Running Fusion with Rosetta 2 on Apple ARM-based M1 Chipsets

[keqingsong]

July 5, 2023 Update 

Hello all, the current Insider Build of Fusion now has native Apple Silicon support, and as you read some of the latest comments in this thread, the results are looking great. Our goal is make it available to everyone by our next product update, which should be happening towards the end of the month. If you want to try it now, you can sign up to join our Insider Program, and get access to the Insider Build. Keep in mind that once you become a member, you are under NDA and cannot sharing information publicly, with the exception of this particular project since it is already public knowledge. 

Click this link to sign-up and join: https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/fusion-360/insider-program

Thank you to those you have who've expressed interested and have been testing it! Please continue to let us know about your experiences. 
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November 23, 2022 Update

As you know we have been working closely with Apple on native support for Fusion on Apple Silicon Chipsets (i.e. M1 & M2). We are pleased to announce that we expect to achieve full native support by Summer of 2023.

As we have explained in this thread, the delay is a result of the need to ensure 100% compatibility between components from over 100 3rd party vendors including Autodesk.

If you want to access this functionality as soon as possible, please consider joining the Insider Program. If you have any questions on the topic please contact @Rajkumar.ilanchelian.

October 28, 2021 Update

Hey all, thanks again for the passionate discussion here. Even though we haven't chimed into this thread as much as we wanted, we are reading every single response and are actively working on getting Fusion to be natively supported on the new Apple chipset. Here's what I know from talking to the development teams: 
We are actively working on getting native support. This is still going to take some time because Fusion uses a multitude of services to work the way it does (Autodesk-owned as well as 3rd party) many of which are also not natively supported on M1 chipsets yet. We are collaborating closely with those teams to taking the necessary steps to ensure that the services we use are also natively supported. There is a lot of passion internally to get this done as well, so we definitely feel you. Again, I can't not say when this will happen, but as soon as we have something more concrete to share, we'll be sure to update you all. 

April 29, 2021 Update

We've been actively working on resolving the issues mentioned below and are glad to report that these issues no longer exist when running Fusion on the M1 chipset. We are also working closely with Apple and are in the process of certifying Fusion as 100% compatible running on M1 chipsets via Rosetta 2. 

In terms of running Fusion natively on the M1 chipset without Rosetta 2, we are still working towards this goal but is going to take some time to reach. We are confident to say that running Fusion on the M1 chipset via Rosetta 2 should be indistinguishable from running it on an Intel-based chipset, if not faster. 

If there are specific issues you've experience and are not mentioned below (strike-through items), please chime in and respond to this thread so we are aware and can look into it ASAP. Thank you for your continued support! 

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Apple's original press release 

We are delighted to see Fusion being featured in the most recent Apple ARM-based M1 Macbook Pro announcement. Although Fusion isn’t natively compatible on Apple’s new M1 chipset architecture yet, Rosetta 2 should enable you to run Fusion*. We will be sure to keep you posted on our progress towards support of Apple’s new line of chipsets.   

-  
   
* While much of Fusion 360 works as expected under Rosetta 2, we discovered that some Fusion 360 components were not yet compatible. If you run Fusion 360 using Rosetta 2, you may experience issues in these areas:  

·         Switching Team Hubs in the Data Panel  

·         Insert from McMaster-Carr  

·         Explore Generative Design and Electronics Cooling Simulation results  

·         ECAD Tool Libraries and Content Manager  

·         Local Simulation Solves utilizing NASTRAN  

If you rely on the impacted areas for your work, we recommend you to stay on Intel-based Macs until we have these issues sorted out.   

[sgingras]

And yet, if Autodesk were to rush an update half bake, the same impatient peoples would have flooded the forums with rants.

I work with an M1 from the start, and apart from my workflow, I have nothing to complain about.

Keep at it Autodesk.

[TrippyLighting]

Spot on!

[bentwookie]

People can white-knight this effort all they want. Two years isn't remotely rushing anything, although I guess the same team took 4+ years to fix the trackpad.

I've been professionally involved one way or another in every transition Apple's had since the PowerPC. This isn't a problem with customer expectations. Management and engineering at Autodesk dropped the ball here. 

[TrippyLighting]

@bentwookie can you explain what exactly you are loosing in performance or functionality by using the M1-Rosetta version vs. a native version?

[sgingras]

Buying hardware early on into a new era of computing (Apple ARM) with the knowledge that the software you use for work is not yet ported, and the company explicitly telling its users that there is no predictable date for it, is called early adopters. And with it comes risks. I took those risks, as many more did.

Do I wish the update for tomorrow? yes. But I can't blame Autodesk for that wait time.

[bentwookie]

Yeah. It doesn't feel as fast as my 8700K based PC and it should beat it by a mile.

It's ok for me to want the performance I know is there to be had. Tears aren't going to well up in the executable's eyes because I'm speaking poorly of it. 

[BeauSlim]

I think a lot of people have bought into the M1 hype, get an M1, and are then surprised that it isn't 10x faster than their previous, decently specced, Intel-based Mac.  They then conclude that Fusion360 lack of native code is to blame.

M1 doesn't have discreet graphics, and for many use-cases, it is slower than Intel Macs because of this, native code or not.  

[bentwookie]

Fusion is CPU bound well before it's ever GPU bound. The integrated GPU on the M1 (and certainly in the Pro & Ultra) is not the problem here. 

[allanD5VJ3]

First off I love Fusion 360. My company has been using it since around 2014. We have appreciated every update, bug fix and such - even when they have taken a little longer than we would have liked.

We use fusion for furniture product development in the hospitality industry. Recently we manufactured products for a large resort on Maui. About 300 furniture pieces all designed and managed through Fusions 360.

That said, this long delay for Apple M1 support is not acceptable. More so the lack of clear information or timeline from the Autodesk team.

We are very close to leaving and finding another solution that actually cares about Mac users. 

[mariana.boubet]

I installed Rosetta 2 and I keep having the same problem while installing Fusion 360: "Problem installing Fusion 360" [Errno 13] Permission denied.

I have a Macbook PRO M1 Pro 16inch.

Anyone else experiencing this issue? Do you know how can I fix this?

[bentwookie]

They have this support article on the issue. I'd also suggest checking your Files and Folders access (Under System Preferences->Security & Privacy->Privacy(tab)->Files and Folders. See if maybe something is forbidding access there.

[sgingras]

You have to install rosetta if I

recall correctly.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Is-...

[P.IM]

Great example of what's lost on an M1, or at least seems to be the case on my machine (M1 Max 32core GPU, 64 GB RAM) -- multi-core performance. I started a render and saw TWO of TEN cores maxed out. On my Intel Mac from 2012, I see all 4 cores + all 4 virtual cores going full blast. Is Rosetta only capable of emulating a dual core x86 processor? Or is this more ball droppage from Autodesk? 

[bentwookie]

What's your GPU doing? I could believe your 2012 is spinning up a bunch of CPUs because that's mostly all it has. In a perfect world, your M1's CPUs would be practically asleep, having efficiently issued draw calls to the GPU. 

[P.IM]

Great question. Why didn't that occur to me? I'll check that and report back!

[TrippyLighting]

@P.IM Don't!
Fusion 360's render/raytracing engine currently does not utilize the GPU on any hardware, nor has it ever, and based on feedback isn't going to any time soon, or perhaps even ever.

[bentwookie]

Ah. True that. The view port is (minimally) accelerated, but not raytracing. My kingdom for an OptiX/Metal implementation. 

[P.IM]

Noted and thank you! I may still do the test for myself, bc I'm mostly a "find out for yourself" kinda guy. But I have a feeling my results will support your claim.

[chromo.light]

Where is the native Apple Silicon version of Fusion360?

[brandonXNQ6E]

Last official update was Oct 2021, 9 months ago.  Where are we at?  Are we looking at weeks, months, years?  Something a little more in depth than "we're working on it" would be appreciated.