I am not sure what is going on with this community regarding to its apparent closeness due to the lack of discoverability, but I am coming here every day to look for what others do. Today I feel like writing again about the CAD ecosystem and how it affects makers in the long run, and not only makers but engineers alike. The trap of the closed/proprietary CAD ecosystem has made at least one casualty in the person of Thomas Sanladerer (I bet you all know it, if not then search on youtube for "Onshape is kicking me out (and maybe you, too)! "). The comments on that video and countless other forums and articles point to a rather bleak picture that makers have to deal with.
With all the rather negative news lately (Printrbot for an example, then the current issue with our community here), I looked again at the open-source environment (CAD-wise) and am quite impressed of the advancements FreeCad has gained lately. Watching a few tutorials/videos on a particular playlist I believe that doing the bulk of the work in one such tool, with other refinements using the commercial/free packages is one sound decision.
Take a look yourself at the following playlist and share your thoughts if you feel like it: https://goo.gl/rzZ7z7
@Marco_Tonoli I only linked the playlist as a proof of what can be done today in FreeCad … there are lots of tutorials out there regarding freecad and the list is itself a compilation by the author, who could have missed, on purpose or not, some videos. Just choose a video and click on the author to see all videos that he shares on his channel. You will not miss the 01, 02 etc that way.
I like FreeCAD and the idea behind it, but don’t quite connect to the interface quite as well. It’s not as intuitive, and when I’ve mentioned that to the developers - constructively, I’ve been told politely to essentially fuck off and they weren’t changing anything.
Until the developers take UX criticism more seriously, it’ll remain a niche open source tool that only the hard-core “must-be-open-source” crowd will use.
@ThantiK That’s a pity you had such experience with them I am sure that’s not the general spirit among the devs. I was very involved with Onshape in the beginning, when they were a bit more humble and basically got the same answer but maybe better wrapped in candy foil … at the end of the day I believe in putting one’s money where his mouth is so to speak and along that train of thought I’d rather try tim and time again until I get it, then be trained in another locked-in system that I might just have to discard from my head in a few years’time becuase of politics and economics… I don’t consider myself a hard-core open-source enthusiast but I can feel I’m heading there
Oh you’re asking about your individual feed not the community feed, that’s set by Google and unchangeable as far as I can tell. You should be able to see it in the community feed.
@ThantiK I prefer the layout and feed of this community and we have more members (though I believe the Reddit community beats us in daily active users). I’d recommend creating a poll here about using this community vs the Reddit one and let members vote and comment on which they prefer.
Nope, I can’t find my own post in the feed I receive from G+ when using the Home button… need to go to my Profile to be able to comment … it’s not the first time though.
Have been using FreeCAD for about 2 years now, it’s what I settled with after looking at other options being bleak as a Linux user. Honestly, the workflow is a bit quirky but once you get your head around it, that’s really the only stumbling block. Since 0.17 has been released, the workflow has changed and it’s much more similar to non open source CAD packages. The videos linked are 0.16, but 0.17 is a different beast altogether and well worth a look.
Is FreeCAD any easier to use than Fusion360? I’m currently running Windows on my laptop, but am trying to make an effort to go Linux 100%. Some apps just aren’t available on Linux, so I’m looking for alternatives. I’ve saved your playlist to watch when I can.
