【2025】How to download Fusion for Free | Creating an Account

There have been some major changes on Fusion by AutoDesk recently. Constantly under development, this powerful software is available to all – for Free! This article will show you how to find, create an account, do a Fusion download, and then the basics of how to get started. Fusion download is a fairly straightforward process so let’s get started.

Finding the Free Fusion Download

When I started with AutoCAD about ten years ago, things were very much different. AutoCAD was free to Students and it was fully functional. As I completed some of my studies I upgraded to Fusion, but when I did it, I used the AutoDesk Access Panel, which was part of the software suite that AutoDesk provided to manage its Users and Software. As a Student, I had full access to just about ALL of the AutoDesk software and even today I more or less still do.

Things have changed a bit since then. It is arguable if it is easier or harder to install AutoDesk software, but hopefully, you will find the Fusion download process fairly easy. If you haven’t already found the Fusion page on the AutoDesk website, simply put on your Google Goggles and search for “fusion download free” or “fusion free download”, either will work, and you should come up with search results.

Which Version to Download

Quoted; Autodesk

Since we have a couple of choices here, I am going to assume we are looking for a Fusion download for “Start a Free Trial”. You can pick whichever you want or is applicable to you but we will do a straightforward Free Fusion download. We are going to click on the first search result and we should end up with something that looks like this.

Choosing Which Fusion Download

Quoted; Autodesk

As you can see from the Table below, there are many different options about which version of Fusion download you can have. The actual Fusion download software is actually exactly the same, but in some cases the functionality is different. If you want to try the Fully Functional version with a 30-Day Free Trial you can select this option. After 30 days it will revert back to the Personal Use version. Since we want to have a good look at what is available first, we will go for the 30-day free Trial Fusion download. If you want to try the Educational version it will be the same software, just a different License. You will also have to provide more information to AutoDesk to actually prove you are using it for Education.

There are also a bunch of Extensions you can install but these are very specialised and cost a lot of money. If you need them then you will know but we are not interested in them today. Fusion is serious software and designed for engineering and design and manufacturing. Many professional individuals and small and large Corporations use it daily, but lucky for us, many individuals and hobbyists also have access to Fusion download too.

Let’s just get started and pick the “Start Free Trial” button on the AutoDesk Fusion Panel and we will be given some options on the next page.

Click on the “Start a Free Trial” button on the bottom left of the screen in the first Panel. It should then take us to creating an AutoDesk Account.

Creating an Account for Fusion Download

Quoted; Autodesk

“Why does AutoDesk require an Account?” you are probably asking yourself about now. You could be ultra-cynical and assume they are a Multi-national Corporation, Hell-bent on taking over the World and collecting data on all their unsuspecting Users for their own nefarious purposes. In your Mind – you could be correct.

On the other hand, you might just say that I have to have an Account for EVERYTHING these days so I might as well just sign up to get what I want. Whatever you might think about Companies and Accounts, you will need one to get your Fusion download, so just bite the bullet and sign up or here your Journey ends.

Seriously, an AutoDesk Account is another account annoyance but it is a necessary “evil”. Unlike many companies that harvest your information and on sell it to other companies for a profit, in more than ten years of having an AutoDesk Account I have just not had any major issues. Yes, AutoDesk do send me emails about some of their stuff – about twice a year I get an Invitation to their International Fusion Conference and a local Conference. That is about it. Nothing else. Nada.

As part of setting up your AutoDesk Account, you will be asked the usual questions.

Installing your Fusion Download

Installing your Fusion Download is much like installing any other software. Just download the file and run it. Depending on your Internet Browser there are several different ways this happens. I personally use the Mozilla Firefox browser but as far as I know, there are no browser restrictions other than the main ones might work better than some of the more obscure browsers. As long as you are using Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome then you shouldn’t have a problem. I am not saying that if you use another browser things will NOT work, only that I just cannot test all these browsers and I just plain don’t know if they will work or not.

If you are using some variation of these main browsers like Tor, which is a version of Mozilla Firefox with a built-in VPN you might have to tweak some settings. Mind you, if you are using such Internet Tools as Tor then you probably don’t need me to tell you how it works, you already know more than the average Internet User just by knowing what Tor is, let alone using it.

If you want more information about Tor and secure browsing then check here.

All I can really say is that I can point you to where to get a Fusion download and brief you on how to do it, but you are the one who has to work out your own tech support if you need it. Hopefully what you have is an installation file that you can run and install your Fusion download. After you have installed your Fusion download and fired it up, you should see the opening screen of Fusion.

More information about Fusion Download

A quick Video Tutorial on how to get the Fusion Download is here.

Getting Started with Your Fusion Download

Above is the layout of the Fusion download main screen. Right now, it is important to just familiarise yourself with the different parts of the interface so that when we start to use our Fusion download, we don’t get lost. We will learn as we go. Every time you fire up the fusion software you should see something like this with a new “Untitled” design as default.

You will notice that everything is set out fairly cleanly, and this display is fully customizable. I will not be customizing my display to keep things simple. The main thing to remember is that there is always more than one way to do things with fusion and each command is menu-driven and often has an icon for common commands and also a hotkey. As you learn the software you will become more comfortable with it. You may be a bit overwhelmed for now, but it is definitely worth the time and effort to learn this amazing software and there are many great tutorials to help you on the main AutoDesk website.

And, if you would like to know more information about getting started, please access to this web Tutorial below.

Simple introduction to using Fusion 360! – Explanation of operations and commands

Getting Started Modelling

The first thing we will want to do after firing up Fusion is to set up a work area and start a Project. Your screen should look a little like this.

This is called the Data Panel of Fusion and you will first need to set up somewhere to put your designs. To create a new place to start, simply press the “New Project” button and create a Folder with a useful name. I will call mine Tutorial Project. As you can see, I have several folders in my panel.

A couple of things to know about Fusion. The software stores data on your computer and in the Cloud because it was designed to be a single user or with collaborators, so sharing designs is core to the software. Don’t worry, your data will be safe if you don’t want to share but you need to know you can if you want. Another important thing about Fusion is that you cannot actually “delete” a project file, a copy is always stored in the Cloud for later use. When you “archive” a file it is moved here. This is frustrating sometimes as we like to bury our mistakes but makes sense for an Industrial Design point of view. The easiest way around this problem is to create a Garbage or Trash file and move old projects here and archive them to get rid of them. This will prevent a great deal of clutter when you start getting your teeth into the software. Also, files are quite small so you will not run out of room on your hard drive.

You will notice that there are a few Folders with a little Pin icon. The Pin moves those folders to the top of the Data Panel for quick and easy use; simply hover your mouse over the right side of the folder and click to get the Pin.

When it comes to creating a design, it is possible to close the data panel to give you more real estate on the design screen. To open and close the Data Panel, simply click on the small box of 3 x 3 dots to the top right of the New Projects button. Now we are ready to get started, so let’s have a look at our software interface.

Begin your Design – Set Units

Once you have created a folder to put things into, double-click to open the folder. You should now have a blank Data Panel and the Canvas area will be called “Untitled”. I am currently designing a small Steam Engine for Beginners; I have the basics drawn on paper so how do we get started? Let’s start by creating a nice wooden base for our model. Before we get into our design, we will check a couple of things and set up our Project.

The first thing we need to do is check our default units. Fusion can be set up to use many different units in both Metric and Imperial. A great benefit is that you can use all of them in the same design if you wish and you can let the software work it out. While this may make some users happy, a good engineer will be familiar with both systems but stick to just one of them for each design. We will be using Metric because I am from Australia and it is default here, but I will also show you how to change it to Imperial if you want to.

If you look at the Document Settings in the Browser on the left-hand side and hover your mouse over the Units, it will tell you what units are set for this Project and by clicking on the icon, it will open the menu on the right side and give you an opportunity to change them for this project or make the change default. For now, we will be using mm as the default unit, but you can change this at any time if you want Imperial and it will automatically re-calculate everything for you.

Setup Finished – Save and get started

The next thing we want to do is save our Project and give it a name. This will set up the initial units and give the project a default to save to as we work. This is a good habit to have when using Fusion, always set it up and give it a name as the first thing you do with a new project. To do this we will click on the small Disk icon on the top left of the Application Bar. I will call mine “Model Wobbler Steam Engine” and by pressing the save button, the file will be automatically saved in the folder I am currently in. Be very careful where you are in the Data Panel when you save as the file will save where you are in the data panel, not in the default folder. This is normally not an issue but it can happen. Usually, once you open the data panel you stay there but sometimes you may wish to import a part or assembly from elsewhere and you can accidentally save your file somewhere else. Once saved, everything should look like this.

Create your first Component

Now we are ready to start modeling. The first thing we will need to do is create a new Part or Assembly and make it Active to keep track of things and keep our Browser nice and tidy. You will notice that in the picture above there is a small Radio Button checked next to the top entry. This means that the Top entry is Active. Keeping track of which part is active is important, as again we want to start with good engineering habits, and we want to keep things logical and tidy. We are going to create a new part called “Wooden Base” and make it active. To do this, go to the Tool Bar, and under the drop-down Menu called CREATE, select and click the New Component option.

Create Component Panel

This will open a box like this, for now just enter the name “Wooden Base” and make sure that the Activate box is ticked and press OK. It should be ticked as this is the default.

Check the Browser Tree

After you have done this, you should have a new entry in the Browser Tree, and the radio button is checked next to it to make it active.

For those of you who are mad keen to actually go through with me and design this Steam Engine – Sorry, I am going to stop here right now. The few words above show the basic process of how to start any Project in Fusion. This article is all about Fusion download and not, sadly, a full-blown Tutorial on Model Steam Engines. Maybe another time. For now, you get the idea.

The Forum

Quoted; Autodesk

While professional support is available with some licenses of Fusion, when most people need some help, they will turn to the Forum. I would strongly recommend checking out the Documentation and Self-Paced Learning first, but we will get to that. The Forum is the place where like-minded people get together and talk about and solve problems when using Fusion. Since Fusion has a very wide range of users there is a very broad range of experienced people who join the forum and help out.

Another great thing about the forum is that the Developers also join there. This means that since Fusion is constantly under development, user feedback, requests and potential bugs and other problems get to the people who can make a difference straight away. The Forum website is under review and development as I write this and I am communicating directly with the web developer with others on the forum. The software is similar. Every month AutoDesk releases an update to Fusion and included in the update is a list of forum requests and issues that have been addressed.

A quick guide to using the forum.

•  Check the Documentation first.
•  Search the Forum for previous Posts similar to yours.
•  When you post your question add a screenshot or picture if possible.
•  Always attach your file for us to look at.
•  If it is propriety, create a new file showing the behavior.
•  Be humble. Sometimes you will get replies pointing out the errors in your ways. They are not trying to be rude to you, they are trying to help you.
•  When your problem is solved – mark it as solved so we all know.

 Documentation – Where to get help in Fusion

Fusion has great Documentation that is easy to find, search and navigate. The documentation also has embedded video tutorials so you can not only read about how something works but you can actually do it by following the tutorial. Do NOT just simply dismiss the Documentation as a boring document to only use in an emergency. It is readable and very useful and gives a great overview of exactly what Fusion can do. Time spent reading the Documentation is NEVER wasted.

Fusion Product Documentation

Quoted; Autodesk

Fusion documentation is very rich in learning and is not your average boring reading. Sure, there are parts where the going gets tough, but the embedded tutorials give you step-by-step instructions to help you really understand how everything works. After you have done the embedded tutorials that boring reading is no longer boring, the user actually has an understanding of what they are reading and can actually see what that “hidden other stuff” actually is. Once you understand the basic functionality of a tool, then the various switches and checkboxes on the tool Panel start to make sense. This is one of the main reasons why Fusion is so easy to use because the documentation is very well written.

Self-Paced Learning

Quoted; Autodesk

Similar to the Documentation, AutoDesk has also created an excellent series (several series actually) of Self-Paced Learning video tutorials. These range from simple getting started with Fusion Basics to complex CNC Machine programming and modifying tool paths and fine-tuning Fabrication. Once again, time spent watching these Tutorials is NEVER wasted.

In addition to these great learning resources, AutoDesk also has a dedicated Fusion YouTube Channel with many great videos, including Beginner to Advanced topics. AutoDesk also has what it calls AutoDesk University where learning for all of the software products it produces also have many tutorials from Beginner to Advanced.

【2024】What is Autodesk Fusion: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started

Conclusion

Now that you have a Fusion download fully installed and you know how to get started, give it a go and see what all the fuss is about. Fusion software is a unique application and there is nothing else quite like it available right now. Some software has some of the features that Fusion has, and some software has different features to Fusion. No software, right now at least, does all of the things that Fusion does or does them as well as Fusion does it.

The 30-Day Free Trial Fusion download is a great way to have a really good look. It will enable you to make an informed choice about “is this software the right one for me?” After the Trial is over you can then decide to continue using it, or not. Even the fully functional paid version is not a bad option.