FreeCAD
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gosh I'd love to use freecad on a regular basis, I find it to be usable and at the end you can design basically anything, the only problem is that it takes three times the time than with onshape (my weapon of choice). As a maker I don't care if my designs end up to the public domain, actually I like that, but I understand that onshape might close or limit functionalities at any time, so it's good to keep an eye on really open alternatives.
Still as a hobbyist I have very limited time and knowing I have to spend half a hour on something it may take 5 minutes it's really painful.
I'll see if I can freecad development (being with code, docs or money) in the hope it will get a better workflow with time.
Interesting. I used onShape for a long while (for me the best "free" tool out there, especially as I come from solidworks background) and stopped when they changed policy, not 'cause I have issue with publicity - I give source to all my 3d work anyhow so that's not a problem (like the f360 changes attm are not too big of a deal for me) but 'cause this is a move in wrong direction for me and they can change that at any time locking me out of my stuff and I don't want that.
Now wrt freeCAD being slower to work with, when was the last time you tried? What release you tried. Release they have out there is imho unusable, it is too slow and too unstable, but the pre-release .19 is very very usable. Takes a bit time to figure out how to do stuff but then it becomes fast and productive. The sketching is a bit sketchy
and finiky but one gets around that after few days of using it -
@PCR that url does not work for me ?
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@arhi for me the link works. It's a guide to convert stl to step with Catia or FreeCAD.
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@JoergS5 interesting, it works now, was 404 when I tested first time
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I was trying to make installer for freecad .19 for days now and finally decided to see what they are doing for .19 prerelease and I see they are shooting .z for a portable "install" ... looks like they have the same issue .. the NSIS tool they used originally has a 2G limit and when the size of the app goes over 2G the darn thing won't work. Anyhow unpacking the archive anywhere works and looks like it's using home dir to store all the running data, config, workbenches etc etc .. so no install required
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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
