FreeCAD is the front-runner for me.

KiCAD was also a meh ECAD FOSS alternative 7-8 years ago, now it is by far the tool of choice for regular ECAD designs. I can see FreeCad getting there by 2030.

▲

Workaccount2 4 hours ago | parent [-]

FreeCAD is probably the single most frustrating and unintuitive pieces of software I have ever used. I almost drafted hate mail to the devs after 15 minutes of crash coursing fusion360 got me further than 2 days of trying to use FreeCAD.

It seems like it has lots of capability but still "punch your monitor" levels of difficulty just trying to do the most basic stuff.

▲

foofoo12 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I use FreeCAD and it's pretty good. But I think it's impossible to learn by trial and error.

MangoJelly has done an amazing job in churning out high quality tutorials for FreeCAD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_yh_S31R9g&list=PLWuyJLVUNt...

(this is just one playlist, there's a lot more on his channel).

▲

RAMJAC 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

While it's a pain to learn and requires some plugins (addons) for basic ergonomics, FreeCAD absolutely works for parametric CAD modeling. YMMV depending on the project and complexity, it does the trick for laser cutting, bending and 3D printing.

Deltahedra is a great YouTube channel for getting the basics.

▲

VerifiedReports 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It suffers from too many "workbenches," some of which appear to be redundant or dated. You never know whether structures created by one are "compatible" with the M.O. of another (like "Part" vs. "Part Design").

And it presents nonsensical problems, like offering to create a sketch on the face of an object and then complaining that the sketch doesn't belong to any object. So you have to manually drag it under the object in the treeview. So gallingly DUMB.

Despite all that, I will wrestle with its ineptitude before giving Autodesk a penny. I get stuff done with it and respect those who give their time to develop it.

▲

nickthegreek 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

how long ago did you try? the recent advances have turned me into a believer as a hobbyist compared to the first time i checked it out.

▲

SchemaLoad 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I tried it this year. Not in too much depth, but I tried Fusion and FreeCAD for the first time this year for 3D printing and found I was getting much further much faster on Fusion.

I'm sure I could grind harder and learn more and make FreeCAD work, but I'm not sure why I'd bother.

	▲	nickthegreek 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No arguement that fusion isn’t better and easier to learn. Their licensing and changes to their hobbyist offering were no longer tenable for me which prompted my change. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was able to work in freecad after a few youtube videos.