I’m using Fusion360, and I dislike it for a lot of reasons, but it’s easy to use. I tried FreeCAD, but it was very janky in comparison. Shapr3D was surprisingly good, but there’s no way I’m paying monthly for my hobby usage. I need precision prints, so I can’t just use Blender or similar.
Is there some magical unicorn software I’m not finding?
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No, all CAD software sucks. I use FreeCAD myself and just got used to the jank.
FreeCAD has possibly the worst UI I have ever used combined with some of the worst UX of any software. But it has every feature I need, it’s free and it works (mostly).
I haven’t used it in awhile, but OnShape I think had the best UI, for being in a browser.
There are some macros out there I’ve found that make FreeCAD a lot better. I kinda wish they had a half-decent reference for macro writing; they’ll point you to their unfinished out of date wiki if you ask.
Omg. I swear they rename/move a bunch of things every update so every guide is just a little bit out of date.
The answer they give you is “If you want it written, YOU write it.” Which…it’s no wonder open source software doesn’t hold up, right? It’s made by idiots who think it’s up to end users to write the manual.
I use FreeCAD.
I follow Mango Jelly Solutions and DeltaHedra on YouTube for tutorials.
I’ve had excellent results designing items for 3D prints.
Do make sure to retry freecad if you havent in a while - they finally merged their big update that made faces not break - its still got a learning curve but its far less frustrating now
Plasticity. It’s the best balance I’ve found between cost and usability. And it doesn’t force you to save your files on someone’s cloud.
You pay annually and get updates but when your year is up you can choose to pay less for each subsequent year or stop paying and continue using the version you currently have indefinitely without future updates.
I did the Plasticity demo, but I got busy and forgot about it. Now I can’t do another demo.
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OnShape. If you’re familiar with Fusion360, OnShape requires almost no additional learning. Workflows are pretty much the exact same. It’s free under the guise that everything you make is OnShapes IP. But if you’re looking to model casually and aren’t making things you wish to patent, it’s great.
Not open source if that’s a requirement.
I think the free version is more nuanced then that. By using the free version you agree to:
1.Use it for non commercial projects.
2 Place your designs in the public domain for anyone to use. Any design created from a free account is made public and may be used by others.
I didn’t dig too deep so I’m not sure what restraints are placed on anyone using your design.
But at no point is Onshape claiming ownership of your design.
