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I would love FreeCAD to be a viable alternative to proprietary CAD tools. I'm a web developer so I know nothing about CAD but I recently joined CERN and I'm now
by flaburgan 5y ago
I would love FreeCAD to be a viable alternative to proprietary CAD tools. I'm a web developer so I know nothing about CAD but I recently joined CERN and I'm now working on a PLM to handle our 3M+ CAD documents (yes, building the LHC is huge. And there are even bigger things coming). As you may know, CERN loves open source and it's heartbreaking to have to pay dozens of thousands of euros to have Catia, AutoCAD and Revit available for our mechanical engineers, so what I'm wondering now as someone who never used a CAD tool is, a free alternatives so much behind? Looks like when you're building machines like the LHC, the answer is yes.
- idid 5y agoHi! Random plug: we're building an OSS data platform for 3d data called Speckle [0]. Currently focused on architecture, engineering and construction, but we already have integrations with Revit, AutoCAD, Rhino, etc. - it might be worth a look if you're interested, and perhaps some bits and parts can be adapted for your PLM. [0] https://github.com/specklesystems https://github.com/specklesystems
- aothms 5y agoAlso check out BlenderBIM (I work on the umbrella organization it is part of) it has really comprehensive covering of IFC (using what they call native IFC authoring) including things as FM, hvac systems and 4D. It's fairly new so probably rough around the edges. Regardless, invest a good deal of effort in open standards such as IFC. The proprietary tools really leave you in the dark about long term maintenance and data ownership.