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Thanks so much for taking the time to make this video. I'm starting my CAD learning journey today, and yours is the first video I've watched on the topic.
It is worth noting that FreeCAD is actually taking a serious look at UI and UX to make it more intuitive and options the experience more. You've made some valid points though.
Most "free" softwares are burdened with piece of trash humans that "religiously believe" that the way they do things in a UI is how EVERYONE must do things in a UI. Almost every OpenSource/Free product with any decent functionality has this problem. And it's not just a "no UI/UX" person that won't do the work. They BLOCK IT actively. It is absolutely the #1. Blocker for the adoption of most software.
Are they taking a serious look at the fundamental bug that makes it unusable? Say you draw something with a cube, then work on one of the cube’s faces by, say, putting a cylinder on that face, if you change the cube’s dimensions, the rest of the drawing is thrown totally off kilter.
One of the benefits of FreeCAD's architecture is it's built in parametric modeling design. This is indispensable for part revisions, since changes can be made that propagate through the entire part with minimal input. Fast and efficient. It takes forethought when building the part, but the payoff is on the backend. That it is open source, has many addons and often updated while free for everyone is a huge added plus.
Fusion and Inventor support it as well. Plus, the revision system in Fusion is saving a lot of time when something goes wrong. I wish FreeCAD main developers started looking at other packages and taken the good bits. For me, the best examples of an opensource alternative to commercial tools Blender and KiCAD. They learned from the industry and made things same or better.
You realize that FreeCad has a big problem with keeping track of features (it's called Topological Naming Problem) and trying to change history breaks things that shouldn't be broken. So it's parametric capabilities are not production ready, it's still not even 1.0 version, and it shows in many tools not working a great deal of time. Or having the same tools in different workbenches like fillet in part and part design workbench. It's unusable, and I am sad that it's not, I would love it to be.
@@AephVeyniker agreed, I have tried it several time, tens of ours, and gave up.. pity. Yes, maybe if I put another tens of hours, I could familize, I do not want to push it down, but my experience was sad...
Parametric modeling is fundamental in almost all the other options too. But in Onshape, Fusion etc it actually works properly, its dynamic and flexible and intuitative too. FreeCAD is possibly the worst piece of software (not just CAD software) I have ever experienced. I really want to use it, I've spent literally 6 months trying to model in it, but its hopeless - and I being negative about free software but is just about unusable without years of practice, and even then its so much slower and more cumbersome than other CAD packages.
At least with freecad I know I can still open my files the next day for the same price of nothing. Unlike all the other options. All locked to their cloud, putting you and by extension your business at the mercy of those vendors. Might be me, but that is just not acceptable. What happens if onshape folds, decides to stop the free version, double the price.... Your shit out of luck, same for fusion. You own nothing, have rights to nothing. Your designs are theirs. You might say it will never happen, but looking at Autodesk and the likes history, I'm not that sure.
Hand drafting was so tedious, but so satisfying. The attention to detail was amazing but so annoying too. I liked creating the third side from a 2D image, and the very nice mechanical pencils my mom had to buy.
I put myself through college by drafting. Skills gained in an elective jr high class and a 1 year post high school construction design drafting class. I would still prefer to draw by hand but time marches on.
FreeCAD isn't for beginners, good thing is compared to commercial alternatives is that it will be free and open-source forever, can't say same thing for onshape/fusion or similar alternatives.
I am a beginner and I started with FreedCad. Watched some good tutorial videos. It may be not that intuitive, but it is the only really free CAD software out of that list.
I'm a beginner, drawing only what I need for repairs when original parts are not available. Mostly simple shapes. Sometimes with months in between I have to relearn a lot. Yet I can make simple parts within the hour. With a little video help and the basics you can learn it very fast. I would say no worse than any of the others.
The risks with free versions of commercial software is that they can pull the rug on you anytime & add more restrictions or demand payment to give you access to your own files. FreeCAD is under heavy development now & can also get a more modern look with themes.
@@TheGraemeEvans Explain. What you probably mean is that you feel superior because your software costs money. Have a gold star if it makes you feel good.
When you said that Auto Desk has a free version of 360, you really got my attention. I have a 2 year degree in CAD, I was taught Auto Cad and Inventor, along with other Auto Desk software. While working as a draftsman for a machine shop, that DXF came in real handy, I'd make a shop drawing and convert it to a DXF and export it to a program for a 4000W laser cutter. At that time, my boss was taking part in the development of 360 (which is a combination of Auto Cad, Inventor and other software, as best I know) Now there is a FREE version. I'm a bit excited. Maybe now I can do some of the home stuff again, after loosing my STUDENT license. I've tried other free cad programs and found them confusing and difficult to use, now, maybe things will become a bit better. Thanks for the info. ;-)
Nothing about Autodesk is free, you get a limited package and everything is proprietary and locked into the cloud, if Autodesk decided it wanted to start charging you tomorrow, you would be screwed. Everything is tied to it's cloud. Freecad might not be the best tool, but it's the only one that's actually free.
The Free version Fusion 360 has been nerfed so that it lacks a number of important features. You are also limited to $1,000 of any income derived from the use of the free version. The actually useful hobbyist version is now 85 bucks a month. And you don't own it, you're just renting it. No thank you. Consider Plasticity or Freecad or AlibreCad as an alternative.
I've used CAD for many years even back to the days of DOS. MY personal favorite is QCAD and then FreeCAD. I bought the PRO version to do isometrics. I use it for machining and woodworking. And i took mechanical drawing in high school and college back in the 70's!
EXCELLENT Advice in EVERY way! [me an old CAD-Designer (since '82!). After several major CADs, now I use ActCAD. No, its not "free", but about as Affordable ANY one actually needing Industry-standard .dwg's of their Ideas, there's NO better. Honestly, my 2D Planwork is my $$$-maker. All the 3D "stuff" is "eye candy" haaaaa. Its for we small-time Designers who do NOT want to become "slaves" to the "CAD-monster"! A blessing, kids! (hey...MY hand-drafting was pretty-dang good! Merged with DTP-software, and SketchUP, it can still be a profitable CAD-alternative for architectural planwork, with .PDF-output). Hope this helps y'all in 2024.
For years I've been using FreeCAD (at work) mainly to inspect STEP files, either before I import them into Altium Designer, or check what Altium has exported. I tried a few times to draw my own components or housing with it and it's difficult :) What completely baffles me about FreeCAD though is that it can't measure the distance between two bolt-hole centers. There's a fair chance I just don't know how to do that though :) At work the mechanical people use Siemens NX which I can use too. I used it once a few years ago and it seemed much more intuitive and easier to use than FreeCAD.
FreeCad is "clunky" because it can do far more than simple modeling! Not only is it great for doing drawings and creating stuff like .STL files (3D printing), it can also do FEA and some CFD!
No, it's clunky because it doesn't let you decide what tools you want for your tasks. Instead, there's a Workbench for this and another Workbench for that. The whole built-in Workbench thing should be eliminated and replaced with a Settings app that lets you set up your own personal Workbench.
@@stevenlitvintchouk3131 Did you not notice the Right click menu on the Menu/Toolbar (also via Tools menu)? Specifically the Customize option, that allows to do just that? Also in Preferences there is the option to enable or disable workbenches. If that isn't enough, there are plenty of different workbenches that can be added via the Addon Manager & even the option to code some yourself.
I know this is a bit old now, but FreeCad has really come a long way in the last Year, and the creation of sketches is now a lot smoother, with automated dimensioning that can be done on the fly during creation.
I can fix an H-53 Helicopter but I cannot grasp how to use these programs, I have downloaded most of the free ones and I watched lots of videos but the thing that is lacking is a video showing click by click with explanations slowly on how to create something simple like a 8x11 box with dividers for 20 spaces. i can build that with wood in a couple of hours, but to draw it so I can 3d print it so far is near impossible for me. I did like your video though, so thanks.
I have an electronics background and learned to design using Onshape by watching some of the many RU-vid tutorial videos. The older tutorial videos are still applicable even though Onshape has added functionality over the years. The other nice thing about Onshape is there is no software to install and you are always using the latest version and can always open old projects. Like with any full featured mechanical CAD tool, there is more than one way to get the desired result. I recently designed a trim ring and originally sketched concentric circles, extruded, and used chamfers to refine the shape. It took several steps to get close to what I wanted. I then started over with a cross-section sketch and revolved it. This was much simpler and was easier to modify as any changes to the sketch would show in the resulting part. Once you figure out how each design step builds on the previous steps, all which can be modified as needed, the design flow becomes more intuitive. For your box with dividers example, You can start with a sketch with the bottom of the box as an outline. Then add thin rectangles as the walls and spacers. Next, extrude the entire box to create the bottom box thickness. Next, add another extrude step, highlighting only the walls and spacers. You can extrude the walls and spacers independently if you want the walls taller than the spaces. Once this is done, you can add chamfers or a radius to any of the edges to complete your design.
@@knavekidThanks, I'll try that, what i've been doing is creating the parts individually in the cad program and merge them as a project then in the slicer I separate them and put them together individually. It works sometimes but the scaling and sizing is difficult.
Yes, FreeCAD still has the topological naming problem. However it is an amazing piece of free software. While you have to hope that autocad will grant you the free yearly license for Fusion360 in the future, FreeCAD is made for the user. If you get used to it, it is great.
I have actually tried all the CAD software you mentioned including AutoCad. I really don't recommend using Fusion 360 because of very shady business practices of AutoDesk, they constantly removing features and making it more restrictive. Shame, because it has best UI. Onshape is bad due to nothing being private and I would not design something original on it, or firearms for example. FreeCAD just sucks, it takes so much effort to design even the simple shapes, that it feels like immense time waste. Solid Edge in my opinion offers everything for a beginner and more, had zero issues with it, feels familiar to AutoCAD with a lot less strings attached. For performance, check your rendering acceleration, sometimes rendering in software compared to hardware is faster or vice versa
Actually, I find FreeCad quite useful. I particularly like the parametric modeling, which was not mentioned. I agree the AutoDesk software license kills it for me. But I use FreeCad for CAD, CAE and CAM. By the way I used to use Siemen's NX ... FreeCad is not harder to learn.
@@carlslater7492100% agree! Yes it comes with a learning curve, but once you are into Free cad it is actually easy to use with some flaws when you do really complex stuff. And it works native under Linux which is great! I use it to design all my 3D parts. But I cannot recommend it for pure 2D! There are way better options or there. Tried Onshape, but getting to that level of precision like in FreeCAD it is not any easier or quicker and I don't like the fact this is only available online and there is no privacy at all.
I don't about Autodesk. But Onshape is really great, I don't mind the free account. If their prices were a bit lower, I would surely purchase one. Freecad is good. The parametric approach is really good. I like the integrated CAM program as well, it may not be user friendly but it's learnable surely. It takes time being used to Among all this conundrum I would go with Freecad any day, as it's open source and is an active project so far
I started out writing out text and MDI to the control. I finished up using MasterCam DOS version for 3 axis milling. I am retired (12 years) and think I'd like to start CAD to keep my mind sharp.
When you are in the Part Studio, you can select a part in the drawing area and right click to bring up a floating menu. In the center of the menu are options for either "Export" or "Export as DXF/DWG". However, if you right click on "Part 1" in the left column area, you DO NOT get the option to export DXF/DWG. I found it most confusing and had to do some searching of content by some of the RU-vid creators before I found the trick.
Awesome! I've always just made a 1:1 drawing in OnShape to export. I just tried it right now and it looks like you can select any flat face, then the export option appears. This will be a huge time saver for me. Thanks for the tip!
@@TimWelds I forgot to mention that there are a number of online sites out there that will convert STL to DXF and other formats. Perhaps in the future you might want to look at ways to convert between formats? In the mfg. business we were forever trying to import and export to vendor and supplier systems using STEP, IGES, DXF, and others.
Kudos for including Solid Edge, it's been my daily driver for the past 25 years; the lag you referred to may be because it runs best with a Quadro Graphics card.
This video should come with huge warning. Before you invest your time to learn and use any product, you should do your homework and study the licences, conditions, plans, etc... Who owns your data? Who owns your work? Will you be able to use the product in the future? Is it possible to export your projects to something else? I do not say that all the "free" products are bad, I am just advising to use a common sense, read the Terms and Conditions, decide how important the tool is for you, etc... For example if you keep the FreeCAD installer on your hard drive, you will most probably be able to install it in 10 years. You may get an dated program but at least you will be able to use the same features as today. I've seen so much "free" (mostly web based) tools to vanish or change the license or model or remove features or move them to the paid or more expensive tier..... I have a simple rule: If the service is free but does not let you export the data in some interchangeable format, I do not use it unless for a one off task - no matter how good it looks.
@@bill4639 I use freecad and openscad. They suit my needs well and both are free for real. Freecad has a steep learning curve, so maybe it is a better to learn blender, but there is a lot of tutorials....
Yes Tim!!! My favorite welding dude! I just watched 3 other videos on free 2d cad software to design bbq pits on my cnc plasma. Saw your video on the list. Thank you for covering so much material! I have learned a great deal from your channel
For 2D CAD: NanoCAD, LibreCAD and DoubleCAD XT. For 3D: Blender and FreeCAD. All free for business and personal use. I have not used any of these, because I have to use Autocad in my business.
why does no one ever mention qcad. I have used it for years now for plasma cutters. cant beat its price around 60us I think. it is not a lic with 1 year of updates. and a discount after that year. the updates are usually small so no big deal. i update every 2 or 3 years unless I want or have an issue and im out of update.
Yeah, the room really rang in this one. I’ve never filmed in there before. The mics are top quality, though, so I guess the video’s off to a good start.
DSM is the bee's knees for me. Once you have the basics under control it becomes a very powerful tool in your hands. It is a perfect tool for 3D printing enthusiasts. The relatively simple interface actually fooled me into wasting time on other options before I watched a few tutorials dealing with it. The only things counting against it is that (so far) it only runs on Windows and the other matter is that they took away the option of exporting to other formats like .stl. It is still free to download and use but you have to pay extra for those facilities.
Awesome video. I primarily use Autocad and some Solidworks at work. I’d like to use it at home for personal projects which I can’t design on company time. Nice to find some options that won’t break the bank, or get me in trouble.
Where does something like SketchUp fall in this lineup? I guess it isn’t a CAD program per se but useful for designing things no? It seems to get a lot of play on RU-vid. I’m new to all of these and would like to put my energy into that which will have the best payoff in the long run. Thanks Tim! Really enjoy your channel.
It really helped me a lot during my first year or so with 3D printing. It does have an add on for .stl files, with a little bit of effort you can make some decent stuff to print.
@@rajendrameena150 yeah I get that it’s not CAD per se, but as far as a digital design tool which does the free web based version which a lot of amateur hobbyist makers use. So not CAD for machining operations but it is CAD for furniture design or room layout or that sort of gross measurement type of activity….
Onshape is great. I play around with it on a lower end chromebook with a 17" display and a 15" flat 1080P plug-in display (makes for a nice two monitor setup) at the local library when I want to get out and about.
And what if it goes offline? Changed the fee, removed the free tier? , can you export your files to something another package understands? Who owns your designs? I'm sure you found the interface nice, but have you thought about the rest or did you fall for the vendor lock-in.
Freecad has a very big fundamental bug that makes it quite unusable. Say you draw something with a cube, then work on one of the cube’s faces by, say, putting a cylinder on that face, if you change the cube’s dimensions, the rest of the drawing is thrown totally off kilter.
While i use onshape for my personal things, for anything i 3d print for my employer i use freecad. Want to be legal... It does cost me a lot of nerves as i miss the intuitivness of onshape greatly. One "advantage", if you will, of FreeCad for that is that there is a portable version: No idea how other companies around the world handle their IT, but the office IT computers where i work, prevent you from installing anything for security reasons. And as we aren't a production company, i have to use the office PC for the FreeCad drawing, so i was happy to find a portable version. (The thing i made recently was a mounting adapter for non standard measuring equipment a collegue of mine built to make our work easier)
I used to use AutoCAD 2006, & 2007. I also used AutoCAD Lite. From what I see, FreeCAD would be the closest to AotoCAD. I'm going to look into it more.
Just discovered your video. I think this is just what I was looking for. Which do you suggest for; I work for a repair machine shop that has cnc equipment but in repair we often don't have drawings, so I want to create my own drawings that also help dimensionsal aspects of programming mostly 2D programs for cnc lathes? Luckily i can create my own tolerances associated with the industry I repair.
Thanks for your video. I used autocad, now I can not used anymore. Can you tell me which one is more similar too autocad? I need to make mechanical draws. Which one can import dwg draws? Thanks for your help.
Hi Tim, wow you do more than just welding.. I also like to do my own parts, I have been used Autodesk Fusion 360 but will check out the others you mentioned. Still learning Fusion a little bit of a learning cure. I also have the Bambu X1 carbon great printer. Also Anycubic Kobra and Sovol SV04. But now just need to brush up on my skills welding stick, MIG, and TIG. Thanks for all you videos... Dave....
Superb overview!! I was looking for an alternative to a 2D CAD like AutoCAD and maybe Inkscape would be a good alternative since you are able to make exact measurement, and it's also an alternative to Illustrator, so two birds, one stone!!
Siemens used to promote Solid Edge as a "Hybrid 2D/3D CAD system" although they don't seem to mention this anymore. However the 2D capability is still there in the Community Edition and I now use it instead of TurboCAd Deluxe (which was my 2D CAD for about 20 years). I have imported much of my 2D work from TC into SE. Just open a 'Draft' document and you will essentially be in 2D - and delve a bit and you will find Layers and all the other 2D stuff you might find useful. Of course, 'Draft' docs are also used to produce any 1st/3rd Angle (or Isometric) projections required from your 3D drafting. So it works well as a 2D CAD and when/if you need 3D the sketching tools for 2D/3D are very similar - all there in one CAD system.
As with most any "program", you have to invest time to become any good using the program. So if you want to be good with whatever CAD type program, plan plenty of time to understand what it can and can't do... And have fun...
I liked using Fusion 360 because it is more intuitive but I hated the fact that it is web based and sometimes there was a lag in transferring data. I am now using Freecad with KiCad. I had to take a couple tutorials but Freecad is worth learning despite its dated GUI.
@@Bluejohn I know, but it not useful for mechanical parts. It is more for 3D animation. Recently blender introduced a modeling workbench, but it has some problems.
I started with FreeCAD but eventually switched to Solidedge. Freecad is extremely unreliable, throws errors at you and messes up your model left and right. It was outright infuriating trying to do anything other than the most basic things in FreeCAD. And meanwhile in Solidedge... it just works and does exactly what it's supposed to do without me wanting to rage quit.
I would like to have a simple drawing app but these are all to complex for me now at 75. I used Autocad to design a house 15 years ago then it all changed and I couldn’t do anything from then on. I need a tutorial to get me going and Onshape baffled me as once again I need help to get going. Paper and pencil from. Now on.
Solvespace is pretty nice too. It has some limitation but comes with a good assembly system and its open source so your designs are not under the command of any of these companys. (Freecad alternative)
There are a few things you can do in Fusion 360 you can't do in Onshape but exporting sketches as dxf isn't one of them. I use both of them but I like Onshape better as a free program. It's also easier to learn.
Nice review, will have to check some of these out. Any suggestions for something that is only 2D, for site plans like property lines and exterior limits of floorplan, to scale, printable on letter to tabloid size? Also, remember the scum- eraser bags?
tks for the vid. the point you miss about open source cad like open cad is that the development moves pretty fast. so if you put in the time to learn it and use it as it matures, in a couple years or less you have a program that is as robust as the commercial offerings but you dont need the fees. take blender as an example. the development speed is getting super fast and it is starting to rival commercial offerings. yes, steep learning curve at first, but in the present it has a super amount of functionality and developers offer addons for niche uses that make it super powerful. free cad may turn out the same because it has come a long way in a short time and continues to improve.
I had to scroll down quite a bit to find your comment mentioning Blender. I wonder why this isn’t in his top 5 when it appears IRL it’s in the top THREE. Free to use for all, a ton of people use it, and it’s by far the most popular CAD program that has full features available to all the users!
Appreciate your effort and research on 3D applications. I had not heard of the Solid Edge program as an option. Especially happy that you noted how to utilize Inkscape for 3D printing.
Very nice and informative video! Thanks a lot for sharing this kind of content! About the 360 fusion for personal use: I'm planning to use it in order to learn 3D modelling again, but if a project I create is nice enough to include in a portfolio, would such a thing go beyond the scope of the license?
Do any of these free programs offer the ability to create symbols that include attributes like type or color length it doesn’t really matter because that’s something I do dealing in the world of light plots, all the time, putting different types of fixtures and changing things and the data extraction is Kind of important, but the price of AutoCAD is kind of prohibitive?
The designs are saved and when you go the Free Hobbyist version you will get access to them. Just understand you have limited access to some of the features.
why does no one ever mention qcad. I have used it for years now for plasma cutters. cant beat its price around 60us I think. it is not a lic with 1 year of updates. and a discount after that year. the updates are usually small so no big deal. i update every 2 or 3 years unless I want or have an issue and im out of update.
Fission 360 anit free read … and free cad systems that hold your designs hostage on a “their” server… or make them public is not free … the cost is just hidden …
Fusion360 seems to be the only program that lets you go back in you timeline and edit features (is that Parametric modeling?). This is for me the winning feature.
Yes that is the benefit parametric modeling also why it tends to be costly and also require a better computer because it does a lot of math every time you create or change anything
Great video! Heads up to other viewers regarding Inkscape. My fairly recent version does not support CMYK, the absolute prerequisite for full color printing with actual ink. Which in my opinion makes the name Inkscape kind of laughable. I was on a RU-vid tutorial video for inkscape a few months ago and people were bitching up a storm because they did all this elaborate full color design work only to realize it couldn't be converted for full color printing. Just sayin' ;-)
Why not include OpenScad in this list? If you are unfamiliar with it, it allows you to write a program to create your designs in 3d. Because it is a programming language, you can create modules that handle specific tasks and import them into your projects, and there are already tons of free, opensource modules available. Creating different versions of parts is as simple as copying the original code, changing it, and saving it to a new file. You can even import STL files created by other software and modify them to suit. One of my favorite features is that I can include Fudge Factors in my design calculations that allow me to account for the Squish effect of FDM printers. By changing one variable, I can make a hole a little bigger, and decrease the size of the pole that slides into it a little smaller while affecting the overall design as little as possible. It's also free, open source, and has a great online cheatsheet.
Thanks for the comment! I love OpenScad, in fact I build a parametric tubing notch template model that's shown up in a few of my videos. It was on the list of software that I considered, but because the operation is significantly different than the others, I didn't include it. I may make a follow up with it and a few others, such as libreCAD, though.
The easiest software that's not free but cheap is home designed by Chief architect. You check and see what files it can export if you're going to try to do partly professional.
