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I've been wanting to use my 3D printer, but my hangup has been creating the models of what I want to make.

In the past I learned a bit of Fusion 360 and SketchUp back when it was an installed program.

This time I decided to try FreeCAD. I've already modeled my first part (haven't printed anything yet) and am working on my second part which has some pretty complex geometry that I am having to invent and reinvent as I go.

Here's the thing. This kind of parametric modelling like for 3D printing is what FreeCAD is said to do best. Yes, there is a significant learning curve, as with any CAD program, but it seems to be wholly adequate for this kind of work, and is a free, opensource program. I can literally learn this one program now and still count on being able to still use it 25 years from now without incurring license fees or having to switch to a new program.

#freeCAD

#grownostr

Kamm 2y ago

I tried freeCAD a while back, I love the open source concept, but there were things that were just quirky. I have a small cnc machine shop and I mostly use Fusion 360 for my work, mostly because it just works.

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Discussion

LukeoftheOzarks 2y ago

I don't know about using it for professional work. There are probably still pretty solid reasons for most commercial production shops to use more widely accepted solutions.

It would be a little bit like using Libreoffice instead of Word.

There are some things that don't work like I expected after coming from Fusion 360, but I'm not having trouble getting done what I need to like I did with SketchUp.

Sir Libre 2y ago

Freecad is awesome. If you have experience with Catia then it's pretty intuitive

LukeoftheOzarks 2y ago

I hadn't heard of Catia. And yes, I don't find FreeCAD particularly intuitive in the beginning, but quite learnable.

Sir Libre 2y ago

Catia is what Boeing uses for all their CAD work. It's something like $40k per license.

It has a very steep learning curve, but incredibly powerful