FreeCAD is a strange mix of over-designed and unfinished.
There’s like three different workflows for doing parametric CAD, plus a drafting workflow for an AutoCAD architectural experience, plus workbenches for meshes, NURBS, etc. Occasionally a tool you need will be in another workbench. There is no official assembly workbench included. It’s not exactly obvious how workbenches work together. A lot of shortcuts which have become Just How You Do Things in other CAD software aren’t present, so you have to do things an awkward long way. Add-ons and macros can help…but are poorly documented if at all.
Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
The learning curve is steeper mostly due to tools not having as intuitive names and ui layout.
I dove into fusion 360 last year and was making functional and nice parts within the first couple of hours. Since moving to Linux I’ve tried freecad and while I can eventually find the tools that do the same things, it is less intuitive to get there.
Additionally, when I run into a roadblock in fusion 360, I can usually find quick and easy explanations or tutorials for it, and just have not had the same luck with freecad. I can usually get the hurdle crossed with the tutorials but I find I have to look up the same stuff often as it doesn’t stick.
This is all nebulous as all hell, I admit. And I can vaguely tell that it does all the same things similarly to fusion 360, but it’s just different and obscured enough that I feel useless and obtuse using it and spend more time searching for tutorials and answers than I do designing.
I want to learn it. I want to use it. But I still find myself in fusion 360 when I need to get a part designed sooner rather than later - it took less effort and faffing around to get fusion 360 working in proton ge than getting to a stable point using freecad.
Halvdan@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
Well put. I have the exact same experience.