Date: 2025/07/30 - FreeCAD thoughts and the necessity of hurting ourselves for the greater good - Themes: FreeCAD, Word-ism, Free Software

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Everything is in the title.

What a mouthful. That's the 2-in-1 article.

First things first, why freeCAD.

Parental advisory: explicit lyrics based on opinion, and that can change over time.

I use FreeCAD because i don't saw any other option available to my base skills. Until i got better at code OpenSCAD (which is AMAZING) was kinda locked out. LibreCAD was in other hand really accessible to me from day one, more than FreeCAD, because i've been trained to make vector drawings.

So i choosed FreeCAD over LibreCAD because it was suffisantly a tricky job to transfer my skills from Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape. And i needed to make 3D shapes.

The experience

I'm no expert on FreeCAD there's few workbenches i never opened (and don't even know their purpose). Workbenches are modes, for every kind of stuff you wanna make, there's a workbench. Think of that like a well known internet rule: For every topic there's a workbench for that like architecture, drawing, woodworking, PCB managing, simulations and so on.

I've been using mostly:

• Part Design
• Part
• Draft

Which is the most of FreeCAD if you intend to make objects. No architecture or construction, just plain objects.

The learning curve when you know nothing about CAD software in incredibly steep. One of the steepest i took. (And i've learned PureData, still learning Lisp languages, took several classes in a wide range of topics) but this is another level.

It feels like it was made in a bubble out of this world, deep down in the darkest cave in the darkest ages of software developement, as if they didn't have access to ressources and never heard of Blender or Autodesk's Fusion 360.

But, look those words with the greatest attention: This weird workflow means something. CAD software are ancient as hell, in fact hell was created in a CAD software. That means all this weird workflow has history, and a really deep one! (I encourage you to read few topics about people hanging out in some CAD forums, they have opinions and thats what shaped FreeCAD a bit)

While the entry learning curve is steep. The models are rock solid, you can't really go wrong with a piece made in that kind of software. It feels rigid due to that huge history but also it isn't once you understand the first layer of rules.

When we get to the hurting ourselves part?

FreeCAD is Free Software. Here we go.

While Blender made it up to professionals, Krita followed, Libre-Office is used in governments we need FreeCAD to be put in the same place. Taught in schools. As french i'm sure the software taught is maybe Dassault Systèmes something out of chauvinism. (And it would be quite awesome, not for chauvinism but for resiliance against another giant being Autodesk obviously. We love a King Kong vs Godzilla fight) But we don't need that.

We need schools making partnerships with FreeCAD and dime in for it. I really think if the software is taught in school it makes it last longer. It only hurt big corpos sponsorships with public entities; public as gov/public schools. (see Microsoft's partnership with non-US govs)

Change is hard, like switching from Windows to GNU/Linux and *BSD. And teaching professors is costful. But if we don't jump into the water we will never know it was warm! We will never switch and keep being abused by the cost of those big corpos impose here and there. After school its up to people to still use the software or switch, get the card numbers up and pay for a three digit (or more) license! By the same logic the software isn't imposed on businesses and companies. Its up to them to pay-per-computer their little keys here and there.

But for Public entities and private schools (if they're affiliated with some Ministry of Education, making them half-private half-public) we need Free Software first.

It wouldn't create the awful situation i was in about my Adobe licence when taught those software in school. I wouldn't mind keep Illustrator forever and ever, but software leasing is weak and is perishable. So, the need to take this problem to the root.

Schools need to teach FreeCAD and other Free Software. It makes sustainability over projects, visibility and yes, student will be annoyed because it's not the shiniest Solidworks they want, its not easy like Fusion 360. But it create base knowledge of it helping to lower the learning curve for later.

Mountain hikes to chill in walled garden

I think we could ever need to make plans, being more autonomous, being able of reclaming knowledge and tools, advertasing by promotion and usage for shady half free-half contract affecting something you cannot value yet isn't right.

But also we cannot complain about people leaving it. In a perfect world you learned to use FreeCAD and yes you have school knowledge of it. And years after that, freed from schools and all that you end by getting a licence of Catia. And it's all good, you did it on you own money own consciousness on your own risks of being robbed of your personal data. More important you don't feel the burden of learning it. Because you learned FreeCAD First.

More?

I think i'm good, have a nice summer