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FreeCAD v1.1

blog.freecad.org

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Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#81

Post by mastermage »

digdugdirk wrote: post #51
class3shock wrote: post #45

Is it any closer to functioning like Solidworks, NX, Creo, and all the other professional CAD software packages? Edit: After opening it up it seems better than before but still not a replacement. I can use the draw tool to create a rectangle but than immediately cannot apply symmetry or equal length constraints until I delete others which shouldn't overlap. Clicking to create a cut or hole opens up a window that does…

It's inherently limited by its geometry kernel. Most "real" CAD suites use something like parasolid, usually with a bunch of extras slapped on top. Making a new one from scratch is a massive undertaking, but I'll remain forever hopeful that we get a new, modern, open-source kernel one of these days...

Not gonna lie I just hope the rewrite it in rust community takes a stab at it at one point,

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#82

Post by regularfry »

MegaDeKay wrote: post #59
acrophobic wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also use VarSet[0], which I think is easier than spreadsheet since you don't have to switch the workbench. [0]: https://wiki.freecad.org/Std_VarSet

The downside of spreadsheets is they can really slow your model down. Every cell change triggers a full recompute of the 3D model. VarSets offer much faster performance while sacrificing a couple spreadsheet features. So always choose VarSets over spreadsheets if you can.

On the one hand it's clearly suboptimal for any change, even ones that nothing depends on, to trigger a recompute. But also it feels like there's something a bit broken with spreadsheet dependency resolution in the first place. I've never been able to nail down a test case, but models seem to go over a performance cliff at a certain point. Ordinarily I'd put it down to something being unavoidably quadratic, but I've had cases where I'm certain that the same model is radically slower after being reloaded off disk.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#83

Post by regularfry »

ddlsmurf wrote: post #77
_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://wiki.freecad.org/Macro_EasyAlias EasyAlias macro maybe?

not "maybe" this is an absolute must if using parameters in a spreadsheet :)

Its existence has been used by the devs as a reason not to prioritise fixing user-facing bugs. It really should be in core at this point.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#84

Post by Toutouxc »

Alupis wrote: post #11

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 measure…

It was Onshape for me, but the same idea. The concepts take just a few hours to "click" (the idea that you're stacking changes chronologically, which is different from e.g. layers in photo editing), but then you can suddenly build like 80% of all tools and mechanisms that you've ever seen. Yes, slowly and usually using less efficient tools and approaches, but you can make most things look and work right SOMEHOW.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#85

Post by faangguyindia »

criddell wrote: post #48
faangguyindia wrote: post #34

In coming time you can see freecad massively improving. This space lacks good opensource solution. I have tried creating my parts, tried tinkercad (which is simple but limited) Tried fusion. And pretty much other things don't support mac. I've a hunch lots of vibe coders are going to come and launch stuff like freecad and Gimp (which I never liked, can't even get simple tasks done in gimp) Future is bright for openso…

Freecad is limited by Open Cascade which is the modeling kernel at the heart of the program. I started with Open Cascade then moved on to Granite from PTC (not open source) and the latter is just so much easier, faster, and stable. I’ve heard Parasolid and whatever it is that Autodesk uses these days are both excellent as well. It would be nice for there to be a more modern open source modeling library.

U only need to get a prototype working, post on show HN and it will attracted others who see point in it. It would be nice to have a CAD which is user friendly. I don't like fusion either but it's necessary evil.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#86

Post by faangguyindia »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #55

I've designed some basic parts in Tinkercad and openscad but have never really been able to grok Freecad or Fusion. Is there a good resource for making that leap? Just the explosion of menu bar options is a lot

Fusion is very easy to learn. If you can use tickercad.

Just draw sketches, learn to extrude, push pull, and it all depends on how good you are at sketching in 2d, setting up constraints, workflow is simple and it works most of the times but when it doesn't work, it's pain.

I am pretty sure fusions workflow sucks but I can't put my finger on why. I am still waiting for a better product which is also free and opensource.

Maybe llm vibe coding will unlock this finally. Where bunch of people come together to take up parameterized 3dmodeling.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#87

Post by kwk1 »

sho_hn wrote: post #7
vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also impressed by how much they are improving things. It just sucks that they are stuck with the OpenCasacade kernel so making stability improvements are hard to make in areas like fillets and others.

I don't follow Open CASCADE very closely, but it looks like they're on the verge of a new major release (v8.0) themselves that looks like a lot of refactoring and cleanup. I don't know hat version FreeCAD is actually bundling, but from GitHub it looks like a fork of 7.8.1?

Yes, the OpenCASCADE 8.0 release is very promising. There's a FOSDEM presentation from this year by one of their developers which shows what's in the works.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#88

Post by funkyfourier »

Gigachad wrote: post #54
faangguyindia wrote: post #34

In coming time you can see freecad massively improving. This space lacks good opensource solution. I have tried creating my parts, tried tinkercad (which is simple but limited) Tried fusion. And pretty much other things don't support mac. I've a hunch lots of vibe coders are going to come and launch stuff like freecad and Gimp (which I never liked, can't even get simple tasks done in gimp) Future is bright for openso…

Linkedin sentence structure + baseless LLM promotion. There is no evidence here the latest update was vibe coded. It's fairly offensive to devalue the work that the FreeCAD developers put in like this.

They recently posted rules about submitting AI generated code:

https://blog.freecad.org/2026/03/16/rules-regarding-ai-gener...

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#89

Post by imtringued »

class3shock wrote: post #45

Is it any closer to functioning like Solidworks, NX, Creo, and all the other professional CAD software packages? Edit: After opening it up it seems better than before but still not a replacement. I can use the draw tool to create a rectangle but than immediately cannot apply symmetry or equal length constraints until I delete others which shouldn't overlap. Clicking to create a cut or hole opens up a window that does…

The entire FreeCAD development philosophy is to not compare FreeCAD with commercial CAD tools. That's a cardinal sin. Basically, they are completely hostile to feedback from people who've spent their entire career doing CAD.

Re: FreeCAD v1.1

#90

Post by imtringued »

digdugdirk wrote: post #51
class3shock wrote: post #45

Is it any closer to functioning like Solidworks, NX, Creo, and all the other professional CAD software packages? Edit: After opening it up it seems better than before but still not a replacement. I can use the draw tool to create a rectangle but than immediately cannot apply symmetry or equal length constraints until I delete others which shouldn't overlap. Clicking to create a cut or hole opens up a window that does…

It's inherently limited by its geometry kernel. Most "real" CAD suites use something like parasolid, usually with a bunch of extras slapped on top. Making a new one from scratch is a massive undertaking, but I'll remain forever hopeful that we get a new, modern, open-source kernel one of these days...

This isn't really true. The vast majority of problems are in the UI. The geometry kernel is limited, but it's good enough for an open source project. Compared to say OpenSCAD, Open CASCADE is leagues ahead.
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