Hey there! I love the idea of freecad. But I have so many troubls learning it. I started with fusion360, used solidworks for some time, used inventor a bit and use onshape mostly now. So I think I know how to navigate and learn new cad software. But its not as easy with freecad sadly.

I Would love this product to be more accessable and easier to use and undertand. What can we do besides jumping in on developing ourselves?

Switching form fusion or onshape to freecad feels like switching from python to assamlby.

So how can we help to improve freecad and make it a more usable program? It seems as if the devs try to reinvent everything and every menue compared to all other cad programs i have used. I am totaly fine with some issues or bugs, but i feel like its not up for success currently.

Thanks a lot, I hope you have some ideas

    • WbrJr@lemmy.ml
      ·
      6 months ago

      I have read through that before, though I think the problem is more fundamelntal than what we as a community can do. For most tasks listed, it is necessary to know freecad pretty well, but if I can not even learn it easily, how am I supposed to work on the code, help with bugs or documentation?

      I just don't have the time to have a new project and learning freecad or even diving in on development feels like that.

      It's not like I could invest 2h into learning a slightly different workflow, which I have already.

      • Gebruikersnaam@lemmy.ml
        ·
        6 months ago

        Not sure, but maybe write documentation or tutorials for the workflows you describe? I tried to learn CAD a few times, but always gave up :')

      • Zargio@feddit.it
        ·
        6 months ago

        To be honest I don't really understand the differences between freecad and the other cads other than the ui and the topological issue.

        I am absolutely not an expert, but I learned freecad by watching youtube tutorials, if I wanted to learn something like fusion360 I would do the same thing though speaking with friends of mine that use fusion their workflow is basically the same, the only difference is where to click to accomplish the same stuff.

        Also, to be honest I am more of a cadquery/build123d than a freecad type, but still I am not quite sure how to really improve the situation.

        Maybe someone could write a plugin to change the ui? Like https://wiki.freecad.org/ModernUI_Workbench. Or someone could make an interactive course for freecad. Like https://wiki.freecad.org/MOOC_Workbench but in english.