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I started using FreeCAD recently after getting a 3D printer, because I wanted something open source and runs on Linux which I could learn, and would become my C
by alias_neo 6y ago
I started using FreeCAD recently after getting a 3D printer, because I wanted something open source and runs on Linux which I could learn, and would become my CAD tool.
I have no CAD experience outside of what I learned in university over a decade ago, so it has been a challenge.
I have generally found it quite hard to achieve some simple designs, it's not always easy to understand what a tool does from its name, and it's not always easy to find a video online to help. Sometimes you know what you need to do, but can't find the tool for it because you have no idea what it's called in CAD land.
The bugs which cause parts to just disappear when you run certain operations are an issue, and there is little help to explain the cause, I've gotten a few designs into the broken state others have mentioned where you need to undo a bunch of work to recover, which is unfortunate.
On the other hand, I found creating drill holes, countersunk or counterbored incredibly easy and powerful.
I hope to find an up to date video series I can follow to learn more as I'm sure it'll become a lot easier to use once I understand the tools better.
- bloodm 6y ago"On the other hand, I found creating drill holes, countersunk or counterbored incredibly easy and powerful." This company provides Linux based software for front panel designs. I have their EU branch made several panels for me. The software was pleasant to use. File export seems to be only a proprietary format. https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/front-panel-designer/# https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/front-panel-designer/#
- app4soft 6y agoAs I'm working with CAD for a long time, I would recommend to install next three FLOSS apps (keep them all side-by-side on your PC): 1. FreeCAD — main 3D CAD (CAx); 2. QCAD — main 2D CAD (CADD); 3. SolveSpace — helper 2D/3D parametric CAD & CAE for daily engineering, sketching & relax.[0,1,2,3] [0] https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace [1] https://github.com/Symbian9/SolveSpace-Daily-Engineering https://github.com/Symbian9/SolveSpace-Daily-Engineering [2] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL53gPqUkbj3JndwS2T410KTbBymaimbiD https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL53gPqUkbj3JndwS2T410... [3] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1181705677984735232 https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1181705677984735232
- alias_neo 6y agoThank you, I'll check them all out.
- ddevault 6y agoCan highly recommend SolveSpace.
- StavrosK 6y agoSolveSpace is quite fantastic as a technical achievement, but it's rather limited in terms of CAD. It's great for simple designs or just messing around, though, I'm very impressed.
- app4soft 6y ago> but it's rather limited in terms of CAD SolveSpace has NO "limits in terms of CAD" (as SolveSpace 3.0 actually in active development, heavy rework & list of implemented features growing each week) — the only limits it has is that for creating _too_complex_ solids & assembly it just requires to use more tricks & more powerful PC ;)
- gamegod 6y agoLatest Solvespace in Git has some nifty features and QoL improvements... it's well worth compiling if you like it.
- app4soft 6y ago> it's well worth compiling if you like it. Yep, I know. I use 'master' builds since SolveSpace became open-source.[0] SolveSpace is my daily engineering tool during last 7 years ;) [0] http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/solvespace-released-under-gpl http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/solvespace-released...
- ddingus 6y agoI just took a look. It's really good. But, yeah. Has limits right now. The plan is to obviously make more possible, and a whole lot is possible right now. I know I could do a ton in that software and didn't know about it. Cool! When people say "CAD" they are talking about any number of technical things. Say you want to insure a free form surface is a minimum radius connecting all other surfaces. Depending on the scenario, one may be able to do that in the software today, but doing it may require well above average math and geometry skills. In "CAD", the skill requirement is much reduced, leaving the user more focused on requirements and overall design intent, not implementation details. Just FYI, on what "CAD" often means to people.
- boyadjian 6y agoIf you experienced bugs, can you share it on the FreeCAD forum, describing precisely your hardware/software configuration, the version of FreeCAD you use, and the project you work on ? (Maybe with a link to download it).
- letstryagain2 6y ago"On the other hand, I found creating drill holes, countersunk or counterbored incredibly easy and powerful." This company provides Linux based software for front panel designs. I had their EU branch made several panels for me. The software was pleasant to use. File export seems to be only a proprietary format. Obviously 2D only. https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/front-panel-designer/# https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/front-panel-designer/#
- letstryagain2 6y agoWhy the downvote? I have no affiliation with this company, except being a customer.
- ddxxdd 6y agoI'm in the exact same boat as you are. Right now, I'm doing my best to work with FreeCAD, but Blender3D has an interesting precision-modelling plugin that makes for a somewhat complicated but reliable alternative. You're going to need to watch a few Youtube tutorials, but it may be worth it.
- mihaaly 6y agoWith considerable CAD experience the observations are the same, your struggles are not caused by lack of experience.
- mypalmike 6y agoGood to know. I also encountered this same frustration recently as someone with very little CAD experience. I could not get some simple shapes drawn with precise sizing in FreeCAD. It would not lock to grid properly nor let me manually enter dimensions. I tried the same with Fusion360 and it was painless, almost easy.
- deadsy 6y agoI started with OpenSCAD but: a) found the language to be clunky b) had a hard time doing chamfered unions between objects (needed for sand casting patterns). So - I wrote my own tool/library in Go and it's essentially replaced my OpenSCAD usage. https://github.com/deadsy/sdfx https://github.com/deadsy/sdfx
- phkahler 6y ago>> So - I wrote my own tool/library in Go and it's essentially replaced my OpenSCAD usage. That looks really cool. What kind of files can it output?
- amelius 6y agoThe examples in your README look cool. But, I was wondering about this sentence: > SDFs make CSG easy Can you share some more info about how this works?
- deadsy 6y agoSDF = signed distance function. A function mapping a 2d/3d coordinate onto a scalar. The scalar is the shortest distance from that point to the surface of the object. (+ve outside, -ve inside) CSG = constructive solid geometry: Take primitive 3d shapes and do unions, differences, intersections on them to build more complex shapes. Fairly obviously the union of 2 sdf functions is going to be the minimum of those values. That pretty simple. Intersections and differences are not much more complex.... See: https://iquilezles.org/www/articles/distfunctions/distfunctions.htm https://iquilezles.org/www/articles/distfunctions/distfuncti... for some quick examples.
- mch82 6y agoFreeCAD is a traditional CAD tool based on sketches, pads, and pockets. CAD designers I’ve spoken with who use that style tool think out their designs outside the CAD tool. They know how to translate concepts into the parametric CAD language. MagicaVoxel — https://ephtracy.github.io/ https://ephtracy.github.io/ — will work with your 3D printer & is closer to building sandcastles. It’s a simpler way to get started. Once you go back to FreeCAD, open the Python console. You’ll see the code that goes with each step in the GUI!
- dekhn 6y agoThe sketches/pads/pockets are just one of the workbenches in FreeCAD (Sketch/Part Design). There is also Part, which is CSG on geometric primitive. And a bunch of others that almost nobody uses, like Ship Design.
- themodelplumber 6y agoMagicaVoxel looks pretty neat, thanks. According to an article I found from 2018, it can also be used via Wine in Linux. Fingers crossed. https://medium.com/tech-notes-and-geek-stuff/install-magicavoxel-win-64-on-linux-d90236fdf927 https://medium.com/tech-notes-and-geek-stuff/install-magicav...
- RobertKerans 6y agoInstalled it multiple times on multiple machines over the last few years and it"s always worked absolutely perfectly via Wine (and I'm always surprised every time I fire it up and everything works, not sure why!)
- digikata 6y agoI was in the same place you are, brushing up on CAD w/ a 3D printer. OnShape is a web based CAD service from some of the original technical creators Solidworks. I found that going through their tutorials helped a lot in understanding how the tools think. Not open source like the other options discussed here, but free for hobbyists.
- guywhocodes 6y agoI too started with freecad, abandoned it because of bugs. Switched to fusion 360 and then now I am using onshape. The productivity gain goin to fusion was about 10 fold. I think onshape is even better tho. I particularly like the assembly system.
- digikata 6y agoThe assembly system is very nice. Once I learned you could enter variables and equations into most of the operations & constraint fields in OnShape, my ability to model in it became much better. It's great for placing multiple symmetric attachment points onto parts to construct assemblies for example.
- TomVDB 6y agoI’m in the same situation. I find the learning curve for FreeCad to be steep. And once you get the hang of it a little bit, you start running into bugs.