Keqing Song
Elevate your design and manufacturing processes with Autodesk Fusion
Pushing a new update is a lot like landing a plane…
…each one is unique and this one was no exception. As our QA team spent the weekend performing various tests on the final release candidate build, we were all anticipating the next product update to happen sometime Monday morning. Everything was prepped and ready to go; new learning content, new website designs, etc. When Sunday night rolled around, the team received an email from Bryan, our Build Manager, titled Important message about our pending release. This did not sound good.
And no, it didn’t. Little did we know, the server we were using to host our release candidate builds encountered a hard drive and a graphic card failure. This could lead to data corruption, data loss, which would be distratrous. But Bryan, being the rock star that he is, jumped on it and bolted straight to the office to fix the issue. Not only was he able to get the server up and running again, but he was also able to replace the defective graphic card with a new one and get access to back up builds.
So with Bryan saving the day, we were back on schedule…or so we thought.
We originally planned for this update to go out on Monday, but due to an education-related event in Arlington, VA that was going to showcase Fusion 360 to students and faculty, we decided to move the update out a couple of days to make sure that they were successful and that everything would run smoothly. That’s one of the perks of being cloud based; the ability to be flexible. For instance, even as of late last night, we were still making tweaks to the software to make sure that it was absolutely solid to go out.
A few words from our team
So now it’s out, and yeah – we were so excited about it that we decided to make a video. Get an personal sense of what some of our team members have to say as they talk about what went on throughout the week leading up to this release, as well as the features they are most excited about (Sorry about the background noise, I messed my mic settings during the filming).
What’s new
Despite the various anomalies that had occurred before the release, we were able to overcome them and have it ready in time for you all to download and enjoy. Here are some of the key things to look out for in this update :
- New rendering experience – new workspace, better performance
- New materials – new libary, new UI
- New export options – DXF, OBJ
- New 3D print utility – now using Meshmixer
- New dashboard model viewer – replaces old viewer for previewing designs
- New CAM tech preview for Windows users
- New web command
Refer to the full list here or check out our learning site for more information.
Let’s get technical – live demo next Tuesday
We are very mindful of bringing you up-to-speed with how to fully take advantage of the latest and greatest functionalities. This is why we’d like to host a live online demo next Tuesday, May 27, around the key new features that got added to this update. We’d love to see you there. Learn all the how-tos, see the features in action, and ask us whatever questions you may have. Registration is absolutely free, just click on the link below to register.
We run a pretty tight ship, a ship that includes not only our entire Fusion 360 team, but also everyone else involved with the Fusion 360 product. This means that gathering your requirements, prioritization, UX design/validation, development, QA testing, final build validations, learning content creation, marketing, and PR all have to happen within a 6 week timeframe. All of us are very proud and happy to see this one finally reach your hands and as we continue to develop Fusion 360, we want to thank you for your continuous support, patience, and loyalty. It really means the world to us, and we would not be where we are today without your help.
Thank you, and enjoy using Fusion 360!
Keqing and the Fusion 360 team