TinkerCad is great to teach CAD, but it suffers on important CAD features for production. It also does not make round cylinders, they are polygons.
But, sometimes when modifying another model, I can use TinkerCAD where Fusion360 chokes on too many vertices.
FreeCAD is a parametric modeler, so it’s closer to Inventor, Fusion360 or OnShape than TinkerCAD. FreeCAD is GPL FOSS software, so it was made by programmers for programmers to program on, not for designers to design designs in. For the most part, features aren’t implemented in ways that are useful for the user, they’re implemented in ways that were easy or straightforward for the developers.
No hyperbole, a functioning understanding of Python is almost a prerequisite for getting anything actually done in FreeCAD, because you’ll encounter things like variable scope.
In some ways, I like how FreeCAD handles things better than some other software. FreeCAD has a spreadsheet built in, you can put your dimensions there in one place and then reference them in drawings (again, think Python variable scope. Dimensions.overall_length) and then if you need to make revisions you don’t have to hunt through sketches and shit you just change the parameter. And then watch as the model explodes because they still haven’t solved the topological naming problem.
I’ve done a fair bit on TinkerCad. How does it compare?
TinkerCad is great to teach CAD, but it suffers on important CAD features for production. It also does not make round cylinders, they are polygons. But, sometimes when modifying another model, I can use TinkerCAD where Fusion360 chokes on too many vertices.
FreeCAD is a parametric modeler, so it’s closer to Inventor, Fusion360 or OnShape than TinkerCAD. FreeCAD is GPL FOSS software, so it was made by programmers for programmers to program on, not for designers to design designs in. For the most part, features aren’t implemented in ways that are useful for the user, they’re implemented in ways that were easy or straightforward for the developers.
No hyperbole, a functioning understanding of Python is almost a prerequisite for getting anything actually done in FreeCAD, because you’ll encounter things like variable scope.
In some ways, I like how FreeCAD handles things better than some other software. FreeCAD has a spreadsheet built in, you can put your dimensions there in one place and then reference them in drawings (again, think Python variable scope. Dimensions.overall_length) and then if you need to make revisions you don’t have to hunt through sketches and shit you just change the parameter. And then watch as the model explodes because they still haven’t solved the topological naming problem.
my usability scale from most user friendly (top) to least (bottom)
SketchUp has been owned by Trimble for over a decade, but I still think of it as Google SketchUp as well.
I love freecad… I’m going to have to agree with your assertion