3DPrinting

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3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io

There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml

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founded 2 years ago

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I liked Fusion 360, I like Onshape - but I'd rather like something that I won't lose over the whims of one company. So, what? (feddit.org)

submitted 9 months ago by the_fourth@feddit.org to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world

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I am not a design draftsman, I'm not an engineer. My workflow is usually: I put something on the scanner, load the calibrated scan, trace the outline, throw a few sketches on various planes in there, round a few edges, print it and I'm done.

Fusion 360 scratches that itch very well but requires me to keep a Windows VM and also their free model felt more and more unusable. OnShape is a nice substitute that works fine for me, but I don't like the "free or 1500€/year" approach. Without a middle ground subscription for makers it feels that I could lose anything the second their energy prices for servers go up or something.

The list of CAD software is exhaustive, so I am looking for recommendations that fit my "eh, click, click, click, good enough" workflow. FreeCAD is way too unintiuitive for that. I have tried getting into it, but 3D printing is a tool for me and the learning curve quickly made using it another hobby.

So. Suggestions welcome. Scalding criticism about my lack of enthusiasm and consumer mentality not so much, but I guess that comes bundled with useful advice, so, eh, I'll take it.

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[–] matto@lemm.ee 25 points 9 months ago

I'm in the same boat! I got tired of the constant enshittification of Fusion360 and started learning FreeCAD. And wow! it's way less intuitive. But I think I'll push through, as I don't want anything but open-source for this. The reason being that I don't want the same thing to happen again: I spend an unholy amount of time learning how to use a CAD software, and then it becomes the hottest steaming pile of corporate shit possible and I don't want to use it anymore. That's why I haven't even started looking at OnShape. With open-source the biggest risk is that the same thing might happen if the project gets abandoned, but it doesn't seem to be the case for FreeCAD (at least in the foreseeable future). In any case, I'm interested in hearing what others have to say :)