FreeCAD
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Now wrt freeCAD being slower to work with, when was the last time you tried?
I'm on .19-pre, I update the appimage every now and then. Very usable overall, but still way slower to design anything especially if you have complex composites.
When I have simple things to do I try to use it so to lower my dependency to onshape and to slowly get used to it. Also being able to work completely off-line is a huge plus. If onshape starts to do shitty things like fusion is doing I'll very quickly switch though
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@matt3o dunno, for me it's similar speed as onshape to make stuff ... I'm probbly doing simpler stuff than you. I do some stuff faster on onshape when I don't know (yet) how to do it in freecad, but the operations I know how to do in freecad I think speed is same. So yes, I am designing bit slower in freecad (for now) but that's fault of mine not of freecads
onshape made only one change that I know off that made me move, not 'cause the change affected me (didn't really I had everything open before that change anyhow) but 'cause the whole "we can change the rules any time and you can't do anything about it" is not the way I wanna play that game
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So yes, I am designing bit slower in freecad (for now) but that's fault of mine not of freecads
I see that you are implying my inadequacy at parametric cad which is... totally true
but time to learn the software is still time. But I switched to inkscape (that now I actually prefer to illustrator... in certain aspects), to librecad (which is totally fine for what I need) and gimp (well, that still hurts)... freecad and blender are the last missing pieces... -
@matt3o not yours, actually mine.... and yes, time to learn tool is important that's why I think learning freecad is better use of my time then learning more of onshape of f360
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anyone tried inventor import workbench
https://github.com/jmplonka/InventorLoadersupposedly loads inventor files and f360 can export inventor (not any more probably but..) and the objects, names, featues, history should be preserved? might be idea for migration f360>freecad
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360 can still export inventor and step! They changed it yesterday
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@PCR ... and may still change their mind about that (and other) functionality at any point in the future.
Maybe it was my internet connection, or the aged 2013 MacBook Pro I run, but Onshape became unbearably slow, and Fusion also had plenty of ‘brownout’ moments. FreeCAD may be clunky, but I notice that it’s snappier.
Ian
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yes they may and will!BTW SolidEdge has a maker edition too!
And for all who want to simulate test out Z88!
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I just tried export to inventor of one rather simple object (4 bodies)
import to freecad offer 3 options
- SAT
- NATIV
- Convert to STEP
SAT imports something, show 4 objects by name but no shapes are visible
Nativ imports something, show 4 object by name but everything is distorted and weird
STEP imports the object properly, you see everything as is only the distinct 4 bodies that existed in f360 are not distinct any more
so for now this inventor thing does not work (if the problem is with export quality or the import library I can't say but f360>freecad trough inventor is a no go)
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Just noticed that Amazon has a nice selection of FreeCad books. This is a very good sign of a critical mass.
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@JoergS5, thanks for the links but I am still stuck. The first link suggested checking the mesh which I did and FreeCAD reported a solid body so it should have worked.
The feature might not be fully functional ..... -
@jens55 maybe you should check the stl by another tool. I knew netfabb was a good tool, but it is not free/available any more to my knowledge (maybe using an old free version is an option). If you tell which object you're trying, someone can check what the problem is.
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This is the object in question:
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I tried to use Fusion360 on that .stl file and either it's been too long since I last converted an stl file or they have disabled the ability to do the conversion.
It would be a sad day if it turns out that I can no longer edit stl files. For minor adjustments (and even some not so minor ones), fusion360 used to do an excellent job for the conversion. -
@jens55 I've got an old version of Netfabb (7.4) and the stl opens okay. However, it reports there are 26 shells (though no holes). Netfabb can't seem to repair it. Meshmixer (3.4.35) reports holes in the mesh around the type, and that each letter, and one of the PCB mounts, is a separate shell (which makes 26). Trying to fix the holes causes the type and mount to disappear. So, bad stl. Probably from Sketchup!
Ian
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Interesting .... I wonder why FreeCAD itself reports it as a solid.
I will try and import another stl and see how it does.Thanks!
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I was able to transform another stl into a solid but do not know what I am doing yet so editing that new solid was a no go. Time to do some practice work by re-creating the object that I was not able to convert from the stl file.
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@jens55 this type of stl is imho best recreating as solid from the start.
the first thing I do these days if I need to load stl I did not make myself is load the stl in the windows 10 3d builder
import
edit
select all
merge
file -> save as -> xxx-rep.stlthen I use xxx-rep.stl from there on... this "merge all -> export" in 3d builder somehow cleans whole bunch of %$#^@&+$ from STL that some stl generators create especially if any booleans were performed
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