this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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267
FreeCAD 1.0 finally dropped! (www.freecad.org)
submitted 15 hours ago by ad_on_is@lemm.ee to c/opensource@lemmy.ml
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[–] fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 hours ago

I have tried freecad a number of times to replace solidworks as a critical piece of closed source software in hardware development toolchains. I have always struggled. Yesterday someone spent an hour with me at a makespace saying... "FreeCAD has a different way of doing this/try realthunder branch/use symmetry condition/delete all conditions that coincide" ... it has been worth years of trying alone. When I started solidworks the reseller gave me a week of training - this is often why complex FOSS software gets a reputation for being clunky, because alone you will spend ages hunting a GUI button in a complex interface.

TLDR: Go outside, go to makespace or a FREECAD conference - meet other people who use open source software - its much easier to use/learn from others than alone.

[–] oyo@lemm.ee 2 points 1 hour ago

I've tried it for a few hours, but basic stuff seems incredibly needlessly difficult. After thousands of hours in Solidworks it's just too painful.

[–] MrFunnyMoustache@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago

Haven't checked on FreeCAD in a while. Gonna check it out.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Does it support 3D mice?

[–] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

In a past career, I was a mechanical design engineer; I've probably spent 10,000 hours of my life in SolidWorks. Not once did I feel like a 3d mouse would speed me up or otherwise solve my problems. I trialed a spacepilot for several months and just couldn't be arsed after awhile. What do others get out of them?

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 20 minutes ago

I don't have as many hours in SolidWorks but for me, trying to navigate without a 3d mouse feels like riding a bike with square tires. I could manage to do it but why. At the end of the day though it's a preference. Likewise I have to murder the x and y axis on it for things to click in my head, which is another preference. I suppose growing up as a gamer may have something to do with that. I don't want to move/rotate the object, I want to move/rotate the camera..

[–] B0rax@feddit.org 3 points 1 hour ago

For some people it simply does not help with the workflow. For me it is a significant upgrade as it allows me to never use the normal mouse to move around in 3D, and allows me to quickly move the view to where I want it to be. Without it, moving in 3D just feels clunky to me.

But as I said, it is a preference.

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 2 points 3 hours ago

I guess Ill give it another look. Onshapes licensing is not compatible with my 3d printing side-gig, and Fusion360, although it has a very fairly priced startup license, requires me to run a Windows VM

[–] ganymede@lemmy.ml 11 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

freecad is actually getting fucking good for the price

[–] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 4 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

I kinda want to try it out just as a hobby, is it decent or should I look elsewhere?

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 hours ago

FreeCAD has long had open source disease in that it is very powerful and yet a pain in the ass to work with partially through crap UI design.

1.0 includes a lot of changes that address this. They've modernized a lot of it, added a lot of missing features, and brought a lot of things up to modern snuff.

There are things I like about FreeCAD better than Fusion360, for example FreeCAD has a spreadsheet built into it. Fusion360, last time I used it, had a kind of underbaked Parameters list that you couldn't even sort, the ability to have a spreadsheet for your dimensions and such.

All Parametric CAD software is complicated to use, you need to wrap your head around designing with rules, but once you get that basically all of them unlock.

[–] the16bitgamer@programming.dev 13 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Is it decent ? Yes

Should I look elsewhere? Also yes.

CAD is difficult to understand on a good day, and FreeCAD is a beginner unfriendly implementation of it.

I personally love it and it’s an excellent tool if you already know what you are doing. If you don’t, it’s a mess of screens and spaces with no rhyme or reason.

My two cents. Learn CAD first, Google Sketchup or Fusion 360 are good and beginner friendly with lots of tutorials. Then move to FreeCAD to learn the differences.

That said if you want to just try FreeCAD, this release is the best I’ve used from them.

[–] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 2 points 3 hours ago

I'm familiar with sketchup, I'll give it a shot this weekend!

[–] Liz@midwest.social 1 points 3 hours ago

Does it still have that weird problem where you're not allowed to modify surfaces because of the way you created them? Last time I tried using it, I couldn't create a mirror copy of a shape and then edit the mirror. I could only edit the source, which then applied the changes to all the parts.

[–] Imacat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 49 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Apparently Ondsel recently announced they’re shutting down, partially due to this release. A lot of what Ondsel added to the FreeCAD experience is just merged into FreeCAD now. Sad to see it but at least all their work wasn’t for nothing.

https://ondsel.com/blog/goodbye/

[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 hours ago

Really sad to hear this, I just found out about Ondsel recently. Glad to hear FreeCAD is getting their merges, but I really would have liked to see Ondsel find a market all its own.

[–] asbestos@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

legends

[–] electricprism@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 hours ago

Last time i tried it was crashing a bit. I am excited to try again, it's such a needed tool

[–] einlander@lemmy.world 18 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Rip Ondsel, made great changes before it died.

[–] ad_on_is@lemm.ee 17 points 11 hours ago

most of them are merged in FC, and they will still continue contributing.

[–] BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Ooh! Time to give it another look.

[–] ad_on_is@lemm.ee 8 points 11 hours ago

tbh... I like it more than OnShape, but I also just use it as a hobby for 3dprinting.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 3 points 11 hours ago

It's still... Difficult if you're used to commercial CAD suites, but it's leagues better than it used to be

[–] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Well, I'm definitely going to try it because some of those third party workbenches look pretty cool. And I like the idea of having CAD software on my new Linux PC. But I have access to NX from work, so it's going to have some big shoes to fill. Looks like there are workbenches for editing meshes like from STL files, which is cool. My license at work doesn't include that. Anyone know if it supports 3DConnexion devices?

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 8 points 13 hours ago

Seems like a lot of great changes

[–] stardustpathsofglory@lemmy.world 7 points 13 hours ago

Glad to hear! I was using it already from time to time.

[–] NoLifeGaming@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago

Great news