like work in progress.

The issue I'm running into is that the text that I type into the 'Design Shortcuts' search box seems to be white on a white background

I have the theme set to 'Dark Blue' and my environment set to 'River Rubicon' (that seems to be the 'Theme (default)')

I have edited 'RiverRubicom.xml' and set background to <Background RGB="0.2314 .2667 .3255"/> so yes, the 'Design Shortcuts' background blends in with the design background.

But that shouldn't throw off the text color in the 'Design Shortcuts' input right?

Also, the color scheme for the search result seems off

[jordy_keller]

The text issue has been posted three weeks ago, last Wednesday, and today I can confirm:

- Input box has no border

- Typeface selection is hardly visible

[jordy_keller]

Ok, some more feedback.

First, the 'Design Shortcuts' search box issue I mentioned two post above. I checked it at work today with the original, non edited theme (Theme default). I get the same issue, white text on white background.

And then another, I would say, priority issue. The three lines or forward slashes that indicate the selected feature in the timeline are (as good as) invisible. This seriously impacts my workflow. Please fix this. 

[jthut13]

@keqingsong Firstly I would like to say thank you for the update, and a great job to the team for making this happen.

There's a bit of a weird consequence of using dark mode that could be a problem for power users and/or when collaborating - When making a shaded view in the drawing space, the part/assembly retains the shadows and lighting of the background that was used in the design space. This makes the features of the part/assembly much more difficult to discern. For example - when a drawing is created from a part that used the photo booth theme, it has plenty of light and the shadows aren't too dark. When using the dark sky theme, the part looks like it has no edges and the surfaces all appear darker. This makes consistency across the team quite difficult. 

[jordy_keller]

Oh man, you have work to do...

Edit appearance:

Again, white text on a white background?

[keqingsong]

@jordy_kellercan you confirm what build number of Fusion you are on? You can find the build number in the About box. 

[jordy_keller]

[keqingsong]

Ok thank you we have this issue captured in our backlog and will address it accordingly.

[ccyokes]

Arrange has near unreadable text.

[ccyokes]

Current selection icon on timeline is also very difficult to see.

[ccyokes]

Configuration selection is still light mode.

[ccyokes]

Either this is still way earlier in beta than I thought, or no one is reporting these. But, here is the forth thing I found within 30 min of actually working in Fusion.

Selecting a user parameter in a dimension is black text on a dark blue background, poor readability. 

[ccyokes]

Timeline colors go wonky light when configuring design. Anything suppressed is particularly bad.

[ccyokes]

Selecting one of the parameters makes it impossible to read. That's 6 issues now back to back. Guess it's back to light mode for a few more months for me because this is still clearly far from being ready for even a beta release. Feels more like early alpha.