3 ms·

I learned the basics of FreeCad because I bought a 3D printer and wanted to do my own stuff. I had no previous experience with CAD programs I think the best ap

I learned the basics of FreeCad because I bought a 3D printer and wanted to do my own stuff. I had no previous experience with CAD programs I think the best approach is to learn by doing. Watch some YouTube video tutorials and copy step by step what the video shows. I went from 0 to "I can do that" in few sessions. The parametric design with constraints is ideal to build precise parts for printing. I really enjoy when I need to build something with it and I did not need to learn anything else.

avaldez_ 4y ago
My experience exactly. I wanted to make cases for my electronics projects and just learned following this series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4&list=PLWuyJLVUNtc0UszswD0oD5q4VeWTrK7JC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4&list=PLWuyJLVUNt...
- kramerger 4y ago
  Don't forget https://m.youtube.com/@FreeCADAcademy https://m.youtube.com/@FreeCADAcademy and https://m.youtube.com/@learnfreecad8264 https://m.youtube.com/@learnfreecad8264 I used the second channel to learn parametric CAD and do my 10-20 first printed designs before I switched to OpenSCAD.
alias_neo 4y ago
I too have been using FreeCAD for 3D printing. It's generally been going ok, but it can be difficult to achieve some complex things, the learning curve is steep and it's easy to forget the little tricks when you don't do it often enough. Several times I'll find I've spent hours building something and then it breaks and I have to start again, because of the relationship between features/parts and it just becomes impossible to resolve. It makes me jealous when I watch YT channels with people using Fusion360 making things with intuitive ease in the UI, it just seems much more straight forward to get things done. For anything I'm likely to reuse or modify I've started learning SCAD, since I write software for a living, the learning curve isn't as high, but you still need to learn the little tricks for doing certain things more easily.
- naasking 4y ago
  > Several times I'll find I've spent hours building something and then it breaks and I have to start again, because of the relationship between features/parts and it just becomes impossible to resolve There is a fix in the works for this notorious topological naming problem: https://ondsel.com/blog/freecad-topological-naming/ https://ondsel.com/blog/freecad-topological-naming/
  - alias_neo 4y ago
    That's good to hear, it will make a real difference to usability.
naasking 4y ago
> The parametric design with constraints is ideal to build precise parts for printing. Indeed, but FreeCAD needs to do better on this. Changing any single root value recomputes the whole dependency graph, which quickly bogs down in even moderately complex models. They badly need a signal/FRP abstraction to handle these dataflow constraints so only the expressions downstream of that value change.

avaldez_ 4y ago

My experience exactly. I wanted to make cases for my electronics projects and just learned following this series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4&list=PLWuyJLVUNtc0UszswD0oD5q4VeWTrK7JC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4&list=PLWuyJLVUNt...

kramerger 4y ago
Don't forget https://m.youtube.com/@FreeCADAcademy https://m.youtube.com/@FreeCADAcademy and https://m.youtube.com/@learnfreecad8264 https://m.youtube.com/@learnfreecad8264 I used the second channel to learn parametric CAD and do my 10-20 first printed designs before I switched to OpenSCAD.

alias_neo 4y ago

I too have been using FreeCAD for 3D printing. It's generally been going ok, but it can be difficult to achieve some complex things, the learning curve is steep and it's easy to forget the little tricks when you don't do it often enough. Several times I'll find I've spent hours building something and then it breaks and I have to start again, because of the relationship between features/parts and it just becomes impossible to resolve. It makes me jealous when I watch YT channels with people using Fusion360 making things with intuitive ease in the UI, it just seems much more straight forward to get things done. For anything I'm likely to reuse or modify I've started learning SCAD, since I write software for a living, the learning curve isn't as high, but you still need to learn the little tricks for doing certain things more easily.

naasking 4y ago
> Several times I'll find I've spent hours building something and then it breaks and I have to start again, because of the relationship between features/parts and it just becomes impossible to resolve There is a fix in the works for this notorious topological naming problem: https://ondsel.com/blog/freecad-topological-naming/ https://ondsel.com/blog/freecad-topological-naming/
- alias_neo 4y ago
  That's good to hear, it will make a real difference to usability.

naasking 4y ago

> The parametric design with constraints is ideal to build precise parts for printing. Indeed, but FreeCAD needs to do better on this. Changing any single root value recomputes the whole dependency graph, which quickly bogs down in even moderately complex models. They badly need a signal/FRP abstraction to handle these dataflow constraints so only the expressions downstream of that value change.