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. 
___

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.   

[philletourneau]

Rosetta 2 is exactly the same for M1 Pro/Max as it is for the M1. You should however see improved performance in some areas as a result of the new chips being more capable.

[Cap2020]

After asking Fusion360 support for advice, they advised me against getting an M1.
I use the PCB design functions on my projects and there are quite a few bugs as it is a developing feature of Fusion360.

I unfortunately have the same problem as all the designers who ask the question on this forum. When Autodesk Fusion360 will communicate on potential date (even if they talk years) for native ARM Apple compatibility of Fusion360.
I have an investment to make right now and I don't want to buy an Intel Mac or Intel machine if Autodesk releases Fusion360 ARM in 6 months!
Moreover, Autodesk could clearly display if it considers it stable or not for Mac M1.

[soswow]

ooof .... that is a big blow. Was about to spend so much money on super performant computer (new macbook pro). One of the "Big" software I am into is fusion. Finding out that they haven't done it yet, not planning on (or give a date) is just disappointing ... 

[TrippyLighting]

---

@soswow wrote:

... not planning on (or give a date) is just disappointing ... 

---

They ARE planning on it and in a post above and in other threads provided good reasons why this has not been implemented yet.

FYI I use Fusion 360 on a 2017 MacBook Pro and before that on a now 11 year old 27" iMac. I 've never had performance problems. The vast majority of performance problems can be attributed to bad workflows. As such, it is likely better to spend time on improving workflows than worrying about the next high-performance hardware purchase!

[Cap2020]

I would like to point out that the support team did not recommend the M1 13", the new M1Pro and M1MAX were not released.

I would also like to invest. By the way, I went to see the workstations at Lenovo (Autodesk support works with this) and well it's much more expensive with "equal" characteristics 

16" MacBook Pro
M1 MAX - GPU32 - 64GORam = 3600€ HT

THINKPAD P1 GEN4 16
I9 - RTX3080 16Gb - 64GbRam = 4383€ HT (announced 6875€ discount of 2492€!!)

It's true that with an investment at this price, I would like to know if it will work for the Mac M1 MAX. I would also like to save money between the Intel and M1!
And the little extra for the planet is to consume less electricity = better carbon footprint over the life of my investment.

FR

Je précise que l'assistance ne me conseillait pas le M1 13", les nouveaux M1Pro et M1MAX n'étaient pas sortie.

Moi aussi je voudrais investir. D'ailleurs, je suis allé voir les stations de travail chez Lenovo (L'assistance Autodesk travail avec ça) et bien c'est nettement plus chère à caractéristique "égal" 

MacBook Pro 16"

M1 MAX - GPU32 - 64GORam = 3600€ HT

THINKPAD P1 GEN4 16"

I9 - RTX3080 16Go - 64GoRam = 4383€HT (annoncé 6875€ remise de 2492€!!)

C'est vrai qu'avec un investissement a ce prix, j'aimerais bien savoir si ca va fonctionner pour le Mac M1. J'aimerais aussi faire l'économie entre le Intel et M1!

Et le petit plus pour la planète c'est de consommer moins d'électricité = meilleur bilan carbone sur la durée d'utilisation de mon investissement.

[Cap2020]

Indeed using the Derive function is also an advice I got from the support. And it changes a lot of things in the organization but also in the machine performance.
But in any case the more time you spend in front of Fusion, the more interesting it will be to have a fast machine to save your time and a little money.

It's a bit like some companies that buy PCs with a flatbed HDD to save money but make their employees waste their time.

Another little problem is that you can't configure an Intel Mac on the Apple website anymore and therefore you can't find a brand new Intel Mac with 8GB graphics card.

[michael55SE4]

I spent the day trying to get work done with Fusion360 using Rosetta.  The speed is hugely improved over my 4-year old Macbook Pro.  The regular editing visual CAD rendering quality is hugely improved and rendering is supercharged.

The only problem is there are too many weird quirks in editing models.  Just trying to draw circles or set dimensions made the models go wacko.   It's hugely disappointing and I hope Autodesk releases an M1 compatible version of Fusion360 before the new laptops are released again in a year or two.  

Note that I don't care about running natively on the M1; the speed with Rosetta is more than enough if Autodesk could work out the bugs so the program is usable. 

[qkarmark]

Right now, there is a 4-5 week wait time for custom-configured M1 Pro/Max MBPs ordered online. Its my opinion there is clearly enough demand for these brand new machines already that Autodesk is fully aware how important their software will be to this growing Mac/M1 user base.

[1Macaddict]

I just installed Fusion on a new MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Max 12.0.1 Monterey (I have been running Fusion for about a week) and may have found an issue with using "File/Print"

I sometimes just print a drawing to take to the shop without creating a .pdf file.

I just select "File/Print" and a dialog appears that asks which printer and sheets to print.

The normal print dialog should come up after that to send the drawing to the printer.

Now Fusion will hang before the normal print dialog comes up and I have to force quit. Moments after that, I get a message that says "Your system has run out of application memory" (see attached)

At that point I have to restart the computer in order to be able to do anything.

Exporting to a .pdf and then printing the .pdf works normally.

Any thoughts?

Jeff

[holmberg2066]

Apparently, many people are having out-of-memory problems with the latest MacOS.  Your problem may not be caused by anything AutoDesk has done (even though it's their app that crashes).

From MacWorld.com: Memory leaks are crippling my M1 MacBook Pro–and I’m not alone

[sgingras]

Regarding memory leak, I experienced it on my M1

Here's what resolved it for me;

From this page:

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

Rename the Web Services and the Autodesk Fusion 360 folders

1. Go to ~/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/
2. Rename the folder "Autodesk Fusion 360" to "Autodesk Fusion 360_".
3. Rename the folder "Web Services" to "Web Services_".
4. Restart Fusion 360.

[1Macaddict]

Appreciate the feedback but my real issue is that I can't use "File/Print" to print a drawing. Fusion will freeze and I have to force quit.

The memory leak showed up after I force quit Fusion and I haven't seen it at any other time. Not yet anyway.

Can you try to print a drawing using "File/Print" in Fusion and see what result you might get?

Thanks much,

Jeff

[BeauSlim]

I have an M1 Air; still on Big Sur.  I wanted to check Fusion on Monterey anyway so I booted to my Monterey test disk and installed Fusion360.  Printing works.  It also doesn't pop up any kind of dialog to pick options, which seems kind of strange. 

I would recommend trying a different printer.  If you don't have a real one available, install a new dummy Postscript network printer on an empty IP address on your LAN.  If that works (i.e. the document is queued up), it is probably your printer driver that isn't working right in Monterey.  You'll need to check with your printer manufacturer for and update. 

[1Macaddict]

Thanks for testing. You may be on to something as far as the print driver. I did try to print to a shared printer connected to an old Mac Mini on my network and Fusion froze with that one also. Brother's support site does not list a print driver for Monterey so it may need to be updated. I can still output a .pdf and print the .pdf but the File/Print was a quick option.

Here is what I just tried.

- Attempted to print again with my MacBook Pro 16" 2021 M1 Max 64GB running Monterey 12.0.1

- Selected the Brother printer that is on my network and Fusion Froze

- Did a force quit and within a couple minutes the memory leak issue showed up

- Restarted the Mac, opened the same drawing and attempted to print to the Samsung printer that is a shared printer on my network that is connected to an old Mac Mini. I haven't had an updated driver for that one for a long time which is why it is connected and shared on the Mac Mini

- Fusion froze and the memory leak showed up after a minute or so

Got out my older Mac that is still on Big Sur 11.6

- Installed Fusion on my old MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) Processor 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 running macOS Big Sur Version 11.6

- Opened the same sample drawing and used File/Print to print it to the Brother printer

- The drawing printed as expected

- I did not get the dialog that I thought I was getting before, maybe I made that up. I did see a post in the Fusion 360 Forum from 2017 that also mentioned not getting a print dialog so you can't adjust any print settings for the specific printer.

- I printed the drawing again using the networked Samsung printer and it printed fine there also

I have not seen the memory leak with any other application as of yet, just when I have had to force quit Fusion.

Thanks again,

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Since a couple of days now; i cannot use F360 anymore on my 13" M1 Macbook Pro. Whenever i open the app and it starts to boot, i get to see the splash screen, a big white window; and then the whole app freezes and i need to Force Quit it or i get to see only the macOS beachball.

Any tips / tricks / workarounds? It's really annoying..

[johnanger]

Great real life experience! Thanks for posting. Please update the thread when things improve- I’m sure they will sooner than later. We may need some updates from Apple and Autodesk. 

[oyvindTMNSU]

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3640168/apple-s-message-for-everyone-keep-up.html

[Artigrama]

Thanks for the effort and updates Fusion Team!

I wonder what could perform better, if running Fusion 360 natively with rosetta on macOS or running it through a virtual machine like parallel, what would you suggest gives the best user experience/performance.

Rgds.

[Anonymous]

I have a Mac mini with 8 Gb of ram and the M1 chip set. Fusion 360 is soooooo slow. I have issues just selecting a line to delete! I use fusion 360 with my plasma cutter so everything is 2D. Hoping someone has a solution to this. I waste 10- 20 hours a week waiting for the simplest things to compute!

[soswow]

yeah, man. I so get you. It's a cue for someone to come and tell you that
you "using it wrong" 😃 That's what I've been told every time I complain
about things like that.