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Spent hours and hours learning how to use it to draw a part. Got it done, but then didn't use it for a long time. Next time, couldn't remember how. Finding Cad
by kitesay 8mo ago
Spent hours and hours learning how to use it to draw a part. Got it done, but then didn't use it for a long time. Next time, couldn't remember how.
Finding Cadquery less of a hurdle for casual use. Wish I could run it from Termux though.
- jwrallie 8mo agoI used it once or twice to open an existing .step file just to know if I was exporting it correctly from KiCad. Speaking of KiCad, I am convincing lots of people to move from EAGLE to it now that EAGLE is about to be killed by AutoDesk, and everyone seem to be having a good time. I am hoping FreeCAD can become good to the point I can convince people to move to it too.
- devmor 8mo agoKiCad is frustrating because it’s actually good enough to make a lot of models but it’s just unfriendly enough to make it take way too long to do… but it’s also still way easier than learning how to do it in a full-featured cad program. I would kill for something like KiCad with more refined controls.
- imtringued 8mo agoThere's HorizonEDA. Just be prepared to spend a ridiculous amount of time setting parts up.
- IshKebab 8mo agoI can second Horizon EDA. It's not perfect, but it has the good KiCAD kernel without the abysmal UX. FreeCAD may also be good - it's the only other one I haven't tried. On the other hand if you're convincing EAGLE users to move they'll probably be happy with KiCAD because they're already used to an even worse UX, as if such a thing were possible.
- bschwindHN 8mo agoI wish KiCad had a constraint solver built-in for defining footprints and placing some key parts of a PCB. A better library management system would also be nice. That aside, I think their interactive router is pretty great, and a huge improvement over older versions. I first tried KiCad in 2016 or 2017 and routing traces was pretty dire, especially if you had to redo them for whatever reason. Got any specific pain points for KiCad?
- cracki 7mo agoAutodesk should have started their own ECAD from scratch. They have mountains of CAD know-how in house. Their acquisition of EAGLE did nobody any favors. I am not sad to see it go. The only ones I know of who used to use EAGLE were those who got hooked on it when it was either free or the cheapest option for hobbyists and small businesses. It didn't win any UI/UX competitions, certainly not against the joy that is modern programs for solid CAD.
- dsrtslnd23 8mo agoCadquery looks interesting. In particular STEP support compared to OpenSCAD. Thanks for mentioning.
- klauswunderlich 8mo agoTry Build123d! It is just a joy to work with.
- WillAdams 8mo agoPythonSCAD recently gained STEP export: https://pythonscad.org/ https://pythonscad.org/
- NegativeK 8mo agoTraditional CAD software feels vaguely like programming -- it took a _lot_ of work to understand the fundamentals. But once I did (on commercial software), switching to Freecad really wasn't that bad.