FreeCAD has enormous aspirations - but it struggles to deliver. But use it right and it's actually pretty decent!
give your money to freeCAD
FreeCAD has enormous aspirations - but it struggles to deliver. But use it right and it's actually pretty decent!
give your money to freeCAD
It's not as bad as you can nail down the sketcher and understand the limits of the parametric engine (which you run up against very quickly and can usually work around by doing the same operation a different way).
This tutorial series is pretty good for understanding how the basic components of FreeCAD work. One of the best practices is to get familiar with the sketching and constraint system, then move onto the solid body system, and finally some of the more complex curve and face systems.
Most Fusion knowledge transfers, but FreeCAD doesn't make as many assumptions and forces you to constrain your drawings manually. You can also test yourself by going through some basic textbook orthographics or trying to recreate a project in FreeCAD.
There is also a way to get FreeCAD drawings into Blender, you can then use Blender's rigging, animation, and lighting systems to do really high quality product demos.
I use it for designing 3d printable rc robot parts - nothing but sketching and extruding, and importing my electronics so I can make sure it all fits. Never really use the fancier features. I should give it a shot. I'm not an engineer by any stretch, just someone who really likes robot combat.
Oh yeah, then FC is perfect. It handles extruded parts really well. The only time it runs into issues is when you start tying to do organic shapes.
The curves bench is actually okay though as long as you understand the flow.