Mac Install Location

[bback3C2RW]

Every other program is able to install itself into the main /Applications folder on macs.  Literally every one.

Why does Fusion360 install to /users/(username)/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/webdeploy/production/kjsdahgtfi832q47t659823465792384579, where absolutely no one will ever be able to find it?

Previous solutions were "install from the Mac App Store," but now that it's no longer an option, users are forced to create an alias (which ruins the workflow), but only if they know to do this before they close the program and remove it from the dock.

I really don't care why this is the way it is, I have other Autodesk programs that were able to install themselves to the proper location.  Every other program I've ever installed has also installed itself into the proper location.  This is a problem unique to Fusion360 that I have never had to deal with and shouldn't even be a problem to begin with.

Just fix it.

[beananimal]

@ryan.bales 

We still tapping the breaks here, 3 years?

Can't drag it to applications, the dock or spotlight because every incremental update appears to create a new version. 

Are we permanently relegated to pinning a new dock icon every day or two?

[fleedar]

What's also very annoying is that if you choose to keep the app in its default location, Spotlight doesn't surface it at the top of search results with the rest of your apps. I launch everything through Spotlight, so it's always an extra step to scroll down and select Fusion rather than just hitting return.

This ensures that whether I choose to go this route or micromanage the app's location constantly between updates, it's always harder than it should be and involves extra steps to open the app. It's baffling and frustrating that this has been an issue for so many years. 

[filipskott]

I'm just so glad there is a support group for people like us. I thought I was the only one - the crazy on - somehow inadvertently doing something wrong time after time when trying to re-install the program in order to to fix the problem. And to think, all I had to do was tap the brakes! Unfortunately, that was three years ago and my brake pads are worn out...

[rjc2691]

I've been using Fusion 360 for a couple years at this point and always launch through Spotlight and have always been mildly annoyed that it never shows up at the top like other applications and I always waste a little bit of extra time looking for it. Finally decided to figure out why that's the case and discovered this thread. This just seems to follow the pattern of software development from the team behind the application. It's both kind of funny and extremely disappointing from Autodesk. Firing people is not enough, you have to replace them with good people too

[pzarembaPMNPK]

Certainly your extremely unhelpful comment has aged like milk.  Here we are in December of 2022, and I'm a software developer sitting here trying to figure out where in the hell Fusion installed itself to.  In fact, the reason I'm posting here is because I gave up and went to search the forums to see if it's just me.

That's ridiculous.  Still not "fixed".   Here's a quick fix:  INSTALL IT WHERE EVERY OTHER APP INSTALLS THEMSELVES.  IN THE APPLICATIONS FOLDER.

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@ryan.bales wrote:

saying "just fix it" is not helpful for us or for the community. I too understand the install location on Mac can be frustrating for a variety of reasons.

[rylindsley]

Just adding my voice here. Super stupid and frustrating. I just now went to open a .f3d file I downloaded, and I can't open Fusion360 by simply running the file (like very other file/app ever) because Autodesk decided to not install this in the /Applications folder (like every other app ever). 

Fix this _please_!

[acwrightdesign]

It is now obvious based on the number of replies to this topic that one of two things are true:

1. Autodesk has decided it is right and this is the hill it's going to. die on. All contrary evidence presented in this topic by Mac users be damned.

2. It simply doesn't care. Mac users are an afterthought and this is so low priority that we will probably never get a fix.

I can't believe it's been almost two years since I posted my first reply to this topic! I get notifications by email when new replies come in so I've been following this for two years! Crazy! Still not fixed... Smart money is on never but I'm still hoping for a solution to this issue this decade 🙂

[PhDEdd]

It is weird how some companies don't "get" Mac. It was understandable when Apple had 3% marketshare, but it makes no sense nowadays.

Strange though, feels like it would take more effort to generate a new, misplaced, pseudo-Application called Fusion 360 every time it crashes or updates.

[beananimal]

Sadly, this is one of a growing list of numerous (dare me to list them) issues that have dragged on for YEARS on ALL platforms, not just Mac OS.  The Windows folks have a similar application install issue. 

Other than the installer - the graphics clipping and focus stealing are inexcusable on both platforms and the result of poor/lazy coding and UI design. It would take very little to disable most of the hooks that cause these issue by moving all system messaging from popup dialogs to the Windows and Apple notification services....But don't hold your breath... These issues are only 3-4 years old... 

[javmonmor]

Can't believe this is still a problem, wanted to work on some file I sent myself from another computer and ran into a 40 minute rabbit hole trying to figure out where the heck this is located, can you please fix Fusion 360 and make it work like EVERY OTHER MAC app?

And now it all makes sense, I've noticed other issues like the focus stealing or f360 hanging on top of other apps 

[jeffjenkins1Y8BVV]

It’s not the only guilty party. /me stares at the Sky GO app.

[jvlob]

Another annoyance of this behaviour: if I have another user on my computer, when I switch to that user I can access all the applications in mi Mac (because they are in the "global" Applications folder) but I can't access Fusion 360 because it is somewhere hidden inside the other user's folders 😞
Also tried creating an alias and placing it on the "global" Applications directory, but when I switch to the other user and try to open it, it says it can't be opened.

[nate3A5JZ]

First time Fusion user... hear all these great things from old timers... first thing it does is install to a non-standard location on the Mac and I have to go hunting for it.  Incredibly dumb.  Huge turn off.  Doubt I'll be spending my precious free-time as a hobbyist screwing with making scripts to push things into standard locations. 

Been doing IT for three decades, I only waste time on silliness like non-standard install locations at work -- where they pay me to have my time wasted by dumb decisions like this.

"Oh goodie. Another giant company that thinks they should do it different than everyone else does on this platform.... grrrreeeeeaaaaatttt."  

[mJYUA9]

Strait to the heart of our collective cognitive dissonance 3A5JZ: the complexity of the things we must do by end of day is accelerating, the tasks subdividing. Time is the essential resource: it must be the key design element in the tools we use & each version must give back more time for us to have an end of day & share with others. The 'deja-vu' here is some variation of our collective recursive, "This is stupid... why do I have to keep doing this? This is what computers are good at!" Be Excellent.

[fleedar]

Don't worry everyone. I'm sure with this insane 40% price increase coming soon they will finally have the resources they need to fix all of these annoying issues. 

🤣🤣🤣

[dsrthorne]

I'm going to dogpile on this one, too.

It is unacceptable that I have to run an uninstaller to get rid of Fusion360 and doubly unacceptable that the uninstaller wants permission to mess with files in my ~/Downloads/ directory.  No.

The previous reply showing that Fusion360 installs to the user's Applications/ directory back in 2019... no it doesn't.  I installed it a year ago and it's in ~/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/Fusion360/.  What is this mess?  ~/Library/Application Support/ is not the same as c:\Program Files\.

So the problem is that I don't know how to get rid of it without running the uninstaller or risking losing files I potentially care about if I rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/.  I'm not running that uninstaller so it can lunch files I really do care about in ~/Downloads/, that's just not an acceptable security risk.

Please update Autodesk to follow the Mac standard.  It exists for reasons that have been thought out and there's no reason that Autodesk needs to make things hard on itself and on us users by doing it differently.

[bgSNHA9]

Hi,

Just lost half an hour trying to fix your mess....

Bad bad bad

Just do as everybody ask.

[luna.comerford]

Wow....here we are....2024 and finally decided to look for why Fusion has the install stupidness and found this depressing thread. And funny enough, many of the other issues that are constantly plaguing me on the mac are also listed in other people's posts on this thread. 

Quick show of hands: Who is using some workaround for the lack of a middle mouse button on their mac? Anyone? Everyone? 

I'll assume that AutoDesk will never solve these problems, given they've had 4 years since OP started this thread and they haven't solved as basic of a problem as "Intalling correctly on a user's machine" (arguably the very first thing a piece of software should do right). 

Guess we'll all just have to keep checking with the competition regularly to see who actually gives 2 💩's about Mac users. Shapr3D is pretty great. Plus they have the iPad app so that's a plus. I migrated to Fusion when I hit the limits of Shapr3D a few years back. Downloading now to see what kinds of fruits the last few years have afforded them. 😁

[rhorer]

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@luna.comerford wrote:

Guess we'll all just have to keep checking with the competition regularly to see who actually gives 2 💩's about Mac users.

Unfortunately, I see from reading through the forums, Reddit, etc. that Autodesk has demonstrated time and time again they are going to obstinately install Fusion on Macs the way they want to, not the way their paying customers want it done. I see this changing one of two ways: either the paying customers stop paying and move to competing products or there is a major change in leadership and someone who understands the principle behind the saying "the customer is always right" takes over. If we keep complaining but don't put any actions behind our words (like cancelling/not renewing subscriptions and switching to a competing product) then there is no incentive for Autodesk to care about what we want.

I was a heavy Autocad user back in the day (1980s and 1990s) before I made a career change that took me out of the design/drafting field. So when it came time for me to pick that line of work back up about three months ago, I naturally gravitated to Autodesk since I had used their products before and been satisfied with them. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until after I had paid for a one-year Fusion 360 subscription that it's not the same company anymore. They used to make money hand over fist because they had the best product around and provided us customers what we needed and wanted. Now they seem to be profoundly arrogant and have the hubris to tell us what we want instead of listening to what we tell them we want. I quit a doctor one time who treated me that disrespectfully — now not only is he not my doctor anymore, he's out of business. Unfortunately, I paid for a subscription a bit too quickly but when it expires, I will not be renewing. That gives me about 10 months to explore what else is out there and decide what I'm going to switch to. It doesn't matter if the product doesn't have all the features that Fusion does as long as the company listens to feedback and gives it honest consideration instead of dismissing it out of hand. If they decide not to implement whatever feature I asked for and have a reasonable explanation for why not then I might be a bit disappointed but at least I won't be angry. Angry customers don't stay customers for long. My piddly one subscription is meaningless to them but if enough people who were unhappy did the same thing then someone near the top at Autodesk would take notice and right the ship.

[remi_merendaXTRQ8]

I can see that this topic is still pending for a viable solution that is not "move the application to the Applications folder" each and every time it updates itself.