4 ms·

FreeCAD doesn't have the limitations of SolveSpace, and the UX is actually decent now. I moved to that.

l-albertovich 7mo ago
I just tested it out of curiosity and found that viewport manipulation behaves in a very similar way to onshape which feels very natural to me. I've been thinking about trying to implement this in freecad but I'm still exploring the idea.
- Karliss 7mo ago
  There are more than dozen different viewport navigation manipulation modes, latest version added two more (Solidworks and Siemens NX). You can pick whichever behaves closest to the program you are most used to.
  - l-albertovich 7mo ago
    Yeah, I tried all of them with all the combinations of presets and orbit styles and the closest I could get was using tinkercad but couldn't match the orbit style correctly.
jabl 7mo ago
Some years ago I tried to learn CAD by doing some FreeCAD tutorials, and failed. But I hear 1.0 was a big step forward, and the recently released 1.1 is also a big step, and it should be somewhat decent nowadays. Maybe I need to try again one day.
- IshKebab 7mo ago
  Yeah it's vastly better in 1.0 than it used to be. I still think you might be a bit lost if you aren't familiar with parametric CAD, but it's no harder than Blender for example.
jonpurdy 7mo ago
I’m looking for a recommendation to get beyond TinkerCAD (for 3d printing). I learned it in 2019 and came back in 2025 when I got my own printer. It is comfortable and fine for my purposes but lacks basic things like chamfer and fillets. Anytime I try to jump into Fusion or FreeCAD I immediately hit a wall (like trying pirated Maya when I was a kid).
- IshKebab 7mo ago
  I would recommend pirating SOLIDWORKS and learning with that. It has the easiest UX of the parametric CAD modellers, and once you know the general sketch-extrude methodology you will find the others a lot easier. Actually I think they have a hobbyist subscription which isn't totally extortionate now if you want to stay legal. Maybe get it for a year.
- WillAdams 7mo ago
  The new 1.1 update seems markedly easier to use. There's also a soft-fork which some folks are funding: https://www.astocad.com/ https://www.astocad.com/
- bruckie 7mo ago
  OnShape is pretty approachable, and has lots of good tutorial videos. They offer free accounts for non-commercial use with the caveat that all of your documents must be public. If you haven't tried FreeCAD recently, it's gotten a lot better in the past couple of years. It seems to have hit escape velocity, so to speak, and is improving rapidly in a way it hadn't for a long time.
  - jijijijij 7mo ago
    > They offer free accounts for non-commercial use with the caveat that all of your documents must be public. Major caveat! Also online access required. And if you decide to upgrade, the next tier is 1,410€ per year. For that amount of cash, FreeCAD can abuse and torture me quite a bit. Lol. Also at the rate FreeCAD is developing and improving now, if more people would drop just 1k€/ donations into FreeCAD/OCCT, chances are your pains will ease rather sooner than later.

I just tested it out of curiosity and found that viewport manipulation behaves in a very similar way to onshape which feels very natural to me. I've been thinking about trying to implement this in freecad but I'm still exploring the idea.

Karliss 7mo ago
There are more than dozen different viewport navigation manipulation modes, latest version added two more (Solidworks and Siemens NX). You can pick whichever behaves closest to the program you are most used to.
- l-albertovich 7mo ago
  Yeah, I tried all of them with all the combinations of presets and orbit styles and the closest I could get was using tinkercad but couldn't match the orbit style correctly.

jabl 7mo ago

Some years ago I tried to learn CAD by doing some FreeCAD tutorials, and failed. But I hear 1.0 was a big step forward, and the recently released 1.1 is also a big step, and it should be somewhat decent nowadays. Maybe I need to try again one day.

IshKebab 7mo ago
Yeah it's vastly better in 1.0 than it used to be. I still think you might be a bit lost if you aren't familiar with parametric CAD, but it's no harder than Blender for example.

jonpurdy 7mo ago

I’m looking for a recommendation to get beyond TinkerCAD (for 3d printing). I learned it in 2019 and came back in 2025 when I got my own printer. It is comfortable and fine for my purposes but lacks basic things like chamfer and fillets. Anytime I try to jump into Fusion or FreeCAD I immediately hit a wall (like trying pirated Maya when I was a kid).

IshKebab 7mo ago
I would recommend pirating SOLIDWORKS and learning with that. It has the easiest UX of the parametric CAD modellers, and once you know the general sketch-extrude methodology you will find the others a lot easier. Actually I think they have a hobbyist subscription which isn't totally extortionate now if you want to stay legal. Maybe get it for a year.
WillAdams 7mo ago
The new 1.1 update seems markedly easier to use. There's also a soft-fork which some folks are funding: https://www.astocad.com/ https://www.astocad.com/
bruckie 7mo ago
OnShape is pretty approachable, and has lots of good tutorial videos. They offer free accounts for non-commercial use with the caveat that all of your documents must be public. If you haven't tried FreeCAD recently, it's gotten a lot better in the past couple of years. It seems to have hit escape velocity, so to speak, and is improving rapidly in a way it hadn't for a long time.
- jijijijij 7mo ago
  > They offer free accounts for non-commercial use with the caveat that all of your documents must be public. Major caveat! Also online access required. And if you decide to upgrade, the next tier is 1,410€ per year. For that amount of cash, FreeCAD can abuse and torture me quite a bit. Lol. Also at the rate FreeCAD is developing and improving now, if more people would drop just 1k€/ donations into FreeCAD/OCCT, chances are your pains will ease rather sooner than later.