Title basically.
One of my windows computers, which happens to be the one I happen to do the most CAD work on, can’t upgrade to windows 11 due to having an Ivy Bridge era Xenon (it’s an E5-1680 v2 for the curious, older used workstations are fantastic bang for the buck computers).
Switching to Linux on this computer has been in the cards for a while, but I hadn’t been in a hurry to do it. Looks like my hand might be getting forced…
mhier@norden.social 3 weeks ago
@IMALlama it's called #FreeCAD there *running-away-and-hiding*
JelleWho@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Got to be fair, since the 1.x update it got so much more usable for me
rowinxavier@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yep, very much improved. I recking it will turn out like Blender. It sucks right now compared to some other tools like Fusion360, but given time it will improve and at some point it will tip over into being the default. It all depends on buy in. If a few bigger players get behind it because they can avoid predatory fees and costs associated with using a proprietary piece of software they will switch, invest in their own mods, then drive the industry knowledge standard towards FreeCAD. That will break the hold the proprietary apps have as workers gain skills in the new context, leaving the old proprietary stuff to rot. I hope it is soon, but it will happen eventually.
IMALlama@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Oh, I know. I am familiar with the fusion workflow and it generally just works - even when you mess with a feature way earlier in your timeline.
I model some vaguely complex things and find that I often fiddle with things. From the last I looked into it, OSS CAD didn’t handle this very well.
mhier@norden.social 3 weeks ago
@IMALlama well, freecad really improved a lot recently. It may be worth looking again. One problem still may be the many different workflows you can use, some of which may be super inappropriate for complex stuff. I recommend the part design workbench with the sketch feature, combined with a spreadsheet for fully parametric designs. Sketches can now be attached to faces of the object, which is super helpful. Do all the fillets and chamfers at the end, ideally.
P13@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
OpenSCAD can also be fun if you like fiddling with parametric designs.
olafurp@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s unhelpful. The person might be a professional in a work that mandates using Fusion360. “FreeCAD is the best Linux supported CAD program but you should try running a VM inside of Linux and see if fusion 360 works a” is way more helpful.
mhier@norden.social 3 weeks ago
@olafurp sure, I was provoking obviously. Although, I doubt professional background, because companies would just buy a Windows 11 PC without thinking. On the other hand, I could imagine FreeCAD is nowadays usable even for professional purposes. People need to stop thinking professional software has to cost money and/or cannot be open source. So my comment could be helpful after all.
BlackVenom@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If they’re a pro and the software doesn’t support the OS, it’d be kinda foolish to not stick with what’s supported.i
anomnom@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Or if like me, you want something closer to fusion or Solidworks, there’s Onshape. At least until it enshitifies.
fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 2 weeks ago
Hah, I was about to say they seem to have misspelled FreeCAD.