Computer for Fusion 360

[medemt]

Not sure if this is the section to post this question, so I apologize in advance if it is not.

I am wanting to purchase a good computer that will work with Fusion 360. I have read the system requirements section of Autodesk's Fusion 360 and it is very basic.

What I would simply like to hear from other out there is what are the computer specs for your computer, does it perform well, any short comings, and what would you recommend as a good workstation computer to get clear, sharp images of your drawings.

I loaded the trial on my new work computer, which was not purchased to run this software, and when I look at drawings, the edge line look "jagged". Is this a function of the graphics card or maybe something else.

I believe it will do well enough to use Fusion while I learn it, but I would like to have a good computer at home that will be much better.

Thank you for considering my request.

Dan

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[ger21]

All CAD drawings and models will appear to have "jaggies" on curved edges, due to the limited number of pixels on a computer monitor. A 4K monitor should make onscreen drawings and renderings look much better.
Printed drawings should always be very sharp.

I use a 3 year old 6 core i7 with 32Gb of RAM, and an older GTX970 video card.

If I was buying today, I'd get an i7-8700k, 16-32Gb of RAM, and a GTX-1080.
This will be plenty fast, and should last 5-10 years.

[medemt]

All CAD drawings and models will appear to have "jaggies" on curved edges, due to the limited number of pixels on a computer monitor. A 4K monitor should make onscreen drawings and renderings look much better.
Printed drawings should always be very sharp.

I use a 3 year old 6 core i7 with 32Gb of RAM, and an older GTX970 video card.

If I was buying today, I'd get an i7-8700k, 16-32Gb of RAM, and a GTX-1080.
This will be plenty fast, and should last 5-10 years.

Thanks for the reply. Isn't the GTX-1080 a Gaming Graphics card? From what I have read, gaming cards should be avoided with 3D CAD software. Thoughts / comments???

[bernienufc]

Thanks for the reply. Isn't the GTX-1080 a Gaming Graphics card? From what I have read, gaming cards should be avoided with 3D CAD software. Thoughts / comments???

Thats what i thought, as time went by i wondered why my graphics were not quite there, so i read up on the Autodesk site and found that Fusion 360 performed better with a gaming card because of the way it was written so i now have a gaming card :-)

[ger21]

I've been using high end gaming cards for CAD for 20 years, and have never had a problem. Yes a $4000 workstation graphics card might be a little faster, but imo, they are not worth the money. Workstation Cards accelerate OpenGL, which Fusion 360 does not use. It uses DirectX, like most games.

[medemt]

Thats what i thought, as time went by i wondered why my graphics were not quite there, so i read up on the Autodesk site and found that Fusion 360 performed better with a gaming card because of the way it was written so i now have a gaming card :-)

Based on what I am hearing you say, I should clarify my comment about 3D Software. I was going to go with Solidworks, and when I did my research, those associated with it stated (very firmly I might add) stay away from the gaming cards.

This point you bring up about Fusion working better with a gaming card is quite interesting. I may want to reach out to Autodesk to see what they say. Not that I do not believe you, but I like to get as many points of view as possible, from people who know, before making a decision.

[ger21]

I've used Solidworks with a gaming card, and it works fine.

SW will work better with a workstation card, though. But you may not notice the difference until you have complex assemblies.

[ripperj]

I just had a nerd buddy build me up a pc, from some of his scraps and new parts . He always upgraded to the fastest stuff, so his castoffs are plenty fast.
The machine is quad core,4.0 GHz, 16g Ram with a GTX 970 video card. 250Gb solid state drive.
Not a monster machine by any means, but runs Fusion very, very well, my Lenovo choked on Fusion.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[dharmic]

It runs just fine on my 2009 iMac - 2.8 GHz Core i7, 32GB RAM (only a fraction of this needed), ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB video.

The only time it gets a bit slow is rendering, but I use that so rarely I don't care - and I don't think it would necessarily be lightning fast even on a new machine.

[ger21]

Rendering is very CPU intensive.
With hyperthreading enabled, rendering in Fusion 360 puts all 12 cores at 100%.

[dharmic]

Interesting. Because rendering is exactly what GPUs were designed to do. On a correctly configured system with a decent graphics card I would expect the CPU to be fairly idle during a render, unless either the software is dragging CPU to party to help or it's not shipping off to the GPUs correctly.

[ger21]

Rendering has always been a CPU intensive operation, with huge render farms of CPU's used for rendering effects and animation.

It's only since the advent of CUDA and OpenCL that GPU's play a bigger part in rendering, but only if the software supports them.

[precisionmetal]

I'm using a ~5 year old 27" iMac, i7, 32gig of ram, NVidia GTX 680 MX 2gig video.

PM

[dazp1976]

Hmm. I'm using InventorHSM not Fusion.
I'm using an old Gigabyte socket775 with an Intel Celeron D 3.00ghz CPU, 4GB DDR2 kingston value ram, Nvidia GTX460 GPU 1GB.
Windows7 64bit.
Works no problem tbf.

[tom o]

I’m using a MSI computer with.no problems.

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
I use an oldish i7 laptop running at 2.1 GHz with 8G RAM and a Radeon card. It works fine.

No doubt you can always get better but why bother? Remember that Fusion 360 is a CAM program, you can use it to draw parts and
then generate Gcode to make them. Who cares if you have a super flash screen or whatever, when all said and done its the Gcode that
is produced that will influence how a part turns out.

I have fallen into similar traps in the past....spend big money/time/energy on a PC or some part of my mill, (overly complicated spindle speed control
is one such example) only to find that I should have spent my time/money on some other part (flood cooling gives me better results than a fast PC ever will).

Craig

[precisionmetal]

Craig,

What have you done with JoeAverage? That insight in the last sentence (your entire message, really), indicates you are way above JoeAverage!

[joeavaerage]

Hi precisionmetal,
very kind of you to say....but you haven't met me.....I rather suspect you'd call me something otherwise....like 'that ba....rd!!' LOL

None the less my comment is that its very easy to get carried away on a tangent and not really improve the quality of your parts.
This is a hobby and tangents are allowed and even fun if you were doing it for a boss then tangents are frowned on.

Craig

[precisionmetal]

Ha,

From one b@astard to another then.....

You are dead right of course -- I'm semi-retired now, and find myself on the tangent lines constantly: not productive, but usually educational, and always fun!

[ger21]

I have fallen into similar traps in the past....spend big money/time/energy on a PC or some part of my mill, (overly complicated spindle speed control
is one such example) only to find that I should have spent my time/money on some other part (flood cooling gives me better results than a fast PC ever will)

I don't think he's talking about the PC running his machine, but rather a PC for CAD/CAM only.
If you're designing complex parts or assemblies, a powerful PC can make the experience far more enjoyable.