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I really really really tried to switch to freecad when I switched to macos maybe 8 months ago. But I couldn't stick with it. The program is just so far from sol

I really really really tried to switch to freecad when I switched to macos maybe 8 months ago. But I couldn't stick with it. The program is just so far from solidworks for me that I cannot justify the time and frustration... The interface feels like an ee wrote it ( I am an Ee) and honestly it's buggy. I found myself restarting the program alot to get out of certain states. I wanted to like it... Mcad is the only thing I really want on my Mac I don't have a solution for.

janice1999 2y ago
Same here. I really wish there was a fork that was willing to try a new interface. Unfortunately these type of projects have complex codebases and a lot of inertia so it's unlikely to happen.
- jononor 2y ago
  There is a fork calls Onseel I believe, which has a slighty different UI. And it looks like many UI improvement are coming into mainline now / over the next releases.
  - jacobgkau 2y ago
    Do you mean Ondsel?
    - jononor 2y ago
      Yes, that is the one!
  - alright2565 2y ago
    2 minor ui features are in Ondsel & latest git that make a huge difference: - auto-constraints. If you select a line and click "constrain", it automatically chooses a length constraint. If you select 2 lines, you get an angle constraint. A circle, a radius constraint. - constraining on drawing. When you draw a rectangle, you can immediately type one dimension, press tab, type the other dimensions. You don't need to manually select constraints.
deskr 2y ago
Look at MangoJelly's beginner's tutorial playlist, start on first video and follow along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4&list=PLWuyJLVUNtc0UszswD0oD5q4VeWTrK7JC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4&list=PLWuyJLVUNt... There are definitely problems with FC (but then even expensive CADs have problems). One of the biggest problem I think was lack of good learning material. MangoJelly does an excellent work on that.
resource_waste 2y ago
What is your experience level? I made the change and I did a few decent sized projects and a major project. Obviously its no Catia/NX from a feature POV, but it can do everything I needed.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  Just a casual industrial design list of things I could not do easily in FreeCAD: - chamfer - easy wall thickness - draft angle - bosses - vents Probably about 10 more of those operations that are easy in Fusion360 and very difficult in FreeCAD. Great that it could do everything you needed but for many people the second you need to do adult things FreeCAD unfortunately falls apart.
  - mitthrowaway2 2y ago
    Doesn't freecad do draft angles, bosses, wall thickness and vents pretty similarly to SolidWorks? Chamfers are a weakness, but not entirely a lost cause.
  - resource_waste 2y ago
    I never had any issues with chamfer, wall thickness, or draft angle. But I won't be like those linux users that pretend 'the problem doesnt exist'. I just personally havent run into the issue. Curious, what is your experience level? I'm wondering if you are building a house of cards with CAD and not realizing it. Even solidworks will break if you do things in the wrong order.
    - SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
      Relative newbie. For reference, I started on openscad, pretty quickly realized that was insufficient, started learning FreeCAD before eventually arriving on fusion360. I found Fusion360 much easier to use than FreeCAD The use case was designing injection molds for electronics enclosures. Something I would say requires subtle and precise nuances at low tolerances but not remotely a jet engine level of complex design at all. I don’t doubt I was probably doing things “the wrong way” in FreeCAD. But it was very difficult to figure out the right way in FreeCAD oftentimes.
nirvdrum 2y ago
It’s worth giving the 0.22 weekly snapshots a try. The UI isn’t as refined as commercial offerings that can pay people to just do it, but the UX is much improved and quite usable. I tried to get going with FreeCAD a while back and gave up, but I’m pretty productive in it now for functional 3D prints.
zoytek 2y ago
Same. Make the interface exactly like Solidworks. Prioritise nothing else. And it might be a success. The interface and user experience is fricking weird. It's like Coder Art at the moment. But the frustrating thing is the core is in there somewhere beneath the stupid GUI.
- zoytek 2y ago
  Though I will say it can be good at converting file formats sometimes. I have had a few tricky STEP files that it managed to make usable.
  - zoytek 2y ago
    Last comment I promise.. https://www.freecad.org/ https://www.freecad.org/ shows two gears that can never work together in the real world. This shows that the devs are coders first and know very little about real world design. That or maybe the intern got told to update the homepage. So much potential with FreeCad but the devs seem not able to prioritise killing the overpriced commercial SW. There are millions of $ on the table if Freecad made commercial use was a priority. Maybe they just like coding and not making money.
    - jononor 2y ago
      It is an open source project. Mostly done by volunteers. Everyone with slightly different motivations. Up until now, very few have been paid anything at all to work on it. Some funding has become available recently, for some of the developers. But it will probably never make millions of dollars. And it will never kill all the commercial SW option out there. But it can cover a larger and larger amount of hobbyist and semi-pro usecases, and I expect this trend to continue.
    - imtringued 2y ago
      You don't know who was in charge of the website. The gear you are complaining about is part of the FreeCAD logo and only has artistic value. You're complaining about someone's website and lack of CAD skills, not their ability to develop CAD software. If these people like "coding", then you would expect them to work on things like previews or visual manipulators. Lots of things to "code".
yungporko 2y ago
check out solvespace if you havent already
mitthrowaway2 2y ago
Did you try the 'part design' workbench?
sublimefire 2y ago
It has some issues, but I did go all in recently to prepare the drawings for a planning permission and eventually I got used to it. I was trained on Autocad, Archicad, some 3dsmax in the day. I think it is unfair to compare it to Solidworks and similar commercial software purely because of unmatched support you get out of those. Freecad is usable and not too bad IMO.
SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
I hope it changes, but my experience mirrors yours. HN loves to promote FreeCAD but when you actually sit down and use the software the comparison is laughable.

janice1999 2y ago

Same here. I really wish there was a fork that was willing to try a new interface. Unfortunately these type of projects have complex codebases and a lot of inertia so it's unlikely to happen.

jononor 2y ago
There is a fork calls Onseel I believe, which has a slighty different UI. And it looks like many UI improvement are coming into mainline now / over the next releases.
- jacobgkau 2y ago
  Do you mean Ondsel?
  - jononor 2y ago
    Yes, that is the one!
- alright2565 2y ago
  2 minor ui features are in Ondsel & latest git that make a huge difference: - auto-constraints. If you select a line and click "constrain", it automatically chooses a length constraint. If you select 2 lines, you get an angle constraint. A circle, a radius constraint. - constraining on drawing. When you draw a rectangle, you can immediately type one dimension, press tab, type the other dimensions. You don't need to manually select constraints.

deskr 2y ago

Look at MangoJelly's beginner's tutorial playlist, start on first video and follow along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4&list=PLWuyJLVUNtc0UszswD0oD5q4VeWTrK7JC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4&list=PLWuyJLVUNt... There are definitely problems with FC (but then even expensive CADs have problems). One of the biggest problem I think was lack of good learning material. MangoJelly does an excellent work on that.

resource_waste 2y ago

What is your experience level? I made the change and I did a few decent sized projects and a major project. Obviously its no Catia/NX from a feature POV, but it can do everything I needed.

SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
Just a casual industrial design list of things I could not do easily in FreeCAD: - chamfer - easy wall thickness - draft angle - bosses - vents Probably about 10 more of those operations that are easy in Fusion360 and very difficult in FreeCAD. Great that it could do everything you needed but for many people the second you need to do adult things FreeCAD unfortunately falls apart.
- mitthrowaway2 2y ago
  Doesn't freecad do draft angles, bosses, wall thickness and vents pretty similarly to SolidWorks? Chamfers are a weakness, but not entirely a lost cause.
- resource_waste 2y ago
  I never had any issues with chamfer, wall thickness, or draft angle. But I won't be like those linux users that pretend 'the problem doesnt exist'. I just personally havent run into the issue. Curious, what is your experience level? I'm wondering if you are building a house of cards with CAD and not realizing it. Even solidworks will break if you do things in the wrong order.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
    Relative newbie. For reference, I started on openscad, pretty quickly realized that was insufficient, started learning FreeCAD before eventually arriving on fusion360. I found Fusion360 much easier to use than FreeCAD The use case was designing injection molds for electronics enclosures. Something I would say requires subtle and precise nuances at low tolerances but not remotely a jet engine level of complex design at all. I don’t doubt I was probably doing things “the wrong way” in FreeCAD. But it was very difficult to figure out the right way in FreeCAD oftentimes.

nirvdrum 2y ago

It’s worth giving the 0.22 weekly snapshots a try. The UI isn’t as refined as commercial offerings that can pay people to just do it, but the UX is much improved and quite usable. I tried to get going with FreeCAD a while back and gave up, but I’m pretty productive in it now for functional 3D prints.

zoytek 2y ago

Same. Make the interface exactly like Solidworks. Prioritise nothing else. And it might be a success. The interface and user experience is fricking weird. It's like Coder Art at the moment. But the frustrating thing is the core is in there somewhere beneath the stupid GUI.

zoytek 2y ago
Though I will say it can be good at converting file formats sometimes. I have had a few tricky STEP files that it managed to make usable.
- zoytek 2y ago
  Last comment I promise.. https://www.freecad.org/ https://www.freecad.org/ shows two gears that can never work together in the real world. This shows that the devs are coders first and know very little about real world design. That or maybe the intern got told to update the homepage. So much potential with FreeCad but the devs seem not able to prioritise killing the overpriced commercial SW. There are millions of $ on the table if Freecad made commercial use was a priority. Maybe they just like coding and not making money.
  - jononor 2y ago
    It is an open source project. Mostly done by volunteers. Everyone with slightly different motivations. Up until now, very few have been paid anything at all to work on it. Some funding has become available recently, for some of the developers. But it will probably never make millions of dollars. And it will never kill all the commercial SW option out there. But it can cover a larger and larger amount of hobbyist and semi-pro usecases, and I expect this trend to continue.
  - imtringued 2y ago
    You don't know who was in charge of the website. The gear you are complaining about is part of the FreeCAD logo and only has artistic value. You're complaining about someone's website and lack of CAD skills, not their ability to develop CAD software. If these people like "coding", then you would expect them to work on things like previews or visual manipulators. Lots of things to "code".

yungporko 2y ago

check out solvespace if you havent already

mitthrowaway2 2y ago

Did you try the 'part design' workbench?

sublimefire 2y ago

It has some issues, but I did go all in recently to prepare the drawings for a planning permission and eventually I got used to it. I was trained on Autocad, Archicad, some 3dsmax in the day. I think it is unfair to compare it to Solidworks and similar commercial software purely because of unmatched support you get out of those. Freecad is usable and not too bad IMO.

SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago

I hope it changes, but my experience mirrors yours. HN loves to promote FreeCAD but when you actually sit down and use the software the comparison is laughable.