3 ms·

While not as capable and well supported as Fusion, the two top alternatives that I am aware of are: https://www.openscad.org/ https://www.openscad.org/ and http

While not as capable and well supported as Fusion, the two top alternatives that I am aware of are: https://www.openscad.org/ https://www.openscad.org/ and https://www.freecadweb.org/ https://www.freecadweb.org/ With FreeCAD being closer to Fusion than OpenSCAD.

phkahler 6y ago
Give SolveSpace a try too.
- nraynaud 6y ago
  I don't think solvespace has any offset or minkowski sum operation, it's a staple of mechanical modelling.
clairity 6y ago
has anyone used form•Z[0] recently? i remember liking it much better than autocad in college (waaay back in the day), simply because it was much easier to get started modeling (but not nearly as integrated into the engineerng workflow). [0] http://www.formz.com/fzsite1219/products/formz/formz_free.html http://www.formz.com/fzsite1219/products/formz/formz_free.ht...
golem14 6y ago
I feel LaTeX relates to MS Word like OpenScad to FreeCad. The scripting makes making technical parts often much easier, and more maintainable. I for instance wanted to replace a metal rod in an antenna with a smaller diameter, and changing several mounting parts for the rods became changing a single variable. Plus, being eble to comment scad files makes it much easier to meaningful share parts (the STL files on Thingiverse are hard to modify). The usual caveats apply: people tend to either shy away from the few days it takes to learn OpenScad, or, once they invest the time, there's a tendency to over-engineer scripts and not focus on tasks at hand ;)_
klintcho 6y ago
I've used FreeCad for some time, I'm not doing anything super advanced but works well for all basic modeling task. One big caveat, which I've experienced on several past versions is that it freezes up completely (like freeze freeze) for 3 - 15 seconds whenever you open it, saves files etc. I have a 2017 MacBook Pro 16 GB, with MacOS 10.14, so I don't think it should be any problems, but. I'm just attributing it to "these are quirks you accept when going full open source and not paying for it"

phkahler 6y ago

Give SolveSpace a try too.

nraynaud 6y ago
I don't think solvespace has any offset or minkowski sum operation, it's a staple of mechanical modelling.

clairity 6y ago

has anyone used form•Z[0] recently? i remember liking it much better than autocad in college (waaay back in the day), simply because it was much easier to get started modeling (but not nearly as integrated into the engineerng workflow). [0] http://www.formz.com/fzsite1219/products/formz/formz_free.html http://www.formz.com/fzsite1219/products/formz/formz_free.ht...

golem14 6y ago

I feel LaTeX relates to MS Word like OpenScad to FreeCad. The scripting makes making technical parts often much easier, and more maintainable. I for instance wanted to replace a metal rod in an antenna with a smaller diameter, and changing several mounting parts for the rods became changing a single variable. Plus, being eble to comment scad files makes it much easier to meaningful share parts (the STL files on Thingiverse are hard to modify). The usual caveats apply: people tend to either shy away from the few days it takes to learn OpenScad, or, once they invest the time, there's a tendency to over-engineer scripts and not focus on tasks at hand ;)_

klintcho 6y ago

I've used FreeCad for some time, I'm not doing anything super advanced but works well for all basic modeling task. One big caveat, which I've experienced on several past versions is that it freezes up completely (like freeze freeze) for 3 - 15 seconds whenever you open it, saves files etc. I have a 2017 MacBook Pro 16 GB, with MacOS 10.14, so I don't think it should be any problems, but. I'm just attributing it to "these are quirks you accept when going full open source and not paying for it"