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.   

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Is this going to be a thread where you and others tell people that you belong to the ARM society?

Günther

[j_willis]

Haha no just curious because I need an upgrade. Tired of seeing the spinning rainbow on my 2020 MacBook Pro 15 inch with maxed RAM and graphics configuration.

[TrippyLighting]

@j_willis in that case you might want to open a new thread and share one of your designs. In my experience, most Fusion 360 users (95%+) who experience performance problems use incorrect techniques, which slow down Fusion 360 more than can be fixed with a hardware upgrade.

[mail]

?? No.... but I would expect a thread on problems relating to Fusion and the M1 chip to full of people who have the new processor and seeking some resolve. What's your point??

[Anonymous]

Hi guys , what do you recommend 8gb or 16gb for Fusion ? 

[bmxjeff]

Sounds like a GPU problem linked with Neutron Chrome. You might be able to disable this and see what happens : ) It's easy to enble again. Here is the terminal command. If it doesn't work, switch the "Disable" to Enable" : )

launchctl setenv NEUTRON_CHROME_DISABLE_GPU 1

I has very simular problems when I started using an eGPU. This took care of it, so I set up the "Automater" to run this command on boot. 

[bmxjeff]

>

[Anonymous]

Not working for me at all. Launched one time, logged in. And now it doesn't work anymore.

Application not responding

[Anonymous]

Not working for me at all.

Application not responding

[OceanHydroAU]

M1 Emulation (Rosetta 2) is slower than native.  When/if Autodesk rebuild a native version, it will be faster on M1 Macs than on Intel Macs, however, it will still be slower than AMD Ryzen PCs

AMD outperforms native M1 as shown here - the only test it didn't "shine" on was a memory-bound one, by the test rig was usiung 3200mhz RAM instead of the 4800mhz that the 5950x supports - if they'd set up their PC properly, it would have vastly outperformed on even that too.

It comes down to money - That AMD has twice the cores, each one running CISC x86 instructions as fast at the M1 runs its RISC ones, but all things considered, it's going to cost more than double by the time you've assembled all the expensive bits needed to get it going.  If your time is worth a lot, AMD is a no-brainer.  If the only reason you like apple is the linuxlike underbelly, windows has that too now anyhow (WSL).

[lance.carocci]

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@OceanHydroAU wrote:

M1 Emulation (Rosetta 2) is slower than native.  When/if Autodesk rebuild a native version, it will be faster on M1 Macs than on Intel Macs, however, it will still be slower than AMD Ryzen PCs

I'm not sure I'd go that far. The most important stat in running Fusion 360 remains single-threaded and turbo clock performance, and the x86 client already runs quite smoothly under Rosetta 2. 

[Anonymous]

It sounds like a good thing, but all I can think about is having a laptop that turns into a hotplate, and laggy software. Am I wrong to think this about the new Macbook?

[jbrewlet]

My MacBook Pro M1 has never been "hot" even running old inefficient games. The doubt in both Fusion 360 and M1 Macs playing well together is unfounded in my experience. There's a distinct lack of major issues at this point and it (Fusion 360) should only get better in terms of performance.

[TrippyLighting]

The whole purpose of the new Apple silicon is to use much less power and generate much less heat than the Intel/AMD  processors. The obvious target market for such chips is mobile devices, laptops, and tablets.

The low power consumption is also the reason that the new M1 MacBook pro has such phenomenal battery life.

Not sure why you would think that devices with these new chips would turn into hot plates.

However, the AMD Ryzen pointed out by @OceanHydroAU will turn into a hot plate very quickly and would not really be a suitable chip for a truly mobile device.

[lance.carocci]

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@TrippyLighting wrote:

the AMD Ryzen pointed out by @OceanHydroAU will turn into a hot plate very quickly and would not really be a suitable chip for a truly mobile device.

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Believe in your dreams

[TrippyLighting]

You need to re-read my post. I would not call that "truly mobile".

Hopefully, I don't have to explain. that!

I just now skimmed through the video LOL. I guess you weren't quite serious!

[OceanHydroAU]

It's all speculation until/if Fusion360 gets rebuilt for M1, but AMD 5950x is the fastest available single-core performance CPU available (and it's got 16 cores - every one of them faster than any other available core in the world)

The word "available" is significant there, and "faster" means overall benchmark performance on single-core tasks (not MHZ or anything - which, FWIW, is 4.9ghz, being totally irrelevant when comparing RISC to CISC). 

[oyvindTMNSU]

Does Fusion 360 work just as good or better than on a intel Mac? Or worse?
I need a new Mac soon, and really want the apple silicon Mac 15 or 16" when it arrives!
But I work with fusion 360 every day for hours (as a product developer) so need it to be snappy and work perfectly. 

I now have a 15" MacBook Pro mid 2017 and its starting to struggle with some assemblies and just in general in fusion. A lot of fan noise also...

[oyvindTMNSU]

Is there any hints of when Fusion 360 is going to be native sopported on apple silicon, or if it will ever happen? I really like to continue using fusion 360 for further professional work! And during this year I need to buy a new Mac

[lance.carocci]

@oyvindTMNSU, Fusion 360 will continue to work on Apple silicon Macs as a translated binary. There is no timeline for a native binary, though it's something we are investigating.

To my eyes, there is no perceptible performance loss for the majority of operations (but not all), and I've never felt the device get near as warm as my Intel-based Mac (especially considering it has no fans). No doubt there are quirks yet to be discovered, but it doesn't feel any different than an x86-based Mac running Fusion.