Autodesk Fusion add-in · v1.0.0 · Windows and macOS

Auto Backup & ExportLocal Backup & Batch Export Add-in for Autodesk Fusion (Fusion 360)

Back up every Fusion design
without exporting them one by one.

The add-in opens, exports, downloads and files your cloud designs for you: after each save, when you answer a daily or weekly reminder, or when you click Back Up Now. They go to a local disk, a NAS or a Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox folder, assemblies with their linked parts, every version named and in order, and Restore to Fusion brings them back. With many designs, that saves hours of manual work.

Works inside Fusion. It is an add-in, not a background sync like Google Drive: Fusion needs to be open, and it is busy while a backup or a restore runs, a few seconds per design, longer for large projects.

Get early access See how it works

Illustration: designs in a Fusion cloud project copied by Auto Backup & Export into a backup folder as F3D, STEP, STL, F3Z and PDF files, with Restore to Fusion leading back

No exporting by hand

every design and version filed for you

.f3d + .f3z + 6 formats

STEP, IGES, SAT, SMT, STL, 3MF

Restore to Fusion

a project, a folder or one version

Video

Set up and back up in five minutes

How to Back Up Autodesk Fusion Designs to Your Own Drive
How to set up Auto Backup and Export and back up your Fusion designs to your own folder, with a tour of its features.

Watch on YouTube →

How it works

It does the exporting for you, inside Fusion

Backing up Fusion designs by hand means opening each one, exporting it, downloading the file, naming it, putting it in the right folder and keeping track of its versions, again after every change. For 200 designs with a STEP file each, that is 400 files to export, name and file, every time. The add-in does all of it for you and keeps the versions in order, using Fusion to do the work.

What it does for you

✓Exports each changed design, in the formats you tick.
✓Files every version by project and folder, with its date.
✓Brings designs back with Restore to Fusion.

What to expect

It runs in Fusion. Backups happen while Fusion is open, signed in and online; it is not a background sync like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Fusion is busy while it works. Each design is opened and exported in Fusion, one at a time, and a restore uploads and arranges files through Fusion: you cannot model while a backup or a restore runs.
The time grows with your projects: a few seconds per design, longer for large designs, assemblies and each extra format. A first backup of a few hundred designs can take an hour or more.

Start Back Up Now or a restore when you can leave Fusion for a while, for example at a break or the end of the day, or tick a few projects first and add the rest later. After the first backup only changes are copied.

Manual export vs. Auto Backup & Export

Why Fusion users automate bulk .f3d, .f3z and STEP backups

Backup / Export Task	Manual Export	Auto Backup & Export Add-in
Back up all projects or selected folders locally	Open and export each design one by one, recreating folders by hand	Mirrors hub, project and folder hierarchy automatically; subsequent runs export only changed versions
Assemblies with external linked components	Requires cloud-exporting an .f3z archive per assembly and waiting for each download	Automatically exports .f3z for assemblies with linked parts and .f3d for single-file designs
Keep neutral CAD & 3D-print files up to date	Export STEP, IGES, SAT, SMT, STL or 3MF separately after every design change	Saves optional STEP, IGES, SAT, SMT, STL and 3MF alongside each .f3d / .f3z version
Restore a project or move to another Autodesk account	Re-upload files one by one and rebuild folder trees manually	Restore to Fusion recreates folders, uploads parts and assemblies, or restores a single historical version

What gets backed up

Every design, in the files you would export by hand

Your designs live in Autodesk's cloud. A copy on storage you control covers an accidental delete, a project you lose access to or a move to another account, and gives other CAD systems and your 3D printer the files they need without exporting each design yourself.

.f3d for every design

The complete Fusion design with its timeline, including the components that live inside it.

.f3z for assemblies

A design with linked components becomes a Fusion archive that holds every linked design, so it restores on its own.

STEP, IGES, SAT, SMT

Optional neutral files of the whole design for other CAD systems, saved next to its Fusion file.

STL and 3MF

Optional meshes of the whole design for 3D printing. A design without bodies gets none.

Your uploaded files

PDF, ZIP, images and other non-Fusion files in your projects are copied exactly as you uploaded them.

Older versions too

Each backup is one version. The newest five of each file are kept by default, or as many as you choose; 0 keeps all.

Drawings (.f2d), Electronics files and configured designs are not backed up in this version. The extra files contain the visible bodies, like Fusion's own exports; the .f3d and .f3z keep everything.

When backups run

Three modes, and Back Up Now in all of them

Backups are incremental: a file whose cloud version has not changed is not copied again. One design is handled at a time, and a backup never starts in the middle of a command you are using.

Each save

The default. Each design you save is exported once Fusion has finished uploading it, which keeps Fusion busy for a few seconds. A design with new unsaved changes waits, and an open assembly with linked parts waits until you close it.

Reminder

Every day or every week the add-in asks whether to back up now. Yes runs Back Up Now; No asks again two hours later. It asks only when Fusion is idle.

Manual

Nothing runs by itself; backups happen only when you click Back Up Now. Also the way to pause backups for a while.

Back Up Now

Checks every selected project and backs up whatever changed, including colleagues' saves. Fusion is busy until it finishes; Cancel stops after the current design.

Designs that wait are not skipped. A design open with unsaved changes, or still being processed in the cloud, is listed under Waiting in Backup Status with its reason and backed up by itself once the reason is gone, while Fusion stays open. If Fusion is closed first, or the cloud needs more than about half an hour, your next Back Up Now picks it up.

Where files go

A backup folder that mirrors your cloud

Any folder you can write to: a local disk, an external drive, a NAS or a sync folder. Choose a detected Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox folder and your own sync app keeps an off-site copy as well.

✓Hub, project and folders, as in Fusion.
✓Names with the version number and the local date and time of that version.
✓Only backups the add-in wrote are ever deleted; your own files are never touched.
✓Written under a temporary name and renamed when complete, so a sync app never uploads half a file.

<backup folder>/
  Acme Hub/
    Fixtures/
      Clamps/
        Clamp v12 2026-10-06 183005.f3d
        Clamp v12 2026-10-06 183005.step
        Clamp v11 2026-10-02 091542.f3d
        Frame assembly v4 2026-10-05 091218.f3z
        Datasheet v1 2026-09-30 140527.pdf
  .autobackup/
    manifest.json

Backup Settings dialog in Fusion: backup folder, cloud folders, what to back up, when backups run and backups kept per file — Backup Settings in Fusion: the folder, what to back up, when it runs and how many versions to keep.

The manifest records every backup and travels with the folder: keep it with the backups. It is how the add-in knows what is already backed up, and where Restore to Fusion finds the original folder and file names.

Commands

Five commands in the Utilities tab

Open Design → Utilities → Auto Backup. Choose the backup folder once in Backup Settings and the rest runs by the mode you picked.

Back Up Now

Start a backup of the selected projects now, with a progress window and Cancel.

Backup Settings

Backup folder, projects or chosen folders, extra formats, when backups run and how many versions to keep.

Backup Status

What the add-in is doing, problems and waiting designs with their reasons, recent backups, the log and the backup history.

Restore to Fusion

Upload a whole project or one folder from a backup into Fusion, with its original folders and names.

About Auto Backup & Export

Version, license status, update download, this product page, the user guide and the privacy policy.

Restore to Fusion and backup history

Get designs back, in this account or another

A backup is only useful when it comes back. Restore to Fusion uploads the newest backup of each file and recreates the original folders and names; the backup history in Backup Status brings back any older version that is kept.

A whole project or one folder

A whole project goes into a new project by default; one folder goes back where it was when its project is in this account (a deleted folder is made again in the same place). Sign in with another Autodesk account to move your designs there.

Assemblies with their parts

An .f3z comes back with its linked parts. Each part is then put in its own folder, as in the backup, and the restored assembly uses the newest backup of each part, so newer work on a part is never left behind.

Any version from the history

Pick a design and one of its kept versions; Restore version uploads it as a new design, for example Bracket (v12). Works with a backup folder copied from another computer.

Restore to Fusion dialog: the backup folder, project and folder to restore, the target hub, project and folder, and options — Restore to Fusion: what comes back from the backup, and where it goes in Fusion.

Each file arrives as a new design at version 1: the cloud version history, comments and share links are not part of a backup. Read how a restore works.

Auto Backup & Export v1.0.0 · Windows and macOS

Keep a copy of every design you make

US$39/year or US$7/month per user, with a free 3-day trial. Pay by card through Lemon Squeezy with the email of your Autodesk account. The license is issued to that account and unlocks the Windows and the macOS build.

Get Auto Backup by email →

Contact support

Read the guide before your first backup

The user guide covers every setting, the backup modes, where files go, restoring and the current limits. It is the same Help that ships inside the add-in.

Read the user guide Version history Privacy policy

Download

Download the current build

With a license (a purchase or a license from us), download the newest Windows or macOS build here with the email of your Autodesk account, or from inside the add-in (About › Download latest version). The add-in checks your license when it starts, so the file is only useful with a license.

No license yet? Ask for early access. Then install it with the installation guide.

Latest build

The same add-in runs on Windows and macOS. Pick the machine you will install on.

Checking…

Install, update or uninstall an add-in →

Adding the ZIP by hand? In Scripts and Add-Ins › +, select the folder that contains the .manifest file, not the file: on Windows, the Contents folder inside the .bundle.

Updating or switching versions? Clear Run on Startup for the old add-in, Stop it and close Fusion before replacing files. Restart Fusion before you Run the new version.

Before you start

Auto Backup & Export FAQ

Does it back up in the background, like Google Drive?

No. It is a Fusion add-in, so it works only while Fusion is open, signed in and online; what it saves you is opening, exporting, downloading, naming and filing every design and version yourself.

Why not just copy Fusion’s local cache folder or use a free export script?

Fusion’s local cache (W.login\F) only stores temporary cached copies of recently opened files, not every design in your cloud projects, and it does not package assemblies with external linked components into portable .f3z archives. Many older GitHub bulk-export scripts also break on current Fusion updates, skip linked assemblies or offer no way to restore a folder tree. Auto Backup & Export systematically opens and exports real .f3d and .f3z archives (plus optional STEP, IGES, SAT, SMT, STL and 3MF), skips unchanged versions on later runs, and includes Restore to Fusion.

Does it change anything in my Fusion cloud?

No. Backups only read your cloud data. Designs you have open are exported in place and never closed or modified; designs the add-in opens itself are opened hidden, exported and closed without saving. Only Restore to Fusion and Restore version add files, when you run them; they never change or delete the files that were already there.

Can I keep working while it backs up?

Not while it exports: with Each save that is a few seconds after each save, and Back Up Now or a restore keeps Fusion busy until it finishes. A backup never starts in the middle of a command you are using.

How long does the first backup take?

A few seconds per design, longer for large designs, assemblies and each extra format, so a few hundred designs can take an hour or more. You can cancel and continue later; after the first backup only changes are copied.

Can I back up to Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox?

Yes. Choose a folder that their desktop app syncs; detected Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox folders are offered in Backup Settings. The add-in never signs in to these services.

Which projects and changes are included?

The projects you tick, from all your hubs, or only the folders you choose. With Each save, your own saves are backed up. Back Up Now and the reminder check every selected project, so changes saved by colleagues or on another computer are copied as well.

Can I restore into another Autodesk account?

Yes. Sign in to Fusion with that account and run Restore to Fusion.

How do I get an older version back?

Open Backup Status, pick the design and version under History, and Restore version uploads it as a new design.

Which formats work with Fusion for Personal Use?

The .f3d backups and the STEP, SMT, STL and 3MF files work. Fusion does not allow IGES and SAT export with that license, and Backup Status says so.

Does it run on macOS?

Yes. Every version is published as a Windows build and a macOS build with the same commands. One subscription unlocks both.

Are my designs sent to VanThanBK?

No. Backups go only to the folder you choose. License checks send your Autodesk user ID, email and the App ID; designs, file names and paths are never sent to VanThanBK.

Is there a free trial?

Yes, 3 days. It starts the first time you click Back Up Now or open Backup Settings or Restore to Fusion while signed in and online. Backup Status and About work without a license, so you can always reach your backups.

How do I get Auto Backup & Export?

US$39/year or US$7/month per user, by card on this page (the Autodesk App Store listing is coming). Questions: support@vanthanbk.com.

Supported scope

Current limitations

Fusion must be running and online

Nothing is backed up while Fusion is closed or offline. A design that was being backed up when Fusion closed is tried again later, and a reminder missed meanwhile comes once when Fusion is next open.

.f3z archives come from Fusion's cloud

They take about 20–40 seconds per assembly, longer for large ones. An assembly that is open in Fusion is backed up as .f3z once you close it.

Not every file type yet

Drawings, Electronics files and configured designs are not backed up, as noted under What gets backed up. Each backup holds one version, without the cloud version history, comments or share links.

Read the detailed limits

Planned improvements