Fusion Update frequency and work for our IT

[loganpXBLRJ]

In the frequent update environment of Fusion 360, our students can do work on their home computer which updates  but then not open their file in our computer lab. Computers in the lab do not update automatically. Like most EDUs, it requires their IT department to update. The "work around" is to "repair fusion" to get the update (a temporary thing, until the lab computer turns off overnight). 

It would be better if any version of Fusion 360 operational during an annual period would recognize a file created during that same year. So that a 2024 version of Fusion will open a 2024 version file, but a 2023 version program will not (that should satisfy reading future versions). Then we could ask IT to update once or twice per year, instead of several times during a 10 week term. 

[LeoWarrenADSK]

Hi @loganpXBLRJ,

Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

I've moved this topic into our Fusion Support Forum, where it may be able to garner the attention of the Fusion Team. Unfortunately, the nature of Fusion means there is not an annual release cycle as seen with the likes of Inventor.

From a previous thread, there is a way to subscribe to email updates that let you know when an update is required. These sort of updates typically occur on a ~2 monthly cycle.

I hope this helps,

[loganpXBLRJ]

My commercial version tells me an update is required when I log on. I think
the newest update is the third one this month. There have been a few this
summer. I understand that Fusion's fixes and upgrades happen frequently. I
was hoping the individual Project files could be insulated from the future
version error when read by the prior release. I just ran a workshop for
area High School CTE teachers and we all identify that Fusion updates are
an issue for IT departments.

[RajkumarIlanchelian]

@loganpXBLRJ Fusion updates almost 15-20 times a year. In this there are 6 "major" updates that require a schema change. This is the one where once saved in this version you cannot open in previous versions. To avoid this frequent updates to EDU due to IT and other constraints, we provide the "admin" install which does not do live update. We support versions up to six months old before the back end services stops support. 

1. Our EDU team sends out emails to the IT and others in EDU every time there is an update that is schema changing. These are the versions where backward compatibility wont be supported. 

2. Students on their laptop likely are installing our commercial install, which forces live update. So when the cycle comes to a major update , the admin install may not be updated but then on students laptop they have the commercial install which forces them to update. This is often why you see this mismatch. 

3. One way to avoid the above is to ask your students to install the the admin version so that they can be in sync with the school and now when the school updates the students can update their laptop too. 

4. Another way to tackle this is to use "Fusion online"  using the browser which is open to all Education users. This way you do not have to have any IT managing this but students use the browser version of Fusion. We maintain the browser version and hence school or home the version is the same. 

[loganpXBLRJ]

Thank you for your reply. I think I will need to look into the Admin
install and then how to get students to use the Admin install one their
home computers. I'll search these on the Fusion site.

[RajkumarIlanchelian]

@loganpXBLRJ Please reach out for any other questions. Also, consider the Fusion online as an option as well if that will work for your call. 

[tregoningt]

Rajkumar,

I reached out to support to get a better understanding of how to complete "Admin" version installs on school computers and student personal laptops, and was redirected back to the forum. 

I'm trying to help a few school districts navigate past the same problems the original poster described. Can you provide a resource that explains how to install the admin version? I am having trouble finding the information myself. 

I tried the "Fusion" online option you described this morning as well. It was slow and never updated the toolpath I tested it with.  I'm thinking it will not be a great option to overcome teacher frustrations. 

Thank you, 

Tim

[RajkumarIlanchelian]

@tregoningt My apologies Tim that I did not notice your post and it has been three weeks. Not sure if you are still looking for this information but this document can help. 

[heinemanl]

My school has the same issue. It would be great if Fusion had the ability to save a file as an older version. Schools will never be able to update software on their devices every time there is an update. Once a year is all that my IT support can handle. 

[loganpXBLRJ]

Agreed.  I believe someone told me that that AutoDesk has a few updates per year that that affects forward compatibility.  They have many more updates which do not.  I still find the "repair fusion" operation helpful.  On some of our school computers the repair holds overnight, and some the update is wiped. If I ask IT, which ones would they fix? 

[RajkumarIlanchelian]

@loganpXBLRJ We hve 6 updates in a year that will break schema as in not backwards compatible. This year we made some changes to how we call the versions of Fusion as well. If you look at the March major we name it as 2601.x.yyyy. Any 2601 series/versions will be compatible with each other. In May ish time frame we will be looking to release our second major update which is 2602.x.yyyy. At this time any thing saved in the 2602 series will not be able to open in 2601 series and so on and so forth. 

[TrippyLighting]

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@tregoningt wrote:

Rajkumar,

I reached out to support to get a better understanding of how to complete "Admin" version installs on school computers and student personal laptops, and was redirected back to the forum. 

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@RajkumarIlanchelian I find it completely unacceptable that EDU users who seek this form of help get redirected to the Forum.

This forum cant provide that help in  a timely manner, or at all. That isn't the purpose of this forum. Period!

[tregoningt]

Thank you Rajkumar, 

I'll check out the document.  

[houldcroftt]

I am having the same exact problem. In the “single user install process” document, at no point does it mention an “admin install” that would allow myself or my students to install Fusion without having to update every other week. Students cannot work on their projects in class because our lab Fusion doesn’t update as frequently. Please provide a clear and detailed method for this admin install that STUDENTS will be able to follow!!