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FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

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Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#61

Post by fartcannon »

Steltek wrote: post #59

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 ne…

I also use FreeCAD for my 3D prints. It works fantastic for that. I was officially trained to use SolidWorks in university and FreeCAD reminds me a lot of that.

Two quality of life tips: 1) don't make sketches on faces, instead create a plane at the faces height/angle. I don't know why but this single handedly stopped my models getting corrupted. 2) Do fillets at the end. After you saved a backup.

Then it works great. Can't be happier, really and looking forward to it's future.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#62

Post by fartcannon »

dbdbdbdbdb wrote: post #57

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 carefu…

I second your experience with 0.20. It's much more stable.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#63

Post by flaburgan »

I would love FreeCAD to be a viable alternative to proprietary CAD tools. I'm a web developer so I know nothing about CAD but I recently joined CERN and I'm now working on a PLM to handle our 3M+ CAD documents (yes, building the LHC is huge. And there are even bigger things coming). As you may know, CERN loves open source and it's heartbreaking to have to pay dozens of thousands of euros to have Catia, AutoCAD and Revit available for our mechanical engineers, so what I'm wondering now as someone who never used a CAD tool is, a free alternatives so much behind? Looks like when you're building machines like the LHC, the answer is yes.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#64

Post by floatboth »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #45
floatboth wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CadQuery should be better as it is using the OpenCASCADE cad kernel (same as FreeCAD) instead of a simplistic ad-hoc thingy.

I honestly think CadQuery has more promise as a way to get open source 3D components and modules to the mainstream, because it's fundamentally code, and can be reasoned about as such (diffed, merged, blamed, parameterised, modularised, reused and tested). Putting SolidWorks or FreeCad file into source control is a very different thing. Also, as it's natively Python, you have all sorts of library support, up to and in…

On the other hand, sketching with constraints is very intuitive. Making interesting shapes that aren't trivial CSG demos by fiddling with code just doesn't sound that great.

The future dream mCAD for me is something where extrusions and fillets and other 3d stuff is code, but sketches are GUI edited.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#65

Post by etskinner »

fartcannon wrote: post #61
Steltek wrote: post #59

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 ne…

I also use FreeCAD for my 3D prints. It works fantastic for that. I was officially trained to use SolidWorks in university and FreeCAD reminds me a lot of that. Two quality of life tips: 1) don't make sketches on faces, instead create a plane at the faces height/angle. I don't know why but this single handedly stopped my models getting corrupted. 2) Do fillets at the end. After you saved a backup. Then it works great…

It's pretty clear why your sketch plane trick works: It makes it so that you never depend on previous geometry. Instead, all of your bodies are defined as floating somewhere in space, not "attached" to anything else

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#66

Post by etskinner »

somat wrote: post #14
etskinner wrote: post #6

I can't wait to see FreeCAD or something like it mature into something on the level of Blender. The problem seems to be that other free-ish CAD software exists out there, so there's not much demand. Another problem seems to be that overlap between people interested in solid modeling and people able to program for solid modeling is very small. For sculpting, Blender actually does pretty well. And for parametric solid…

Note that almost by definition a programmatic interface to cad makes it parametric. The parameters are now in the program.

Parametric CAD means something more than just having parameters you can tweak. Like another comment said, having a constraint solver is key, and is much more complicated. Being able to say "this line must be tangent to this arc" or "this part must be concentric / mirrored / slotted to that part" is central to parametric modeling, and is not the same thing as merely having variables

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#67

Post by Steltek »

fartcannon wrote: post #61
Steltek wrote: post #59

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 ne…

I also use FreeCAD for my 3D prints. It works fantastic for that. I was officially trained to use SolidWorks in university and FreeCAD reminds me a lot of that. Two quality of life tips: 1) don't make sketches on faces, instead create a plane at the faces height/angle. I don't know why but this single handedly stopped my models getting corrupted. 2) Do fillets at the end. After you saved a backup. Then it works great…

I can do you one better, create a master sketch: a sketch that you don't pad/revolve/etc to form a 3D object. All your future sketches should attach to references on the master sketch. Make the existing object/shape invisible so it's easier to work only with the master sketch.

This mostly fixes the topo problem and as a bonus, it helps organize your thoughts into one sketch up front.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#68

Post by Accujack »

bb88 wrote: post #51
Accujack wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As a CAD system it's okay, I've tried it. However, for mechanical design and manufacturing integrated CAM is a huge advantage. CAM is really a related problem in open source to having a good CAD system... it's just about as complicated (if not more) mathematically and there's a big advantage in terms of complexity of the software and ease of use if CAM is integrated with CAD.

Lots of people have noticed this with Fusion 360... the ability to switch back and forth between workspaces, from Design to manufacture(CAM or 3d print or whatever) is huge.

So if all I needed was CAD, I'd consider Alibre or Rhino. For CAD with integrated CAM, there's no alternative to Fusion that doesn't cost over $10k per seat. Which sucks, because it's an Autodesk product and a subscription service rather than stand alone software.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#69

Post by Accujack »

dekhn wrote: post #42
Accujack wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I didn't use Fusion 360 back when the hobbyist version was great. I actually pay $500/yr for Fusion 360 (it's one of the only pieces of software I use that costs money out of my pocket) and to me it's worth every cent. It's a phenomenally powerful program. Now what I don't like is that advanced features are extra (on top of a single seat license); like, certain toolpaths cost extra money. But so far, the amount of fe…

I do the same, although I got it on sale for about $300. The specific features that are missing which I really wanted to be able to use are multi-axis tool paths. Autodesk seems to think that only "professional" users will have a 4th axis, which really isn't the case any more.

Likewise on the more advanced high speed tool paths, although I could mostly live without those.

The biggest problem for me with both of these features is that to get them you need to pay yet another subscription fee for an extension and also pay for "cloud credits" to use it which are yet more money and which also expire after a year whether you use them or not.

You can't just buy what you need and do without upgrades and patches and run it standalone like you can with Siemens NX (for example). You have to pay and keep paying or otherwise go through the effort to download everything stored in their cloud and move to another package.

I like how the software functions in general although it's less "pro grade" than NX or Solidworks. If they offered a stand alone version that stored data and processed things locally and had basic multi-axis support, I'd be quite happy with paying up to about $1000 for it as a one time cost and more to get support.

I hate getting locked into recurring costs that may change at the whim or need of the company supplying the product, especially if that company is as untrustworthy as Autodesk.

Re: FreeCAD: Open-source 3D parametric modeler

#70

Post by idid »

flaburgan wrote: post #63

I would love FreeCAD to be a viable alternative to proprietary CAD tools. I'm a web developer so I know nothing about CAD but I recently joined CERN and I'm now working on a PLM to handle our 3M+ CAD documents (yes, building the LHC is huge. And there are even bigger things coming). As you may know, CERN loves open source and it's heartbreaking to have to pay dozens of thousands of euros to have Catia, AutoCAD and Re…

Hi! Random plug: we're building an OSS data platform for 3d data called Speckle [0]. Currently focused on architecture, engineering and construction, but we already have integrations with Revit, AutoCAD, Rhino, etc. - it might be worth a look if you're interested, and perhaps some bits and parts can be adapted for your PLM.

[0] https://github.com/specklesystems

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