It would be really nice to have a parametric 3D modeling software solution that was on the same level as Blender or KiCAD. Every time I try FreeCAD I end up moping out pretty quickly.
FreeCAD in its vanilla state (without tweaks) is pain in the butt in term of usability, it’s still bit “hard” to recommend for casual user when they are coming from commercial like Autodesk Inventor, Solidworks and such.
Recently Ondsel Team created sort of modules for FreeCAD which also marketed as standalone product that lets you to make it functions like Fusion 360 in term of cloud connectivity, their free tier also good even better than Fusion 360 Hobbyist License. They also contribute toward FreeCAD upstream for some general improvement though some of them are exclusive on their own implementation.
The day FreeCAD 1.0 dropped, I definitely going to try it out because I’m stuck on Fusion (needed for collaboratory work) ever since graduated from college.
Yeah, I was taught using NX and coincidentally also use it at my current job, but I have dabbled in almost all of the other commercially available platforms and so far FreeCAD took the longest for me to “pickup” as it were.
You are probably already aware but there is OpenSCAD which allows you to model via programming rather than by UI. Not really an apples to apples equivalent but I find it decently interesting. I do wish there was something a little more more overtly friendly to beginners like Fusion360 though.
To be honest, it is first time I discover OpenSCAD, probably due to its nature modeling by programming rather than visually.
Logically you do want to model by visually especially when it’s more complex geometry and perhaps that’s reason why you may seeing them less getting recommended in general when something like BricsCAD (Education license), OnShape exists.
I agree Fusion 360 (on Windows) with Free Hobbyist/Personal license is good start to learn CAD modelling for free though as year went by the Hobbyist license becoming stricter and limited in term of policy which raising red flag for hobbyist, not to mention Autodesk also converting users lifetime license into subscription without any notice is enough reason to stay away unless your job provides you those CAD program licenses.
FreeCAD alternative so we can have another FOSS CAD drawing software :(
No, I’m actually cool with FreeCAD but an alternative is welcome one especially one that can work on linux.
It would be really nice to have a parametric 3D modeling software solution that was on the same level as Blender or KiCAD. Every time I try FreeCAD I end up moping out pretty quickly.
FreeCAD in its vanilla state (without tweaks) is pain in the butt in term of usability, it’s still bit “hard” to recommend for casual user when they are coming from commercial like Autodesk Inventor, Solidworks and such.
Recently Ondsel Team created sort of modules for FreeCAD which also marketed as standalone product that lets you to make it functions like Fusion 360 in term of cloud connectivity, their free tier also good even better than Fusion 360 Hobbyist License. They also contribute toward FreeCAD upstream for some general improvement though some of them are exclusive on their own implementation.
The day FreeCAD 1.0 dropped, I definitely going to try it out because I’m stuck on Fusion (needed for collaboratory work) ever since graduated from college.
Yeah, I was taught using NX and coincidentally also use it at my current job, but I have dabbled in almost all of the other commercially available platforms and so far FreeCAD took the longest for me to “pickup” as it were.
I mean of all the features F360 has, cloud connectivity is probably the least desirable one for me. In fact, I’d say it’s an anti-feature.
You are probably already aware but there is OpenSCAD which allows you to model via programming rather than by UI. Not really an apples to apples equivalent but I find it decently interesting. I do wish there was something a little more more overtly friendly to beginners like Fusion360 though.
To be honest, it is first time I discover OpenSCAD, probably due to its nature modeling by programming rather than visually.
Logically you do want to model by visually especially when it’s more complex geometry and perhaps that’s reason why you may seeing them less getting recommended in general when something like BricsCAD (Education license), OnShape exists.
I agree Fusion 360 (on Windows) with Free Hobbyist/Personal license is good start to learn CAD modelling for free though as year went by the Hobbyist license becoming stricter and limited in term of policy which raising red flag for hobbyist, not to mention Autodesk also converting users lifetime license into subscription without any notice is enough reason to stay away unless your job provides you those CAD program licenses.