Autodesk’s September 2026 major Fusion update (v.2705.1.11, Sept. 3; minor v.2705.1.15 on Sept. 9) is the last big ship before Autodesk University—and it is not a polish pass. Autodesk Assistant leaves Tech Preview for general availability, Product Manufacturing Information lands in the Design workspace, sheet-metal tools get fabrication-grade joins and corners, and measured performance on large designs jumps hard across open/close, window selection, and configured assemblies.
The headline for data teams is conversational. Autodesk Assistant is now a generally available Fusion experience—including for hubs that previously opted out of Tech Preview—and it can find components and apply bulk natural-language property updates in one prompt (for example, find parts with “Bolt” in the name and set Vendor). Fusion Manage customers also get custom-property create/update/delete through the same chat surface, plus in-product purchase help. That is real BOM acceleration—and a reminder that property authority still lives in Autodesk’s cloud.
On the model itself, Fusion adds authorable PMI in Design (Manufacturing or Design Extension): Hole/Thread Note and Leader Note, with ASME/ISO settings under Document Settings. Notes ride parametric and direct modeling, consume downstream in Manufacturing (including hole machining and inspection), and imported PMI can convert to native Fusion PMI. That closes a long gap between “pretty 3D” and shop-readable annotations without bouncing everything through a separate drawing package first—key for any CAD/CAM handoff.
Sheet metal finally looks like fab: Join by Bend connects separate bodies with a rule-driven bend; dedicated Sheet Metal Fillet and Chamfer restrict selection to manufacturable “Z-up” edges; Corner Closure adds an Overlap slider (0–1) plus Flip. Performance claims on customer datasets: up to ~30% faster open/close of large designs, big Window Selection wins (Select All up to 55% faster; Revolve window prep up to 75×), Section Analysis up to 2.5×, and configured-assembly updates up to 80% faster—the kind of lag that kills concurrent design reviews.
Elsewhere: Render gains Scene Lights (Point, Spot, Photometric—up to eight per design); the API fully releases TypeScript, expands Drawings automation, and takes MPBF process simulation out of preview; BOM gets physical-property overrides, Remove from This Parent, and row reorder; Collaborative Editing continues its hub rollout. For PLM-minded teams, that is more live shared properties—and more dependence on hub-side editing semantics.
For N23D, the lesson is architectural. Assistant GA and cloud Collaborative Editing prove the market wants natural-language property work and live BOM—but industrial shops still need geometry and PMI that do not drift when a rented assistant or hub policy changes. N23D ships as one native Rust binary: local-first CAD, annotations bound to the model, and vaulted revisions you own—not a chat session that only works while Autodesk’s lights stay on.
Sources/References
- Autodesk Fusion Blog — September 2026 Major Product Update – What’s New (v.2705.1.11 Sept. 3, 2026; minor .15 Sept. 9)
- Autodesk Fusion Blog — Fusion September 2026 update: top features
- N23D — CAD stack page
- N23D — CAM stack page
- N23D — PLM stack page