Admin Console and Team Best Practices

Overview#

When a Fusion subscription grows beyond one person, someone becomes the administrator. The administrator buys and assigns seats, invites users, organises them into teams or groups, sets security policy, watches usage and answers "why can't I open this?" questions. Autodesk's Fusion help documents the hub admin tasks in the Fusion web client (profile image > Admin), which this page covers in detail. Account-level user management and billing live in the Autodesk Account portal, which the mirrored Fusion help does not describe; those parts are marked as general guidance.

The second half is a team playbook: conventions that turn the features in this section into habits.

Where to find it#

• Fusion hub admin: in the Fusion web client, click your profile image (top right) > Admin. Tabs include Members, Groups, Projects and Hub Settings; team-level options such as Design Reservation are on the Team Settings tab.
• Licenses: a hub admin assigns Fusion (and Fusion Manage) licenses to hub members (see Assign licenses to hub members in the Get Started help).
• Autodesk Account portal: contract, billing and account-level user management (general; not described in the Fusion help).
• Forma Data Management / ACC admin: a separate admin area (see the Docs page).
• Fusion Manage admin: the Manage site's Administration area (see the PDM page).

Roles inside the account#

Documented Fusion roles:

The Autodesk Account has its own roles (primary admin, secondary admin, entitlement manager, support specialist) in general Autodesk practice; the mirrored help does not describe them. The "Project contributor" hub role is legacy; avoid it.

Rule: at least two people must be able to administer. A single admin who leaves can lock a company out of its own data.

Users and seats#

Adding users#

Documented flow for a new administrator: create the hub, invite people, assign licenses.

1. Hub admins invite members from the Members tab, or project managers invite by email from a project's Members and Permissions tab (people outside the hub receive invitations).
2. Control invitations in Hub Settings > Access: Admin invite only, Admin approval required or No admin approval required; optionally set per-domain Auto approve and Available to join.
3. Assign Fusion and, if used, Fusion Manage licenses to the members.
4. Members accept with their Autodesk ID; add them to projects, folders or groups.
5. Hub admins can deactivate and reactivate members, and search and filter the member list.

Licence models#

• Seats are assigned to individual hub members. (Other models such as multi-user access are not described in the mirrored help.)
• Fusion Manage is a separate license; so are some extensions.
• Education and Personal licences are separate. A Personal-license holder owns their own hub; everyone they invite, and any other hub they are invited to, has only Basic Access. Do not let a contractor on a Personal licence edit commercial projects.

Offboarding and reassignment#

Deactivate the member or remove their seat, reassign data ownership as described on the roles page, and check that no automation relies on their credentials.

Teams and groups#

Hub admins create groups in the web client to manage members and permissions. Group names must be unique in the hub, groups cannot be nested, inactive members cannot be added, and a group counts as one member against a project's 500-member maximum. Use groups by function and document each group's purpose in one line.

Security settings#

Documented hub controls:

Note: not confirmed in Autodesk's Fusion documentation: single sign-on, domain claiming, MFA policy, session or IP restrictions, data-residency choice (the help only says cross-hub copy needs the same region), and audit logs. These are account-level or enterprise features; check your Autodesk Account and contract.

Warning: If you claim a domain or enable SSO, existing users with personal Autodesk IDs on that domain may need to migrate (general guidance). Plan the change and test with a pilot group.

Usage and reporting#

The Autodesk Account typically offers usage reports (general; not in the Fusion help). Within the Fusion web client, hub admins can search and filter hub members, view project activity in the Project Details panel, and filter the Projects admin tab by archived projects. Use these to reclaim idle seats, remove inactive members and check activity monthly.

Storage and quotas#

The mirrored help does not state storage allowances or quota behaviour. As general guidance, large files (renders, simulation results, textures, F3Z archives) consume space quickly. Policies: keep renders and videos out of the main project; move purged test designs to Trash and have a folder admin Delete forever; archive and then delete finished projects to free storage (deletion is permanent); and export to your own storage first (see the backup page).

Change management for the admin#

Autodesk updates Fusion frequently, with feature changes appearing without a manual install. Admins should:

1. Follow release notes and blogs.
2. Keep a test account to preview changes.
3. Note UI changes in the team wiki when they affect procedures (for example, renamed menus).
4. Communicate deprecations (such as file format retirements).
5. Check extension and licence changes at renewal.

Team playbook: best practices#

Structure#

• One hub for the company; projects per product or customer; folder pattern from the architecture page.
• A shared library project with restricted write access.
• Names and part numbers governed by a written convention.

Access#

• Groups by function; least privilege; two admins per project.
• Contractors in a dedicated group with expiry reminders.
• Quarterly access review.

Daily habits#

• Write a save description every time.
• Check the History dialog before starting; Get Latest on references.
• One owner per file at a time; if Design Reservation is on, use it, and announce edits to shared components in chat.
• Close files you do not use.
• Resolve comment threads you have addressed.

Release discipline#

• Update references, interference check, save, create a version, export deliverables, log the release.
• Release only from the top-level assembly.
• Do not rework a released version in place; make new changes and a new version.
• If you have Manage, release through change orders only.

Sharing#

• Prefer membership to Share Links; when using links, downloads off, a password, logged, and the hub switch checked (links follow the latest version).
• Use STEP and PDF for external delivery; avoid sending native histories unless intended.

Backup#

• Automated schedule, two locations, quarterly restore test.
• Exports of each released version are archived.

Culture#

• A one-page "How we work in Fusion" document, reviewed twice a year.
• A short onboarding checklist for new members: sign in, switch hubs, find the README, save a test file, read the naming rules.
• A weekly 15-minute data hygiene slot: out-of-date references, orphan files, stale threads.
• A named data steward who answers questions and enforces conventions kindly.

Troubleshooting cheat sheet#

Options reference#

Tips and pitfalls#

Tip: Use a shared role mailbox for the primary admin, with a named deputy, so contract and billing emails never get lost.

Tip: Run a yearly "tabletop" exercise: pretend the admin quits tomorrow, and see whether the team can still operate.

Warning: Do not share one Autodesk ID among several people. It breaks audit, violates terms and complicates offboarding.

Warning: Admin features differ greatly by contract (individual subscription, team, enterprise, education). Verify what your account actually offers before promising policies.

Practice exercise#

Write a one-page administration runbook for a ten-person team: who the two hub admins are, how a new user is onboarded (steps 1 to 5), how a leaver is offboarded, which Hub Settings are mandatory (invitation mode, File Sharing, Design Reservation), how often membership is reviewed, and where backups go. Include a table of the groups and their roles. Expected result: a document that a new admin could follow on day one.

Related#

• Roles and Permissions (this section)
• Hubs, Projects and Folder Architecture (this section)
• Backup, Offline Work and Export (this section)
• Getting started: Licenses and Plans