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fy20 17 hours ago

What CAD tool should I be using as a hobbyist now? Maybe 7 years ago I was using Fusion360, but it didn't work on Linux at the time.

nfriend 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I use FreeCAD! https://www.freecad.org/ It's a bit rough around the edges but now that I know its quirks I'm pretty productive with it.

foenix 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I highly recommend onshape these days if you're ok with a web app that makes all your design open source (the pay for private space model has a steep cliff, but for my hobby purposes and open source enthusiasm it's great).

I've lately been dabbling with feature script and making model configurations (eg a model size or appearance variant) for some CNC work. Here's a CNC laser module I modelled with onshape: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/2d5e7a41d9b0da06350348dc/w...

Ccecil 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I used to use fusion for many years.

Recently I transitioned to freecad. There was a bit of a learning curve since it is more constraint based than fusion requires. Once freecad 1.0 came out for prerelease use I started using that instead...it is much improved over the old method. A lot more similar in use to other CAD packages.

I suggest finding a few good tutorials and working through them...it took me a lot less time to learn freecad (for me) than it did to learn fusion...and it removed one more closed step in my mostly opensource toolchain.

nolroz 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I get an embarrassing amount of mileage out of Tinkercad. It's free and incredibly easy to get going with. I keep meaning to take some time and learn a more sophisticated program but the payoff has never offset the speed of delivery that I get with a rough cut using Tinkercad.

timonoko 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have solved the only problem OpenSCAD ever had: -- You cannot change parameters just by pointing at them.

https://youtu.be/eG5lhLYvihQ?si=d4qgLLUzfsIjir7M