submitted 10 months ago by WbrJr@lemmy.ml to c/freecad@lemmy.ml

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Hey there! I love the idea of freecad. But I have so many troubls learning it. I started with fusion360, used solidworks for some time, used inventor a bit and use onshape mostly now. So I think I know how to navigate and learn new cad software. But its not as easy with freecad sadly.

I Would love this product to be more accessable and easier to use and undertand. What can we do besides jumping in on developing ourselves?

Switching form fusion or onshape to freecad feels like switching from python to assamlby.

So how can we help to improve freecad and make it a more usable program? It seems as if the devs try to reinvent everything and every menue compared to all other cad programs i have used. I am totaly fine with some issues or bugs, but i feel like its not up for success currently.

Thanks a lot, I hope you have some ideas

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[-] ScottE@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago

You just have to invest the time to learn it. There's nothing I've done in other platforms that I haven't been able to do in FreeCAD. I also don't find it harder to learn or more obtuse than other tools I've used (Fusion360, SolidWorks, Blender) - but you do have to understand how to do things the way FreeCAD wants you to. Once you get over that, you'll learn how to work around the limitations and see how truly powerful it is. When you do get stuck, there are tons of YouTube videos to help, and the documentation isn't terrible.

[-] WbrJr@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

I think that is pretty much the point. The software expects me to do something a certain way, that just does not click with me and the workflow is not used by other software. So the steps to get there are not as intuitive

[-] ScottE@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I get that completely - though I'd argue the same is true of Fusion360 and SolidWorks, both of which I've used to varying degrees - and struggled through similar issues of getting the thing to do what I want. After a few projects on FreeCAD, things started to go a lot smoother, at least for me, as I got into the workflow that worked. It can be very frustrating when you get unspecific errors, or going back to change something in an earlier step breaks everything (which is an especially well known issue with FreeCAD, but can happen with any modeling programs).

this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024

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FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler made primarily to design real-life objects of any size. Parametric modeling allows you to easily modify your design by going back into your model history and changing its parameters.

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