Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

freecadweb.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 73 posts

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#51

Post by bb88 »

Accujack wrote: post #35
sen wrote: post #20

I 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…

Have you tried alibre cad? I hear it's a pretty good alternative to F360.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#52

Post by sepples »

I first used FreeCAD around version 0.12 for designing simple parts for my 3D printer. At the time, it was very buggy and would reliably crash or corrupt your model if you ever tried to go back and edit a previously specified dimension or even just clicked the wrong thing. I ended up starting a new model from scratch whenever I needed to go back and change something.

I started using the latest versions (0.18, 0.19) again recently, and the experience is dramatically better. I’ve designed about a dozen distinct models and have been able to make major changes to a part without any crashes or bugs, and a number of much-needed ergonomic improvements have made the part design process much quicker and less frustrating. Thanks, FreeCAD devs! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#53

Post by eternityforest »

emergentstate wrote: post #2

I 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…

Nothing large(I'm not a mechanical guy, this is all incidental work) but I use the RealThunder branch at my job, and I'm building some furniture that I don't think I could ever have done without the software.

I've never used any other CAD though, so my evaluation might not mean much, to me, just having CAD at all completely changes everything, regardless of whether it's good or not, when your reference point is LibreOffice Draw and pen+paper.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#54

Post by eternityforest »

rq1 wrote: post #37
haberman wrote: post #3

Earlier 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.

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…

Maybe they should just scrap everything, make RealThunder lead dev, and start over from where he is...

I'm sure there's some great stuff in mainline though that deserves merging.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#55

Post by eternityforest »

phoenix3200 wrote: post #10
jackyinger wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I found OpenSCAD to be very friendly for parametric designs, but after a while I switched to the SolidPython wrapper as it was more flexible. However, I'm hunting for a better way to create 3d models via code (Blender Python?) because 'extrude_along_path'->SolidPython->OpenSCAD->stl export simply could not handle my model.

I wouldn't consider OpenSCAD real CAD. It doesn't aid you in design really, it's just a language to represent the design you already have in your head.

Without constraints, you're still doing a lot of stuff directly rather than declaratively, and without a GUI you're mostly limited to geometry you can imagine, because doing anything by trial and error in OpenSCAD takes forever.

The whole thing feels very open loop, like it's meant to be "imagine it>reason about it> code it" rather than "vauge idea > iteration > verify"

I could see it being useful in some cases for high level professional designers though.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#56

Post by imglorp »

eternityforest wrote: post #55
phoenix3200 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found OpenSCAD to be very friendly for parametric designs, but after a while I switched to the SolidPython wrapper as it was more flexible. However, I'm hunting for a better way to create 3d models via code (Blender Python?) because 'extrude_along_path'->SolidPython->OpenSCAD->stl export simply could not handle my model.

I wouldn't consider OpenSCAD real CAD. It doesn't aid you in design really, it's just a language to represent the design you already have in your head. Without constraints, you're still doing a lot of stuff directly rather than declaratively, and without a GUI you're mostly limited to geometry you can imagine, because doing anything by trial and error in OpenSCAD takes forever. The whole thing feels very open loop, l…

The one thing I lack in OpenSCAD is dimensions: there is no good way to add any.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#57

Post by dbdbdbdbdb »

I've used it a couple of 100 hours to make 3d models for 3d-printing.

Once you get used to it it is possible to do complex designs that can be edited afterwards. In the beginning it felt like every change I made would break the model so much that I couldn't repair it again.

Now when I start a design I always start with a spreadsheet and add variables with measurements that I use in the model. Afterwards with a careful designed model I can change the variables and the model react to it in a good way. It took me a while to figure out this way if working. You learn what part works and what parts to stay away from.

That said. The GUI sucks. It crashes a lot. There are lots of weird bugs. The stable release 0.19.3 is very unstable on my computer. Even so it's a great tool for me and I'm grateful of the work put in by the developers!

The unreleased 0.20 is so much better and crashes a lot less. I wish they would just release it and be done with it.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#58

Post by frmdstryr »

phkahler wrote: post #49
Ciantic wrote: post #23

I have very little experience with FreeCAD, but I used Solid Works years ago. I still can't understand why with FreeCAD the chamfering or "smoothing" the edges breaks the model. I thought chamfering should be easy task if it uses SDF's or something like it for solid modelling, but somehow it makes unwanted holes.

No commercial CAD uses SDFs. Fillets and chamfers are a had problem particularly where multiple edges meet.

ntopology uses SDFs. I believe its based on libfive.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#59

Post by Steltek »

Looking around here, there's not a lot of FreeCAD fans I guess :)

I use FreeCAD to create custom parts for my 3D printer. I also strongly prefer Open Source solutions. They won't change terms, add spyware, or compromise the design because of business needs. A quick find|grep of my CAD directory says I've made a couple hundred designs.

FreeCAD is definitely rough around the edges with bugs and stability. But for my needs, it works really well. I can take measurements and transpose a design in my head to a design on a computer. It's not AutoCAD or Fusion360 but I don't need it to be. It's an open tool that's helped me solve a lot of problems.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#60

Post by eggsome »

jackyinger wrote: post #12
phoenix3200 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found OpenSCAD to be very friendly for parametric designs, but after a while I switched to the SolidPython wrapper as it was more flexible. However, I'm hunting for a better way to create 3d models via code (Blender Python?) because 'extrude_along_path'->SolidPython->OpenSCAD->stl export simply could not handle my model.

OpenSCAD is great in some ways, but the fact that everything gets boils straight to triangles drives me nuts. If there were an OpenSCAD equivalent to work with boundary representation models I’d have found my CAD nirvana.

Would this fit the bill?

https://solvespace.com/index.pl

Post reply on HN