If only it had more free form (while mathematically exact, e.g. NURBS-based) drawing tools, similar to the NURBS-based tools in Rhino 3D [1], it would be a killer platform for a lot of 3D modelling.
FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
31–40 of 73 posts
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
> some really inexcusable design problems, on a fundamental level Can you be more specific? I understand that the Topological Naming Problem is big (discussed in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsVFu929jo ), but as I understand it this is being fixed in the RealThunder branch ( https://bit.ly/3iBzQly ), and fixes may be flowing from this into FreeCAD 0.2.
My complaint is that it is extremely modal and as a result not very friendly, not intuitive even to a relatively experienced CAD user. I’ve used a variety of CAD and it just really didn’t click. I know it’s open source, so not going to be as UX oriented, but still. I would love to be proved wrong. If there’s something I’m missing please share.
Did you find the Part Design workflow? It took a while for Freecad to click for me but it ends up being fairly similar to other CAD programs in terms of workflow.
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
> some really inexcusable design problems, on a fundamental level Can you be more specific? I understand that the Topological Naming Problem is big (discussed in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsVFu929jo ), but as I understand it this is being fixed in the RealThunder branch ( https://bit.ly/3iBzQly ), and fixes may be flowing from this into FreeCAD 0.2.
A fundamental problem is that OpenCASCADE, despite being the most advanced open source CAD kernel, does kinda suck. It's single-threaded (FreeCAD has it on the main thread so any long operation blocks the entire UI) and it's… rather buggy. Recent fun example I've encountered: doing a fillet in two places at the same time can result in either an unhelpful "resulting shape is invalid" or a crash inside OpenCASCADE, dep…
I have noticed that fillets in particular are a weak point for FreeCAD.
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#34I have pretty mixed feelings about FreeCAD, having used it for 100+ hours across a few different projects. It’s wonderful to have a open-source alternative to the expensive CAD software that muscled its way into a near monopoly in academia/industry, but it suffers from some really inexcusable design problems, on a fundamental level. As it is, I don’t think it’s really usable as a serious tool for creating complex ass…
I agree. I'm working on a project to finish my basement, and decided to use FreeCAD for it. It mostly worked, but did weird things often enough it was frustrating. Often the solution was to look up on the forums for a hack to do things in a certain order and it would work. Sometimes there was no solution, like trying to print a floor plan of my 3d model always did weird things with the scale and the labels. I could mostly get it to "work", but really lacked polish that made using it more of a chore than I'd like, and I don't feel like I got the full power out of using it.
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#35I love the idea of FreeCAD so much that I committed pretty much a month to doing all my newer projects in it, watching tutorials, etc… and in the end had to give up and go back to Fusion 360. I’m not some long term die-hard F360 fan either, just a casual hobbyist maker who uses all sorts of tools (I still regularly just whip things up in Tinkercad for the printers) but FreeCAD is just so damn hard to get things from…
I don't trust Autodesk and I bailed from F360 when they crippled the hobbyist version, but I ended up having to go back to a single user subscription for now.
CAD/CAM programs are a "hard" type of software to write. I view them as similar in difficulty to free operating systems in technical difficulty and scope of the project. Before Linux there were only a few options for Unix-like OSs (Minix, Coherent, etc), but none of them particularly good for much except for academic purposes. Real work still took a licensed copy of Unix.
There still hasn't been a similar project to produce a CAD system (not just 3d modeling, but parametric CAD) created that's open source. There are some great programs for 2d cad, for running machine tools and CNC routers, but beyond things like FreeCAD there's nothing available in the open source space that's comparable to even the cheapest commercial offering.
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#36i've used FreeCAD but didn't like the UI so then I switched to OnShape. I used OnShape for a while but then switched over to Fusion360 because the vast majority of the people in my hobby ( amateur rocketry ) use Fusion360. Using the same tool as everyone else really helps when asking questions and reading tips/tricks.
Yeah. A major "cost" of CAD software is the investment in learning it, which is made much cheaper by having others learn it whom you can interact with, an open community to ask questions of, etc.
That's part of why it hurt so much when Autodesk crippled the hobbyist version of Fusion 360. All the stuff it can't do now no one can help you learn.
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#37I have pretty mixed feelings about FreeCAD, having used it for 100+ hours across a few different projects. It’s wonderful to have a open-source alternative to the expensive CAD software that muscled its way into a near monopoly in academia/industry, but it suffers from some really inexcusable design problems, on a fundamental level. As it is, I don’t think it’s really usable as a serious tool for creating complex ass…
> some really inexcusable design problems, on a fundamental level Can you be more specific? I understand that the Topological Naming Problem is big (discussed in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsVFu929jo ), but as I understand it this is being fixed in the RealThunder branch ( https://bit.ly/3iBzQly ), and fixes may be flowing from this into FreeCAD 0.2.
Topological naming issue is the biggest problem that they should address immediately. Otherwise they can’t call it a parametric drawing tool. Period.
I discovered the issue in a middle of a design where I tried to change what I thought was a parametric piece. It unrecoverable blew up everything.
I kind of lost trust in it after that. I ended up making a backup for every step on top of the regular backups, like: piece_name-step-1… etc.
I discovered the real thunder branch too late.
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#38I have pretty mixed feelings about FreeCAD, having used it for 100+ hours across a few different projects. It’s wonderful to have a open-source alternative to the expensive CAD software that muscled its way into a near monopoly in academia/industry, but it suffers from some really inexcusable design problems, on a fundamental level. As it is, I don’t think it’s really usable as a serious tool for creating complex ass…
Personally I also ran into some inexcusable bugs on my first try of FreeCAD recently. Sadly I don't have the link anymore, but the problem was offsets being incorrectly calculated in certain cases, and I found it to be a long standing bug in their issue tracker. There wasn't an easy way to work around it so I had to look elsewhere. Too bad, because FreeCAD did seem quite fine otherwise (Note: I never used SolidWorks, and my demands are amateur level).
For programmers I highly recommend OpenSCAD or Cadquery, which let you write code to build your models instead of using GUI. With this approach, "parametric" comes naturally, and so you don't need to learn a special constraint system, it's just your code (and a bit of math).
Cadquery was a bit hard to get started with being essentially a bunch of python scripts, but it's also more versatile and more powerful than OpenSCAD, and has a good collection of examples in their docs. OpenSCAD is still great for e.g. building simple models for 3D printing.
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#39I've been using FreeCAD for a few months now and haven't ran into any issues that couldn't be fixed by turning it off, and back on again.
Fusion360 is disgusting with their relentless marketing. My email was bombarded and I got 2 phone calls from sales people... Errr survey people...
User interface was super Intuitive after skimming a tutorial.
I'm no advanced user, but I've done basic CAD in Catia, nx, solid works, and probably a few more over the years. Heck I prefer FreeCAD for the simplicity.
If we need something FreeCAD can't do, I can get other software or outsource it.
It's extremely liberating to not be reliant on always rising prices.
Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler
#40I love the idea of FreeCAD so much that I committed pretty much a month to doing all my newer projects in it, watching tutorials, etc… and in the end had to give up and go back to Fusion 360. I’m not some long term die-hard F360 fan either, just a casual hobbyist maker who uses all sorts of tools (I still regularly just whip things up in Tinkercad for the printers) but FreeCAD is just so damn hard to get things from…
I don't trust Autodesk and I bailed from F360 when they crippled the hobbyist version, but I ended up having to go back to a single user subscription for now. CAD/CAM programs are a "hard" type of software to write. I view them as similar in difficulty to free operating systems in technical difficulty and scope of the project. Before Linux there were only a few options for Unix-like OSs (Minix, Coherent, etc), but no…
Completely agree with everything you're saying. It's a tough problem to solve, and I'd love something like FreeCAD to actually be able to complete with Fusion 360. I think with the explosion of the hobbyist maker scene and how common 3D printers are getting it's inevitable that something rises up eventually, but who knows.