Viability of Fusion 360 on macOS going forward?

[schack.lindemann]

I'm not sure this is the right board or even the right time to ask this but here goes: 

What is the viability of Fusion 360 on macOS now that Apple has announced they are leaving the X86 architecture behind and changing to their own line of ARM processors? I'm not a software developer but it's pretty evident that Fusion isn't your typical macOS app made with X-code, so how difficult is it to make Fusion run on ARM? And related to that, would it be reasonable to expect a version of Fusion that can run on an iPad, like Shapr3D? 

My personal preference would clearly be to stay on macOS since I really detest where Microsoft has taken Windows since v10, but I can't imagine not using Fusion anymore. 🙂

[TrippyLighting]

I think I'll ping @brianrepp to solicit a reply from the Fusion 360 team.

I personally have no worries that Autodesk will follow up with a version that will run on ARM processors. What I find curious is that everyone appears to only be mentioning Intel. It was not hard to anticipate that Apple was going to release MacBooks based on the same hardware architecture that drives the newer iPads, as soon as those were released.

AFAIK the iPads don't use any dedicated Intel/NVIDIA/AMD chips for graphics but use Apple's own silicon. Yet they provide quite a bit of GPU power.

It'll very interesting to see how that will translate to the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

It would be fairly easy to imagine that Apple will prefer to use its own silicon there as well and could mean they favor the Metal API instead of OpenGL.

[lance.carocci]

A lot of companies are having this same discussion right now, and unfortunately I think the diplomatic-but-honest answer is, "nothing to announce at this time."

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My personal conjecture: It's really too early to say - most developers, if they didn't already have an ARM-based offering, are likely researching their apps' dependencies and components with regard to their support on ARM before establishing dates and commitments.

To add, Apple is making some bold claims about Rosetta 2's emulation performance that will likely buy developers some time, much like the transition from PowerPC to x86 way-back-when.

I know the x86-to-ARM transition is exciting and new, but it might be weeks or months (probably not years) before we'll know the fates of our favorite apps.

[schack.lindemann]

I guess you're right, but several software companies have already announced their plans for transition, like Microsoft and Adobe. I would be surprised if AutoDesk wasn't in on the ground floor with Apple on this project. Many of the AutoDesk applications are vital and almost exclusive solutions on the platform. My main concern is that Fusion is not a normally developed macOS application. It installs, and runs differently from any other app I have and I worry about the potential complications in the porting the code to ARM. 

[cekuhnen]

@lance.carocci 

"I know the x86-to-ARM transition is exciting and new, but it might be weeks or months (probably not years) before we'll know the fates of our favorite apps."

Interesting point considering that Apple declared a two year transition phase only.

[marchancomponents]

I think Autodesk need to clarify this as soon as possible.

As some of you have remarked, other companies have announcements of ARM versions

At this moment, Autodesk says in the web that 26 of the 61 products are mac compatible (But alias is not compatible with mac, the first one will have not mac version in the future)

What we can expect? some of us use a workflow partially based on apple hardware, i think Autodesk should clarify if they are plans to continue with ARM version or not for all of the products, and at the same time, if they have plans to make a ipad version with design capaabilities or, at least, an hybrid version "web based"

[lance.carocci · Accepted solution]

We would like to clarify it as soon as possible, too. Part of why this takes so long is that we are effectively evaluating 3 different macOS experiences as a result of this transition:

1. Fusion x86 on macOS x86
2. Fusion x86 on macOS ARM via Rosetta 2
3. Fusion ARM on macOS ARM

The move to ARM will mean a transition to Apple Silicon-based graphics, adding another layer of complexity on top of existing Intel, Nvidia, and AMD experiences.

Fusion 360 brings the capabilities of multiple products and complex features under one roof - there is a lot to evaluate here, and ambiguous answers from us will only add to the frustration and suspense.