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I can't wait to see FreeCAD or something like it mature into something on the level of Blender. The problem seems to be that other free-ish CAD software exists

I can't wait to see FreeCAD or something like it mature into something on the level of Blender. The problem seems to be that other free-ish CAD software exists out there, so there's not much demand. Another problem seems to be that overlap between people interested in solid modeling and people able to program for solid modeling is very small. For sculpting, Blender actually does pretty well. And for parametric solid modeling, Fusion360 has a free license for hobbyists and startups. For programmatic non-parametric modeling, there's OpenSCAD. But like others have said here, FreeCAD is lacking a lot of polish, and that makes it pretty hard to use.

haberman 5y ago
> For programmatic non-parametric modeling, there's OpenSCAD. There is also CadQuery, which claims to have fundamental technical advantages over OpenSCAD: https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery I've tried CadQuery and had a rough time of it. I haven't used OpenSCAD at all though, so I can't compare.
- bb88 5y ago
  OpenSCAD is very lisp like. It's basically just a series of functions that operate on primitives. I tried it out and didn't like it very much. Mostly because debugging your model this way isn't super efficient. CadQuery should be better, but they refuse to just release a standalone pip library, instead everything is distributed through anaconda which just breaks my existing library setup. Technically you can use miniconda I guess, but in reality if I'm going through that much trouble to set up software, it's probably just best to move on. I found FreeCad easier to install and use frankly -- especially the RealThunder AppImage version. https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/releases https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/releases
- tverbeure 5y ago
  I currently design my FreeCAD models by writing them in Python. That way, I don't need to learn yet another base language, and I still get to use the FreeCAD GUI for manual refinement.
somat 5y ago
Note that almost by definition a programmatic interface to cad makes it parametric. The parameters are now in the program.
- dekhn 5y ago
  The other (crucially) important part is that a change to a parameter only needs to cause recalculation of effected objects. With openscad, you have to re-run the entire program.
- phkahler 5y ago
  But it doesnt have a constraint solver, so you'll be doing some math here and there.
- etskinner 5y ago
  Parametric CAD means something more than just having parameters you can tweak. Like another comment said, having a constraint solver is key, and is much more complicated. Being able to say "this line must be tangent to this arc" or "this part must be concentric / mirrored / slotted to that part" is central to parametric modeling, and is not the same thing as merely having variables

haberman 5y ago

> For programmatic non-parametric modeling, there's OpenSCAD. There is also CadQuery, which claims to have fundamental technical advantages over OpenSCAD: https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery I've tried CadQuery and had a rough time of it. I haven't used OpenSCAD at all though, so I can't compare.

bb88 5y ago
OpenSCAD is very lisp like. It's basically just a series of functions that operate on primitives. I tried it out and didn't like it very much. Mostly because debugging your model this way isn't super efficient. CadQuery should be better, but they refuse to just release a standalone pip library, instead everything is distributed through anaconda which just breaks my existing library setup. Technically you can use miniconda I guess, but in reality if I'm going through that much trouble to set up software, it's probably just best to move on. I found FreeCad easier to install and use frankly -- especially the RealThunder AppImage version. https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/releases https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/releases
tverbeure 5y ago
I currently design my FreeCAD models by writing them in Python. That way, I don't need to learn yet another base language, and I still get to use the FreeCAD GUI for manual refinement.

somat 5y ago

Note that almost by definition a programmatic interface to cad makes it parametric. The parameters are now in the program.

dekhn 5y ago
The other (crucially) important part is that a change to a parameter only needs to cause recalculation of effected objects. With openscad, you have to re-run the entire program.
phkahler 5y ago
But it doesnt have a constraint solver, so you'll be doing some math here and there.
etskinner 5y ago
Parametric CAD means something more than just having parameters you can tweak. Like another comment said, having a constraint solver is key, and is much more complicated. Being able to say "this line must be tangent to this arc" or "this part must be concentric / mirrored / slotted to that part" is central to parametric modeling, and is not the same thing as merely having variables