CAD software

[verbotenwhisky]

Just recently jumped the shark from Linux to Mac. Primarily because of hardware build quality, not the software. My wife and I were using System76 laptops and they had quality issues (for quite a while). My wife's laptop case (the plastic of the laptop itself) warped so badly, you couldn't close the lid. We are talking about a warp of plastic of more than an inch, just in one corner. Never seen anything like it. Some of her keys didn't work, like | or ~. No matter what I tried, keyboard mapping and whatever, I couldn't get those keys to work.

My keyboard quit, (missing keys) the replacement didn't work, and I couldn't get any other keyboard besides a large Logitech keyboard to work. Couldn't even login with a USB keyboard, or get to BIOS. That's when I decided to look around. When compared at equivalent performance levels, (for higher end hardware) they aren't that different in price. I was surprised. For the lower end stuff, yeah, you get to pay the Apple tax.

I have since added homebrew and installed "linux-like" utilities to my Mac. It's similar to but not quite like Linux. Still getting used to it, never owned a Mac before.

I am running on Alienware x17 R2, no issues here....

 

[WobblyHand]

Another huge fan of Fusion 360 here. The learning curve isn’t too steep and help is readily available whenever you might need it.

With open source software there is a fair chance that the software itself will become the hobby:

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Think that is rather unfair and a gross generalization. I've used LibreOffice for over a decade. Can't say that Microsoft hasn't messed with the Excel interface, can we? Remember the ribbon? I've used git for configuration management. I remember the horrors we had to deal with using commercial CM tools like MKS. FreeCAD has had some changes, admittedly, but so have other CAD programs. My wife has been using gnucash to manage our finances for more than a decade. It works. I use Octoprint a lot - it's open source. It works for me.

The generalization you made is just as unfair as saying: "Autodesk will always screw their customers... Because, they always have in the past - multiple times."

Will Fusion360 allow you to do FEA for free? FreeCAD will. Can you do assembly for free? FreeCAD can. How about computational fluid dynamics for free? FreeCAD can. (I'm trying to learn that.). Does it integrate with a PCB design tool? I used FreeCAD to help me design a PCB in KiCAD. I had the files generated by FreeCAD and KiCAD sent electronically to a PCB fab house to make PCBs for my Electronic Lead Screw. All with open source. The PCB required no rework, it was a first pass success. I designed the case for the PCB in FreeCAD and 3d printed it. Been using the ELS for over a year.

Your statements remind me of the same old FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that Microsoft used to denigrate Linux. Now Microsoft offers a way to install linux and have it coexist with Windows.

Open source isn't bad. Some of it is quite good.

Some stinks, but that's the same as commercial offerings. I've spent real cash on commercial software only to find out it's awful. It looked like it would do the job, but it was fatally flawed. And you are stuck - you can't do the work with the product, and you are out the money.

An advantage with open source is YOU could fix some things that are wrong, if you wanted to, by changing the source code. I've done that. You can also contact the developers to see if there could be changes. I've done that, and had a change within a day. I recompiled FreeCAD and tested the fix. Kind of doubt the F360 guys would give you that kind of access or service...

There are superior commercial offerings, no doubt. They ought to be superior, since they have cash rolling in.

But that is not to say all open source software is bad. There's some really nice stuff out there, if you are willing to try it. If not, it's your loss, not mine. You expressed your opinion, and I beg to disagree. Overall, I've had a very positive experience using open source software.

 

[Mauzinette]

First of all I want to apologize that the meme rustled your jimmies. Maybe I should have posted it under “Today’s Joke” instead of here.

Open source isn't bad. Some of it is quite good.

I completely agree. When writing software, I rely on a lot of open source packages.

Still, many of these packages (software, libraries etc.) are maintained thanklessly by a single person, which makes the lifecycle of these completely unpredictable.

An advantage with open source is YOU could fix some things that are wrong, if you wanted to, by changing the source code. I've done that.

I do this too, but this definitely isn’t for everyone and I’d argue that at this point the software itself has become the hobby.

Now Microsoft offers a way to install linux and have it coexist with Windows.

WSL2 has to be the best thing Microsoft has come up with since VSCode.

Anyway, I’m here only to root for Fusion 360. Learning it has to be one of the most pleasant learning experiences I’ve ever had.

 

[Boswell]

+1 for fusion 360. I am a long time Autocad user but about a year ago switch to Fusion 360 Paid license. The Learning curve has not been too bad and there are a LOT of high quality educational YouTube videos on everything I have needed. The downside is that at some point I am not going to want to pay the $ for the licensed version and then I will have to decide if the free version is enough for my needs or if I will switch so something like OpenCAD. But for now, I love Fusion 360. One particularly nice experience was I needed to build a sheet metal exhaust vent. with Fusion360 it just created the model and it did the work to create a flat pattern including bend allowances. I printed this 1:1 and stuck it on the flat Sheetmetal and then cut/bent the shape in record time.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

First of all I want to apologize that the meme rustled your jimmies. Maybe I should have posted it under “Today’s Joke” instead of here.


I completely agree. When writing software, I rely on a lot of open source packages.

Still, many of these packages (software, libraries etc.) are maintained thanklessly by a single person, which makes the lifecycle of these completely unpredictable.


I do this too, but this definitely isn’t for everyone and I’d argue that at this point the software itself has become the hobby.


WSL2 has to be the best thing Microsoft has come up with since VSCode.

Anyway, I’m here only to root for Fusion 360. Learning it has to be one of the most pleasant learning experiences I’ve ever had.

I use design software professionally, I started drafting on the board and have used many CAD packages over the last 40 years. I have tried different freeware for home use, over the years, but I always come back to the same conclusion, a good solid purchased software is better if you can afford it (I do not like leases. We use Autodesk software as our engine and several thierd party solutions which set on top of it for our facility work and SolidWorks (the large package) for Machine work and I have plenty to say about both. I use to consider AutoCAD to be the best but those days have long since past but, much the same as Microshaft they have the market cornered on third party addons and that too is changing for AutoCAD and now we are beginning to look at BriscCAD seriously, if you can operate AutoCAD there is very little difference between the 2 and you can operate Brisc with no training at all and your Lisp routines will function without any modification. A perpetual license for BriscCAD can be had for under 1000 bucks and is yours without additional expenditures. SolidWorks is awesome and also awesomely expensive but this forum turned me onto Alibre CAD and I have found it to be a good software at a reasonable price point for a perpetual license.

There you go, my 2 cents worth, take is for what you paid for it and do with it as you will.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

+1 for fusion 360. I am a long time Autocad user but about a year ago switch to Fusion 360 Paid license. The Learning curve has not been too bad and there are a LOT of high quality educational YouTube videos on everything I have needed. The downside is that at some point I am not going to want to pay the $ for the licensed version and then I will have to decide if the free version is enough for my needs or if I will switch so something like OpenCAD. But for now, I love Fusion 360. One particularly nice experience was I needed to build a sheet metal exhaust vent. with Fusion360 it just created the model and it did the work to create a flat pattern including bend allowances. I printed this 1:1 and stuck it on the flat Sheetmetal and then cut/bent the shape in record time.

That is a real issue with AutoDesk, they went to a subscription based model, the key words for paying for a software are Perpetual License.

 

[WobblyHand]

First of all I want to apologize that the meme rustled your jimmies. Maybe I should have posted it under “Today’s Joke” instead of here.


I completely agree. When writing software, I rely on a lot of open source packages.

Still, many of these packages (software, libraries etc.) are maintained thanklessly by a single person, which makes the lifecycle of these completely unpredictable.


I do this too, but this definitely isn’t for everyone and I’d argue that at this point the software itself has become the hobby.


WSL2 has to be the best thing Microsoft has come up with since VSCode.

Anyway, I’m here only to root for Fusion 360. Learning it has to be one of the most pleasant learning experiences I’ve ever had.

We are mostly on the same page. Code based maintained by a single person is risky to adopt. Some OS software is good and some is junk.

Honestly, I would have tried F360, but I found out that they don't support Linux, at all. I haven't actively used Windows outside of work for more than 15 years. The only time I used Windows at home was for taxes. The rest of the time was Linux.

So I tried FreeCAD. It's a good enough CAD for me. The price is right, and I have found forum support to be rather helpful. I do try to contribute back to their forum. Is it the slickest software ever, no, but so far I haven't outgrown it. I'm rather pleased that it's cross platform, the transition to a different operating system was easy. Just transferred my files, installed the Mac version and I was off doing FEA on a test cylinder. I'd like to do CFD on something, but I'm still wrapping my head around the concepts and work flow.

Just as F360 has a lot of video training, so does FreeCAD. I found the videos by Joko Engineering to be very good. The guy who does them knows quite a few CAD programs inside and out. I think I watched one where he showed how to do the same thing with the different programs. Like a compare and contrast.

Sorry I over reacted to the meme. The FUD argument really set me off. Seen it before over the decades. It's a rhetorical argument that substitutes innuendo for facts. We can do better than that. Peace.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Honestly, I would have tried F360, but I found out that they don't support Linux, at all. I haven't actively used Windows outside of work for more than 15 years. The only time I used Windows at home was for taxes. The rest of the time was Linux.

We use to use emulators to run Windows software in Unix and Linux, you cannot find an emulator?

 

[WobblyHand]

WINE and the like are not that great. I used it for LTSpice and TINAspice. It sort of works, but some stuff just doesn't work right. That includes non functional printing, or program hangs for some operations. Not quite BSOD, but messy enough.

Emulator evaluation is not something that I wish to do as a hobby. My IT is me, myself and I, so I look for the easier path forward these days. Emulators can work if they are properly setup, but it's not always obvious what needs to be done. So they aren't painless. If you have access to decent IT, they can configure things. As a retired one man shop it's hard to get enthusiastic about taking on one more meta task just to get something else to work. Got to draw the line somewhere on task multiplication... Have enough round tuits at the moment to work on.

 

[GeneT45]

I use design software professionally, I started drafting on the board and have used many CAD packages over the last 40 years. I have tried different freeware for home use, over the years, but I always come back to the same conclusion, a good solid purchased software is better if you can afford it (I do not like leases. We use Autodesk software as our engine and several thierd party solutions which set on top of it for our facility work and SolidWorks (the large package) for Machine work and I have plenty to say about both. I use to consider AutoCAD to be the best but those days have long since past but, much the same as Microshaft they have the market cornered on third party addons and that too is changing for AutoCAD and now we are beginning to look at BriscCAD seriously, if you can operate AutoCAD there is very little difference between the 2 and you can operate Brisc with no training at all and your Lisp routines will function without any modification. A perpetual license for BriscCAD can be had for under 1000 bucks and is yours without additional expenditures. SolidWorks is awesome and also awesomely expensive but this forum turned me onto Alibre CAD and I have found it to be a good software at a reasonable price point for a perpetual license.

There you go, my 2 cents worth, take is for what you paid for it and do with it as you will.

I was trying to stay brand-agnostic, but Alibre was the brand that checked the most boxes for me as well. I just (Black Friday / Cyber whateverday) got back on maintenance and upgraded from v23 to v27 (pro) and I've got to say it's an even more compelling option now. A lot of earlier shortcomings have been eliminated.

GsT