Submitted 1 day ago by IMALlama@lemmy.world to 3dprinting@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b8773353-645b-420b-93b4-3caf0705d7bc.jpeg
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…
While I’d like to know the same, I’d also recommend reading their EOS page. You have time to switch over.
#### **What does end of support mean for Windows 10 and Fusion? ** Fusion will continue to work on Windows 10 after the 14th - however, Autodesk will no longer consider Windows 10 for validation, bug fixing, and product support of future releases. Application compatibility and support will not be guaranteed for this platform for releases after this date.
After exploring options such as Fusion360 and SOLIDWORKS I ended up making a free account on onshape. It’s web-based and works flawlessly on Firefox and Linux. I should try a bit more FreeCAD, but lack motivation.
Freecad has gotten much better with the recent updates.
It’s UI is (obviously) different than fusion, but so are other CAD programs.
Sure, it may not be at the stage where it could be used to do 100% of the mechanical and electrical design on a jet helicopter, but how many people need that level of complexity for their projects?
No luck. I use OnShape.
Hah, I was about to say they seem to have misspelled FreeCAD.
Got to be fair, since the 1.x update it got so much more usable for me
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.
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.
@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.
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.
OpenSCAD can also be fun if you like fiddling with parametric designs.
@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.
Fusion360 has been rated Silver on WINE (windows compatability tool) so you have a decent shot of running it. Silver means “couple of minor bugs, might need tweaks to run but runs well”.
In Linux we have FreeCAD but if you’re heavily dependent on Fusion360 I’d recommend trying a Virtual Windows Machine, Bottles, Lutris, Steam Proton, the installation script posted here and so on.
If you have space for two drives on your computer then worst case you could bypass the windows whatever and have two different OSs.
This, maybe with something with good wine/gpu compatibility like CachyOs. And if it fails there are ways to install windows 11 on IvyBridge
Drop autodesk. I’ve got access to autodesk products as an educator, and I’ve used inventor for years, but I have only had FreeCAD on my system for months. I have not found myself being enable to do anything I could do in Inventor.
I’ve had issues with FreeCAD being less performant and freezing or crashing when trying to make more complex parts.
Tbf even solidworks crashes when designing complex assemblies
While the hns issue is better, personally found I a lot better to not use external geometry at all and instead build my references wrt the base plane. At worst I have to change a sketch attachment, that and doing chamfers absolutely last has saved a ton of grief on some recent models. I hand sketch first, how I learned cad in the first place, that workflow seems to mesh well with it.
Still the odd crash here or there but I’m accepting of it.
Yes and no. This install script works well, but it breaks every few months. Then you have to wait for an update and reinstall everything.
The second link to this repo, thanks!
When you say it breaks every few months does that mean that fusion does its usual update thing as-per-normal and then just nopes out one day?
The main function of the script is to enable the browser redirect for the login. Sometimes Autodesk changes how the login works and logs you out. Then you can’t login back again, because the browser redirect doesn’t work.
I just normally end up using Onshape
Yep. Dont need to fuck and install it on other random PCs just login and use it. Its even for a mobile app, probably better for tablets.
And unlimited free designs. Yes there public but I’m not making $$$$ from my designs.
You’ll need to get used to many new things when switching to Linux. Changing to FreeCAD could as well be one of those
It will be frustrating, and it will take some time to get used to but honestly it’s worth it. If not for anything else then to flex your brain cells and keep them nimble
I’ve dabbled in Linux in the past and spend the majority of my time popping between windows and mac os. I also spend a decent amount of time in powershell/terminal, but largely in the context of work.
I’m not against investing the time learn new things, but time is very scarse these days with two younger kids.
My modeling workflow is often iterative and fusion’s timeline makes it very easy to edit a feature from way back when and then propagate that change through all subsequent steps that reference that feature. You can also add entirely new features and then update the next step in the timeline to reference them. The last time I looked at alternatives this either wasn’t supported or was fickle, but based on some comments in this post that may have changed. I’ll have to give FreeCAD a try.
I think it’s called parametric design right?, freeCAD suppports this but I have heard that there is a bug when trying to edit shapes with filet I think?
I second freeCAD for complicated designs. For simple stuff I use tinkercad which runs from web browser
Personally I’d say go with freeCAD even for simple designs. Its a great way to learn the software and you will not end up adjusting you designs to the limitations that tinkercad has.
Also I feel like it is difficult to do premise placement on tinkercad
Does FreeCAD do CAM too?
I tried it some time ago and it was pretty usable, I reckon it is only better now.
It has a dedicated CAM workbench yeah
Here are aime tutorials for CAM in freeCAD www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaUEbWaf2rhSGcjQK9…
And the CAM category on the freeCAD wiki wiki.freecad.org/Category:CAM
Answering the title: No. Never heard of anyone who had.
Embrace Freecad or succumb to windows/macos
I’ve had it run on wine a few years back, but it’s hard to say if it would still run now as they change it all the time. Freecad is ok for simpler designs, but if you do complex cad work, you hit its limits (clunky and buggy). There’s always onshape though, works perfectly fine on Linux.
I tried to make Fusion 360 run under wine and just couldn’t get it reliably working.
There were problems logging in, problems with resolution, issues with fonts and DLL errors. It just wasn’t stable enough to rely on.
No, I tried for a while but I gave up.
I switched to Onshape and I’m very happy with the switch.
It’s very easy to bypass TPM / Secure Boot requirements and install Windows 11 on Ivy Bridge, though I’d suggest going Linix anyways and make a Windows virtual machine for stuff like if you can’t give up proprietary software.
Basically you just need Rufus to make your boot-able USB stick and you tick a box to disable the checks. That’s it.
I haven’t looked into this at all, but wasn’t Microsoft threatening to block updates if your system doesn’t meet the requirements?
They did once but never have. Four years later in a couple days in fact.
Spoiler: Win 11 will say it can’t run on anything.
Sweet, thanks!
This script is why I ended up learning how to use OnShape. It's probably much better nowadays, but I could not get it working a few years ago. I needed CAD and OnShape was close enough to Inventor that it was almost frictionless.
It’s far easier to run Windows 11 on older hardware then getting random windows apps to ruin on Linux.
Cool? Not what is being asked tho
You can install a W11 VirtualBox VM on an old, unsupported processor without any special configuration. I have it running under Linux on a 10 year old AMD processor and it works fine.
Yeah, that is what I would have done. Check out Tiny10 and Tiny11, which is stripped down, but totally functional Windows versions that is perfect to use as base images for a VM. I used the default VM/QUEMU app that ships with Fedora, called Box (I think?). But you could install VirtualBox as well.
There are also scripts to unlock upgrade on „unsupported” processors which still technically work with 11
You really shouldn’t connect win10 machines to the Internet at some points. Legacy shit is fine and fun. But don’t go shaking hands with danger.
You could also try installing Windows IoT LTSC.
At this point I want to give Linux an earnest go on this box. I bought a second SSD and will just unplug the windows drive for a while.
I am curious if fusion will support LTSC and/of whatever version of 11 they call out.
If you’re going to pirate, you might as well get Windows Server. It runs everything without any of the Windows garbage preinstalled like Xbox.
welp, looks like I won’t be using fusion when I inevitably need some design program on my personal computer again
So can still use it just not receive support right? They didn’t cripple the actual software just because windows 10 isn’t supported I hope?
I’m pretty sure it eventually stopped working altogether when Windows 7 was cut off. I’m like 80% sure that’s what eventually force me to upgrade to 10 but it’s been a while.
Fusion said it will stop working. It’s normally a licensed product, although home users can get it for free. I suspect they have some kind of authentication mechanism built in and could prevent it from working if desired.
That seems pretty messed up.
It is getting forced.
You have VERY SHORT time until the day…
so DO IT NOW.
It is fairly trivial to bypass the win11 upgrade requirements, if that is preferable to you.
Yeah it’s annoying still, I have an 80gb partition I put windows on for work purposes, I told it to check for updates yesterday when I was signing off for work. It popped up with an option that said Security updates are ending Oct 14th, and a box to click to enroll for extended updates till Oct 14th, 2026. I clicked it and it said I was enrolled for another year. It’s are sure sign they are tryung to force people to move to Windows 11, but apparently they will be making the security updates all the same and not sending them to everyone by default.
EU forced them to give another year in the EU. Elsewhere, people are out of luck.
Pressure them about what exactly? Making the product for Linux or extending Windows 10 support?
I used it some years ago. It “just worked,” but later when I tried to install it again, it didn’t. I probably could’ve made it work again, but I didn’t actually need it that badly.
Tl;dr: yes and no
Lem453@lemmy.ca 3 hours ago
I think I remember people saying they got it working with this
github.com/winapps-org/winapps
That being said, stuff like Fusion 360 changes quite often and even if it works now it might break compatibility with the future update.
FreeCAD has come a long way since with the 1.0 release and the 1.1 release also has lots of good quality of life improvements.