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.
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.