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I applaud the FreeCAD team for their efforts and hope it will become to 3D mechanical CAD what KiCAD has become for PCB design and schematic capture. That said

I applaud the FreeCAD team for their efforts and hope it will become to 3D mechanical CAD what KiCAD has become for PCB design and schematic capture. That said, I can get Fusion360 for free, and while I hate the fact that it's not open-source and that my files are hidden and locked away ond Autodesk's servers and that they can cancel my free "hobbyist" subscription on a whim, Fusion360 is so much easier and faster to use for my small weekend projects that I just cannot bring myself to go through the pain of learning how to avoid the random crashes of FreeCAD. EDIT: if there is a donation page for FreeCAD, I am willing to pitch in.

kwk1 9y ago
> EDIT: if there is a donation page for FreeCAD, I am willing to pitch in. There isn't a single donation page. One of the main developers, Yorik van Havre, has a Patreon [1], and there's a Liberapay [2]. I also just decided to make a Patreon [3] (I'm the sysadmin for the project as well as a developer.) 1. https://www.patreon.com/yorikvanhavre https://www.patreon.com/yorikvanhavre 2. https://liberapay.com/FreeCAD/ https://liberapay.com/FreeCAD/ 3. https://www.patreon.com/kkremitzki https://www.patreon.com/kkremitzki
StavrosK 9y ago
I am of a similar opinion, however I find myself using OnShape more and more for simple projects just because Fusion360 isn't available on Linux and I don't want to reboot just to design something. In my case, FreeCAD just has to be better than OnShape, not Fusion, to get me to use it for 90% of my designs.
abakker 9y ago
Agree on F360. And, for what it's worth, it does support python scripting as well. My biggest hope for F360 are: 1. 2D vector import to sculpt workflow, not just model. 2. Shared Parameters between documents in the same projects I've had great results with their CAM as long as you have a good post processor.

kwk1 9y ago

> EDIT: if there is a donation page for FreeCAD, I am willing to pitch in. There isn't a single donation page. One of the main developers, Yorik van Havre, has a Patreon [1], and there's a Liberapay [2]. I also just decided to make a Patreon [3] (I'm the sysadmin for the project as well as a developer.) 1. https://www.patreon.com/yorikvanhavre https://www.patreon.com/yorikvanhavre 2. https://liberapay.com/FreeCAD/ https://liberapay.com/FreeCAD/ 3. https://www.patreon.com/kkremitzki https://www.patreon.com/kkremitzki

StavrosK 9y ago

I am of a similar opinion, however I find myself using OnShape more and more for simple projects just because Fusion360 isn't available on Linux and I don't want to reboot just to design something. In my case, FreeCAD just has to be better than OnShape, not Fusion, to get me to use it for 90% of my designs.

abakker 9y ago

Agree on F360. And, for what it's worth, it does support python scripting as well. My biggest hope for F360 are: 1. 2D vector import to sculpt workflow, not just model. 2. Shared Parameters between documents in the same projects I've had great results with their CAM as long as you have a good post processor.