6 ms·

Bambu and Fusion360 sure look nice, but if you're on tighter budget, 3D printers became both cheaper and more reliable in general, and FreeCAD recently got to 1

by ansgri 2y ago

Bambu and Fusion360 sure look nice, but if you're on tighter budget, 3D printers became both cheaper and more reliable in general, and FreeCAD recently got to 1.0 and is quite capable. I worked alongside people using early versions of Makerbot and Ultimaker, and those were a maintenance nightmare. But recently I got a Kobra 2 Pro for $200, and it's both more capable and easier to use than those old monsters. With PLA it's pretty much hassle-free, no need to tweak anything except print orientation and maybe some support options.

S0und 2y ago
Fusion360 has a free tier and it's enough for most people.
- zihotki 2y ago
  Freecad is fully free and after 1.0 release it's enough for most people.
- grumbel 2y ago
  The Fusion360 free-tier has been getting ever more restrictive over time. At the moment it is at: > users who generate less than $1,000 USD in annual revenue and use for home-based, non-commercial projects only. Which already makes it unsuitable for any Open Source work. While one might still accept those restrictions for quick one-off projects, those projects are also the ones that FreeCAD can handle fine.
  - Mumps 2y ago
    and only 10 editable projects :/
    - baby_souffle 2y ago
      Editable files! A project might have tens of files in it and you’ll find yourself having to toggle which ones are in the active set. It’s maddening!
      - Mumps 2y ago
        oh man! I didn't realize - that's so much worse! I'll reconsider the $24/yr Solidworks deal now...
      - throw646577 2y ago
        I had no idea it was at this fine-grained a level.
        baby_souffle 2y ago
        You’re permitted 10 files - total - that can be editable at any one time. For simple things you can have all your components in a single file and make do but I rather dislike working this way for a ton of reasons. I’m thinking about solid works when my fusion license expires. At least I’ll own my files and be able to manage them on my own ssd.
        throw646577 2y ago
        Solidworks for Makers is currently $25/yr I think (discount code). I'm a pretty happy FreeCAD guy, actually -- my issues are not FreeCAD but learning design -- but I will be trying it too.
- chasd00 2y ago
  I do a lot in amateur rocketry and took the fusion360 route. One thing that’s nice about it is its popularity. Whenever I have questions most of the other people in my hobby are ready with answers or guidance.
- Scene_Cast2 2y ago
  I switched off of Fusion360 on to OnShape when Autodesk started mucking around with the free tier.
ehnto 2y ago
I haven't maintained my Ender3 since setting it up first, then tuning it. It just keeps printing good prints forblike 4 years now. I don't even think about it, pop in the file and walk away. I don't even level the bed. Sometimes it's months between prints and it still just works. I print mostly practical parts so perfection isn't really needed but the finish has been great regardless. The only issues I have had is the bed eventually peeled up after enough PETG prints with no bed prep.
MetaWhirledPeas 2y ago
> FreeCAD recently got to 1.0 and is quite capable FreeCAD is capable and is indeed free, but as a beginner designing something somewhat complex it really led me into building a rat's nest of a project that I found difficult to salvage. The rough edges and general flaky behavior did not help things, and I found almost none of the user interface intuitive. If I had to do it over again I'd choose F360 or Onshape.
- qball 2y ago
  The main problem with FreeCAD is that editing a dependency tends to break the entire rest of the model. So, if you want to edit a dimension or add geometry in a part made very early in the "stack", you're generally better off remaking the entire model with the other item as a base in another tab. This is not a problem F360 shares, and that feature is what you pay for.
  - throw646577 2y ago
    What you are referring to is the "Topological Naming Problem", where the names of faces changed after operations (because OCC, the CAD kernel, doesn't name them at all!), causing mapped features to move or break. There were always workarounds that made it possible to do what you say: you could offset your sketches from base planes rather than attach them to generated geometry, and otherwise avoid using generated geometry by making use of parametrics. Once you knew how it wasn't particularly onerous. For a couple of years of 0.20 and 0.21 I had no TNP-related breakage because of this. (There could be some problems with assemblies that were a bit more challenging.) However, this is now essentially a solved problem in 1.0. There's a high level of mitigation in a stable face-naming algorithm that keeps track of the changes OCC creates. There are still edge cases being reported, but the implementation works well. I've stopped worrying about applying the normal base-planes technique. (There are still edge cases of TNP in other CAD packages, even those built on Parasolid, because it's a research-grade problem; once you think about it in depth, it can never be "solved". It can only be mitigated to the point where the package usually does what you would expect.) You can now sketch on faces, edit dependencies, make Pads and sweeps from solid geometry edges as well as sketch edges, refer to generated geometry in sketches, and see the subsequent features stay where they should be. So this "main problem with FreeCAD" is essentially in the past, as it has been for a long time in the RealThunder branch where the mitigations were originally developed. Another "main problem" -- the lack of a core Assembly workbench -- is also addressed. The final "main problem" of FreeCAD, IMO, is that OCC's implementations of fillet, chamfer and thickness are less capable than other modern CAD systems; there are limitations regarding thick fillets on thin edges, essentially. It might be possible to get these improved upstream, or it might not be, but there are other ways to get fillets into your design (such as adding them in the sketches, where arguably any "functional" fillet should be anyway).
stonemetal12 2y ago
FreeCAD maybe quite capable, but I am not. I want something I can throw a few shapes in and print.
- throw646577 2y ago
  On this basis it’s difficult to beat Tinkercad, frankly.
  - stonemetal12 2y ago
    Thanks, I hadn't heard of that one.
  - creaturemachine 2y ago
    123D Design was the golden age for accessible DIY CAD. Of course it was too good to be true so AutoDesk killed it off.
    - throw646577 2y ago
      There was another bubble while Google owned SketchUp, I guess. Now no longer so freely available to so many people, because they sold it.
klohto 2y ago
A1 mini is literally 179 USD
- IanCal 2y ago
  And excellently usable. I took it out of the box, tightened a few things where required and I think that was about it. Excellent bit of kit.
sircastor 2y ago
I'll add my voice to this. I stopped using Fusion360 when they adjusted the licensing terms a while back. FreeCAD has a ways to go to being at par with the likes of Fusion, but it is a capable piece of software - and once you get some hours with it you can design really incredible stuff. Anyone who used Blender in the early days knows how far its come. FreeCAD is making that journey too. The 1.0 release is a big step. I use FreeCAD for all of my (admittedly amateur) CAD work. I've designed toys for my kid, props for my Christmas light setup, tool-holders, and any number of things I can't think of at the moment. If anyone is finding FreeCAD hard to pick up, I highly recommend Mango Jelly's Youtube channel, which offers lots of really great tutorials on using it: https://www.youtube.com/@MangoJellySolutions https://www.youtube.com/@MangoJellySolutions
- hersko 2y ago
  +1 for Mango Jelly. He's really fantastic.
cosmic_cheese 2y ago
I’m only a dabbler in all of this but the thing that really grates on me about Fusion 360 is how its performance is awful no matter what you’re running it on. That might be a boon if your machine is very old or low spec, but if you’re running e.g. a well cooled tower with a Ryzen 5950x and RTX 3080 Ti you don’t want to be seeing issues with responsiveness, frame dropping, etc.

by ansgri 2y ago

S0und 2y ago

Fusion360 has a free tier and it's enough for most people.

zihotki 2y ago
Freecad is fully free and after 1.0 release it's enough for most people.
grumbel 2y ago
The Fusion360 free-tier has been getting ever more restrictive over time. At the moment it is at: > users who generate less than $1,000 USD in annual revenue and use for home-based, non-commercial projects only. Which already makes it unsuitable for any Open Source work. While one might still accept those restrictions for quick one-off projects, those projects are also the ones that FreeCAD can handle fine.
- Mumps 2y ago
  and only 10 editable projects :/
  - baby_souffle 2y ago
    Editable files! A project might have tens of files in it and you’ll find yourself having to toggle which ones are in the active set. It’s maddening!
    - Mumps 2y ago
      oh man! I didn't realize - that's so much worse! I'll reconsider the $24/yr Solidworks deal now...
    - throw646577 2y ago
      I had no idea it was at this fine-grained a level.
      - baby_souffle 2y ago
        You’re permitted 10 files - total - that can be editable at any one time. For simple things you can have all your components in a single file and make do but I rather dislike working this way for a ton of reasons. I’m thinking about solid works when my fusion license expires. At least I’ll own my files and be able to manage them on my own ssd.
        throw646577 2y ago
        Solidworks for Makers is currently $25/yr I think (discount code). I'm a pretty happy FreeCAD guy, actually -- my issues are not FreeCAD but learning design -- but I will be trying it too.
chasd00 2y ago
I do a lot in amateur rocketry and took the fusion360 route. One thing that’s nice about it is its popularity. Whenever I have questions most of the other people in my hobby are ready with answers or guidance.
Scene_Cast2 2y ago
I switched off of Fusion360 on to OnShape when Autodesk started mucking around with the free tier.

ehnto 2y ago

I haven't maintained my Ender3 since setting it up first, then tuning it. It just keeps printing good prints forblike 4 years now. I don't even think about it, pop in the file and walk away. I don't even level the bed. Sometimes it's months between prints and it still just works. I print mostly practical parts so perfection isn't really needed but the finish has been great regardless. The only issues I have had is the bed eventually peeled up after enough PETG prints with no bed prep.

MetaWhirledPeas 2y ago

> FreeCAD recently got to 1.0 and is quite capable FreeCAD is capable and is indeed free, but as a beginner designing something somewhat complex it really led me into building a rat's nest of a project that I found difficult to salvage. The rough edges and general flaky behavior did not help things, and I found almost none of the user interface intuitive. If I had to do it over again I'd choose F360 or Onshape.

qball 2y ago
The main problem with FreeCAD is that editing a dependency tends to break the entire rest of the model. So, if you want to edit a dimension or add geometry in a part made very early in the "stack", you're generally better off remaking the entire model with the other item as a base in another tab. This is not a problem F360 shares, and that feature is what you pay for.
- throw646577 2y ago
  What you are referring to is the "Topological Naming Problem", where the names of faces changed after operations (because OCC, the CAD kernel, doesn't name them at all!), causing mapped features to move or break. There were always workarounds that made it possible to do what you say: you could offset your sketches from base planes rather than attach them to generated geometry, and otherwise avoid using generated geometry by making use of parametrics. Once you knew how it wasn't particularly onerous. For a couple of years of 0.20 and 0.21 I had no TNP-related breakage because of this. (There could be some problems with assemblies that were a bit more challenging.) However, this is now essentially a solved problem in 1.0. There's a high level of mitigation in a stable face-naming algorithm that keeps track of the changes OCC creates. There are still edge cases being reported, but the implementation works well. I've stopped worrying about applying the normal base-planes technique. (There are still edge cases of TNP in other CAD packages, even those built on Parasolid, because it's a research-grade problem; once you think about it in depth, it can never be "solved". It can only be mitigated to the point where the package usually does what you would expect.) You can now sketch on faces, edit dependencies, make Pads and sweeps from solid geometry edges as well as sketch edges, refer to generated geometry in sketches, and see the subsequent features stay where they should be. So this "main problem with FreeCAD" is essentially in the past, as it has been for a long time in the RealThunder branch where the mitigations were originally developed. Another "main problem" -- the lack of a core Assembly workbench -- is also addressed. The final "main problem" of FreeCAD, IMO, is that OCC's implementations of fillet, chamfer and thickness are less capable than other modern CAD systems; there are limitations regarding thick fillets on thin edges, essentially. It might be possible to get these improved upstream, or it might not be, but there are other ways to get fillets into your design (such as adding them in the sketches, where arguably any "functional" fillet should be anyway).

stonemetal12 2y ago

FreeCAD maybe quite capable, but I am not. I want something I can throw a few shapes in and print.

throw646577 2y ago
On this basis it’s difficult to beat Tinkercad, frankly.
- stonemetal12 2y ago
  Thanks, I hadn't heard of that one.
- creaturemachine 2y ago
  123D Design was the golden age for accessible DIY CAD. Of course it was too good to be true so AutoDesk killed it off.
  - throw646577 2y ago
    There was another bubble while Google owned SketchUp, I guess. Now no longer so freely available to so many people, because they sold it.

klohto 2y ago

A1 mini is literally 179 USD

IanCal 2y ago
And excellently usable. I took it out of the box, tightened a few things where required and I think that was about it. Excellent bit of kit.

sircastor 2y ago

I'll add my voice to this. I stopped using Fusion360 when they adjusted the licensing terms a while back. FreeCAD has a ways to go to being at par with the likes of Fusion, but it is a capable piece of software - and once you get some hours with it you can design really incredible stuff. Anyone who used Blender in the early days knows how far its come. FreeCAD is making that journey too. The 1.0 release is a big step. I use FreeCAD for all of my (admittedly amateur) CAD work. I've designed toys for my kid, props for my Christmas light setup, tool-holders, and any number of things I can't think of at the moment. If anyone is finding FreeCAD hard to pick up, I highly recommend Mango Jelly's Youtube channel, which offers lots of really great tutorials on using it: https://www.youtube.com/@MangoJellySolutions https://www.youtube.com/@MangoJellySolutions

hersko 2y ago
+1 for Mango Jelly. He's really fantastic.

cosmic_cheese 2y ago

I’m only a dabbler in all of this but the thing that really grates on me about Fusion 360 is how its performance is awful no matter what you’re running it on. That might be a boon if your machine is very old or low spec, but if you’re running e.g. a well cooled tower with a Ryzen 5950x and RTX 3080 Ti you don’t want to be seeing issues with responsiveness, frame dropping, etc.