Comment on FreeCAD 1.1 is out
punkfungus@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Time to give it another try I guess. I used Fusion almost exclusively until I switched to Linux (and have also used Solidworks in the past), and I found freecad 1.0 to be an exercise in frustration.
I gave it a very solid shot, but after many hours messing with it and watching tutorials I decided to try Onshape instead. I was able to become comfortable and productive in Onshape in less than half the time it took me to lose my cool with freecad.
The 1.1 update looks to be addressing some of the pain points, so they seem to be on the right track. I hope they keep that momentum going.
I have used Fusion and can get what I want from it. But I have an intense dislike of the clown car UI.
So sit down and watch MangoJelly’s tutorials and practice them. Enjoy that smooth Aussie voice. It takes time to learn new things so don’t give up. We’re pulling for you!
Noja@sopuli.xyz 4 days ago
What’s the vendor lock-in like with Onshape? My father used a “free” year of Solidworks and when it was over he was locked out from all his projects unless he paid. He uses FreeCAD exclusively now and is happy to own his files.
StupendousMan@lemmy.world 4 days ago
With Onshape unless you pay them money your files are public. You can’t use the free version for commercial use. Some advanced features are blocked like simulations.
punkfungus@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
I’ve been able to freely export .step files for anything I’ve made in Onshape. As another commenter said there are catches, like all your files are public if you’re using the free version and there are premium features that require payment. But it’s currently not locked down like it seemed Autodesk were preparing to do, where all your files live on their cloud only and can never be exported. For sure there is potential for the same enshittification with Onshape though, which is why I hope the freecad devs soldier on.
Also if you’re worried about your files being public, just name them with codes indecipherable to anyone but you. It doesn’t seem like the public file repository actually gets searched that much in general, and with a meaningless code the odds of someone finding and stealing a specific design are probably near zero.