How much do you like FreeCAD?
Do you use it for 3D printer part designs?
Have you used it for CNC projects?
Is there a ‘Thingaverse’ for FreeCAD designed projects?
Is FreeCAD kinda like a cross between Scad and Fusion, but free? and Python scriptable?
I enjoy it. I’m odd because I compile the current development version often in order to run into problems and report them before others do.
It has its quirks. In the past few years, it’s had a lot of work done to improve usability. All CAD has quirks. I’ve built some fairly complex objects in it. I’m working on one right now…
Starting from scratch, Fusion 360 is probably faster to learn, based on what others have said. I like working with Free-as-in-speech software and I run Linux.
Absolutely. Both for any part I print in my printers, as well as parts I design in my printers, and you can find examples posted here.
Yes, though I have ended up using Kiri:Moto for CAM because it’s been simpler to get going. The CAM system in FreeCAD requires a bit of setup.
It’s more that you can use any of the model sharing sites. I tend to post my 3D printable models I share to Printables and Cults3D after giving up on thingiverse. I usually post both STL and STEP models.
Perhaps the best-known site for sharing CAD models, inclusive of FreeCAD, is grabcad.
I put most of what I put significant time into modeling in Git, and things I share I often push to GitLab.
It’s not just scriptable, it basically is internally built as a C++ library exported to and driven from Python. Plenty of the non-performance-critical parts of FreeCAD are written in Python. If you keep the Python console open while you use it, it prints the Python you could call to do the same thing in that console. I’ve used that to write Python macros. For example, I have a Python macro for FreeCAD to build all the variants of the Morse code paddle system I designed.
It can incorporate OpenSCAD code as one way of building the objects you can work with in it. A friend shared with me an OpenSCAD model for a part he asked me to make in my machine shop. But the model didn’t make it easy for me to make. I imported the .scad info FreeCAD, then used the FreeCAD TechDraw workbench to create working drawing for me to use at the mill to create his part.
I strongly recommend this YouTube channel for learning more about FreeCAD:
Darren Stone (“MangoJelly”) is a good teacher and doesn’t assume you watch everything he’s done in order. Use his FreeCAD v1 Basic Beginners playlist to get started.
Thank You kind Sir… All good CAD programs are ‘UN-easy’. I was trying to learn CAD drawing back in the 286 days, I was brought into the cad drafting floor of an engineering co. and given a copy of AutoCAD while “we’ were upgrading their computer system to the 386DX models with 40gig hard drives… I played with that until I could draft ‘some’, but never thought then I would be any good. But I got some good concept of how it worked.
I have found Fusion to be learnable for my loquantum-greymatter. I am going to give FreeCAD a good effort.
Again, Thanks!
As a professionally non-technical but reasonably self taught hobbyist, I’d recommend Fusion 360 over Freecad as a CAD program for beginners to intermediate. I’ve tried the various iterations of Freecad, and while reasonably powerful, the learning curve is punishing. Possibly because I started with Onshape, I find the logic behind Fusion easy and intuitive, the exact opposite of Freecad. It’s very possible that someone with knowledge of Autocad or the like would prefer Freecad.
If you use Fusion, export all your work as STEP files, so that when the license terms change again, you know you still have access to geometrical objects that can be usefully imported into and used in other CAD programs.
I love it. I started my 3D CAD life using Alibre and I paid for it, something like $400 for a licence. I got to grips with it and then the company was taken over and the new owners moved to a subscription licence that for me was too high so I had a load of models in their proprietary format which I could no longer use.
I looked around for alternatives and found FreeCAD which was at that time around version 0.12 which was not great but I persevered and got to grips with the differences and limitations. Being open source gave me the confidence that I would not get burned and lose access to my models again due to the whims of a corporate decision outside of my control. I like open source generally anyway so it fitted me well.
I’ve started developing a workbench but that’s a tougher hill to climb…
Absolutely, it works brilliantly. I believe there’s a 3D slicer workbench but I prefer to export and then use an external slicer.
Absolutely, I use the CAM worbench (formerly called PATH workbench) to create CAM data for me LinuxCNC based milling machine. There’s a learning curve of course but again, I’m glad I persevered.
Great point. Step files are good to keep/have as a back up’s of your projects.
Tell me more about your LinuxCNC milling machine? What controller are you using?
It’s a Denford Triac and originally I put an old desktop PC on it so I could use the LPT port. That was find but it was bulky and noisy so at some point I replaced it with a BeagleBoneBlack running MachineKit which is a special version of LinuxCNC designed to work with the BBB.
Development on MachineKit stalled some years ago and the version of LinuxCNC is now out of date. I don’t understand DeviceTrees and the whole MachineKit approach to rebuild it from scratch using the latest version of LinuxCNC, which has also been broken in to parts, so I’m thinking I’m going to replace the BBB with something else as soon as time allows.
I want to concur about the danger of losing your work. That’s why I moved from Fusion to FreeCAD.
FreeCAD is for sure quirkier, but if you watch a bunch of mango jelly videos, you can get up to speed pretty quickly. And the forums are also very helpful. More often than not, somebody just does your work for you, and you can go back and look at what they did. Fusion has quirks too. CAD is just hard.
Fusions forums are good too, though. But I just don’t want to wake up and realize I can’t access my work anymore. I like having my files right here on my computer.
I do like having my files on my machine much more than in the ‘cloud’. As much as I hate spending the money for an annual subscription, I do like the workflow of Fusion. It has taken a long time to learn how to design assemblies, reverse engineer parts, and even create toolpaths that work. So, I believe that changing to a different design app is surly in my future…
It was probably easier for me moving from learning SolidWorks to FreeCAD than it would have been moving from Fusion to FreeCAD.
Reverse engineering is probably highly transferable since a lot of it is learning how to infer design intent. FreeCAD made it a lot easier to work from photos in the 1.0 release, though I rarely do that. I mostly work out a likely best origin, measure from that, and just use dimensions in sketches. Assuming that the original part was thoughtfully designed and working out whether it was likely designed in Metric or US Customary, and then resolving ambiguity towards what makes sense in that measurement system, is a large part of my reverse engineering flow, irrespective of the tool I’m using.
Assemblies are getting better in FreeCAD, but in my opinion are still a slight weak point compared to the rest of the tool. The author of the Assembly4 workbench wouldn’t stop being offensive in the forums and was banned from the forums. It was a highly capable workbench but a bit complicated to get started with. The built-in Assembly workbench has some really nice simplifications but doesn’t have all the features folks want yet. It at least has been a place to collect improvements, though!
I still haven’t worked out a good system for getting FreeCAD’s CAM working for me again. I know it’s capable, but I still need to rationalize my tool crib. In the meantime, it turns out I keep have a lot of fun doing manual machining…
Yeah, One thing I like is Fusion’s CAM system. When I started using it for 3D printing I was very user friendly to be able to chat a design, and just ‘push’ it over to the ‘3D print’ palette. And then ‘push’ that straight to Cura.
But learning the tool paths and Feeds&Speeds is a whole different ball game, which I know is true of any CAM milling tool path system. But Fusion has so many options for each tool path style that it is easy to get lost as to what works. What I have found is that I get a tool path type (i.e. 2D surfacing) that will generate the tool path feature that can simulate, and I then change the options and limits, regenerating with each change untill I get what I was trying for. Then I generate the .nc code and use it on a test run with a scriptable piece of material before I run an actual final feature part..
I’ve watched a couple of Mango Jelly’s YT vids, and I’m getting ready to start using FreeCAD in the next month or so..