Hubs and Projects

Overview#

Fusion stores your data in a hierarchy: hub > project > folder > design. Autodesk's help describes it this way: when you work on a design you store it in a project; a project can have multiple folders, each with its own permission settings; and projects are stored in the cloud in a collaborative space called a hub, which is created by an administrator. Knowing who controls each layer prevents the most common collaboration problems: files you cannot see, people who can see too much, and teams that cannot edit what they need.

• Hub: a collaborative space inside the cloud where you and your collaborators work on projects. It usually requires an invitation or approval from an administrator.
• Project: a space for ongoing work on a specific effort. Each project in a hub can have its own custom access permissions and its own members.
• Folder, subfolder, and design: storage areas and designs inside a project. Every folder can have its own permissions (this does not apply to legacy projects). Folders can also exist at the root level of a hub.

Note: If you have not used Fusion for a while, your projects may be "legacy" projects. Autodesk has a support article on upgrading a legacy project to a folder-level project to get newer features.

Where to find it#

• In Fusion: the hub name at the top of the Data Panel, and the hub name on the left of Fusion Home. Click it to switch hubs. To open a hub in the web client, click More beside the hub name and choose Open in Web.
• On the web: the Fusion web client (autodesk.com/fusion-team). Autodesk says you must use the web client to manage projects. Hub administration is under Admin in the profile menu: the Hub Settings tab for hub-level options and the Members tab for invitations and roles.
• Licenses: assigned in Autodesk account management, not in the hub (see Licenses and plans).
• Default hub and leaving a hub: profile button, then Settings, which opens the Configure Hubs page.

Joining a hub#

There are three ways to join a hub: automatically (a private email domain matching the hub owner's domain), at first launch (follow the prompts), or from an email invitation. If you accept an invitation and have no active Fusion subscription you start a free 30-day trial, unless you have used one before. See Installing Fusion for the steps.

Hub roles#

Hub admins manage the hub in the Fusion web client. As a hub admin you can manage hub settings, rename the hub, enable file sharing, invite members, change roles, activate or deactivate members, control who can invite, search members, enable physical properties, separate shared part numbers, and enable project creation.

Autodesk notes that Project contributor is a legacy role no longer in use. A hub admin can also toggle Project creator on a member. By default, only hub admins can create projects. Hub admins can see all projects and their contents in the hub.

Hub invitation settings (Admin > Hub Settings > Access) are:

• Admin invite only: only an administrator may invite new hub members.
• Admin approval required: any member may invite, but an administrator must approve.
• No admin approval required: members can invite others without approval.

Optional per-domain settings are Auto approve and Available to join.

Project roles and permissions#

A project member's role determines what they can do in a project. Permissions are cumulative: each role includes the permissions of the roles below it.

Role hierarchy rules:

• A member's project role is automatically applied to all its folders and subfolders.
• A member can be given a higher role on a particular folder; this affects only that folder and its subfolders.
• A member cannot be given less access to a subfolder than to its parent folder. Autodesk recommends giving new members Viewer access, then raising access on subfolders as needed.
• A member can be assigned a folder role without a role for the whole project.
• If a member has access to a folder as an individual and through groups, the highest role wins.
• In projects created from September 2026, members see only the names of folders they have access to. In older projects, anyone with access to any folder can still see the names of all other folders. If that matters, put sensitive folders in a separate project.

Step by step: set up a team project#

1. Check you may create projects. By default only hub admins can; a hub admin can grant Project creator to others.
2. Create the project. In the Data Panel, click New Project and name it. You can also create one in the Save dialog (Location arrow, New Project) or in the web client. Avoid a name that reveals the purpose of a sensitive project.
3. Know the default privacy. A new project is secret: only you and hub admins have access.
4. Invite people. In the web client, open the project, click the Members and Permissions tab, use Add or search members and groups, and pick members, groups, or email addresses (people not yet in the hub receive invitations). Select Everyone to give access to everyone in the hub.
5. Set roles. Click a name to open the Focus Panel and choose a role under Directly applied role. Select several names to set the same role at once. To change or remove a role later, use the same tab; No role removes all permissions.
6. Scope to a folder if needed. Navigate into a folder first to invite members or set roles for that folder only.
7. Create folders and seed the project with designs or uploads.
8. Verify access. Ask a teammate to open the project from their Data Panel and confirm what they see.

The maximum number of members in a project is 500. A group counts as only one member, so groups are useful as a project grows.

Groups#

Hub admins can create groups in the web client and give a group access to specific projects instead of assigning access to each member. Everyone in a group gets the same permissions for the group folder, unless they have higher permissions through another group or a parent folder. Groups need unique names, cannot be nested, cannot contain inactive hub members, and are created and managed only in the web client.

Creating and administering a hub#

Administrators normally create their hub right after buying licenses: they need an Autodesk account, Fusion installed, and the right number of licenses. The steps are: choose a hub name, start Fusion and sign in (authorization happens in your browser), follow the setup prompts (hub name, an optional team, and Discovery, which lets people with the same email domain find the hub; Autodesk discourages it for generic domains such as hotmail.com), click Create, then Go to hub. Then use Invite Members to invite people by email, and assign licenses in Autodesk account management.

The help says you can only create one hub from a given administrator; to create additional hubs, make someone a secondary admin and have them create it. Hub admins can also merge two hubs (both must be collaborative editing hubs, and you must be admin of both), which does not apply to Fusion for education.

Switching hubs, leaving hubs, copying across hubs#

• Switch: click the hub name in Fusion Home or the Data Panel, or use your profile in the web client.
• Default hub: set it in Settings > Configure Hubs > Set Default.
• Leave: Leave Hub on the same page. You cannot leave your default hub, a hub you own, or a hub where you are the only administrator. Your account in the hub is then listed as inactive; an admin can re-activate you.
• Copy between hubs: in the web client, right-click designs and choose Copy across hubs. You need Reader or higher in the source folder, Editor or higher in the destination folder, a destination hub in the same region, and a subscription on the destination hub that supports cross-hub copy. The copy has no shared references with the original, history is reset, and the data lands in a time-stamped Copy_hubname_date-time subfolder. This does not apply to Fusion for education.

Personal use and hubs#

With a Personal license you have full access to the hub you own and Basic Access when working in other hubs. Anyone you invite to your hub has Basic Access to its projects and designs. See Licenses and plans.

Note: not confirmed in Autodesk's documentation: hub storage quotas, a maximum number of projects per hub for personal or paid hubs, project archiving, or a hub-level "personal hub vs team hub" distinction. Earlier drafts described these; they are not in the help.

Options reference#

Tips and pitfalls#

Tip: Give new project members Viewer access and raise individual folders to Editor where they actually work; a member cannot have less access on a subfolder than on its parent.

Tip: Use groups rather than individuals once a project has more than a handful of members, to stay under the 500-member limit.

Warning: In older projects, any member with access to any folder can see all folder names. Keep sensitive folders in a separate project.

Warning: An invited person may not see the project until they accept the invitation and sign in with the invited email address.

Warning: When you move a folder containing a Fusion assembly in the web client, all referenced files must be in that folder or its sub-folders, or the move will not happen.

Practice exercise#

1. In your hub, click New Project in the Data Panel and create "Practice-Team" with folders CAD, Docs, and Reference.
2. In the web client (if you have access), open the project's Members and Permissions tab and invite a second email address as a Viewer.
3. Save a design to the CAD folder.
4. Have the second account open it and try to save a change; observe the limitation.
5. Raise the role on the CAD folder to Editor and repeat.
6. Try to give the same person Viewer on CAD while they are Editor on the project; note that you cannot give less access than the parent.

Expected result: you understand what each role can do, how folder-level permissions inherit, and how to set up a reusable project skeleton.

Related#

• Data Panel basics
• Cloud collaboration
• Versioning and milestones
• Licenses and plans