Fusion lab install - are updates critical to functionality?

[shawbD87XA]

I hope someone might have some real world experience....

I would like the school I teach at to do a lab install of Fusion 360 for our department (30 PCs). The network managers are (quite rightly) concerned that the installation instructions indicate that there are regular updates of the software that will require their support; that the lab version does not auto-update. It looks like updates come through every 6 weeks or so.

My question is, are these updates critical to Fusion opening and functioning? Would a less frequent (say 2 or 3 times a year) update routine not work or does the software simply not launch/function unless it is on the very latest build number. Finally, to any NMs out there is the lab self contain package update routine particularly onerous to administer?

Thanks in advance.

[azimshaikh95]

Hi @shawbD87XA , Very nice point !! I'm also facing the same issues as I'm an educator and also using Fusion 360 Lab Version. It's better to install each update but sometimes it's difficult to manage too many PC systems alone.

As per my experience, you can skip those updates and you can still run Fusion 360 Smoothly on your Lab Systems.

But you will face one critical problem of Verison conflict. 

In case, If you / your students work on a shared project. One of your students open the design file at his home and Saved it. (He has installed the latest updated Fusion 360). You will not be able to open that file (saved with newer version) in your Lab PC, because you might have skipped the update.

Otherwise, if you're not working on such shared items then you can skip some updates.