I started by using FreeCad but I found it really difficult to understand, so I am using Fusion 360 at the moment, I found that easier to make me understand CAD drawing . At the age of 78 I am really enjoying designing different things and then printing them out , I do have a 60 year back ground in engineering . It is funny when I got my 3D printer and came across g-codes they looked familiar and I found out I was using them in the '80's programming a machining center. But my career took a turn and I got into aircraft maintenance for my last 25 years. Thanks for the great video.
I’m in the same boat, but a few years younger. I am also a retired engineer, I learned cad a long time ago but essentially forgot it all which is fine since anything I learned then really don’t apply to the new tools. I just loaded fusion 360 last night, let thee learning begin.
the reason that Freecad is hard to use at the beginning is that it uses the "standard" parametric design workflow which is made easier in Fusion 360 and DS SolidWorks where order of doing things isnt strict for example to sketch you need to select plane like all cad software but freecad needs you to make the part first then the body and only then the sketch which is how it is specified in the standard and fusion360 etc skip the manual making of Plane selection -> Part -> Body -> Sketch workflow so you only need to go through Plane selection -> Sketch unlike the original industry standard minimum which freecad implements also the limitations of freecad are because they are trying to implement the minimums to meet the Standards and then start working on more qol features and keep in mind that freecad is still in alpha 0.20 so things may and will change but they will keep all the old ways of doing things unlike others as to not force you to learn new ways of doing things you already do one way
@@thecow2756 it's pain to fix one wrong line and even easiest things take too much time I give too much chance to freecad but I failed it's not user friendly
Mr. Shapiro, this is the first time I comment in one of your vids and I'm gonna take the opportunity to tell you the *Great Teacher or better said Professor" you have become to me in the 3D print field and I want to thank you very much for that, because I really appreciate it !. Finding you channel was a blessing for me and I'm very honored to watch any single vid comming from you. I also did a little research about you and I was very glad to know what a Great Man you are in the professional field in which I could see, you are a very respectable proffesional and a leader in the innovative communication ideas. You are a very clever guy !. No doubts. Thanks a lot and many greetings from Santiago de Chile, South America. This is John.
I really appreciate how you don't just say, "Don't use this, only use THIS," and instead give your personal reasons and requirements as to WHY we should use some programs over others. I found this video very informative as you went through and explained the purpose/capabilities of each program while even explaining the user-liscensing agreement. Anyways I've yet to be disappointed with your videos and will keep watching!
What a treasure trove of knowledge your videos are! Thanks for this great overview of free CAD programs. I will start off with Tinker CAD for my first 3D print of my own design. I will be using my digital caliper that you advised us to get in another video to get the correct measurements. Cheers from Sweden!
Thank you, thank you Irv ! For a newb the whole subject of CAD, 3D printing, etc. is a daunting morass in how to start- cost, complexity, purpose of program, file formats and conversions, licensing, on and on. You have a gift of simplifying, cutting to the chase, and being entertaining at the same time. Again, THANK YOU !
I *always* learn something from your videos. Especially when I thought I knew all about a subject. Nope, you come along and teach me something new. Thank you. I love it!
First video of yours I've watched - and I'm very impressed! You have an excellent handle on pacing your content and keeping things so simple to follow. Bravo!
Also agreed. Actually, especially as a beginner, the best RU-vidr I have seen in this space so far. Now I really want to check out OpenSCAD :) I also like the philosophy of recommending tools that are accessible to beginners and hobbyists on the basis of license. Totally resonates with me.
You have an amazing teaching ability, thank you for your wonderfully helpful videos. I am completely new 2 months and many long days and sleepless nights... been on a hardcore quest for knowledge.I have watched many videos on youtube.They all are too fast! You take it slow an comprehensive and the way you explain things just click well for me. Much Thanks Irv!! proud owner ender 3 pro ender v2 sovol sv02
Wow, great survey. I have used Fusion 360 a bit and found it less than scrutable, however powerful it is. For native listeners in English, this video was most comfortable playing at 1.75x speed.
I listen english spoken vids very often, cos I'm learning english for my own and I found Mr. Shapiro, who I´ve been following for a quite some time now, have a very clear and nice american pronunciation. So, as I'm not a native listener in eglish, for me is perfectly well to listen his vids at normal speed. Cheers, John from Santiago de Chile. South America.
First CAD comparison review that genuinely informed me and helped me to make a choice. A study in good communication. Fusion 360would be great, but I don't like the expense and sharing all my designs in the Cloud. Great work and keep the videos coming.
Mr. Shapiro, this is an excellent video. As an old skool mechanical engineer who came from the days of wire frame, I really appreciate it. To me, FreeCAD looks a lot like SolidWorks. I haven't toyed with 3D modeling in a great number of years, but I think FreeCAD is definitely for me as it has macro capabilities. Once again, thanks so much for sharing, and I wish you continued sucess and of course, health.
I watched several videos that compared various 3D software packages, but none of them gave me a good idea of what the strengths and differences of the packages are. But Mr. Shapiro gives exactly the information that I needed. He does not try to be diplomatic and give a wishy-washy comparisons. He gives clear and honest details that really helps. Thank you, Mr. Shapiro!
Thanks... a very nice, clear video of how to choose. I am retired, and was looking for a "CAD/CAM" package, and ran across FreeCAD years ago, but it didn't "work" very well. With version 20, I feel that it has the right bells and whistles for me to be productive. As a huge benefit, one of the workbenches is openSCAD, so you gain the benefit of both worlds. Thanks again.
Excellent, you always make things easy to understand and in a way that benefits most regardless of their level of knowledge. It is clear that your gifting to teach.
I saw an ad on your video for Shapr3D and gave it a try and it's the best thing I've used so far for modeling. I was using NanoCad doing things the hard way for years but now I snap my fingers and I have a finished model. I never thought I'd say it but... thanks for having ads.
Hi there Irv, I have watched many different RU-vid videos over the years and I can unequivocally state that this video from you are most definitely of very high standard if not THE BEST. In order to qualify my statement I'd like to say that I'm a qualified educator, instructor and mentor who knows that all students don't always understand concepts with one example or explanation because everyone is unique. I really like this presentation as it addressed a lot of my questions. Though it is a bit long it kept me hanging onto every word you spoke with attention. Your pace was excellent. Not too slow nor too fast and it didn't include irrelevant information nor too little information. It is focused on the task at hand and opened possibilities for me to investigate in order to reach the level of proficiency that I need to be able to achieve my goals. BTW I'm a retired exploration/economic geologist who is turning 70 years of age in a few days. Thank you again. 😊
Hi, many thanks for this great Overview. I'm a "professional" PCB Designer, working with Altium. Now i will start to use my new 3D printer to realize my ideas in physical objects. This is the first video of yours, and It answers all of my questions so far. It will be not the last one, because you teach very good. Thanks
Hi Irv, I came across your site(s) recently and found them to be most excellent. I am very new to 3d and your vids made a lot of things clearer, and, I learnt quite a bit, quickly. Please continue to do what you do. Most appreciated. ... TH.
Thank you so much for taking the time to show this! I will be following with great interest, perhaps a really basic how to download, save and access files would really help me. Cheers Steve
I use FreeCAD professionally and find it suits my needs for most things nicely. Like he said, before version 0.18 it was a little too rough around the edges to use comfortably but the last few versions really did make some huge usability improvements. I highly recommend giving 0.20 an honest try even if you have tried it before and didn't like it. Very nice for the price!
I started using Shapr3D a year ago, and I haven't had a use for any other CAD since then, exports even SVG. Amazing, I'm not an Apple guy but Shapr along with a pencil and ipad is incredibly efficient. Chamfers effortlessly.
Great new look! I'm a fan of your Intermediate/Advanced presentation style....I'm a fan of FreeCAD (super buggy, but learned to work around it), it's cheap and effective.....Happy Making
Thank you so much for this! OpenSCAD is mindblowing to me. The whole model is just text that can be tracked in git, easily shared and edited without worrying about any accidental changes. Customizer is also great. I can see how making more complicated and also more "rounded" designs in OpenSCAD can be challenging but I will keep digging!
Stay with it. OpenSCAD is outstanding. If you are comfortable with any level of programming it is totally intuitive. Probably a horrible choice for elaborate decorative designs, but for structural design I found it to be perfect (or will be once a measuring tool is available). Adding libraries as you progress, both existing and your own, allows you to assemble new designs in minutes.
Stayed to watch and make notes on all 3 lessons,,very easy to follow you, and has helped immensely,,thxs and will be back often,,Bear, hobbyist machinist, and old guy still learning (@@)!
Hi Iove your way to come to a decission making process. I started working with Freecad more or less accidentially, but came to pretty similar conclusions. Thank you so much :-)
Wonderful comparison of the programs Irv. I think I will give FreeCAD a try this weekend. I have played around with TinkerCAD but I would like to try something a bit more capable with regards to making changes in my models. Thanks so much for creating and posting this video,
Hi. Thank You for your very clear language ( grammar and pronunciation). Im not native english speaker so its important for me. Im also mac user and information you provided are useful for me. And last but not least thank you for a meritum.
I totally agree the making of things is only limited to your imagination, then putting into realism via a Cad app. I have stepped in the murky waters of this practice and already created several items. Yes need more know how and practice but hey the door is wide open.
Great video with lots of information. I just found a somewhat new option which is the free version of CREO Express, a non-parametric modeler. As far as I know some time ago it could only save it's very own format which made it useless for 3D-print, but the current version can also save .stl. Of course there are some limitations compared to the full version like no use of additional modules, limited supported file-formats and a limited assembly size of max.50 parts per construction (which is still plenty) Since I know CREO and its predecessors for about 20 years from work, this is great news for me. Being non-parametric has it's pros and cons, you dont have to deal with constraints and history, but changing parts can be a bit more work. It's fairly easy to learn compared to some other bigger CAD-Systems but still possibly a bit overwhelming if you don't know CAD at all. One problem everybody will encounter sooner or later is it's way to slice circles into lines, but that is easy to solve. While saving .stl you can enter the options (after selecting the part you want to save) and set the angle at which circles are broken down. This is normaly around 14°, which results in very rough polygons, but you can set it to any angle you want. If you dont' want the hassle with fusions documents and license and don't need/want the parametric part of Fusion or FreeCad it's a great alternative. From your list I personally like Fusion 360 the most, but the document-management (only 10 editable documents at a time) and the annual re-applying are sort of a hassle. Other than that I might even prefer it over CREO, especially for the parametric part. FreeCAD sounds nice and it was the first that I tried, but it has some major downsides like missing function which are absolute basics in most CAD (parallel contour? Copying 2D? Mirroring at a line or edge?).
You are a great teacher with wonderful spirit. The only downside of the great work that you present is that you are "a Mac guy" ;) Keep the great work!
Another excellent video! It is SO EASY to recommend your videos to others. Such a great starting point for so many areas. Your FreeCAD videos were the first to really get me over the hump. Next stop - KiCAD and circuit design!
I hope to expand into electronics over the next 12 months. Thanks for the comment. A great place to discuss this is at the MakeWithTech forum located at forum.makewithtech.com. At the free MakeWithTech forum/discussion group, you can also post images and examples of your work.
FreeCAD has a very steep learning curve. I’ve been trying to get into it for a while and it’s been like bashing my head against a wall. One of the biggest problems is the very complex workflow, you have to systematically follow the given steps and it’s easy to miss one, which will leave you wondering what went wrong. For example you have to ‘cancel’ the tool you’re using before you can add a ‘constraint’, which can be confusing. There are plenty of tutorials on here for it some good, some not so good. I’ve watched lots of them and I’m glad I did because I’m finally getting to grips with it. The more you watch the more you’ll learn, it might not happen overnight but you won’t get there at all if you just give up. If you keep bashing your head against that wall, sooner or later you will make a hole through it. I’m not sure if that’s a good analogy because my head hurts, but in the end it was worth it coz it really is a great program. Especially when you consider the price.
As always I do learn from your videos. I started with sketch up, was nice but then got weird. Moved to fusion 360 which I really liked using but, as you said, they kept making changes and I got tied of cloud based platform . My internet isn’t good right now , I leave in a rual area. I tried free cad but couldn’t get the hang it, now I got blender, it’s got a learning curve for sure. My favorite of them all was fusion 360 just don’t like having to upload it to save it and then download it again to use the model.
I started using Solidworks and UG/NX long before hobby 3d printing was a thing. For me it was always about turning my own designs into physical objects not downloading things from thingiverse to print. I own a perpetual license of SW 2016 and have access to NX at work so I'll stick with that but otherwise agree with your advice here. I would lean towards just living with whatever the free licensing is for Fusion 360 since you will become familiar with the Autodesk ecosystem which will help if you end up designing professionally.
I've had my 3d printer now for about 3 years and I've tried a lot of CAD software. My career started me out as a drafting designer 35 years ago in AutoCad. From there I learned to program and went into full time software design. Now I've come full circle in my hobby and I was looking for something that worked, and had a lot of features. You are correct! Fusion 360 is da bomb! But it's gotten pricey for hobbyists. OpenSCAD didn't do it for me. DesignSpark was pretty ok. OnShape has a pretty big learning curve (not as much as Blender), but it makes some nice objects. TinkerCAD is very cool and is my go-to for quick stuff. Because I do a lot of 3d models for gaming (my other passion) I use Blender a lot, and I'm good with it. But it's focus is not mechanical. It's more of a pretty picture/gaming model software. I've tried to use it for 3D printing and it works, but it's focus isn't on precise measurements, so I was looking for something else. I intend to try FreeCAD when I get finished writing this post. I like the way you explain things so I'm looking forward to your tutorial series. (You have a new subscriber) Thanks again for all the hard work making and uploading your videos.
Shapr3D is great too... Designed for Ipad with pencil, on Mac and coming to PC soon. PC beta is in testing. I like it... feels very natural to draw on the Ipad.
I use Blender as my CAD because I learned it for drawing machine parts before I even thought of 3D Printing. I then took those parts and produced videos on how to assemble and disassemble parts or machinery. That's the power of Blender, the animation and video. But, I should take the time to learn FreeCad because of some the the little nuances that Blender has that limits what you can do. I've played with FreeCad a bit, but I always go back to Blender because I know it. Old and stubborn I guess. But, if you are starting out... FreeCad!
Learn parametric modelling in FreeCad and export your objects to animate in Blender and you will be much happier. I love Blender for everything but mechanical parts. They have added a few tools that make a few things easier in the most recent versions, but have specifically stated parametric modeling will never be a development focus - and doing anything dimensionally accurate is a comparative pain. (I honestly can't blame them, the core design already supports so many different things) I originally started on f360 learning parametric modeling, later becoming a refugee due to licensing changes and started to learn FreeCad. I end up in Blender manually editing other peoples mechanical 3d print designs that were only available as an STL. Would be easier to recreate most of these with Parametric modelling in CAD but I need to learn FreeCad first, not going to pay for F360 without a business.
I'm starting to see 3D printing as one component of object manufacturing. Using it not to make final objects but to make parts that will be used with other parts (some 3D printed some not) and also to consider machining 3d printed parts, such as putting a hole in something by drilling a solid 3D printed part. So I still want a CNC machine!
Because I'm into toy design, I do use Blender. While it's not initially _designed_ for precision engineering, and it's not what they promote primarily on the website, it's becoming more and more apt at the task. And it allows me to do the intricate mechanical stuff I need to do, like joints, while also letting me do more free detail work when the nuts and bolts are down, without having to take it to another program. And of course, the open-source license is perfect; I can do whatever I like with my models, with no constraints on whether I can sell them or not, and the program is entirely free regardless. I _used_ to use SketchUp (its Component function was especially useful for allowing me to make multiple linked editable copies of a model so I could track the positions of the parts for clashes). But since they changed the license and went entirely cloud-based for the free option, it stopped being viable for me.
HI great video , i use tinkerkad , freecad and meshmixer all together going from one to another depending wath i need to do , depending if starting with a scan from phone or creating a 3D piece
I use a similar strategy using the right tool for the job. In my workroom I have both wrenches and pliers, both of which can be used to turn bolts, and select the tool based on the job.
I'm personally a fan of MoI3D when it comes to CAD. It's not parametric and it's not free, but it is petty cheap and really fun to use. It focuses more on creating rather than measuring and getting every single thing the right size down to the micron.
CAD Sketcher is an Addon being developed for Blender , I know nothing about CAD . But looking at the FreeCAD , Sketching part feels it is going somewhere .
Already did. Check out all of my playlists here: studio.ru-vid.com/show-UCWEX2NVlLeIQr3v-cIF9LxAplaylists Check out the FreeCAD playlist here: ru-vid.com/group/PLxa9m2nC6N924jFUOYRECQUMm9xl4_jUI Enjoy. Thanks for asking.
I don't know if this kind of model exists in the CAD space but in the programming/gaming space one of the models that has been kind of dominating the space has been flexible licensing, where they will give you a free or cheaper licensing option below a certain earning mark such as Unity which says that until your revenue reaches 100k per year it's free to use which gets people in their environment and learning the tools and then if they ever get to a point where they are clearly requiring your tools then they are going to charge you for them. Kind of like a freebie to get the addict hooked.
Very nice video. I like to mention: consider to use the latest version of freecad. I was very frustrated in the beginning with Freecad on Ubuntu Linux, due to the fact that the default version bundled with the Linux distribution was very outdated and very annoing. Recent versions are very nice to use!
So I'm a software engineer with no cad experience and I think it's funny how the open scad demo totally made intuitive sense to me when I imagine it's usually the opposite for people. Been meaning to learn cad and I think it might actually be easier for me to model things there than a graphical program.
I really enjoy the content of your videos. They're usually very thorough and thought out. My only gripe, and it may just be me, but because of how slow you talk I find myself losing focus and getting distracted by other things. I'm just used to faster, more rapid fire, communication. Maybe I should just try upping the playback speed to keep my apparently short attention span engaged :o) EDIT: Playback speed x1.25 is the sweet spot for me :o)
By speaking slowly I open my videos up to folks where English may not be their first language and folks that want to want it faster can speed it up which I fully support.
Great video I've Just bought a 3d printer and you gave some suggestions I hadn't thought of. I want to learn something I won't grow out of as I improve so the likes of tinkercad are out for me . Although I come from a computer DevOps scripting background, there I know how to do what I'm doing before automating it so I'm thinking freecad (using spreadsheet variables) will be the better package ( for me) over openscad. Need to get my head round the 3d model concepts 3 dimensions, constraints, pads and pockets, fillets v chamfers it's endless .
A great place to discuss this is at the MakeWithTech forum located at forum.makewithtech.com. At the free MakeWithTech forum/discussion group, you can also post images and examples of your work.
Thanks, I probably did not understand tinkercad when I tried it. I have fusion360 on my computer, but it is way too complicated, I can only do round holes and get frustrated trying square holes. But wait, I discovered 3Dbuilder and can now do some of the things i want, to make threads I import it into fusion360, kind of a pain, but I'm just and old Dog of 68. Thank you for your videos, I've learned a lot over the years
thanx for videos, does fusion 360 shut down if down loaded to a compter and never on line after it's down loaded, and does free cad need to be oline to work, reason I'm asking I will not be oline for months at a time, thanx
Hey that name change threw me off! I have always wanted to learn CAD...I have student engineers working for me and always been in awe how quickly they click around and tweak things. Time for me to join the party!
Ohhhh this video help me to understand why soo many people dont use the Best 3d software i found, i already try all except alibre that i Will try inmediatly .... but the Best in terms of easy to use, powerfull, free and very very fast to make a concept Is design spark. Why because Is only for PC....
Thanks for al your great video's I'm a regular user of Fusion 360, TurboCad, FreeCad and Blender. On the latter I'd like to comment. You mentioned Blender is not so useful for 3D printer. In that I strongly diagree. At first it looks complicated maybe, but the combination of regular solid modeling and sculpting is a very strong combination. Except when you only print object that can be dimensioned. But there is so much more in the modeling world. What you think of gaming, scenery, etc. What I'm trying to say is that Blender deserves a better rating, since it has a great added value to 3D printing.
Blender is awesome, I can model extremely quickly and accurately even semi parametrically with modifiers. Just printed a model from blender today with no issue
I like the measured way you present your topics. I have been using the same cad system for years and I find things like Fusion completely unworkable. My brain does not work that way and neither does my cad. Tried hard to get the hang of Fusion, but in the end I just spent the money on the upgrade for the program I know. How on earth do you manage to wrap your brain around these different software packages, I certainly can't.
Thanks for the comment. Learning new tech things is just my skills. Everyone is is different. Many people learn new spoken languages with ease. I struggle with one. The key is to help each other learn together.
I thought it was just me! Fusion 360 looks like FreeCAD or Creo. The screen it too busy. Only the menus that can be used, should show at any one time. What is your poison (your CAD program) of choice?
