Fusion 360 running on Linux

[Hugh Currin]

Some time ago we had a good long running discussion about CAD/CAM options here . In that thread I mentioned I was trying to get Fusion 360 working on a Linux box. It has taken some time, mainly to pop for a good cable Internet connection, but over the last couple of days I've worked on this and have it functioning.

It's not directly on a Linux box, which was anticipated. I used Virtualbox. This is a virtual machine from Oracle that runs as a program on the Linux box. My main, and really all my computers, are running Kubuntu, a flavor of Linux (20.04 currently). Virtualbox creates a virtual computer inside the Kubuntu operating system. It uses the resources of the host (Kubuntu) system, like keyboard, mouse, graphics, and I think USB. It should be able to share files between the host and guest OS. It is freely available from the Ubuntu repositories and easy to obtain.

The guest is the OS one installs on the virtual machine. To run Fusion 360 I installed Windows as the host on this virtual machine. It installs just like on a fresh computer, I don't think it knows it's virtual. I even bought a version of Windows-10 Home for a license key.

Finally, fire up the virtual WIndows machine and install Fusion 360. The miracle is it worked.

It sounds so simple. Could be accomplished within an hour plus the time waiting for downloads and installs. That is if one knew which buttons to push from the start. It's taken me two days which I thought was quick.

NOW I have three new programs that link together, Virtualbox, Windows and Fusion. I'm not familiar with any of these. I think it's 25-30 years since I sat in front of a Windows computer. Fusion is also brand new to me. It could take a couple of years until I know if it's worthwhile. And I'm sure Virtualbox will require some tweeking.

It's all brand new so I don't know how well it will work. I don't know how much working from a VM will slow down Fusion, or how well the graphics will function. Large models could bog it down, testing will tell.

Does anyone know how dependent Fusion is on the Internet? I'll soon be back to minimal or no Internet so moving too far towards Fusion may not be a great idea.

Thanks.

[crueby]

Hi Hugh,
I've been running Fusion for several years now (on Windows), have a paid license now, started with the free hobbyist license but switched last year when they took some of the export features I need away from the free version. There are quite a lot of very good tutorials on the Autodesk site, well worth going through the basic ones to get to know their recommended workflow, it helps a lot.

Fusion does assume it has internet access - it runs on your local machine, but wants to store the project files up in the cloud since it is a team-based product. You CAN tell it to work locally for a couple weeks at a time, but it will want to connect up periodically to store files, and they do send out updates at least once a month. To work locally, there is a work-offline option that you should look up (I have never used it so don't know the details of it, just that it exists).

Like most CAD packages, Fusion has LOTS more functionality than guys like us need, in manufacturing workflows and such. Its design/model functions are quite good, they ARE still developing it and periodically the user interface gets some changes that make older tutorials and youtube videos others post obsolete. They have a very active user forum on their website.

Hope some of that helps - feel free to ask, I'll answer what I can, I know there are others on this forum who use it too.
Chris

[Jasonb]

Fusion will also be quite dependant on the graphics card and amount of Ram so will still need a reasonable computer to function be it Linux or Windows so could still need to upgrade older machines which was one of the issues in the other thread.

[Hugh Currin]

Jason:

And even more a concern using a virtual machine. It's dependent on the graphics provided by Virtualbox, the virtual machine, as well as the graphics needing to run Linux and the virtual machine together. Ditto the capability of the hardware itself. Virtualbox can use the machines hardware 3D accelerator though. I'm using an older, but high end laptop with 32K memory. It should at least let me evaluate Fusion.

Thanks.

Fusion will also be quite dependant on the graphics card and amount of Ram so will still need a reasonable computer to function be it Linux or Windows so could still need to upgrade older machines which was one of the issues in the other thread.

[Jasonb]

It will depend to some extent what you are doing with F360, I don't draw with mine preferring to stick with Alibre and I can sometimes have issues with that on very complex parts. For example it is possible to model a knurl buy using lots of helical cuts but they do slow things down so best just to put a note on the 2D drawings that a part is to be knurled, same with trying to show real threads. I would expect F360 to be similar in it's needs for this type of thing.

I really only use F360 for CAM and have found it can get a bit bogged down doing very complex 3D finishing toolpaths that may have very small stepovers and constant changes in direction but for the most part it's OK

[Kim]

I'm using an older, but high end laptop with 32K memory. It should at least let me evaluate Fusion.

32K?  Hopefully, you mean 32Gig? 

Kim

[Hugh Currin]

Kim:

Your right, it should be 32Gb. :-) However some time ago I did have a computer with 32Kb memory. But it maxed out at 64K, had an 8bit processor and ran on an S100 bus, no graphics. Ya laugh, but some of you remember these!

Thanks Kim.

32K?  Hopefully, you mean 32Gig? 

Kim

[Kim]

Your right, it should be 32Gb. :-) However some time ago I did have a computer with 32Kb memory. But it maxed out at 64K, had an 8bit processor and ran on an S100 bus, no graphics. Ya laugh, but some of you remember these!

Oh, I do remember.  My first computer was one of those single board kits it was based on the RCA 1802 and had a whopping 256 bytes of memory, stock.  I cobbled together an 8K S100 board to work with it, but could never keep more than about 2K working at any given time (those 2102 SRAMs were VERY static sensitive!).  But that's OK.  I had to toggle in all the programs I wanted to run by hand.  And it took too long to load a program any bigger than a few hundred bytes.  Yeah, those were the days!

Kim

[crueby]

Your right, it should be 32Gb. :-) However some time ago I did have a computer with 32Kb memory. But it maxed out at 64K, had an 8bit processor and ran on an S100 bus, no graphics. Ya laugh, but some of you remember these!

Oh, I do remember.  My first computer was one of those single board kits it was based on the RCA 1802 and had a whopping 256 bytes of memory, stock.  I cobbled together an 8K S100 board to work with it, but could never keep more than about 2K working at any given time (those 2102 SRAMs were VERY static sensitive!).  But that's OK.  I had to toggle in all the programs I wanted to run by hand.  And it took too long to load a program any bigger than a few hundred bytes.  Yeah, those were the days!

Kim

Yup! Here come the stories from everyone!  When I was in college, I had a job one summer at a place using old PDP-8A's older than I was, which only had a few K worth of memory. One time we had to swap out the power supply in one, so had to pull the boards first. The memory board was quite thick, so I held it up to the light edge on, and discovered it used core memory, with the little ferrite rings held in a grid of address/data wires! Years later I found a core memory board in an antique shop, have that in my collection now. My current PC has 32 gig of memory and 16 processors - light years away from those old PDP machines!
Chris

[Flyboy Jim]

My turn.  I remember that core memory. When I worked at Tektronics in the late sixties, they had a Digital Equipment Corp. computer that we were using for one of their first automated test systems. I think it had 5k of core memory in a unit about the size of 1/2 of a refrigerator.

Jim

[Admiral_dk]

Funny fact - those core memories probably still contain the data that was stored in them when you and I last saw them .... even though that they haven't been plugged in or had any power applied to them all that time ...!

Another fun fact - they are still used in the Oil business and other hard environments with extreme temperatures .... 

[Hugh Currin]

Update:

I started working though several Fusion 360 tutorials. I've gotten far enough to really like Fusion. As Chris said, there are many tutorials on U-Tube for Fusion. So far it seems way more capable than my previous 2D CAD plus CamBam. Not to knock those, I've used them for years and they are nice. But Fusion moves a step beyond. Much easier to use than high end packages I tried some 20 years ago, what a surprise :-). I suspect the hobby version will be adequate for most of us. And if not, the commercial version at some $40/mo isn't bad.

It does seem you can work off line for a week or two. I haven't figured out how to move models around to accomplish this, but it's possible.

However, in working though a tutorial they presented an operation to section a part. My machine would not do as they said. After some poking about, I found it was the 3D hardware graphics accelerator in Virtrualbox that was the problem. I turn this off and all works as advertised. But, turning off 3D acceleration makes Fusion slow enough to be unworkable. No reasonable way to change the graphics driver in Virturalbox so no go. I tried the free version of VMware for the virtual machine. Still too slow to be workable. I now don't think off the shelf virtual machines are yet up to running Fusion.

So, I made my main computer, a laptop I take traveling, a dual boot system. Windows-10 on a separate partition with Fusion installed. Not as convenient as a virtual machine but should give a better Fusion experience. I think I can transfer files by writing to the Windows partition from linux. If that doesn't work there's always a thumb drive.

That's what I've found if anyone is interested. Your experience may vary, but if you're using CNC I'd recommend looking into Fusion 360. Nice.

Thanks.

[Vixen]

Hello Hugh

Thanks for taking the trouble to update us all regarding your 'Fusion 360 on Linux' research and experimentation.

It's disappointing that you have to resort to a duel boot 'Win 10/Fusion 360' system to get it to run nicely. I was so hoping you would find a viable Linux solution as I have no desire to fall into the Win 10 trap

Happy travels

Mike

[Jasonb]

I do find the section useful in Alibre for when I'm designing or redrawing an engine as for example you can see what the valve and piston are doing in relation to the steam ports and cylinder end covers as you rotate the crankshaft with your mouse and watch them move so would think it useful in F360 too.

This is a little one I've been drawing up the last couple of evenings, just selected the parts I wanted to section and can easily switch the section view on and off without loosing the selected parts, also possible to have several sections if needed an flick between them.