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…
@IMALlama it’s called #FreeCAD there *running-away-and-hiding*
Or if like me, you want something closer to fusion or Solidworks, there’s Onshape. At least until it enshitifies.
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.
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.
It really has. As a lover of FOSS I can say that there still is an order of magnitude regarding usability, workflow and robustness of the models between freecad and fusion. I dislike everything about autodesk and its business model but I have to admit that fusion is also my go-to when I need to model something fast.
@SW42 When I tried Fusion 360 a while ago, it was the other way round. I didn’t really get the workflow and it was crashing from time to time. I have to admit though it was in a VM and it was the free version only (not sure if that still exists). So your mileage can vary. Also: if you have not tried FreeCAD version 1.x, your experience certainly is outdated.
I used to work as a mechanical engineer, so I am used to CAD Systems since I started with Autocad, went on to Pro/E Wildfire 2, had a stint with NX and Inventor. All of them used productively within the context of professional work.
Fusion was the first CAD I used for my hobby (3D printing) and it is seriously powerful.
Freecad the way it is now (and I tried 1.0 as soon as it got out) is akin to the old days where it wouldn’t let you work with a partially defined sketch or implied confinements by hovering/snapping to the line. I feel like I have to get out a piece of paper and plan out my model before I begin modeling, while using fusion I feel I can just pick it up and develop whatever idea I have right then and there.
It has gotten a lot better - really came a long way since the previous versions where I tried easel as well for the better workflow before 1.0. I never managed to get the same efficiency and usability I get from fusion, despite really trying.
How old are the old days, I used CATIA V5 for a stretch around 20 years ago and I’ve mostly gelled with freecad pretty well (some odd decisions here and there and some bugs, though a lot of those can be attributed to the kernel). I’m wondering if I’ve just got an old CAD head.
Thanks, I’ll have to give it a try
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.
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
@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.
I mean when I first tried FreeCAD a few months ago I couldn’t get it to function AT ALL. Literally everything I tried to do took minutes to process and this happened on several different PCs. That issue somehow resolved itself and it’s working now but it left me very wary of relying on the application, if I had been on a deadline I’d have been fucked. Never had a problem like that with Fusion360.
Well yeah, but some companies allow employees to choose their OS. Of course FreeCAD is good enough just like Gimp and Blender are good enough to replace Adobe stuff but sometimes people have workflows built around them or even custom scripts that only run on a specific platform.
You make a fair point but the tone might be off-putting for people thinking about switching to Linux. 100% mention FreeCAD as a fully featured CAD software that just works on Linux but we shouldn’t heckle him for wanting Fusion360.