FreeCAD BIM development news
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FreeCAD BIM development news
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Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#2Archive link for anyone else having trouble accessing the site: http://web.archive.org/web/20201031133514/https://yorik.uncr...
Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#3I love the revolution that FreeCAD BIM and rest of https://community.osarch.org promises.
When I'm going to find an architect, that's going to make a project of my house, I will specifically look for companies that use FOSS software, even though it probably will narrow pool of available contractors by a lot. I mean it is going to be MY HOUSE, something I plan to live in for many years (in my case I like to wait longer, build a house exactly the way I want it, and live for the rest of life in it). I want to buy project and "own" the project in a sense to be able to open it and modify.
I also want to be able to simulate the heck out of MY future home before it's build. Using fast computers we have today I can try different sizes, shapes and properties of windows, walls and doors, adjust heating, cooling, plumbing, airflow, home automations and countless other things. I can see how the sun would enter the home (https://floyd.lbl.gov/radiance/) before foundations are laid. Sure, most people don't want to do that and that's okay. Most people also don't want to look at the source of programs they are using. I do and even when I don't, I love to have this possibility open.
I understand, that so far Autodesk dominated the architecture software, but since they are moving/moved to subscription-based plans I hope that more and more architects will move away from subscription-based software. For their own good. I wouldn't gamble tools of my trade on something that can be taken away from me any moment and hope they also wouldn't.
FreeCAD BIM & company work to make it possible and for that I am very grateful. It would be great if in next decades we would have something like open source catalogue of great solutions in home building.
Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#4This bit was very interesting:
"This last month we also had a hectic turnover, because Autodesk changed the terms of the free version of their Fusion360. There is a full load of new limitations that restrain much the use for personal/hobby users. For example, the g-code you export from Fusion360 to CNC machines (that cut objects out of a block of material), is now making the machine running slower (and therefore raising the production costs), for no apparent reason other than nagging the users into buying a subscription. As a result, we saw a massive migration of users to FreeCAD, and it's really thrilling to see people discovering FreeCAD and learning it and liking it."
Seems also to be reflected in contributions: https://twitter.com/FreeCADNews/status/1321931951658422284
"We'd like to take a moment to congratulate all the new devs that are stepping up lately to submit fixes for the #FreeCAD project. Thx for leaning in! The commit log is becoming quite diverse and exciting to follow"
Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#5Is freeCAD a viable replacement for Fusion 360 now, especially with the recent changes to the Hobby license?
Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#6I love the revolution that FreeCAD BIM and rest of https://community.osarch.org promises. When I'm going to find an architect, that's going to make a project of my house, I will specifically look for companies that use FOSS software, even though it probably will narrow pool of available contractors by a lot. I mean it is going to be MY HOUSE, something I plan to live in for many years (in my case I like to wait longe…
I understand the reasoning but I think any architect not using the absolute best tools available to them at any given time is shooting themselves in the foot. Costs associated with subscriptions are negligible for full time professionals.
I think the rise of FreeCad is good for amateurs or part-time architects, and I hope one day it can rival others in the industry, like blender did for modeling, sculpting, composing and FXs. But when it comes to BIM, I'd rather have an architect that uses Autocad than one that uses subpar tools.
Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#7I love the revolution that FreeCAD BIM and rest of https://community.osarch.org promises. When I'm going to find an architect, that's going to make a project of my house, I will specifically look for companies that use FOSS software, even though it probably will narrow pool of available contractors by a lot. I mean it is going to be MY HOUSE, something I plan to live in for many years (in my case I like to wait longe…
I understand the reasoning but I think any architect not using the absolute best tools available to them at any given time is shooting themselves in the foot. Costs associated with subscriptions are negligible for full time professionals. I think the rise of FreeCad is good for amateurs or part-time architects, and I hope one day it can rival others in the industry, like blender did for modeling, sculpting, composing…
Autocad is not really a good example of a 'pro' tool in the sense that it would necessarily signal quality. Sure it's old and its DWG format is the market leading proprietary black box blob format. It does not have any features though that would make the design for he house to be of better quality than with any other drafting tool.
Revit is probably closer to what you meant, but I have no idea how the quality of the drawing tool would affect the quality of the architects output.
Construction design tools are all more or less old and crufty. For the love of god, someone please disrupt the industry.
The domain is shallow but complex. Open source is probably not the answer - but open tools most certainly won't hurt.
Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#8...and if anyone needs a buy-and-own Illustrator/Photoshop replacement for a laughable price - Serif Affinity is the way to go!
Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#9Is freeCAD a viable replacement for Fusion 360 now, especially with the recent changes to the Hobby license?
Viable in terms of functionality for creating models for e.g. hobbyist 3d printing? Yes, there's a bunch of people using it, and I've managed to use it for this (admittedly very simple models).
Is it as nice/easy to use? Not quite. Although Qt is pretty good on some Linux flavours and Windows. With more donations, I'm sure this could improve, too.
But on a deeper level, the feature set is large/mind-boggling, and I think this is a problem for adoption for a specific use-case like FDM/FFF/3d printing design, but also in general for software quality and software development.
For example, some workbenches work better than others - one even straight up threw a classic Python 3 error, "bytes required, not str". This can be mitigated to a certain extent by disabling workbenches you don't need [0]. But it feels like a jack of all trades, master of none situation.
What are the alternatives? I don't know. OpenSCAD basically has no editing GUI and a bizarre language. Fusion 360 still works, even though it's clear Autodesk will continue to squeeze it (not only the non-commercial restrictions, but the significant price in 2018 if i'm remembering correctly). Blender is great, and boolean tools are improving, but it isn't parametric, and the non-destructive workflow is unusual.
[0] https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Interface_Customization#Workbenc...
Re: FreeCAD BIM development news
#10Is freeCAD a viable replacement for Fusion 360 now, especially with the recent changes to the Hobby license?
I am experimenting with it as a replacement for hobby projects that I want to share and collaborate on. I was always leery of Fusion 360 precisely because it was not truly free, and instead encumbered by the whims of Autodesk. If I want to create things that are meant to become part of the creative commons, then my whole creative toolchain should be part of that same commons.
There is a learning curve to it, as the interface and a lot of the paradigms are different than what is typical of other design tools. I've had to humble myself and follow through a lot of video tutorials (Joko Engineering is pretty good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h1ofkRFdeI). I'm then re-modeling some simple projects just to assure myself that I can replicate what I've done before (for example, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4616582/files). Some aspects of it seem fairly unfriendly initially, but the experience smooths out once you grok the approach. I'm so used to using Solidworks that I kind of forget what it was like to first learn how to use parametric modelers.