this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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3DPrinting

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[–] enkille@lemmy.world 22 points 18 hours ago (5 children)

coming from a company that used solidworks, i've always found trying to use freecad infuriating, even moreso after onshape came out and i saw what could be done even in a web browser. but seeing as it's foss, i'll keep trying it every release.

[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Same. It is crazy how much progress they are making now.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 11 hours ago

Same boat. After using Soldworks everything else feels soo unpolished. But I've tossed Photoshop for Gimp and it's getting easier with time, so I'll make this work too.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 11 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

It's improving faster. It's still a frustrating, crashy experience, but it's getting better quickly, hopefully it reached critical mass and will do Blender.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 7 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

I'm at about 130 models in FC 1.0 and have yet to see a crash. There are things TinkerCAD can do that Fusion 360 cannot, like import and edit a large STL.

[–] Decq@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Come on this just seem disingenuous, or extremely lucky. It's great it's out there but calling it stable is not one of them. Yesterday my freecad crashed for just closing a sketch that I didn't even change and now all edge/face references are broken. (anyone a tip how to easily fix that? Doing it manually takes ages)

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Ok. So apparently I did get crashes and never realized it. Thanks Lemmy!

[–] Decq@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

Yeah I find it hard to believe. Maybe you're just sticking to a small subset of features. I don't know. Didn't mean to berate you or anything. But I have had so many corrupted saves and random crashes I'm starting to more and more use openSCAD.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe it's the Linux build? What are your running?

[–] esc@piefed.social 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I had one or two crashes in the two years of frequent use (few times a week for multiple hours) on arch linux, lately I've been using weekly appimages and they crash a lot more.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I've always used the stable AppImages, on Fedora previously, Bazzite now, the crashes have reduced, but they're still frequent, especially (but not exclusively) when working on large assemblies.

[–] esc@piefed.social 2 points 9 hours ago

As in assembly workbench?

[–] LacklusterGamer@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Reading this I can't tell if you are talking about solidworks or freeCAD. JK but man solidworks is still one of the buggiest programs. If you use solidworks though the Solidworks error report screen is just part of the experience. Still I believe the gold standard for design software out there over NX, AutoCAD, and CATIA.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I went from SOLIDWORKS to FreeCAD and I miss the former a lot, I think I'm objectively 5 times slower on FreeCAD, but alas, SOLIDWORKS is not supported on Linux and not open source, so I must endure.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I recommend watching that channel, because that guy is faster in FreeCAD than I could ever be in Fusion360.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

What channel?

Edit: Oh, right, OP is actually a video link. I just went directly to the comments here.

[–] esc@piefed.social 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I've never had professional experience with CAD software and tried both onshape and freecad at the same time just before fc1.0 release, onshape for some reason was like using iphone or something like that while freecad was just ok. There are frustrating limitations and some things are broken and require workarounds true.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 6 points 17 hours ago

I've both used CAD software professionally and worked on CAD software as a developer, and I also find FreeCAD weirdly frustrating. It's not the crashes; it's something about the workflow.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, I would like to use freecad. And for reference I love blender and use it almost daily. The freecad interface and work flow just kind of bounce me off them so far. I can sculpt, model, paint, rig and edit video in blender. Right now getting started making a basic part in freecad seems like black magic.

[–] esc@piefed.social 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe your brain just isn't wired to use it(yet), my experience with blender and other 3d modeling software was like black magic, and cad software was at least transparent.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 2 points 15 hours ago

Possible. In free cads defense I started learning blender in 1996. Didn't really get proficient till 2012 lol. Though I have used AutoCAD fine. But that was way back in 1994 under DOS.