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submitted 1 month ago by ad_on_is@lemm.ee to c/opensource@lemmy.ml
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[-] Imacat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 99 points 1 month ago

Apparently Ondsel recently announced they’re shutting down, partially due to this release. A lot of what Ondsel added to the FreeCAD experience is just merged into FreeCAD now. Sad to see it but at least all their work wasn’t for nothing.

https://ondsel.com/blog/goodbye/

[-] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 month ago

Really sad to hear this, I just found out about Ondsel recently. Glad to hear FreeCAD is getting their merges, but I really would have liked to see Ondsel find a market all its own.

[-] okamiueru@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

I had mixed feelings about the whole Ondsel thing. And, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Most of the significant features in 1.0, that supposedly came from Ondsel, are things that I've been using for perhaps 3 years now, with a fairly well known branch of FreeCAD called Linkstage3 by a user that goes by RealThunder.

I don't know how much he was involved in Ondsel, or the merging of those features into FreeCAD, but it sure looked like a whole lot of great work wasn't credited to mind boggling amount of work by one person.

I still use the Linkstage3 branch, because it has a lot more features still, than what was present in the 1.0 pre-release i tried some months ago. Maybe things have changed since then.

[-] bluewing@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago

Ondsel's goal was to make money by selling cloud services for CAD users. They were probably bound to fail in that endeavor-- and they did. Still, it was worth a shot. But their biggest contribution to FreeCAD was being the adult in the room and getting all the different groups to agree on how to move forward to solve the biggest problem, the TNP issue that FreeCAD had from the start and couldn't be arsed to fix. Ondsel's lasting contribution is the Assembly workbench that is now be the default Assembly workbench for FreeCAD. And it's a lot better than the other 3 hacked solutions.

realthunder was involved in folding his TPN solution into this 1.0 release. Though my understanding is that it's different than his implementation. He is now back to his fork and is supposedly cleaning up his code to work better with the mainline branch of FreeCAD to make his code easier to insert.

Personally, I would move to either the stable 1.0 release now or, I you are crazy like me, the 1.1 weekly releases-- brought to you on github every Tuesday and Saturday for your alpha enjoyment of the bleeding edge.

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[-] asbestos@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago
[-] fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 77 points 1 month ago

I have tried freecad a number of times to replace solidworks as a critical piece of closed source software in hardware development toolchains. I have always struggled. Yesterday someone spent an hour with me at a makespace saying... "FreeCAD has a different way of doing this/try realthunder branch/use symmetry condition/delete all conditions that coincide" ... it has been worth years of trying alone. When I started solidworks the reseller gave me a week of training - this is often why complex FOSS software gets a reputation for being clunky, because alone you will spend ages hunting a GUI button in a complex interface.

TLDR: Go outside, go to makespace or a FREECAD conference - meet other people who use open source software - its much easier to use/learn from others than alone.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 11 points 1 month ago

When I started using SOLIDWORKS I had 0 training, still managed to make it work. FreeCAD is still frustrating after a lot of effort. But I keep trying, because it's the only real open source option

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[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 7 points 1 month ago

Well or use the forums. They have a wonderfully helpful community

[-] Mex@feddit.uk 4 points 1 month ago

The best thing about 1.0 is that it has ported most fo the topalogical fixes from realthunder!

[-] RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.world 42 points 1 month ago

Both GIMP 3 RC1 and FreeCAD 1.0 in the same month, damn

[-] ad_on_is@lemm.ee 27 points 1 month ago

We got GIMP 3 and FreeCAD 1 before we got GTA VI

[-] ganymede@lemmy.ml 38 points 1 month ago

freecad is actually getting fucking good for the price

[-] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 7 points 1 month ago

I kinda want to try it out just as a hobby, is it decent or should I look elsewhere?

[-] the16bitgamer@programming.dev 31 points 1 month ago

Is it decent ? Yes

Should I look elsewhere? Also yes.

CAD is difficult to understand on a good day, and FreeCAD is a beginner unfriendly implementation of it.

I personally love it and it’s an excellent tool if you already know what you are doing. If you don’t, it’s a mess of screens and spaces with no rhyme or reason.

My two cents. Learn CAD first, Google Sketchup or Fusion 360 are good and beginner friendly with lots of tutorials. Then move to FreeCAD to learn the differences.

That said if you want to just try FreeCAD, this release is the best I’ve used from them.

[-] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 4 points 1 month ago

I'm familiar with sketchup, I'll give it a shot this weekend!

[-] Liz@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago

Does it still have that weird problem where you're not allowed to modify surfaces because of the way you created them? Last time I tried using it, I couldn't create a mirror copy of a shape and then edit the mirror. I could only edit the source, which then applied the changes to all the parts.

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[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 month ago

FreeCAD has long had open source disease in that it is very powerful and yet a pain in the ass to work with partially through crap UI design.

1.0 includes a lot of changes that address this. They've modernized a lot of it, added a lot of missing features, and brought a lot of things up to modern snuff.

There are things I like about FreeCAD better than Fusion360, for example FreeCAD has a spreadsheet built into it. Fusion360, last time I used it, had a kind of underbaked Parameters list that you couldn't even sort, the ability to have a spreadsheet for your dimensions and such.

All Parametric CAD software is complicated to use, you need to wrap your head around designing with rules, but once you get that basically all of them unlock.

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 6 points 1 month ago

No. The people who struggle with FreeCAD struggle because they leaned something else first. Its the same reason Photoshop trained users complain about GIMP while people who learned GIMP first dont complain.

Learn FreeCAD first, and you won't be handicapped

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[-] BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 30 points 1 month ago

Ooh! Time to give it another look.

[-] ad_on_is@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago

tbh... I like it more than OnShape, but I also just use it as a hobby for 3dprinting.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 6 points 1 month ago

It's still... Difficult if you're used to commercial CAD suites, but it's leagues better than it used to be

[-] einlander@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago

Rip Ondsel, made great changes before it died.

[-] ad_on_is@lemm.ee 21 points 1 month ago

most of them are merged in FC, and they will still continue contributing.

[-] oyo@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago

I've tried it for a few hours, but basic stuff seems incredibly needlessly difficult. After thousands of hours in Solidworks it's just too painful.

[-] bluewing@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago

Oddly, despite the 1,000's of hours of SW myself, I had little difficulty in picking up FreeCAD. Or Fusion or OnShape, (even taught OnShape to high school students), or SolidEdge. Once you understand the design process of CAD, it's not all that hard. I do have preferences in UI's and workflows, but that doesn't mean I can't use something different.

[-] oyo@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

All the others you listed are very similar to solidworks and no problem. FreeCAD decided sketching should be completely different. I can barely even draw a line and I don't understand how that's possible.

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[-] WbrJr@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 month ago

I just treid it a bit. And I have to say its quite incredible how good it got! Still a bit rough but I would say its 30% better than a year ago. But maybe ondsel just got me into the mindset of this program.

Its sad to see ondsel go because I doubt we would be here without them.

I hope the freecad team sees all the incredible feedback and the next few versions will be similar improvements for usabilty!

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[-] PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Since I work with AutoCAD daily I feel like Ive been hearing about FreeCAD for what feels like a decade or two. I cant believe it has been pre 1.0 all this time.

[-] weststadtgesicht@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 month ago

I loved the idea of FreeCAD but having no experience in CAD software at all I always struggled with fundamental basics that were not covered in the tutorials I watched. The huge amount of work benches (some of them 3rd party) did not help since most forum posts or tutorials were based on different or outdated versions.

Having a go with build123d now, trying to model stuff using python. At least the number of available API functions is manageable and everything else is just programming (which I already know).

[-] bluewing@lemm.ee 18 points 1 month ago

If you want the best tutorials on FreeCAD, check out mangojelly on youtube. He has a current 1.0 beginner series that starts right from the very beginning. And he goes slow enough to easily follow along.

Ignore the huge number of workbenches. You can even go to the Settings and turn the ones you don't need off so you never see them again. You are only going to use 2 workbenches 90% of the time-- Part Design and Sketcher. And as you get more experience, you might add another couple of workbenches as you go. Most of the third party workbenches are specialty things. For example, I sometimes need to design and make gears or do small sheetmetal work. So I have the Gear and sheetmetal workbenchs installed. You probably would never need it.

Learning CAD, no matter what flavor, does require effort. It's as much about learning how to think as it is about learning how to do.

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[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I find the opposite. There's so many videos on FreeCAD its wonderful. And if you're stuck, ive posted to the forums and within a week someone literally took my file and made a video showing how to do what I couldn't figure out.

Such a fantastic community.

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[-] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 month ago
[-] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

In a past career, I was a mechanical design engineer; I've probably spent 10,000 hours of my life in SolidWorks. Not once did I feel like a 3d mouse would speed me up or otherwise solve my problems. I trialed a spacepilot for several months and just couldn't be arsed after awhile. What do others get out of them?

[-] B0rax@feddit.org 11 points 1 month ago

For some people it simply does not help with the workflow. For me it is a significant upgrade as it allows me to never use the normal mouse to move around in 3D, and allows me to quickly move the view to where I want it to be. Without it, moving in 3D just feels clunky to me.

But as I said, it is a preference.

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[-] 7fb2adfb45bafcc01c80@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

I use LibreCAD for architecture work and will take a look at FreeCAD.

Has anyone else tried both for architectural work? How did they compare for you?

[-] archomrade@midwest.social 8 points 1 month ago

I work as an architectural designer but I've never really been allowed to use anything other than Revit for BIM workflows. Our consultants basically only use Revit or Autodesk products, so our hands are kind of tied for projects where we need to collaborate.

My boss uses Vectorworks for our small projects that don't need BIM, I might suggest we switch to Libre or FreeCAD so that we all have access without needed another VW license. Do you enjoy using LibreCAD?

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[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

1.0? So which one have I been using?

[-] andyortlieb@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[-] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

0.9.final.revised.25BAK.lastbest.final

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[-] sudoku@programming.dev 8 points 1 month ago

when is it getting a new UI? hopefully the blender 2.8 moment will come soon for FreeCAD.

[-] ad_on_is@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago

There is already OpenTheme, which you can install via the AdonManager... looks waaaay better than the default

[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Seems like a lot of great changes

[-] NoLifeGaming@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago
[-] stardustpathsofglory@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Glad to hear! I was using it already from time to time.

[-] Macallan@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

How is it for Civil work?

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this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
601 points (99.3% liked)

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