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

FreeCAD

freecad.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 197 posts

Re: FreeCAD

#131

Post by erremerre »

andrewshadura wrote: post #42
erremerre wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood this UI problem. Because... You can copy the UI of the leader and problem solved. There you have GIMP with an absolute nightmare UI to use, but people keep saying, just get used to it. On the other hand, a single developer, in javascript, made a copy of photoshop, and most people I know prefer to use that over GIMP... Just copy the UI that works, if you can't research your own UI.

Why do you think GIMP is a nightmare? I don’t find it problematic at all. The only issue I’m hitting once in a while is that I click on a button on the toolbar, and I guess I hit its edge, as I doesn’t switch modes. Other than that, I don’t have any complaints at all. What are yours?

Adding a text that has a couple of pixel white borders is something possible in GIMP, yet a nightmare compared with photopea which just copy cs2 way of doing it.

And that is without having to edit the text in case you made a tipo.

Now, if we are talking about doing batch image editing in python. Gimp us the best tool I've found.

Re: FreeCAD

#132

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

qiine wrote: post #120
JDye wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may look like they're all easily interchangable because the UI and actions are similar (you have a viewport and can do extrudes, etc..) but fundamentally, they're all working on very different objects at their core. Blender and 3DS Max are the most alike, but Zbrush is an entirely different paradigm and so is parametric CAD. An extrude in Blender is massively different from a pad in FreeCAD. Maybe, with a ton of t…

You can do sculpting in Blender as well as parametric objects, similarly you can emulate most of substance designer with shaders, maybe just not _quite_ good enough that's the thing. It feels like we have been so so close to an unified 3D content creation tool kit for many years now!

Blender is a mesh editor at its heart. That isn't suitable for CAD work.

Re: FreeCAD

#133

Post by cracki »

WarmWash wrote: post #128

FreeCAD is the first program I ever used where I actually drafted hate mail to the devs (but the oss nature gave me restraint in actually pressing send) I spent 2 days crash coursing freeCAD (this is with a general understanding of the theory of 3D design already) to try and make an adapter plate for my car. A plate with 6 holes in precise spots and tapped. It was absolutely brutal and after the first 3D print trial…

I am not trained to be a mechanical engineer. I wanted to explore 3D printing. The usual suspects (FOSS missionaries with a deep-rooted hotly burning hate for capitalism) gave me OpenSCAD, which was okay to dick around with but QUICKLY showed its clunkiness ("compiling"... what a joke). So then I gave FreeCAD a look, because everyone said it's just like the commerical programs. It was not. Documentation and tutorials were a mess. The program itself was a mess. UX that makes you want to strangle someone.

So then I looked for free student versions of commercial software. They had a clear UI and UX, clear tutorials. It was a joy to model the parts I needed.

If I needed 3D modeling for engineering in the future, I would absolutely pay for a commercial program. FreeCAD was simply no competition. I don't know if it is now. Nor do I have any motivation whatsoever to even bother to give it another look.

If I need a license for hobbyist purposes, I'm sure some of the commercial offerings are happy to give me one for free because that would translate into commerce for them if I ever needed it professionally.

Re: FreeCAD

#134

Post by erremerre »

qup wrote: post #57
erremerre wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood this UI problem. Because... You can copy the UI of the leader and problem solved. There you have GIMP with an absolute nightmare UI to use, but people keep saying, just get used to it. On the other hand, a single developer, in javascript, made a copy of photoshop, and most people I know prefer to use that over GIMP... Just copy the UI that works, if you can't research your own UI.

Do you mean photopea? Great alternative in-browser.

I do, it is indeed. I'm always surprised that a single developer in javascript managed to do it.

Re: FreeCAD

#135

Post by dgroshev »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #88
kuratkull wrote: post #4

I'm a occasional hobbyist maker and i've used Autodesk Fusion, Solid Edge, OpenSCAD and other niche parametric programs, but always felt FreeCAD was too complex. But I really wanted it to work for me because it's FOSS and 100% offline. So with the new FreeCAD 1.1 RC I found an hour long tutorial and dove in. (1.1 is supposedly much easier to work with) After doing the tut I can say that 1.1 is very nice, i can uninst…

Yeah, I avoided Fusion (etc.) because of the usual bait-and-switch I've seen with commercial applications that claim to be "free" at some point. If I'm going to invest in learning a new application, I'd rather it be an open one. I dove into FreeCAD with either version 1.0.0 or earlier. It was… rough. To be sure, it was a whole new app so I expect initial navigation around the app to be challenging. But, wow. Nonethel…

I find SOLIDWORKS for Makers [1] a great middle ground between bait-and-switch "free" Fusion and the real, very expensive, deal. SW is one of industry standards, its interface is much better than FreeCAD's, and it's more powerful than both FreeCAD and Fusion. For example, both FreeCAD and Fusion struggle with G2/G3 smoothness [2] where SW doesn't even blink. Fusion doesn't allow to pattern features on sketch points (it's gated behind an expensive add-on [3]) when it's a built-in feature in SW.

[1]: https://www.solidworks.com/solution/solidworks-makers

[2]: https://www.printables.com/model/1490911-g0-g3-corners-visua...

[3]: https://www.autodesk.com/uk/products/fusion-360/design-exten...

Re: FreeCAD

#136

Post by cracki »

criddell wrote: post #60
ramshanker wrote: post #27

I will try the newer version again. Last I tried 2 years or so back, it was crashing for me. Personal Context: I am a civil enginer, and our requirement from CAD softwares are a lot simpler than Mechanical Engineering. Here on HN, whenever I see people discussing CAD, its the mechanical version of parts and 3d printing. Shameless Plug: I have decided to try building my own! Over a long enough timeline, it is doable,…

UI/UX is not the difficult part. The hard part is the geometric modeling kernel.

The history of FreeCAD proves that UI/UX is the hard part.

Re: FreeCAD

#137

Post by cracki »

jwrallie wrote: post #5
kitesay wrote: post #3

Spent hours and hours learning how to use it to draw a part. Got it done, but then didn't use it for a long time. Next time, couldn't remember how. Finding Cadquery less of a hurdle for casual use. Wish I could run it from Termux though.

I used it once or twice to open an existing .step file just to know if I was exporting it correctly from KiCad. Speaking of KiCad, I am convincing lots of people to move from EAGLE to it now that EAGLE is about to be killed by AutoDesk, and everyone seem to be having a good time. I am hoping FreeCAD can become good to the point I can convince people to move to it too.

Autodesk should have started their own ECAD from scratch. They have mountains of CAD know-how in house. Their acquisition of EAGLE did nobody any favors.

I am not sad to see it go. The only ones I know of who used to use EAGLE were those who got hooked on it when it was either free or the cheapest option for hobbyists and small businesses. It didn't win any UI/UX competitions, certainly not against the joy that is modern programs for solid CAD.

Re: FreeCAD

#138

Post by tracker1 »

MegaDeKay wrote: post #118
sho_hn wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This shows a general problem that FreeCAD still has: Inside an initially off-putting and frustrating UI experience is a really good application trying to get out, but at the moment a new user still has to dig it out themselves. For example, problems like this one. Or the confusing 3D navigation (switch to Gesture or TinkerCAD mode in the Settings), or the non-interactive view cube. And many other gotchas and paper cu…

> The authors get somewhat blinded to the pain because they're used to it, plus change is difficult for the established userbase. There's also a feeling that emulating competitors is surrendering one's own identity, and the idea that some of the rough edges are justified by "the powerfulness". Thus radically changing defaults, streamlining, simplifying and even just matching user expectations is often perceived as "t…

I would think it would be beneficial to the companies that make 3D printers and CNC machines to help fund some of these efforts... I've found it often takes the input of commercial interests to get general UX improvements into open-source.

ex: really impressed with the direction of Audacity as an example, though I can also understand why a given community would reject such influence from a single org.

Re: FreeCAD

#139

Post by cracki »

beachy wrote: post #6

I feel CAD is one area where open source does not shine. The problem space is too complex, and the UIs demand continuous, thoughtful development driven from customer demands rather than developers scratching their own itches. Not least there are free (as in beer) solutions available, like fusion 360, that are enormously capable. Theres certainly a place for open source, and openscad would be a great tool to reach for…

The reason being that Open Source is a bunch of people who approach EVERYTHING as a programming problem, and they are chronically allergic to graphics, graphical UIs, and any kind of sense of what user interactions are a good experience.

They don't start with "how do users want this to operate?" They start with a weekend of coding, applying their preconceived notions, a library of fancy algorithms that are not directly motivated by an actual feature, and they go from there. This does not lead to a good product, as in something that could earn you money on an open market. It only prevails, in spite of nobody wanting to pay for it, because they give it away for free, and they sink their own "disposable time" (and maybe even income) into the project.

Re: FreeCAD

#140

Post by cracki »

gucci-on-fleek wrote: post #11
beachy wrote: post #6

I feel CAD is one area where open source does not shine. The problem space is too complex, and the UIs demand continuous, thoughtful development driven from customer demands rather than developers scratching their own itches. Not least there are free (as in beer) solutions available, like fusion 360, that are enormously capable. Theres certainly a place for open source, and openscad would be a great tool to reach for…

> the UIs demand continuous, thoughtful development The current AutoCAD GUI is essentially unchanged from the 80s, so this shouldn't really be much of an issue. They added a ribbon probably 15 years ago at this point, but I can't think of any other major/recent changes. (But maybe there are some changes that I'm not familiar with, since I don't use AutoCAD very often and only started using it relatively recently)

People aren't talking about AutoCAD, but things such as Autodesk Inventor, AD Fusion 360, ...
Post reply on HN