FreeCAD v1.1 • Hacker News Board

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#11

Post by Alupis » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

Recently one of the magnet holders for my window shutters broke, and I thought I'd take a crack at designing a replacement to 3D Print. I'd never designed anything in CAD software before, so I had no real reference.

I found FreeCAD extremely easy to use and intuitive. I watched a couple videos and followed-along with the tutorials, then started on my own item. It's a relatively simple 3-part component. I took measurements with digital calipers, and in a few hours was printing the first prototype.

A couple prototypes later (small measurement adjustments to account for plastic shrinkage, etc), I had the final model. Replaced all of the magnet holders since they were sure to go soon, too.

I had fun, and finally used my 3D printer for something "real". Pretty cool.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#12

Post by gligorot » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:38 PM UTC

sho_hn wrote: post #9

_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #8

I post this in every FreeCAD thread: If you're going to start designing something with it, use the spreadsheet tool to make everything parametric. You'll save yourself a ton of time as your designs get more complicated. Maybe this isn't anything new to experience CAD users. I don't know if other CAD tools do this as I started using FreeCAD after playing with 3D printing.

It's very common (Fusion calls it User Parameters, etc.) and indeed nice practice. FreeCAD has a few ways to do it, Spreadsheets but also free-form properties on objects. It's very flexible in this regard.

The Fusion implementation sucks. A spreadsheet is a far more natural way to do this, Im surprised FreeCad is doing it better than the paid variant.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#13

Post by sho_hn » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:40 PM UTC

gligorot wrote: post #12

sho_hn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very common (Fusion calls it User Parameters, etc.) and indeed nice practice. FreeCAD has a few ways to do it, Spreadsheets but also free-form properties on objects. It's very flexible in this regard.

The Fusion implementation sucks. A spreadsheet is a far more natural way to do this, Im surprised FreeCad is doing it better than the paid variant.

The Fusion implementation is awful - you can adjust one variable, one time, then you have to reopen the dialog to do another. At least for me it's always become non-responsive after a single edit, for years now. I've always assumed I'm just holding it wrong, but I don't know. I've moved on.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#14

Post by cgearhart » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:41 PM UTC

Slightly unrelated to this story, but I’m curious if anyone has good resources for learning FreeCAD. I have quite a lot of experience with SolidWorks, AutoCAD, OnShape, and similar software, but FreeCAD has always been hard for me to pick up.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#15

Post by _whiteCaps_ » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:43 PM UTC

sho_hn wrote: post #9

_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #8

I post this in every FreeCAD thread: If you're going to start designing something with it, use the spreadsheet tool to make everything parametric. You'll save yourself a ton of time as your designs get more complicated. Maybe this isn't anything new to experience CAD users. I don't know if other CAD tools do this as I started using FreeCAD after playing with 3D printing.

It's very common (Fusion calls it User Parameters, etc.) and indeed nice practice. FreeCAD has a few ways to do it, Spreadsheets but also free-form properties on objects. It's very flexible in this regard.

Super flexible. I love being able to use Python to manipulate spreadsheet data.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#16

Post by Lukas_Skywalker » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:49 PM UTC

gligorot wrote: post #12

sho_hn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very common (Fusion calls it User Parameters, etc.) and indeed nice practice. FreeCAD has a few ways to do it, Spreadsheets but also free-form properties on objects. It's very flexible in this regard.

The Fusion implementation sucks. A spreadsheet is a far more natural way to do this, Im surprised FreeCad is doing it better than the paid variant.

The only issue I have with the Spreadsheet is that I need to add an alias for every value I want to use in the Sketch or Part Design workbench. In practice, this usually looks like

    A       B
    width   2mm
    length  3mm

and for every cell in B I add an alias with the same value as in column A. Is there a way around that?

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#17

Post by Alupis » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:52 PM UTC

cgearhart wrote: post #14

Slightly unrelated to this story, but I’m curious if anyone has good resources for learning FreeCAD. I have quite a lot of experience with SolidWorks, AutoCAD, OnShape, and similar software, but FreeCAD has always been hard for me to pick up.

YouTube was very effective for me to learn FreeCAD. I just searched for some FreeCAD tutorials and followed-along. I had zero prior CAD experience though, so I was a "blank slate" in a way.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#18

Post by _whiteCaps_ » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:57 PM UTC

Lukas_Skywalker wrote: post #16

gligorot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Fusion implementation sucks. A spreadsheet is a far more natural way to do this, Im surprised FreeCad is doing it better than the paid variant.

The only issue I have with the Spreadsheet is that I need to add an alias for every value I want to use in the Sketch or Part Design workbench. In practice, this usually looks like A B width 2mm length 3mm and for every cell in B I add an alias with the same value as in column A. Is there a way around that?

https://wiki.freecad.org/Macro_EasyAlias

EasyAlias macro maybe?

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#19

Post by jjkaczor » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:57 PM UTC

Lukas_Skywalker wrote: post #16

gligorot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Fusion implementation sucks. A spreadsheet is a far more natural way to do this, Im surprised FreeCad is doing it better than the paid variant.

The only issue I have with the Spreadsheet is that I need to add an alias for every value I want to use in the Sketch or Part Design workbench. In practice, this usually looks like A B width 2mm length 3mm and for every cell in B I add an alias with the same value as in column A. Is there a way around that?

Hmmm - I seem to recall there was at least 1-2 scripts or macros available to help with aliasing.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#20

Post by jjkaczor » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 9:58 PM UTC

cgearhart wrote: post #14

Slightly unrelated to this story, but I’m curious if anyone has good resources for learning FreeCAD. I have quite a lot of experience with SolidWorks, AutoCAD, OnShape, and similar software, but FreeCAD has always been hard for me to pick up.

MangoJelly on YouTube was my primary learning source, and a few other channels - but his "gelled" with me the best.