Review of FreeCAD

Have some feature requests, feedback, cool stuff to share, or want to know where FreeCAD is going? This is the place.
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jimmihenry
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Review of FreeCAD

Post by jimmihenry »

Found this discussion yesterday and instantly knew a ton of interesting topics round FreeCAD on the web.

But today a guy called Thomas Sanladerer made a YouTube video. Thomas Sanladerer produces professional content covering everything about 3D printing, including reviews of exhibitions around the world! Today he is reviewing FreeCAD. Video duration 16:53.

I like FreeCAD because it is fun to work with. However not everything is NOICE when it comes to the usage, it won't be for everyone.
But Thomas has a point there.

Quote Thomas Sanladerer: "Should you go out and use FreeCAD? Sure it is free. Maybe it is going to klick for you? It didn't click for me, but I'll check back with FreeCAD every now and then and see where things are at" This was my though some years ago, when i got my paws on FreeCAD the first time. Back than i could not make a pad longer than 200mm... Guess some bug was in the way.

So far Thomas is heavily involved in Fusion360 that will be kicked in the nuts by FreeCAD. Hopefully soon!
Thomas in not involved into Fusion360 he is a Fusion360 user, as i know. Due my poor English knowledge i messed up. Sorry 4 that.

You may noticed the forum server went on it's knees, well now you know when the video was live on YouTube.

Escape from the claws of the corporate CAD overlords - with FreeCAD!
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Last edited by jimmihenry on Fri Mar 24, 2023 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
drmacro
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by drmacro »

I watched the video.

Generally fair handed.

He pretty much made it clear he likes his software to give him something, even if it's wrong. I.e. think for him. FreeCAD certainly ain't that.

I do agree with him that the Swiss Army Knife approach of trying to be everything to everyone is a good recipe for excelling at little.

After all, a Swiss Army Knife may have a saw blade, but it will never be good for cutting a meter diameter log. ;)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock: "...His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
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thomas-neemann
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by thomas-neemann »

jimmihenry wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:37 pm .....
he didn't really deal with freecad.
draft can create real 3d sketches, sketcher cannot. e.g. 3d bspline
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
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easyw-fc
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by easyw-fc »

jimmihenry wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:37 pm Found this discussion yesterday and instantly knew a ton of interesting topics round FreeCAD on the web.
....

So far Thomas is heavily involved in Fusion360 that will be kicked in the nuts by FreeCAD. Hopefully soon!
It is an obviously biased review 😛

He could just have followed i.e. some real tutorial like some from JokoEngineer to get a real feedback on the sw
JokoEngineer channel FreeCAD
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adrianinsaval
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by adrianinsaval »

it's easy to say he should have done this or that from us who already have the knowledge and where to find the knowledge but none of this is obvious to a newbie, the points he makes are valid and are an echo of what we see daily on the forum, people don't know when or why to use Part or Part Design and when, why or how to mix them, the single solid rule is a PITA, OCCT's limitations are a PITA and make some tools very fragile, TNP is a PITA, wiki is incomplete, tutorials are incomplete or hard to find or outdated, warnings and errors are confusing and unhelpful, freecad does no hand holding, etc.

The only part where I disagree a lot is where he says having too many modules drains time from devs, it's partially true as it does drain some time from reviewers but it's a common misconception people have that if a volunteer stopped working on something (usually something they want to work on) they would instead work on "more important" stuff, I don't think this corresponds to reality. So yeah there is some cleaning and reduction of scope that is worthwhile but not having the Path or Arch or FEM WB would not have made Part or Part Design or Sketcher any better, in fact I would say the opposite as those working or interested in those workbenches would also use and potentially contribute to the "more important" WBs.
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by thomas-neemann »

adrianinsaval wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:27 pm ....
if you are a paying customer of a commercial system you may have an influence on the development of the software.

with open source, anyone who wants to make changes themselves can create or commission them
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
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easyw-fc
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by easyw-fc »

adrianinsaval wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:27 pm it's easy to say he should have done this or that from us who already have the knowledge and where to find the knowledge but none of this is obvious to a newbie,
No, IMO his review is deeply biased because of his interests in fusion.

A simple question to the forum asking how to approach modelling his model would have given him the right way to design it very quickly; plus he could have paid a few bucks for some online lessons on FC which I know some forum member is offering.
Also, by his own admission, it wasn't his first time trying to use FreeCAD.
.
That is my review, IMHO.
jbraun
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by jbraun »

Parts of that video could be summed up as "It doesn't taste like I'm used to"
That seed tray example should be no problem for a Fusion user to muddle through ? Obviously first attempt will take more than 30 seconds.
otoh at ~7:00min the lack of offset tool in sketcher comes up. The way FreeCAD deals with this is different than other software to no obvious benefit, or at least no benefit that's obvious to me. Pointing that out is fair play.
For English help on youtube check out Joko Engineering or Mango Jelly Solutions.
Look for recent videos, this software is updated at a rapid pace.
racemaniac
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by racemaniac »

easyw-fc wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:48 pm
adrianinsaval wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:27 pm it's easy to say he should have done this or that from us who already have the knowledge and where to find the knowledge but none of this is obvious to a newbie,
No, IMO his review is deeply biased because of his interests in fusion.

A simple question to the forum asking how to approach modelling his model would have given him the right way to design it very quickly; plus he could have paid a few bucks for some online lessons on FC which I know some forum member is offering.
Also, by his own admission, it wasn't his first time trying to use FreeCAD.
.
That is my review, IMHO.
Most of the things you mention here are indications of a program with a very bad user experience. I use FreeCAD a lot, and i still agree with most of what Thomas said. In his example he wanted to make a shell of an object, you want to know how i most often do it? i make the shell manually. I know i can use thickness in part design, but it breaks so often i just don't bother anymore... (and not just breaking due to topo naming, also just not working due to whatever geometry issue it found this time)

If you have some time, you should look up tantacrul on youtube, he's now the lead of musescore (open source sheet music software), and since very recently also audacity. He's done a lot of very insightful videos on improving the UI of the tool, how he tries to make it discoverable for new users, but powerful for experienced users etc... I found it very insightful, and i hope FreeCAD will find a similar person that has a passion for user experience to accept the same challenge for FreeCAD.
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adrianinsaval
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Re: FreeCAD on the web

Post by adrianinsaval »

the problem is that some of those issues have nothing to do with user experience, the thickness tool not working is a problem in occt, no matter how good you make the FreeCAD interface that won't change, we need people working on improving occt too.
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