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The problem with OnShape and Fusion 360 is that if (when?) the services are discontinued your designs go away. You can keep the STL/IGES files but they aren't v

The problem with OnShape and Fusion 360 is that if (when?) the services are discontinued your designs go away. You can keep the STL/IGES files but they aren't very useful if you need to quickly tweak a dimension. I've been bitten before by Fusion360 refusing to work (in offline mode) without an internet connection because it had decided it was phone-home time. Whilst it doesn't have all the features of the usual commercial packages (Solidworks etc), SolveSpace is great, cross-platform, a single binary and my preferred open source solution for simple 2D/3D cad jobs [1]. FreeCAD [2] has also come along a lot if you prefer something more like the traditional packages, although I found some annoyances with it's dimension and constraint system when I last used it ~6 months ago due to the fact it has two different sketching modes. 1: http://solvespace.com http://solvespace.com 2: https://www.freecadweb.org/ https://www.freecadweb.org/

StavrosK 9y ago
SolveSpace is fantastic, and it's impressive that the entire parametric CAD package is ~2MB, it just never ocurred to me to use it for this. I'll give it a shot, thank you. You're right about the proprietary/cloud nature of the previous alternatives, which is regrettable because Fusion is a desktop program, and could easily just be saving files locally. I hope FreeCAD becomes a great alternative soon, because Fusion really needs competition in the space.
- blutack 9y ago
  I completely agree and was in the same boat - I used to use Fusion because until recently the only open source option I knew about was FreeCAD, and I had various issues with stability, features and the interface. OpenSCAD & friends are neat but if like most you've learnt CAD with a more traditional package it's tricky to adapt to. Of course the cloud systems have their advantages and uses too! Nice project and write up by the way!

StavrosK 9y ago

SolveSpace is fantastic, and it's impressive that the entire parametric CAD package is ~2MB, it just never ocurred to me to use it for this. I'll give it a shot, thank you. You're right about the proprietary/cloud nature of the previous alternatives, which is regrettable because Fusion is a desktop program, and could easily just be saving files locally. I hope FreeCAD becomes a great alternative soon, because Fusion really needs competition in the space.

blutack 9y ago
I completely agree and was in the same boat - I used to use Fusion because until recently the only open source option I knew about was FreeCAD, and I had various issues with stability, features and the interface. OpenSCAD & friends are neat but if like most you've learnt CAD with a more traditional package it's tricky to adapt to. Of course the cloud systems have their advantages and uses too! Nice project and write up by the way!