I feel CAD is one area where open source does not shine. The problem space is too complex, and the UIs demand continuous, thoughtful development driven from customer demands rather than developers scratching their own itches.

Not least there are free (as in beer) solutions available, like fusion 360, that are enormously capable.

Theres certainly a place for open source, and openscad would be a great tool to reach for for procedurally generated models. But in all honesty, Freecad doesn't compare well to the professional tools in this space - not in the way that say, gimp does to its commercial competitors.

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gucci-on-fleek 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> the UIs demand continuous, thoughtful development

The current AutoCAD GUI is essentially unchanged from the 80s, so this shouldn't really be much of an issue. They added a ribbon probably 15 years ago at this point, but I can't think of any other major/recent changes. (But maybe there are some changes that I'm not familiar with, since I don't use AutoCAD very often and only started using it relatively recently)

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fifticon 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

fusion 360 is exactly "free" for that reason, to make people reason like you do. They do not want a blender moment.

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bsza an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Another advantage of OpenSCAD (if you can call it that) is that LLMs seem to be able to work with it pretty well. A few days ago I asked chatgpt to make me a box for storing batteries, and it came out perfect on first try without any modification. It also made an okay-ish looking 3D pelican after some back-and-forth.

	▲	willis936 33 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The problem with openSCAD is that you cannot modify it easily. I had made a complex geometry several years ago in openSCAD and I have been waiting for a model that can actually convert it into a python script that generates freecad parametric sketches that recreate it in an editable way. All frontier models fail at this, some more spectacularly than others (gemini never spent 40 minutes / $4 trying and failing, but opus 4.6 did). https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4335532

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erremerre 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I never understood this UI problem.

Because... You can copy the UI of the leader and problem solved.

There you have GIMP with an absolute nightmare UI to use, but people keep saying, just get used to it. On the other hand, a single developer, in javascript, made a copy of photoshop, and most people I know prefer to use that over GIMP...

Just copy the UI that works, if you can't research your own UI.

	▲	imtringued 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>Because... You can copy the UI of the leader and problem solved. For whatever reason, the FreeCAD community is explicitly against taking note from competitors. Copying the UI of the leader is a thoughtcrime.
	▲	andrewshadura an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Why do you think GIMP is a nightmare? I don’t find it problematic at all. The only issue I’m hitting once in a while is that I click on a button on the toolbar, and I guess I hit its edge, as I doesn’t switch modes. Other than that, I don’t have any complaints at all. What are yours?

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blablabla123 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don’t know, I tried FreeCAD a few months ago and it was buggy as hell. I did some really basic extrusions and distance constraints. But ended up with non-perpendicular entities despite not constructing it like this.