Yeah, I’ve used multiple CAD tools, from pro/engineer to F360, but the learning curve of freecad felt like a brick wall.
Comment on Fusion 360 increasing annual price by $190 USD
TheDuckPrince@lemm.ee 7 months ago
The problem is that there is no real competitor to fusion. If you think about usability/learning curve
RobotToaster@mander.xyz 7 months ago
dack@lemmy.world 7 months ago
FreeCAD definitely has a steeper learning curve and a few rough edges, but to me it was absolutely worth it to learn. I really don’t like my files subject to the whims of Autodesk.
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 7 months ago
I got stuck on googling how to make a fillet in freecad, to which the answer appeared to be, “yeah, nah, you sort of can’t”. Oh okay, this program is not for me.
chaotic_disorganizer@feddit.de 7 months ago
whens the last time you used freecad? theres literally a button for making fillets.
agent_flounder@lemmy.world 7 months ago
For years, in fact.
MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
I tried using Freecad as to filet something recently and it told me to look at the error console for more information, after googling for where the error console is, I realized the message to look at the error console was being output to the error console.
There was no more information to be had. It is a UX and functional nightmare, and it is what it is, but the downside is this means millions of engineers are being trained on subscription web sites, and eventually this will be used to both squeeze people for money, and also to prevent people from creating unauthorized or patented parts.
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 7 months ago
I honestly forget, it waa such a terrible experience I didn’t give it any more time. I think that the problem was that I couldn’t make it parametric.
TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 7 months ago
the fillet button 🤯
jomoo99@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Exactly the words that I had come to mind lol
Kata1yst@kbin.social 7 months ago
Huh, I've definitely done fillets before. Though they're more nuanced than F3D or SW or ProE.
I've found freecad to be feature complete and fairly performant as a pure CAD tool, but the workflows take getting used to and there are some rough edges where things are just significantly more complex than in competing commercial software.
wjrii@kbin.social 7 months ago
I think SolveSpace and OpenSCAD have trouble with fillets, but FreeCAD should be fine, though as a person with a non-technical background, FreeCAD is still generally miserable to use.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I don’t know how long ago you tired this (early versions were, even I will admit, kind of crap) but in the current FreeCAD release of 0.22.1 it’s incredibly easy.
Just select the edge(s) you want to fillet and and press the “fillet” button in the Part Design workbench…
And on the panel on the left you can set the radius. The profile of the Fillet tool is always a 90 arc of circle with the radius you’ve specified.
Or, if you want to get fancy and make your own bespoke custom fillet. Well, you can define its profile in a sketch. Here I just used a bezier to make an arbitrary curved shape. You are defining the profile of the material you want removed here, i.e. the negative space. You can make this as mathematically rigorous and precise as you like.
Then, position it somewhere on the vertex you want to profile and once again in the Part Design workbench, select that sketch, and hit “subtractive pipe.”
From there, you can hit “add edge” to define which edge(s) you want it applied to. You get a preview of the material removed.
Et voila.
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 7 months ago
I appreciate all the effort you went to, and I can do this as it turns out. Now that I’ve researched what problem I was having, it turns out the issue was that I couldn’t do a parametric offset line in a sketch, which was crucial to what I was doing at the time, so I had to give up on it.
HewlettHackard@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
I’m curious what a parametric offset would be. If it is what I think it is, I’ve accomplished that with some construction geometry. Add a construction geometry line constrained appropriately (e.g. perpendicular to some other line, particular length, etc) and then use its other end to attach and constrain the offset line.
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 6 months ago
Yeah, that’s what it is. That would probably work at least for straight lines, which was the case I was doing.
canthidium@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yeah, I’ve done some editing in FreeCAD, but I’m lost at the rest.
VandalFan77@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I would love for you to explain how the workflow is any different than in something like SolidWorks? I use SolidWorks in my day job and I use FreeCAD exclusively for my personal projects. It was a pretty seamless transition for me. Sketch->Feature, repeat, paying attention to order of operations in your model tree. What’s so different?
Is FreeCAD’s UI a little rough in places? Perhaps, but a lot of the things that people complain about in FreeCAD are present in commercial software. If there’s one thing that SolidWorks might do better is allowing you to get away with things like over-defining geometry accidentally. It’s more forgiving of lazy modeling.
FreeCAD has improved significantly in just the last few years. There is a good community around it. We need more people using it and learning how to model.
nezbyte@lemmy.world 7 months ago
SolidWorks for Makers seems like a decent competitor. $48/year USD for now.
canthidium@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I thought they got rid of that tier. Might have to try it out if it’s still available.
charles@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Seems to still be offered, the license allows up to $2000 profit as well instead of $1000 revenue with fusion.
canthidium@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Nice, someone commented veteran pricing that’s $20 a year, which I qualify for, so definitely going to try it out. Thanks!
wjrii@kbin.social 7 months ago
That's a more reasonable threshold, and allows some wiggle room if you have an idea that blows up and makes you a few bucks (what is profit? Can you count your PC and printer as capital expenditures?
etc etc).Autodesk is gonna Autodesk, but they should, at a minimum, match that term.
lauha@lemmy.one 7 months ago
How about OnShape
wjrii@kbin.social 7 months ago
OnShape is free but explicitly non-commercial if you don't pay, and it requires your models to be publicly available in a potentially weird way where someone else could make money from your stuff but you can't. It's a weird AF licensing setup.
shitescalates@midwest.social 7 months ago
I like their pricing scheme though, because most makers work on open source.
wjrii@kbin.social 7 months ago
Open source is not the same as, "you are barred from commercial use," which is why I hesitate with OnShape. At minimum, these companies need to tighten up their licensing terms to be strict but fair.
to wit Creators have this:
Trial or Free Versions. Trial and free versions of the Service are made available by Onshape. Trial versions of the Service are intended for evaluation purposes, and may be used for commercial or non-commercial purposes during the evaluation period. Free versions of the Service are intended to support (a) creating and editing intellectual property for non-commercial purposes, and (b) viewing, commenting and import/export for commercial or non-commercial purposes (to the extent the plan offers those features). If you intend to use the Service outside a trial context to create and/or edit intellectual property for commercial purposes (including but not limited to developing designs that are intended to be commercialized and/or used in support of a commercial business), then you agree to upgrade to a paid subscription to the Service. Trial and free versions of the Service are otherwise subject to the terms of this Agreement.
but consumers have this:
For any Public Document owned by a Free Plan User created on or after August 7, 2018, or any Public Document created prior to that date without a LICENSE tab, Customer grants a worldwide, royaltyfree and non-exclusive license to any End User or third party accessing the Public Document to use the intellectual property contained in Customer’s Public Document without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Document, and to permit persons to whom the Document is made available to do the same.
Maybe there's some nuance I'm missing, but on its face that's total bullshit.
canthidium@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Very true, and the reason I went with Fusion in the first place. It’s easy to pick up while still being fully featured.
PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
OnShape
Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 7 months ago
Onshape has replaced fusion for me, was an easy switch.
BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 7 months ago
I find Onshape to be much better than fusion.
TheSun@slrpnk.net 7 months ago
Ya TheDuckPrince clearly didnt look very hard for competitors, onshape is great.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
Isn’t onshape for non-commercial only?
Lenis_78@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Non-commercial is the free version, with all your parts public.
They also have a pro license with a fee, where your parts are then private obviously.
Steve@startrek.website 7 months ago
The pro license is like $2000 per year.
pigup@lemmy.world 7 months ago
If on shape had built in CAM like fusion does, I’d switch in a heartbeat.