thoughts & insights
Date: 2023/02/26 - the bucket of rocks - Themes: FreeCAD, software, opinions
Story mode
So, now i can do more FreeCAD, because framebuilders need tools and cheap. Lately i did some tools clones to make them more available and easy to remake, alongside with fixtures and jigs. I really like this exercise of recreate those objects because it makes me build some solid memory about modeling. Hope someday i'll get the forge to work so i can throw all those somewhere for everyone out there.
Computer Aided Design &
I had also more time to see other people doing the same with other software and as a beginner and also dedicated to FreeCAD i just watched how the other stuff work so far.
I saw Autodesk Fusion 360: i also tested it before fully commit myself to FreeCAD. Seeing a good user with it, it felt daunting. Depressing. It was seriously a fast workflow. The Software is bright with plenty of visual cues and anchors to make stuff easier. The person and the software did a fast work, faster than me at least.
I saw Sketch Up: At first i did said Google's Sketch Up, and its wrong. Nowdays we should say Trimble' Sketch Up. Yeah i watched someone work with this piece of software. Away from biased opinions of "this software can do everything faster and better" It looks like Fusion 360, performs like Fusion 360 and i'll dare to say: It cannot do as much as FreeCAD if we compare both vanilla versions. But it was super interresting to see how quck and fast you can do stuff. Not as fast as FreeCAD when you're a fast constraint-ner.
I saw TurboCAD: It was pretty much seeing some version AutoCADand performing really great on MacOS, the menus felt messy but the person behind the desk was no beginner so, it was more or less as fast as Sketch Up.
Two schools
I felt like FreeCAD was rigid as fuck comparing to those software. Surprise for none. Be able to make random sized object without being forced to constraint it seems so nice. This phase is the center node of modeling in FreeCAD and in others you just take the form, and hop. I never saw one error. or red text screaming warnings despite the mistake of people on their stuff. But on the other hand FreeCAD feels solid somehow. All sketch part feels safe and precise.
From this point
I really want to try CAD addons for Blender it seems also quite fast. I still learn with FreeCAD but i'm not gonna lie about it THE LEARNING PROGRESSION IS STEEP AF. And i understand that people dodge FreeCAD for Fusion 360.