I think it makes a lot more sense to use for functional parts than blender, yes. There might be some learning curve though, especially if you're not familiar with CAD in general
I've posted somewhere about my workflow in freecad, because they really don't give you a lot to go on when you install it, or they didn't when I started using it, but the gist is you want to use the Part Design workbench, and build up the part you want by making 2d profile sketches that you then extrude ("pad" in their terms) or revolve, etc. into a 3d shape. Then you can add giblets on or subtract voids from that first 3d object by creating more 2d sketches and using the various part design tools.
that can get you pretty far, it's like 99% of what I use, even though there's like 20 other workbenches in freeCAD
IMO FreeCAD is a lot less intimidating than Blender (I have tried both). I WOULD use Blender if I were trying to make figurines and such, but if you are trying to design mechanical parts, you definitely want to use FreeCAD (or some other "solid modeling" software like SolveSpace or OpenSCAD). (...ESPECIALLY if you want to design a part to be manufactured on ANY industrial process other than 3D printing, which are precise enough physically render your .STL mesh of a sphere into the disco ball it actually describes)
They all have steep learning curves. I think at this point there are just enough tutorial videos on YouTube to get you going in FreeCAD, but the training material is scarce compared to the proprietary alternatives. But once you kind of know what you're doing, you can watch a SolidWorks/Creo/Fusion360 tutorial and kinda replicate what they're doing in FreeCAD. The basic principles are all the same, even if the user interfaces and terminology differ.
For 3D printing, you will basically live in the PartDesign workbench. The workflow is creating a 2D sketch, extruding it, then creating additional 2D sketches on various planes and extruding/pocketing them until you're done. Learning how to dimension and constrain sketches is important. The solver will not work correctly if your constraints leave any ambiguity, and the solver will ALSO not work correctly if your geometry is overconstrained. It is like solving a puzzle, figuring out how to describe the geometry unambiguously with the fewest requirements. With a little practice it becomes pretty intuitive though, and the program will tell you how many "degrees of freedom" remain after each step.
The alternate method is the Part workbench, which has a workflow more akin to classic CAD systems like AutoCAD where you create rectangular / spherical / cylindrical primitives and perform boolean operations (merge / intersection / cut / difference) to build something. While PartDesign is probably easier for most tasks, there are some things (like an exaust manifold) which are still much easier to model using the boolean methodology of the Part workbench.
This is NOT a beginner tutorial, but it covers so much that you actually get to see some complicated workflows and figure out some methodology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWNrYvxpG4k
I've been resisting the urge to get into modeling for printing stuff, should I just start using freecad instead of blender?
I think it makes a lot more sense to use for functional parts than blender, yes. There might be some learning curve though, especially if you're not familiar with CAD in general
I've posted somewhere about my workflow in freecad, because they really don't give you a lot to go on when you install it, or they didn't when I started using it, but the gist is you want to use the Part Design workbench, and build up the part you want by making 2d profile sketches that you then extrude ("pad" in their terms) or revolve, etc. into a 3d shape. Then you can add giblets on or subtract voids from that first 3d object by creating more 2d sketches and using the various part design tools.
that can get you pretty far, it's like 99% of what I use, even though there's like 20 other workbenches in freeCAD
IMO FreeCAD is a lot less intimidating than Blender (I have tried both). I WOULD use Blender if I were trying to make figurines and such, but if you are trying to design mechanical parts, you definitely want to use FreeCAD (or some other "solid modeling" software like SolveSpace or OpenSCAD). (...ESPECIALLY if you want to design a part to be manufactured on ANY industrial process other than 3D printing, which are precise enough physically render your .STL mesh of a sphere into the disco ball it actually describes)
They all have steep learning curves. I think at this point there are just enough tutorial videos on YouTube to get you going in FreeCAD, but the training material is scarce compared to the proprietary alternatives. But once you kind of know what you're doing, you can watch a SolidWorks/Creo/Fusion360 tutorial and kinda replicate what they're doing in FreeCAD. The basic principles are all the same, even if the user interfaces and terminology differ.
For 3D printing, you will basically live in the PartDesign workbench. The workflow is creating a 2D sketch, extruding it, then creating additional 2D sketches on various planes and extruding/pocketing them until you're done. Learning how to dimension and constrain sketches is important. The solver will not work correctly if your constraints leave any ambiguity, and the solver will ALSO not work correctly if your geometry is overconstrained. It is like solving a puzzle, figuring out how to describe the geometry unambiguously with the fewest requirements. With a little practice it becomes pretty intuitive though, and the program will tell you how many "degrees of freedom" remain after each step.
The alternate method is the Part workbench, which has a workflow more akin to classic CAD systems like AutoCAD where you create rectangular / spherical / cylindrical primitives and perform boolean operations (merge / intersection / cut / difference) to build something. While PartDesign is probably easier for most tasks, there are some things (like an exaust manifold) which are still much easier to model using the boolean methodology of the Part workbench.
This is NOT a beginner tutorial, but it covers so much that you actually get to see some complicated workflows and figure out some methodology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWNrYvxpG4k