I am not a design draftsman, I’m not an engineer. My workflow is usually: I put something on the scanner, load the calibrated scan, trace the outline, throw a few sketches on various planes in there, round a few edges, print it and I’m done.
Fusion 360 scratches that itch very well but requires me to keep a Windows VM and also their free model felt more and more unusable. OnShape is a nice substitute that works fine for me, but I don’t like the “free or 1500€/year” approach. Without a middle ground subscription for makers it feels that I could lose anything the second their energy prices for servers go up or something.
The list of CAD software is exhaustive, so I am looking for recommendations that fit my “eh, click, click, click, good enough” workflow. FreeCAD is way too unintiuitive for that. I have tried getting into it, but 3D printing is a tool for me and the learning curve quickly made using it another hobby.
So. Suggestions welcome. Scalding criticism about my lack of enthusiasm and consumer mentality not so much, but I guess that comes bundled with useful advice, so, eh, I’ll take it.
I’m in the same boat! I got tired of the constant enshittification of Fusion360 and started learning FreeCAD. And wow! it’s way less intuitive. But I think I’ll push through, as I don’t want anything but open-source for this. The reason being that I don’t want the same thing to happen again: I spend an unholy amount of time learning how to use a CAD software, and then it becomes the hottest steaming pile of corporate shit possible and I don’t want to use it anymore. That’s why I haven’t even started looking at OnShape. With open-source the biggest risk is that the same thing might happen if the project gets abandoned, but it doesn’t seem to be the case for FreeCAD (at least in the foreseeable future). In any case, I’m interested in hearing what others have to say :)
Freecad
WAIT DON’T DOWNVOTE !
Freecad Link Branch by realthunder : much much much better than the original
https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD
If you still don’t like it try Ondsel, though you need an account to download it.
You can download Ondsel ES directly from GitHub, no account needed: https://github.com/Ondsel-Development/FreeCAD/releases
You only need an account if you want access their cloud storage and sharing management. You can get a tiny free account if you want. I signed up for the freebie since I sometimes work between 2 computers on the same project. But if you only use one computer, it’s not going to get you anything extra.
You can add Ondsel Lens to your regular install simply by installing it through the add-on manager if you want.
If you can install custom software on those computers, Syncthing is completely free and no account needed
Oh ok ty. Didn’t know that
The 1.0 release is around the corner. It’s only a matter of a few weeks. It has the toponaming problem fixed and a built in assembly toolbox!
Woohoo!
Oh, cool! I didn’t know about that. I might actually check it out once that’s released.
Freecad +1
WAIT !
I think each person has to recognize that there is a time/energy cost to get out of enshittification hell, and then decide how much they’re willing to pay. If the answer for you is at least “an afternoon of video tutorials”, then Freecad will be fine for you. It’s a complicated tool that you need some help learning; that’s ok. It won’t become your new hobby.
If you don’t want to pay that cost, that’s understandable. If you feel mad that there is a cost at all, that’s ok too. That’s how enshittification works, and it sucks. As I said, each person will have to decide whether and how much they’re willing to pay to get out of it.
Anyway, the MangoJelly tutorials in YouTube are really excellent, and will have you up and running in a few hours at most. (My CAD needs are also very basic, and I was done after the first two parts, 30 min each.) For following along, I would recommend just using the main version, so that it matches his tutorial exactly, and do the steps as he shows you. It feels dumb, but it’s such a fast way to learn. You can decide later if you want to switch to one of the other branches, depending on what features you care about or what annoys you most.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGNkhS8RKFIJWGj1ad8wRVVCLBnF_13g
Here’s one of his later videos about tracing from a photo, but I haven’t watched it:
https://youtu.be/xQcDoAhmoa8?si=MkdyXVtATiNWesJ4
You can do it!
Freecad mainline.
The feature freeze is on and they have a UI overhaul and a Topological Naming Problem fix.
I am using the 0.22 dev version with the fix and oh boy it makes a huge difference. Obviously deleting a face where there was a feature attached to results in an error still. It makes it viable to use the mainline instead of realthunder fork.
Full agree!! I use the dev version too!
I only use pretty basic modelling, and have no interest in advanced CAD featueres, I’ve tried both the link branch and ondsel, and I honesty think they’re about the same level as regular freecad. None of them are even near as intuitive to use as for example onshape, they’re actually a bit of a chore to use IME.
Yeah they are a bit of a pain to use, but still better than having your files taken hostage by autodesk or onshape
You don’t even have to touch any “advanced” modeling features for FreeCAD to be useful. I primarily use extrudes and revolves of sketches in the Part Design workbench. The workflow is exactly the same as what I do at work every day in SolidWorks.
FreeCAD doesn’t let you be as loosey-goosey with geometry as some commercial software. That’s because they don’t have an army of developers paid to work on “nicety” features like that.
I can break SolidWorks models the same way that I can break FreeCAD models. No CAD software is immune to this. Some fail more gracefully than others. It doesn’t mean it’s unusable. You should have seen the repairs I had to make to a SolidWorks model today because I needed to convert a generic extruded feature into a sheetmetal feature…. It took a few minutes, but it’s no different than fixing things in FreeCAD because you changed the design.
I don’t want to spend hours just getting to know how to use the software for my basic needs. FreeCAD is (or was when I tried 8 months ago) not intuitive enough for me, so I moved to something that allowed for easier simple modelling. 3D modelling is not what I enjoy, I just need it done so I can do the stuff I actually enjoy. It’s a tool I want to spend as little time as possible with.
I found Freecad has become fairly intuitive if you already have traditional parametric cad experience, there’s definitely a few quirks but generally super easy to adapt to if you come from solidworks, inventor and the like, trying to convince my dad to give it a try as he’s been getting back into design since retiring and he’s been paying for a solid works license. Personally use ondsel but mainline freecad is totally usable.
Edit: Yeah, just use the RealThunder fork, was running into the Topological Naming Problem a few times today which was frustrating me on top of a few other (probably self induced) annoyances. I was using the mainline freecad before with ModernUI Workbench as a plugin which gives you ribbon menus, I actually prefer it over the UX changes on the most recent Ondsel release.
No, you don’t need an account if you get Ondsel from their git https://github.com/Ondsel-Development/FreeCAD/releases
But, there is a free account that even gives you a bit of cloud storage if you want it. Or you don’t even need to sign into it if you don’t want. They do want to sell cloud storage for commercial use - Daddy’s got to make a living you know. But, the software is still open source and free to keep and use as you see fit.
Personally I love openSCAD, but it is probably really unintuitive to someone without programming experience and even then has it’s own limitations.
FreeCAD is in a weird position ATM, it is actually really good! …just not in the stable release… The Dev version is significantly more palatable, and they even went on a feature freeze to really push through with their major 1.0 release.
For now though Onsdel (Sort of a fork of FreeCAD packaged with Dev release and UI improvements) has worked really well for me thus far!
Is there a good tutorial or better yet, videos showing how to use ondsel? When I tried to use it, everything pointed at free car and the ui was too different.
I am not certain, I have used FreeCAD tutorials for Onsdel to great success.
I think what I do is just listen to the tool name they reference, and then just look where I assume it would be to find it, rather than trying to find tools in the same places as them
I’m quite happy with FreeCAD. It’s not really intuitive but I’ll gladly take that over any other program with those modern account/subscription/cloud bullshit “features”.
Seconded FreeCAD. It was my first CAD software and I didn’t have massive amount of trouble with it being a hobbyist with no CAD experience.
It was also my first CAD program. Perhaps not having experienced others makes it easier to tolerate the quirks of FreeCAD.
I started on FreeCAD but now went for Ondsel.
Their UX redesign is really nice and works much better for me
I think if you install enough plugins you can get that similar experience from freecad
Some of the nightlies are actually ahead of ondsel in features actually. But while you can get close, the theme and UI changes don’t work very well in freecad. You might be able to write some plugins to do it but I haven’t seen them.
I haven’t used ondsel myself but can’t you configure modernui to look similar?
Yeah similar but when I’ve tried a lot of the UI ends up looking wrong. Bad font or UI colors, etc.
Not hating on freecad, I like it and they’re working hard, just want to make clear it’s not fair to suggest a normal person could make it look the same.
Additional note. It’s a weird discussion. My understanding is development is flowing back and forth with the intention of ondsel being mostly a set of pro cloud plugins. Use what you like today because you can swap tomorrow.
sure, but i am happy with what Ondsel preconfigured for me me. And since it’s freecad in the core anyway
Don’t forget to donate! 😊
It looks like Fusion 360 runs fine on Linux these days, I don’t know how reliable that is in practice (I would expect not very much).
OnShape is a great option if the licensing terms are compatible with what you are doing. They used to have similar licensing terms as Fusion 360 where you could still get paid for your work with a free version (i.e. YouTube) but changed the terms to remove this loophole. Fusion still allows this with the Startup license but of course could change their mind at any time, then you’d be out of luck.
I dislike the lockdown of Fusion 360 but its mental model works with my own (I can’t “get” SolidWorks and never remember how to do anything). Speaking of SolidWorks, they added a reasonably-priced license for DIY/hobbyists, but it’s the same lockdown as Fusion 360 and still Windows only.
I’m in the same boat as you, just a hobbyist doing this for my own use, I have no interest in becoming an industrial engineer. For now I will keep using Fusion 360, and when that stops being an option I’ll move on to something else. I can whip out models for my prints easily enough and the 10 documents limit is just an annoyance, not a real limitation.
At the very least whatever you design in Fusion 360 or OnShape won’t be stuck in there, you can export it out via .step files. You lose design history (if applicable) but not the model itself.
it looks like Fusion 360 runs fine on Linux
I can assure you, it does not.
Do not switch to Linux and expect this project to save you, it is NOT beginner friendly.
It’s great, and I’m sure someone smarter than me could probably get it working, but personally, I failed miserably and switched to OnShape.
Yup. At this point, “locally installed, reliable, parametric modeling on Linux” = “FreeCAD, including Ondsel, and SolveSpace”. That’s it. Well, there’s code-to-CAD as well, which obviously retains parametric history, but goes about it very differently than a design tree.
For non-parametric modeling, BricsCAD and Plasticity enter the discussion. For parametric on the web, OnShape works very well but I hate their licensing scheme and the huge doughnut hole in their pricing model.
I was quite amazed reading NopHead’s blog a while back because he uses OpenSCAD exclusively, even managing to design an entire printer and its upgrades in there. I didn’t think any sane person could do this.
I should have prefaced that I did not actually run this myself, but I did take a note of it, it looked promising. Sorry for the false hope!
I would expect it to work after a lot of fussing about, and then break at the slightest update. Easier to run it in a VM (which is also not easy in order to get GPU acceleration without dedicating a card to it - I never managed to get Intel GVT-g nor GVT-d to work reliably).
I went the Solid works hobbyist route, quite frankly, it’s well worth it. I tried freecad for awhile but it just didn’t compare.
I could never get his repo to work, I’ve resigned to using fusion in a VM for now while I wait for progress in freecad or the parametric cad plugins for blender to mature.
I recently tried the flatpak this repo has linked and couldn’t get it to work properly. First I had to google for a login workaround because the bottle couldn’t open the browser login link and when I finally got it to “work” the rendering was broken.
You could try Ondsel, the trimmed UI makes it easier to use than Freecad in my opinion, the learning curve is still steep tho. No account needed if you get it on GitHub: https://github.com/Ondsel-Development/FreeCAD/releases
You could also take a look at Plasticity, seems very intuitive to use and should work well with your clicky workflow, it’s a one time payment and has a Linux version. I don’t have any personal experience with it, but there is a trial version so you can try it before investing any money. https://www.plasticity.xyz
Plasticity is a pretty cool application that’s growing pretty quickly and offers perpetual licenses, so you retain access to the program once your maintenance period expires. I think it has a ton of potential to become very useful for the 3d printing space that doesn’t necessarily require the full power of a pure CAD application but needs more than something purely art-focused like 3d modeling software.
One of the greatest things is the dev takes a lot of input from the community when deciding what features are added. There’s a whole website for suggesting and voting on features to be added and several of them have already been put into development and implemented already. And on top of all that it’s, comparatively, affordable. I’m still learning it so I don’t know the full limitations of it’s usefulness for 3d printing but to me it seems very capable.
I think the guide I did at [email protected] is still in pretty decent shape.
I actually settled on Alibre Design. Permanent license at half the cost of a year of OnShape for a slightly dated but very capable parametric modeler, and the free trial made Parametric modeling click for me in a way FreeCAD didn’t. It comes with a renderer of a similar class, though I haven’t tried that yet. Changing colors of parts has been enough for my needs.
FreeCAD has apparently fixed the topological naming issue, one of the big things that was keeping them so far behind the commercial suites. It’s already in the weekly builds, along with several other enhancements pioneered in the Realthunder fork, including UI enhancements and a default Assembly workbench. Version 1 is going to come out in the late summer or early fall, I think. Ondsel is FreeCAD but they have some venture funding to pay developers to work on the main project and to bolt-on an optional paid PDM system (download from their GitHub and you don’t have to sign up for anything). I had some crashing issues on both Windows and Linux when trying to import DXF files into either flavor, and as you say, there’s still that learning curve, but I can get a part done in it now if I need to.
SolveSpace can do some nice things and will teach you good techniques.
I had the same issues as you with OnShape, particularly since their free licensing is very weird, and in the worst case it implies that while YOU must use your designs non-commercially, no one else is similarly bound. It’s sloppy legal drafting, and that annoys the little black kernel of lawyerness still sunk down in my heart. Fusion has become the poster child for free feature erosion and price hikes.
BricsCAD Shape is a basically an AutoCAD clone warped and twisted to act like SketchUp, and it works on Linux. It’s meant to be the tease to get people into their full-suite ecosystem, but I couldn’t find any legal limitations on the free version.
Depending on what it is you’re scanning, the people mentioning Blender may have a good point.
Shapr3D at $300/year might also be a good option.
Finally, for your particular workflow, Plasticity at $150 permanent license may hit the exact sweet spot. Definitely try their free trial. Some of the other programs I tried are also interesting.
I’m in the same boat but with semi professional needs.
I have not found any alternative yet to Onshape that works on linux.
I’m trying FreeCAD and derivatives from time to time but it really feels like a serious step backwards.
I really hope that FreeCAD will get better with time, and the Blender story will be the same for FreeCAD. Just a few years back, Blender was really bad compared with Maya, now Autodesk lost a huge market because Blender is powerful enough for professional work, probably even better than Maya
I’m really hoping FreeCAD gets the Blender treatment. ONDSEL is already pushing it pretty far, but once extensibility is more robust and the new user experience improved, I believe that’ll be the tipping point.
Oh man “extensibility” in FreeCAD. The documentation is non-existent, is the main problem. It’s just about impossible to understand how anything works, it’s like trying to figure out how to run a battleship by turning cranks and seeing what they do.
My point exactly. If FreeCAD refines that framework and documents it well, community plugin support could drive many new features and quality of life improvements into the main branch.
I don’t think onshape has the market position to rug-pull their free tier. They need as many people using it as possible to act as a counterbalance to fusion, and the server costs are really not that high for a web app that does the vast majority of processing on the client side.
PTC doesn’t care about being a counterbalance to fusion360 or they would have a less restrictive free version. They only care about making money from subscriptions from corporate customers. They amen way more money from Creo and Windchill than they do with Onshape.
I like “Solvespace” myself. It’s simpler than FreeCAD and works better with the way I think of things (more focus on 2D planes). I don’t do the “scan and sketch” thing though so can’t speak to that. Might be worth a try.
This one looks very promising to me. It’s probably exactly what I was looking for, for too long.
This is not the answer to your work flow, but I found a lightweight solution that works for my simple designs: OpenSCAD
The work flow here is to implement geometrical shapes within a few lines of code.
OpenSCAD is pretty good, but I’ve run into issues with the rotate/extrude. Also only saves as a mesh, which may or may not matter for your application
Although you still need windows, Rhino3D is amazing and has a perpetual license. It’s way cheaper if you are studying or teaching. There is also sketchup which works through the browser but I don’t know if that works on Linux.
Great license and fantastic software (Grasshopper is also cool) but lack of a Linux version is a huge bummer.
Yeah, I don’t know why they still don’t support Linux. They really hate Autodesk, so they should do it purely out of spite.
People have been trying to make Blender have some basic CAD functionality, but it’s just not there yet.
I admit I haven’t tried https://www.cadsketcher.com/ with it yet, though.
Cadsketcher was much easier for me to pick up for designing simple parts. Still haven’t used it for anything too complicated but I couldn’t get over the FreeCAD quirks like not being able to do multiple extrudes from the same sketch.
@JohnnyCanuck @the_fourth not a CAD. Can be sort-of made one, but not ideal. Something like FreeCAD is better but both Fusion and Onshape are much better in terms of UX.
OP didn’t ask for a CAD specifically but just mentioned looking at the list of CADs, so I thought it might be worth throwing in the mix.
Plasticity
