9 ms·

Every time I have a personal project and want to make a simple CAD drawing of a building or a simple model, as I would using AutoCAD at work, I go through the s

by loufe 2y ago

Every time I have a personal project and want to make a simple CAD drawing of a building or a simple model, as I would using AutoCAD at work, I go through the same song and dance. I look around at the options online, my jaw hangs open at the cost of any commercial CAD subscription/licence, then I get frustrated by a glaring lack of functionality or useability while trying some free/open source solution, and resort to a 30 day trial or MSPaint/paper. Some of the comments already mention how blender's existence is predicated upon it filling a niche in certain senses, instead of trying to achieve feature parity with an entrenched giant. That makes sense, and it's unfortunate, as this space could use an open source option with Blender's polish. In my own industry, mining, I am certain some commercial interests would happily make their product an extension/plugin for a polished FreeCAD (or other), were it at that point.

jitl 2y ago
Have you tried OnShape? It’s not open source but it is totally free for hobby use.
- encom 2y ago
  I hate it because it's a website. I want actual software. Free software ideally.
  - klysm 2y ago
    I understand the gripes with web-based platforms, but its performance is pretty impressive. They've done a good job with it.
    - inhumantsar 2y ago
      same here. if I want to slap together a quick model or sketch, it takes seconds in onshape vs minutes in f360. I've even loaded projects into my phone's browser while out to view sketches or assemblies.
KeplerBoy 2y ago
What's wrong with Solidworks for Makers? 50$ a year sound perfectly reasonable to me.
- criddell 2y ago
  There's also Fusion 360 that's free for personal use. SolidWorks is better and worth $50 / year if you use it a few times, but for a one-off project, Fusion 360 is pretty good.
  - KeplerBoy 2y ago
    Sure, I'm just slightly biased against Fusion since I was trained using Solidworks in high school and it became second nature for a while. Give me a copy of SW 2012 and I can model anything technical I can imagine.
  - rounce 2y ago
    The issue I found with Fusion360 is that I don’t own my files. You used to be able to export locally but last I used it (a few years ago now) I was unable to export a file in a native fusion format with saving to the Autodesk cloud being my only option. This is hazardous as not only am I now at the mercy of Autodesk but they also expire files after just under a year so in need to ensure I’m logging into my account regularly just to keep some things that could happily live on a local disk.
    - criddell 2y ago
      They are on your disk somewhere. Search for files with an f3d extension and you will should be able to find them. You should also be able to export an f3d archive as long as it’s a standalone design (ie not linked to other designs).
      - mszcz 2y ago
        However true that might be, I’d rather try to avoid wrestling with software for my data. If that’s really the case then even if it’s free I’m pretty sure you’re not getting your money’s worth.
cellular 2y ago
"GatorCAM for CNC" is currently priced very low, $12, with free upgrades even later after it goes to $400+. I'm the author and I'm trying to get it into makers tool kit: https://sites.google.com/view/gatorcam/home https://sites.google.com/view/gatorcam/home
etimberg 2y ago
I have a similar problem, but for electrical diagrams. I want to draw out diagrams for each of the circuits in my house and none of the free options are good enough.
- snake42 2y ago
  What did you end up using? I wanted to make diagrams for an embedded system circuit I made and ended up using PowerPoint. All of the free options seem to be focused exclusively on PCB design and not making nice graphics. Fritzing which is what a lot of people recommend is now a paid for application.
  - etimberg 2y ago
    I haven't found anything ideal that's opensource. draw.io + some custom images for the electrical symbols lets me get good enough though
    - ics 2y ago
      I posted and then deleted a comment as I was going to ask if you'd tried draw.io. Even when I worked in electrical design (infra+industrial), it was my go-to sketching tool to have open next to -CAD. What would you do to improve it for your use case, or are you lamenting that it isn't open source either?
      - etimberg 2y ago
        It would be perfect if the symbols I wanted were already built in. There are some electrical symbols but they're very much circuit design focused whereas I'm looking for symbols such as these https://www.edrawmax.com/templates/1011842/ https://www.edrawmax.com/templates/1011842/ Additionally, https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/1660 https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/1660 would be a nice to have.
        ics 2y ago
WillAdams 2y ago
Why not just us a vector drawing program such as Inkscape? (EDIT: rather than using MS Paint)
dani__german 2y ago
While I would never suggest it, in case of emergency, most professional CAD programs can be found online on torrent websites.
- DanTheManPR 2y ago
  I've had multiples of my students get into legal trouble over the years from using these. Just understand that almost all of these professional level software packages phone home even after being cracked, so you basically have to airgap your computer if you use them. It's a major reason why I steer them towards open source CAD packages, and towards the pro level CAD packages with usable free hobby licensing.
  - raxxorraxor 2y ago
    The real functionality of a software firewall is to stop your own software from phoning home. It is sad, that this has become a normal occurrence. Sometimes they phone home for good reasons, very often they do not. Although I doubt it can get you into legal trouble if you use cracked software. You can get into trouble if you have been found torrenting them however.
- edm0nd 2y ago
  You are basically also pushing people into malware/malicious files with such a statement.
honestAbe22 2y ago
[dead]
nirvdrum 2y ago
Blender is often used as an example of open source polish, but I think too many people focus on how it exists today and not how it evolved. Blender got its start as a commercial tool that a pool of people raised €100,000 to pay to make it open source. And for years Blender's UI was criticized as being too difficult and too different from tools like Maya. It's a marvelous tool today because a dedicated group of people donated their time to improving it or were sponsored by others willing to contribute monetarily. FreeCAD isn't as refined as Blender, but it also hasn't had the same level of support. I've found the maker community particularly critical, often in uncostructive ways, around OSS CAD tools like FreeCAD or SolveSpace. It's hard to compete with commercial offerings that have full time designers working on them. To get there we need volunteers to work on the project and/or folks willing to fund development. Ondsel demonstrated how well that could work for FreeCAD. But, the maker community has largely been unwilling to contribute either in terms of cash or time. And many take to publicly bashing the tools, which doesn't exactly entice those volunteering to go out of their way to help. We could have the Blender equivalent of an OSS CAD package, but people are going to need to step up and contribute. I appreciate that you often have a time sensitive task and going with a commercial tool is more expedient. That's fine, of course, but that also isn't going to help advance any of these OSS tools. Just also be aware that you're at risk of losing your design as well since commercial licensing can change on a whim (e.g., Fusion 360 preventing STEP export for free accounts -- this decision ended up being reversed, but should be concerning).

by loufe 2y ago

jitl 2y ago

Have you tried OnShape? It’s not open source but it is totally free for hobby use.

encom 2y ago
I hate it because it's a website. I want actual software. Free software ideally.
- klysm 2y ago
  I understand the gripes with web-based platforms, but its performance is pretty impressive. They've done a good job with it.
  - inhumantsar 2y ago
    same here. if I want to slap together a quick model or sketch, it takes seconds in onshape vs minutes in f360. I've even loaded projects into my phone's browser while out to view sketches or assemblies.

KeplerBoy 2y ago

What's wrong with Solidworks for Makers? 50$ a year sound perfectly reasonable to me.

criddell 2y ago
There's also Fusion 360 that's free for personal use. SolidWorks is better and worth $50 / year if you use it a few times, but for a one-off project, Fusion 360 is pretty good.
- KeplerBoy 2y ago
  Sure, I'm just slightly biased against Fusion since I was trained using Solidworks in high school and it became second nature for a while. Give me a copy of SW 2012 and I can model anything technical I can imagine.
- rounce 2y ago
  The issue I found with Fusion360 is that I don’t own my files. You used to be able to export locally but last I used it (a few years ago now) I was unable to export a file in a native fusion format with saving to the Autodesk cloud being my only option. This is hazardous as not only am I now at the mercy of Autodesk but they also expire files after just under a year so in need to ensure I’m logging into my account regularly just to keep some things that could happily live on a local disk.
  - criddell 2y ago
    They are on your disk somewhere. Search for files with an f3d extension and you will should be able to find them. You should also be able to export an f3d archive as long as it’s a standalone design (ie not linked to other designs).
    - mszcz 2y ago
      However true that might be, I’d rather try to avoid wrestling with software for my data. If that’s really the case then even if it’s free I’m pretty sure you’re not getting your money’s worth.

cellular 2y ago

"GatorCAM for CNC" is currently priced very low, $12, with free upgrades even later after it goes to $400+. I'm the author and I'm trying to get it into makers tool kit: https://sites.google.com/view/gatorcam/home https://sites.google.com/view/gatorcam/home

etimberg 2y ago

I have a similar problem, but for electrical diagrams. I want to draw out diagrams for each of the circuits in my house and none of the free options are good enough.

snake42 2y ago
What did you end up using? I wanted to make diagrams for an embedded system circuit I made and ended up using PowerPoint. All of the free options seem to be focused exclusively on PCB design and not making nice graphics. Fritzing which is what a lot of people recommend is now a paid for application.
- etimberg 2y ago
  I haven't found anything ideal that's opensource. draw.io + some custom images for the electrical symbols lets me get good enough though
  - ics 2y ago
    I posted and then deleted a comment as I was going to ask if you'd tried draw.io. Even when I worked in electrical design (infra+industrial), it was my go-to sketching tool to have open next to -CAD. What would you do to improve it for your use case, or are you lamenting that it isn't open source either?
    - etimberg 2y ago
      It would be perfect if the symbols I wanted were already built in. There are some electrical symbols but they're very much circuit design focused whereas I'm looking for symbols such as these https://www.edrawmax.com/templates/1011842/ https://www.edrawmax.com/templates/1011842/ Additionally, https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/1660 https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/1660 would be a nice to have.
      - ics 2y ago

WillAdams 2y ago

Why not just us a vector drawing program such as Inkscape? (EDIT: rather than using MS Paint)

dani__german 2y ago

While I would never suggest it, in case of emergency, most professional CAD programs can be found online on torrent websites.

DanTheManPR 2y ago
I've had multiples of my students get into legal trouble over the years from using these. Just understand that almost all of these professional level software packages phone home even after being cracked, so you basically have to airgap your computer if you use them. It's a major reason why I steer them towards open source CAD packages, and towards the pro level CAD packages with usable free hobby licensing.
- raxxorraxor 2y ago
  The real functionality of a software firewall is to stop your own software from phoning home. It is sad, that this has become a normal occurrence. Sometimes they phone home for good reasons, very often they do not. Although I doubt it can get you into legal trouble if you use cracked software. You can get into trouble if you have been found torrenting them however.
edm0nd 2y ago
You are basically also pushing people into malware/malicious files with such a statement.

honestAbe22 2y ago

[dead]

nirvdrum 2y ago

Blender is often used as an example of open source polish, but I think too many people focus on how it exists today and not how it evolved. Blender got its start as a commercial tool that a pool of people raised €100,000 to pay to make it open source. And for years Blender's UI was criticized as being too difficult and too different from tools like Maya. It's a marvelous tool today because a dedicated group of people donated their time to improving it or were sponsored by others willing to contribute monetarily. FreeCAD isn't as refined as Blender, but it also hasn't had the same level of support. I've found the maker community particularly critical, often in uncostructive ways, around OSS CAD tools like FreeCAD or SolveSpace. It's hard to compete with commercial offerings that have full time designers working on them. To get there we need volunteers to work on the project and/or folks willing to fund development. Ondsel demonstrated how well that could work for FreeCAD. But, the maker community has largely been unwilling to contribute either in terms of cash or time. And many take to publicly bashing the tools, which doesn't exactly entice those volunteering to go out of their way to help. We could have the Blender equivalent of an OSS CAD package, but people are going to need to step up and contribute. I appreciate that you often have a time sensitive task and going with a commercial tool is more expedient. That's fine, of course, but that also isn't going to help advance any of these OSS tools. Just also be aware that you're at risk of losing your design as well since commercial licensing can change on a whim (e.g., Fusion 360 preventing STEP export for free accounts -- this decision ended up being reversed, but should be concerning).