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Anyone had any luck running Fusion 360 on Linux? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago by IMALlama@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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Title basically.

One of my windows computers, which happens to be the one I happen to do the most CAD work on, can't upgrade to windows 11 due to having an Ivy Bridge era Xenon (it's an E5-1680 v2 for the curious, older used workstations are fantastic bang for the buck computers).

Switching to Linux on this computer has been in the cards for a while, but I hadn't been in a hurry to do it. Looks like my hand might be getting forced...

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[-] mhier@norden.social 52 points 5 days ago

@IMALlama it's called #FreeCAD there *running-away-and-hiding*

[-] JelleWho@lemmy.world 31 points 5 days ago

Got to be fair, since the 1.x update it got so much more usable for me

[-] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 23 points 5 days ago

Yep, very much improved. I recking it will turn out like Blender. It sucks right now compared to some other tools like Fusion360, but given time it will improve and at some point it will tip over into being the default. It all depends on buy in. If a few bigger players get behind it because they can avoid predatory fees and costs associated with using a proprietary piece of software they will switch, invest in their own mods, then drive the industry knowledge standard towards FreeCAD. That will break the hold the proprietary apps have as workers gain skills in the new context, leaving the old proprietary stuff to rot. I hope it is soon, but it will happen eventually.

[-] IMALlama@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Oh, I know. I am familiar with the fusion workflow and it generally just works - even when you mess with a feature way earlier in your timeline.

I model some vaguely complex things and find that I often fiddle with things. From the last I looked into it, OSS CAD didn't handle this very well.

[-] P13@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago

OpenSCAD can also be fun if you like fiddling with parametric designs.

[-] mhier@norden.social 5 points 4 days ago

@IMALlama well, freecad really improved a lot recently. It may be worth looking again. One problem still may be the many different workflows you can use, some of which may be super inappropriate for complex stuff. I recommend the part design workbench with the sketch feature, combined with a spreadsheet for fully parametric designs. Sketches can now be attached to faces of the object, which is super helpful. Do all the fillets and chamfers at the end, ideally.

[-] SW42@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

It really has. As a lover of FOSS I can say that there still is an order of magnitude regarding usability, workflow and robustness of the models between freecad and fusion. I dislike everything about autodesk and its business model but I have to admit that fusion is also my go-to when I need to model something fast.

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[-] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

Or if like me, you want something closer to fusion or Solidworks, there’s Onshape. At least until it enshitifies.

[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

That's unhelpful. The person might be a professional in a work that mandates using Fusion360. "FreeCAD is the best Linux supported CAD program but you should try running a VM inside of Linux and see if fusion 360 works a" is way more helpful.

[-] BlackVenom@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

If they're a pro and the software doesn't support the OS, it'd be kinda foolish to not stick with what's supported.i

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[-] Lem453@lemmy.ca 12 points 4 days ago

I think I remember people saying they got it working with this

https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps

That being said, stuff like Fusion 360 changes quite often and even if it works now it might break compatibility with the future update.

FreeCAD has come a long way since with the 1.0 release and the 1.1 release also has lots of good quality of life improvements.

[-] KyuubiNoKitsune 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

While I'd like to know the same, I'd also recommend reading their EOS page. You have time to switch over.

**What does end of support mean for Windows 10 and Fusion?**

Fusion will continue to work on Windows 10 after the 14th - however, Autodesk will no longer consider Windows 10 for validation, bug fixing, and product support of future releases. Application compatibility and support will not be guaranteed for this platform for releases after this date.
[-] synapse1278@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago

After exploring options such as Fusion360 and SOLIDWORKS I ended up making a free account on onshape. It's web-based and works flawlessly on Firefox and Linux. I should try a bit more FreeCAD, but lack motivation.

[-] mapleseedfall@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

OnShape is just waiting to be enshittified

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago

Freecad has gotten much better with the recent updates.

It's UI is (obviously) different than fusion, but so are other CAD programs.

Sure, it may not be at the stage where it could be used to do 100% of the mechanical and electrical design on a jet helicopter, but how many people need that level of complexity for their projects?

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago

Better, but it's still pretty shit.

[-] alleycat@feddit.org 41 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yes and no. This install script works well, but it breaks every few months (not the fault of the script, but Autodesk). Then you have to wait for an update and reinstall everything.

[-] IMALlama@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

The second link to this repo, thanks!

When you say it breaks every few months does that mean that fusion does its usual update thing as-per-normal and then just nopes out one day?

[-] alleycat@feddit.org 5 points 4 days ago

The main function of the script is to enable the browser redirect for the login. Sometimes Autodesk changes how the login works and logs you out. Then you can't login back again, because the browser redirect doesn't work.

[-] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Drop autodesk. I've got access to autodesk products as an educator, and I've used inventor for years, but I have only had FreeCAD on my system for months. I have not found myself being unable to do anything I could do in Inventor.

[-] kuhli@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I've had issues with FreeCAD being less performant and freezing or crashing when trying to make more complex parts.

Fairly rare though and I've been able to work around it

[-] KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net 8 points 4 days ago

Tbf even solidworks crashes when designing complex assemblies

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

As much as I hate AutoCAD, Fusion360 is the only option for serious modelling and fast prototyping.

[-] TonyOstrich@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

In what context? I personally find NX and SpaceClaim to be as good or better in both of those aspects, buuuuuut no home gamer is going to be able to afford either.

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[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 11 points 4 days ago

No luck. I use OnShape.

[-] Joelk111@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This has been my experience. I couldn't even get logged in to Fusion via Bottles.

[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago

Fusion360 has been rated Silver on WINE (windows compatability tool) so you have a decent shot of running it. Silver means "couple of minor bugs, might need tweaks to run but runs well".

In Linux we have FreeCAD but if you're heavily dependent on Fusion360 I'd recommend trying a Virtual Windows Machine, Bottles, Lutris, Steam Proton, the installation script posted here and so on.

If you have space for two drives on your computer then worst case you could bypass the windows whatever and have two different OSs.

[-] igg@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

This, maybe with something with good wine/gpu compatibility like CachyOs. And if it fails there are ways to install windows 11 on IvyBridge

[-] AnAverageSnoot@lemmy.ca 13 points 4 days ago

I just normally end up using Onshape

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[-] gruncleStan@reddthat.com 3 points 3 days ago

Try https://github.com/TibixDev/winboat Haven't tried fusion but Photoshop works fine with it.

[-] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 21 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It's very easy to bypass TPM / Secure Boot requirements and install Windows 11 on Ivy Bridge, though I'd favour going Linux anyways and make a Windows virtual machine for stuff like if you can't give up proprietary software.

That's just me. If you want to install Win11: Basically you just need Rufus to make your boot-able USB stick and you tick a box to disable the checks. That's it. On the same PC hardware it'll HWID activate, don't buy a key.

Or if it doesn't just use massgrave activator found in github.

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[-] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 days ago

No, I tried for a while but I gave up.

I switched to Onshape and I'm very happy with the switch.

[-] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 17 points 5 days ago

https://github.com/cryinkfly/Autodesk-Fusion-360-for-Linux

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[-] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 days ago

You can install a W11 VirtualBox VM on an old, unsupported processor without any special configuration. I have it running under Linux on a 10 year old AMD processor and it works fine.

[-] rsolva@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Yeah, that is what I would have done. Check out Tiny10 and Tiny11, which is stripped down, but totally functional Windows versions that is perfect to use as base images for a VM. I used the default VM/QUEMU app that ships with Fedora, called Box (I think?). But you could install VirtualBox as well.

[-] spitfire@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

There are also scripts to unlock upgrade on „unsupported” processors which still technically work with 11

[-] nucleative@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

I tried to make Fusion 360 run under wine and just couldn't get it reliably working.

There were problems logging in, problems with resolution, issues with fonts and DLL errors. It just wasn't stable enough to rely on.

[-] blaue_Fledermaus@mstdn.io 9 points 5 days ago

You could also try installing Windows IoT LTSC.

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[-] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 days ago

So can still use it just not receive support right? They didn't cripple the actual software just because windows 10 isn't supported I hope?

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this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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