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Onshape is kicking me out (and maybe you, too)!
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 8. 08. 2018
- Onshape pushed some updates to their terms of service a few days ago, and it drastically changes what you can do with it on the free plan.
My only option is now Fusion360, which I've wanted to try for a while anyways specifically for CNC milling - no better time than now!
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I have no idea why YT thinks I should watch this video now, after 4 years. But Iâm glad there is great free CAD software available now.
I am in the exact same situation :) And also like FreeCAD a lot!
Me too! didn't realize it was an old video until I read this comment!
Holy crap! I was confused why he said it was too hot out in April
Funny thing is that later on Fusion360 also changed licensing scheme. Glad I went with FreeCAD.
Wow glad this is the top comment I was so confused, didn't look at the date till I read this.
People should get with the FreeCAD developers and help them make that open source tool better. Just like the massive improvements in KiCAD over the last three years. It's only a matter of time before Fusion 360 changes their policy and locks everyone out.
I feel like there's also room for other open-source CAD packages that would try different approaches compared to FreeCAD. But what would such a package ideally look/feel/work like so that both can learn from each other but would not step on each other's feet too much?
the thing is, the developers have NO plan, no direction, no talent,... it is junk
Its happening now.
I think the new blender add-on CAD Sketcher that's in development will likely be the best open source CAD tool in the next 3 or 4 years.
@@Jonas_Aa When I read your comment I thought yes, they are getting funding or taking the right steps to focus on the UX. Then realised you'r talking about Fusion :(.
I used Autodesk products in my job but at home I'm trying to have control and not be exposed to a company's mood. So for me it is FreeCad and syncthing and it is working like a charm. Very helpful community and really active development!
"This proprietary cloud service kicked me out so I'm moving to another proprietary cloud service". What could possibly go wrong?
The world we live in
So what exactly would you suggest?
This is why I'm trying really hard to do everything I can in FreeCAD and OpenSCAD. At least it's not my day job, so I can come back to something I can't figure out a couple weeks later when I have more time.
David Brown Linux user here, so without Onshape, those are my only real options.
I'm going to have to spend some time on FreeCAD and Blender.
I have used just about all the 3d modeling programs. Each has its pros and cons and you can do almost anything in each. The question is, is the workflow designed for someone that makes the kind of models I make and how fast can I do it once I learn the software? No point in learning something if you work at a decent speed... fusion is pretty descent for single 3d models and has some cool features for assemblies. The number of different file types it works with is nice. It can't export its actual drawings to a usable dwg format for laser cutters which is almost a show stopper! Incredible since Autodesk owns autocad! A half decent work around is to use sketches to export to dwg which works but it can be a hassle. Sketch constraints have a mind of their own if you add to many which can drive one crazy! I would trial punch cad pro if I had to do much more modeling at home...
I did see that Fusion 360 twinkle in your eye when we did the coasters... :)
3D Printing Nerd, next time I come to Seattle, I want to buy you a drink. I've learned so much of what I know from you, Angus at Maker's Muse, and some others that while I can't do much as far as patreon or anything, I'd love a chance to show my appreciation and get a high five
Ha!
So many times in my career (now retired) we have seen dependence on "free" commercial software turn bad. Just say no to this virtual bait and switch, it will turn on you in the long run. We need to support the truly open software to get what we need, or bite the bullet and pay commercial (even that doesn't guarantee a long happy life). Good luck!
Yeah I expected this move from OnShape, and expect Fusion360 will move to follow at some point. This is why i consciously decided to learn and use FreeCAD, even though it may be more frustrating. At least I will control my own content and CAD destiny.
Well the difference here is that F360 at least HAS a middle ground. Onshape went from free to $1500. There is no middle ground whatsoever.
yeah, FreeCAD develops intensively. Still not as good as pro cads, but moving in a right direction. 100% usable for small projects and also loads very fast even on a toaster.
If I were doing CAD commercially then a paid license for OnShape or Fusion360 etc would make sense. Efficiency wins at work, $1.5K is not much if it means you can earn $150K. FreeCAD is great for many things except for the two major flaws I know of in the OpenCascade engine they utilize:
1. Complex objects can't be filleted
2. Complex (or even moderate) objects can't be hollowed out.
If someone could fix that the rest is mouse nuts.
If your definition of intensively is 16 years and still no working assemblies
Those and some other flaws of a freeCAD are the result of underlying geometry kernel - openCascade. Doing 3D geometry evaluations is hard. There is very limited number of geometry kernels in a whole world, let's say only about 10. And the one that is free - not perfect.
And it is not going to be fixed in any foreseeable future.
This aged badly looking at what happened with fusion xd
I started 3d with Blender but that was way over the top for my printer models, so I went to Sketchup, which was fine. A bit unstable now and again, but ok. Then I tried Fusion 360. Wow ! Brilliant! I'll never go back. You're quite right to dump Onshape. Once a company's management starts to treat individuals as irrelevant, they are on the slippery slope to obscurity. Power to the people! Vote with your feet.
Solidworks / Creo at work, Fusion3d at home. Wish Solidworks had a maker version, but you cant fault Autodesk for supporting makers.
rhadiem Solidworks does have a version that's almost a maker version. Join the Experimental Aircraft Association for $40.00 dollars and then you can download the full version, your just limited to personal use.
rhadiem SolidWorks gives even students the finger! Their licenses *for students* are over $150. I can literally get Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, Fusion Ultimate, etc for free for heaven's sakes!
If you are on a FIRST robotics team, they give you free copies of the Student version. I have had SolidWorks for almost 4 years and have never paid a cent to them because of this. I even got the exam for free, which is normally $100.
Industrialists use softwares like Catia, NX, etc ,
That's what the internet is for. I use Solidworks at work and didn't feel like learning a new piece of software. If they had a fully fledged copy for home use that had a reasonable price tag to it (ÂŁ300 or less) I'd totally buy it for modelling things at home. As has been said before, encouraging people to learn your software out of work will likely lead to more businesses using it. By shafting the little guys, they shaft themselves.
I use Fusion 360, but I know a few people who mainly use Freecad. Like you said, learning a new tool is a lot of work so most people just seem to pick one and stick with it. I'd like to see you use some other ones, though, just to shake things up.
$10-15 a month for a maker license is the sweet spot. Possibly as much at $25. $125 is a no go pretty universally in the maker community. I am currently using Solidworks (legally) but have an older license. 2018 still works amazingly well. Keep up the amazing content!
I use:
FreeCAD
OpenSCAD
Blender
Meshmixer
I also use FreeCAD and a tiny bit blender, but if you've worked with paid CAD software like fusion 360 or solidworks, FreeCAD might seem a little buggy in comparaison. You can't really expect FOSS to perform like a 60$ a month program
This is really discouraging. I loved OnShape. It was the first CAD package that I learned and I designed a raspberry pi case with it. Because it is browser based, it is also the only commercial CAD package that I can use on Linux (I haven't owned a Windows computer since 2007). In some ways, I've wanted to learn Fusion360 anyway for its CAM features because I have both 3D printers and mini mills. However, Fusion360 is only supported on Windows and Mac so I have to keep an old iMac around taking up space on my desk that I don't use for anything except Fusion360. I'd happily pay a reasonable fee to keep using OnShape but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. It was really nice being commercially supported on Linux while it lasted.
Now using Fusion 360 and Simplify3D for 3D printing on Flashforge Creator Pro dual extruder. Started in CAD at work in 1980 with CIMCAD (now Expert CAD). Moved to AutoCAD in 1995 then Graduated to ProE. I retired in 2006. I had a small hobbyist machine shop and wood shop in my garage until an accident prevented me from standing for any length of time. Used AutoCAD for awhile at home until it started costing too much to keep up with each new Microsoft OS. I started "on the board" in 1958. For an old drafting board draftsman the new technology is mind boggling & I embrace it completely. I enjoy your videos. Thank you for what you do.
One of us... One of us...
If you haven't already, check out Lars Christiansen's videos. He does lots of Fusion CAM and explains things really well.
That's always the problem with cloud stuff, it changes and they pull the rug out from under you. I don't trust fusion360 not to do the same :(
Yes, that is definitely a risk to be cautious of.
What should prevent Autodesk from changing their conditions compared with cloud based software?
I donât see a difference there. Itâs all connected with the internet.
@@sebastiankrein8532 i don't use autodesk either. am on an aincent version of solidworks which works fine for my needs
@@Sigmatechnica nice!
I use Fusion360 myself, after solidworks it was slight learningcurve, but nothing to worry about.
"fusion 360 is really free"
Autodesk : Hold my beer give me 2 years to think about it
2 years later, crippling fusion 360 making makers starting to look at another solution ... again
Thomas, I am a retired mechanical engineer. I have used SolidWorks for many years as a part time consultant. It is now where near the kind of money you mentioned. I purchased one seat and it's mine, no worries about them taking it away. You would probably get one year of maintenance with your purchase. As you no doubt know, SolidWorks is virtually a de facto standard. If i may suggest, check it out before making your decision.
Welcome to Fusion life. Its amazing and the community is very helpful. Learn 360 and Meshmixer and youll be good.
It requires a half descent computer and graphics card. It wouldn't even run on my computer, as it complained about the specs. OnShape runs like a charm. Plus if my computer crashes, you don't loose any work, as it's stored on a remote server.
Fushion 360 is a psuedo cloud app so if the computer tanks you don't loose any work either because all your projects are stored in the cloud by default. Plus there is a handy app for your phone that lets you view all your projects while away from home. It can also be ran offline so I find it "more useful".... I don't have a super computer and it has never complained once about my hardware specifications, but I haven't tried Fushion 360 on anything less than an I5 with a GTX 660ti though. I definitely have what you might qualify as a half decent system.
Iam using Fusion on a Core 2 Duo Extreme with a GF M9000 from 7 years ago. Nothing complex, but it works perfect for small parts
I'm using it on a i7 which was originally built for gaming, so the graphics side is all covered. One thing that I find very helpful is my gaming mouse with a bunch of programmable buttons, which I have a few F360 actions bound to, and the mouse speed change buttons, very handy for slowing it down when doing the delicate bits.
From an old Microsoft employee: avoid 'cloud' anything.
This is not some old guy ranting about buggy-whips [well, it is, but let's move on], this is from the inside.
The Cloud, no matter how presented, is a long-term cash-cow for the Vendor, and a long-term cash-bleed for the customer.
The Cloud, no matter how used, is nothing more than a decentralized server-farm. Throw in some ideas borrowed from RAID5, and the Cloud is born.
Seriously, tha, tha, tha, that's all, folks!
Any 'cloud enhanced' application is simply using mapped network drives, but all that is hidden so the user just sees 'Cloud'.
If you need your stuff to be wherever you are, carry it with you. Get a drop-box. Hell, e-mail it to yourself, more secure than the Corporate Possession model!
Huh? Corporate what?
Your information makes patterns in the circuits of their machines. They own the machines, and they have ultimate authority in the fate of those patterns.
If they wanna, your stuff disappears. Didn't you read the ever-changing terms and conditions?
Sneeker-net doesn't cost as much as Clouding-up the issue will.
And yes, e-mail uses cloudy servers, but so far they have been playing nice.
Greg, I so bloody agree with you. The cloud is nothing more than the disenfranchisement of your property. You own nothing if you can't control the media it sits on. I also live in 'Redmond' so I totally understand the cloud mindset. I have an inexpensive Asus router that has an excellent feature. I can leave a chunk of media outside the firewall. I can FTP into it from anywhere on the net, I can even set up a web-page to access it. From inside my network it looks like a normal volume. Most importantly, it's free and I control it. I can't bring myself to use Fusion 360 precisely because Autodesk completely controls every aspect of the ecosystem including anything I create with F360. I'm teaching myself DesignSpark Mechanical precisely because it sits on my machine and all the files it creates are my personal property. I trust my systems far more than Autodesk.
Your solution of 'not using the cloud' is to use cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox and Email. That makes no sense.
With F360 it is possible to save files offline so cloud is not necessary to use it.
The cloud is just someone else's computers.
I suppose you could go with a private cloud solution like a Synology NAS. I use that for about half my files that I need to sync and OneDrive for the other half.
I use Inventor 2014. When we started our 3D printing company, Think A Little bigger, the Autodesk creative suite was the first capital expense. It was pricey, but we got a stand alone licence shortly before they switched to their even more expensive current subscription model. I'm glad we did as I do a lot of work remotely without good (or any!) internet connectivity.
Three apps for the modelers-kings under the sky,
Seven for the CAD-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Graphic Designers doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One App to rule them all, One App to find them,
One App to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
So basically solid works is best
Time for a collaboration video with Lars Christensen
Agreed. I watch Lars all the time. Tom and Lars have much in common.
Larsâ videos are great - some of the best trading videos around. Love his content and his presentation style. Great stuff.
Fusion 360 seems to be the common choice but they've removed all the "hobby/maker" stuff from the website.
They used to say you can just use it for free for 1y with the "startup" license and keep renewing (unless you start making money with it).
You can still do that in the software (just activated mine a month ago) but they seem to be taking a new direction.
I do not like F360, nor AD, but just like MoviePass you can't make this free forever as I am sure it took customer away from Inventor. I consider F360 a marketing ploy more than anything. I was hoping SW would do the same but with what Angus (Maker's Muse) said I can stop holding my breathe now as it will never happen. Just like YT is trying to clamp down on channels I feel the corps are also trying to slow down, and completely stop, the makers movement because BOTH of those means it hits the corporations bottom lines.
I'm still a student! Yay for Autodesk supporting "education"!
after you install the trial and click on the subscribe button on the menu there is a button to click on that says see of you qualify for free subscription. and its got a hobbyist option and then agree and its done and free
yep students can get free 3 year subscription
Hey Thomas, this video is almost 5 years old now and many things have changed. For example, Fusion 360 is much more restrictive about who they will supply free licenses for.
It would be cool to hear your thoughts about the best free CAD software these days. If Onshape is not the best solution, then what do you think is?
I am the Tech Director for a public school and one of the great things about OnShape is that is browser based so it will run on Chromebooks, which is what a lot of schools are using for their 1:1 initiatives. There are other browser based tools out there like Tinkercad, Sketchup and Vectary but none of them have that "Pro" feel like OnShape does. I'm disappointed in the direction they are going.
Let me know if you have any questions about Fusion360, I use Solidworks for production level work and going to fusion for personal projects was a pretty large adjustment. Their logic behind modeling and feature/part hierarchy is fundamentally different, as is their mating system.
Thanks! I've used so many different CAD systems by now, they all feel just like different interfaces for the same thing. So far it feels very familiar!
I know that feeling, I jumped ship on Onshape as soon as I couldn't access my files without some level of subscription. Just watch out for the Component vs. Assembly vs. Body hierarchic all in the same work-space in Fusion. At work we use master models and inserted parts with our sketch geometry built into the masters. This allows us to quickly do the broad strokes of the design flipping between our Master, the Main Assembly, and the individual components. This doesn't work at all in fusion, They basically want you to know what you are modeling before you start. The "master Sketch" has to exist at the highest level of the work-space in Fusion. Each time you would want a new "part" in solidworks you have to make a component in fusion and then remember to only work within that component. I find the main difference is modeling in Fusion requires much closer attention to where you are in the "timeline" especially if one wants to keep the model both robust and Parametric. Its a lot easier to accidentally make context based features which completely removes the purpose of parametric modeling, so you end up rolling back and forth through the entire timeline to make even the simplest changes.
Also Pro tip: make an assembly with a few components then hit Shift+N, totally changed my fusion 360 life!
Yes, everything revolves around the timeline in Fusion. For example when you make a sketch in Fusion and project faces onto that sketch plane, you can only use objects which were created before that sketch. If you make changes to bodies after that sketch you cannot then reference those new features, onto the sketch, that were made after the sketch. So you have to either make a new sketch or get around it somehow. Every feature (usually) references some of the things that happen before it so it messes things up if you try to delete feature that was referenced by something else, then sometimes you have to go through the entire timeline fixing it. Fusion is definitely a powerful CAD program, the best one which is free imo.
Definitely the best free one available, especially since it integrates seamlessly with eagle (for electrical guts) and has its own CAM.
I've found the best way to get around the inter-dependencies you're describing is to try to capture as much detail as I can in a few sketches at the beginning of the timeline, before solid geometry is created. Most designs can be "flattened" into a few component sketches and used as a general layout. I then create components and add my features referencing the "core" sketches within the components local timeline. If I want to make a change or add more "core" features I roll all the way back in the global timeline to the "core sketches" section and add them their.
As a design progresses and the component count goes up it becomes more important to think about where components and their features fit logically in the global timeline. One trick I use often is if I am looking at an assembly and want to make a change to a specific component. I will enter that components timeline, roll back one feature, and then roll forward to the end of the component timeline. This effectively places the cursor in the global timeline at the end of that components last feature. If you do this for all of your components the components end up in tightly grouped feature packs which are only relevant to that feature, this makes it much easier to navigate and make parametric changes. It also helps tremendously in not having parasitic dependencies in your sketches.
@Bordpie I use Creo at work and it works the same way essentially. In Creo its called parent child relationships. All the different cad programs I've used have worked that way. It's the reason properly constraining sketches and features is so important. You have to try to keep in mind what you might need to iterate on later and set your model up so that you can make changes without breaking everything further down the model tree.
OpenSCAD, have to start learning f360 (unfortunately it doesn't work on linux, it's a minus for me), but even after that i would continue using OpenSCAD for public designs and thingiverse
My problem with OpenSCAD, aside from the lack of true circles, is the lack of CAM. I've tried PyCAM and it was absolutely dreadful
can't say anything about cam... on $fn = 30 or 60 uncircliness of circles usually not really visible on prints. The only problem then is that rendering complex objects with minkowskis and hulls takes ages
Alex Servirog Try libfive studio, it's very substantially faster, it uses a less oddball programming language, and the dev is great.
Anonymouspock thanks for the tip, I've been wanting something like that since I started using OpenSCAD!
I have a big software developer background and openscad is the only tool that really fits the particular way my brain is broken. The .scad files are human readable so you can track your projects with real version control software (e.g., git, hg, etc) and supports real parametric modeling in a way that never quite worked for me in fusion 360. The amount of time Iâve lost in fusion 360 trying to re-edit work in my timeline after making a change to a past operation - huge and a big time waste. Openscad is definitely not for everyone but itâs definitely right for me :-)
I have worked as a mechanical engineer using solid works, ProE, Unigraphics, and some 2D commercial programs when I was employed. I used the free programs that ProE put out in the last two decades. Granite and Creo (now Creo is a licensed product) I purchase a 3D program that went belly up. Everyone of the cad programs that I used or looked into was attached to a for profit company and everyone of them had strings attached. Today and for the last two years I have used freeCAD. started on 13 and it is now up to 17 which has been a major leap forward since they changed their organization approach. The program is from a group like wikipedia, Lenox, Open office, fox fire, etc. totally open source and not for profit. I have not used it but it has FEM, CAD, drawings, motion, boats, homes, etc.
Some tips and tricks I needed to learn when crossing over from other cad packages. Make sure track design history is on. Create a new component for every part before starting sketches/extrusions etc. click the light bulb next to the component to activate it when making modifications to that component. If you donât want parts to magically float around, ground one of your main components and create joints from all the other components in order to fix all your degrees of freedom. When bringing parts in such as from McMaster, use the align tool and / or joints to move that part within your assembly. (Make sure other parts are grounded or jointed first so that they donât accidentally move).
I use fusion360 but its Nugget flaw is the missing linux version. It makes no sense to leave that out.
Hear, hear!
Totally agree I don't want to switch back from Linux just to be able to make models in fusion
That's a feature that's absolutely holding me back.
KiwiWithRotors That's in the works, I think. Looking forward to seeing it. There might be a public beta if you go looking for it?
I'm trying to use fusion in a VM to get around the lack of Linux support
Considering that Linux and it's variants pretty much ran the entirety of the internet for a long time... I would say that you are woefully mistaken... it is only recently that the Mac/Windoze variants have gained traction for servers... Mac and Windows are basically the "Button pusher" specials... made for those that have little to no clue what is going on inside their computer... and increasingly, both are isolating people from being able to do as much with their settings anyway.
I like Freecad for it's many possibilities as compered to professional software which I use every day. You can import images to trace in your sketch, merge parts etc. just like it's expensive equivalents. The UI needs some learning since it works a bit different compared to for example Solidworks, Pro Engineer or Inventor. Also there are bugs in features like fillets and patterns for example. In such cases these bugs can many times be avoided by using a different order of your features. The fillets can sometimes be replaced with a sweep. The truth is however that it runs very smoothly on a basic computer, doesn't depend on cloud services, and since I use this for hobby projects it works good enough for me. I also really like the opensource feel by being able to add new workbenches. That is in my opinion the main reason this software is free: it is very versatile, but you can definitely not work as fast as you would with professional software - it may take some trial and error.
OK, but why does the UI of FreeCad need to be so clumsy and cryptic ? It's like thay did it on purpose, or else, it would just be too good to be true. Such a shame...
@@OlivierSuire Because it was built to be workflow agnostic. A philosophy of a customisable interface where users use different workbenches to achieve their goal. The trouble with this approach being that there historically wasn't a strong focus on a unified UX. This is changing and there is now a lot of discussion and ideas aimed at improving the interface.
I switched from Solidworks to Fusion 360 . The job I had provided a license but when I left, no license. I obtained an Education license from Autodesk with very little fuss and then Autodesk even helped me with my training business and provided leads. I train teachers and high school students on Fusion and Inventor. I like both softwares but honestly, Fusion is the easiest to learn. Personally I couldn't be happier and I do all my personal projects with it.
Since the question is being asked..
Openscad for things to be 3d printed (I'm a devops guy, I prefer working entirely in code)
Laserweb for my CNC/Lasercutter..
- And Inkscape/pinta to prepare the art that goes into laserweb
Yet to find a tool without deep crappyness to use for circuit design/layout/pcb milling
Good for you Thomas! I just switched to F360 after seeing some of my favorite makers (like yourself) who were doing interesting things with it. Software for the most part should be a transparent part of making, and when it turns itself into an issue on any level for the user community, it demonstrates an insensitivity towards the user base and a prioritization of revenue over fostering creativity. My first project will be to design my dream home, and will enable me to produce the architectural model on a 3D printer - complete with terrain and solar exposure modeling.
I have a been using OpenSCAD - I really like it for simple things. Coming from a background in programming, it just makes a lot of sense to me.
Openscad is probably the worlds worst kept secret. I've been struggling to get my programming friends to get onboard with it, and Tom3d refuses to acknowledge that it exists... yet Openscad is basically what Prusa used to build his entire business for the i3 line.
For me, I've designed stuff quickly at work and uploaded all my openSCAD code to our repos for review. But nobody's willing to take it up and it's really funny when hardcore programmers refuse to use code-based modelling and want to use these horrible click-click 3d programs, and then give up... because they're all basically horrible compared to OpenSCAD.
CAM is "nonintuitive" everywhere since you need to know about special things like "speeds and feeds" and the price of incorrect settings is way higher (broken tools, ruined stock pieces that may have been expensive) than generally in FDM printer (where it's usually maybe a slightly clogged nozzle and/or failed print). There is no generic settings like we have in slicer software for stock config printer X with PLA/ABS, for every tool and material (your machine also is likely to be at least somewhat unique) you need to calculate the correct settings (until you grow a grey beard and just have a "feel" for it), and you need to plan your workholding; tell the CAM where your clamps/vices are so it doesn't crash into them etc. It's super great that 3D printing has been made so easy (of course if you build/customize your own printer or just go to town with exotic filaments you're suddenly having a lot of the same issues with temperatures, flow rates, etc) that just about anyone can use one of the printer+slicer packages that have been made easy to use but for machining I doubt it's going to happen anytime soon for general purpose machines (the controversial "ghost gunner" mill is a good example of a CNC mill that has been designed to be used by just about anyone but it can only be used to do that one thing so it's hardly "general purpose")
I am a CNC Machinist by trade. I have recently changed jobs where I used to run Mastercam but now the new job uses Autodesk for there design packages. So I got a hold of Fusion 360 at work now and since I'm still working on learning a new software the option of using this software at home for my hobby 3d printing is a really awesome feature of Fusion 360 using the hobbyist license. It is a great software to help transition from wireframe modeling to solid modeling. I do fear that one day Autodesk may do the same thing where they will no longer have a free hobbyist license. But I think they are doing a great thing to get their product out there for people to learn without needing to take the time and money to take a course on how to use their software.
by the way I really find your videos very informational Thomas Sanlader and Joel the 3d printing nerd. Thank you guys for your great contributions to the 3d printing community.
Design spark mechanical
-Free
-Very powerful for most users
-Has a decent object library
yes. but windows only.
Freecad is good enough for a maker. its mature. has a learning curve. but could make almost anything that's make on onshape or fusion.
I am using FreeCAD. I am modelling for 3D printing. There are a few limitations, but, I am not making complex models. It will become better as time goes on, and I will get better along that journey
I'm learning FreeCAD. It can be tough to get started. Figuring out which workbenches are needed can be interesting, and some of the terminology is unique, for example extrude is "pad". But my use case is I use KiCad for PCBs and someone has written a pretty tight integration between FreeCAD and KiCad. FreeCAD 0.18-dev (at least the one I've installed) seems to be very stable despite it's development status.
using OpenSCAD for most of my 3D models
I did so too, until I tried freecad 8 months ago. Never looked back...
OpenSCAD here to, though I've been meaning to give FreeCAD a try sometime.
For as long as I've been in computers and software -- from the 1970's -- I've seen programs come and go and I've had data locked up behind proprietary apps apps that didn't move forward.
It's become a personal issue for me and, if I can at all avoid it, I won't use a closed-source or cloud-based program that can be pulled away from me at someone's whim. Alas, not 100% avoidable, but I do my darnest.
That said, I use the only CAD program that makes sense to me. OpenSCAD.
I'm a coder. I think in code. I love the fully parametric designs that you can get. Just change a few numbers and create custom tools for very specific needs.
Bang on! FreeCAD is too much work for parametric. OpenSCAD just feels right.
FreeCAD has parametric spreadsheet constraints. It works fairly well. Until you change something enough that a new face is created and it goes to heck.
I use Siemens NX for work (holy **** it's expensive), Fusion 360 for home. 95% of what I need to do for modelling at home can be done in Fusion and it's free. They just keep adding to it as well with meaningful updates. If I had a small business, I would pick up fusion in a heartbeat.
I've been using FreeCad and its working very well for my designs. It has a good user base and there are many tutorials on its use. I have been in design for over 40 years and most of the software I have used was purchased by the company I worked for. So, now I am retired and just find the best package for free.
I design all kinds of stuff and release them all as open-source, I simply can't afford the prices companies charge for commercial programs.
Also allowing I don't really like cloud based development solutions, I'm happy to stick with FreeCAD even of it's not yet perfect...
Mike
Had a polite conversation with a UK solidworks rep recently, in an attempt to see if they offered *remotely* realistic pricing plans for barebones solidworks for home hobbyists / small time entrepreneurs - even when put on the spot, nope.. they dont. Gave some well received feedback to them about what could be stripped out in order to not have a conflict of interests & get a foothold in a massive, growing market which they'd otherwise miss out on. Its a shame, as their package is lovely, even if it is encumbered by less than ideal feature clutter from years of tacking things on top :)
Why would Solidworks spend money trying to get into the market of people who think paying for software is wrong?
People have been asking for a "hobbyist" version or price on Rhino forever, and it's just a non-starter on so many levels. People are supposed to prove to me how much money they make or what they're doing with the product to determine which edition to buy? Yeah that's fun and totally foolproof, it's bad enough dealing with people trying to skirt the limits of the extremely generous educational version policies. You can see with the topic of this video that it's just a problematic idea that leads to goofy arbitrary rules that can get changed arbitrarily. If you try to make a cut-down version, how exactly are you supposed to do that with a product that's a development platform for customers and an ecosystem of 3rd-party vendors? From a marketing perspective it makes little sense, I don't know what you could cut from the core of a CAD system that would make it both worth a tiny fraction of the full price and still a useful product and good advertisement for the brand.
Personally, i too agree that expecting tools that have taken some considerable effort to develop, to be supplied for free is asking a bit much ;) Though with the change in the market realities for cad software in recent times some do need to adjust their pricing somewhat. Solidworks, being probably the worst mass market offender for this. What tends to happen, and i've observed it personally, is they end up completely loosing a sale opportunity to small businesses, on non-corporate budgets who quietly say 'soddit' and pirate the software.
On a personal level here, I ended up buying the top tier Alibre Design CAD package (perpetual license & not cloud based) which offers pretty much the same core feature set as Solidworks at a far more realistic pricing point; ÂŁ1.5k gets you everything + Keyshot for rendering & they even do a hobbyist version for ÂŁ199 at this time. All in, I think thats a fine example of a company being fair, realistic & putting themselves in a strong position to nick business effectively off the likes of Solidworks, Siemens & Co ..which, is what happened here ;) :)
â@@HydraulicDesign Microsoft never seemed to have a problem doing that for Office. You can buy the personal edition, which gets you Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook, and usually nowadays OneNote. Standard tools that virtually everyone needs in business and academia. Or, you can get the professional edition and get all that plus stuff like Access, Visio and Publisher.
For Fusion360, what I would do is wall off some features. The personal edition would have the parametric modeling, freeform modeling, assembly, and CAM functionality, but you'd have to buy the professional edition to get raytracing, animation, FEM, and the team/collaboration tools.
That would allow tinkerers to have a quality product they can use in the shop, teenagers could afford to play with it for fun (price it around the cost of a video game per year, $30-$60. "Dad, can I have this parametric CAD software" would be a reasonable ask.) then take classes on it in school, and once they do that, they could go out in the world and use the personal edition to get freelance work. You know, like how they can't with that SolidWorks certification so many community college students seem to have. Let a whole bunch of folks get used to your workflow, and when they need more advanced CAE/CAM functions, then they buy (can afford) the pro edition.
@@thegardenofeatin5965 Office isn't a good analogy, since that's a collection of totally separate products(each made by teams bigger than the entire CAD development industry) that don't even talk to each other easily, so of course you can mix and match those in different bundles easily. Think about it more as trying to break up Excel into a "personal" edition, given the fact that adding separate versions of a product is an added cost, and that Excel is *shudder* a development platform that's the basis of thousands, no wait millions of custom solutions...so what are you going to cut out and how many of those solutions are you going to break? Students can of course already get most CAD products at massive discounts.
â@@HydraulicDesign It's a perfectly fine analogy. Most CAD/CAM software I've used is very modular, more like Office than one monolithic app like Excel. Take OnShape for example, you have the three core workbenches: Sketch, Model and Assembly, but then there's the "app store" where you can get separate components for ray tracing, FEM, animation and such. FreeCAD's workbenches barely touch one another except maybe Sketch and Part Design. If it were a commercial product, you could sell the core engine with the Sketch, Part Design, Part, and Draft workbenches as the basic version, and include the Robot(?), Boat Hull(?) and Path/CAM workbenches in the pro version, completely without breaking anything.
In Office, the task of creating a spreadsheet or chart in Excel is fundamentally different than typing paragraphs into Word, but you can create a graph in Excel and then transfer that graph into Word. They're very different, but they can work together. Now let's look at CAD. Very few people use the CAM workbench in their CAD software for 3D printing, instead, they export an STL file (an ancient format) and then import that STL into a separate slicer program such as Cura, Slic3r or Simlpify3D to generate toolpaths.
And yes, students CAN get discounts on a lot of CAD software; they can get Solidworks for free. But they can't turn around and use it for anything once they're out of school because they can't afford the commercial version and no one is ever hiring. Solidworks in particular has quite a racket going with all those certifications they offer. How many kids get a Solidworks certification at a community college and end up working as a draftsman?
Frying pan got hot, therefore jumping into the fire. 360 will have you by the balls next my friend when they miraculously shift their subscription structure.
I have talked to the CO-Owner of OnShape myself( 3months ago) and he said they were planning this and I said you really need to consider the makers here. OnShape said they are planning an certifications as well. But your absolutely right they need to do what you say, monthly subscription based, Autodesk could win this battle if Onshape continues down this path.
I was currently using OnShape too, with Solidworks & Fusion. But if you know one CAD System itâs easy to learn another.
This is the risk with any proprietary software. Worst thing is a closed format, that might mean you even lose access to your own designs. It's the main reason to use open source software and especially open formats, which guarantees you future access to your own design. Fusion 360 is still closed software, even with it being free. Since I don't use it I cannot say if it allows you saving to open formats. Otherwise, you are just as bad off if they suddenly change terms....
Been a cnc machinist since the dark ages! I've seen much software come and go through the decades. Professional companies are going to remain paying the piper for many decades unless more people throw themselves into using and developing open source software. The 3d printer world would have never exploded if it weren't for open software such as Marlin, grbl and lets not forget that all those expensive software packages including Autocad and Fusion 360 owe a big part of their expansion due to NASA developed, open source cnc software!
If the web was down tomorrow what would you do? Browser software will never be a solution unless it's based on software you can physically download and run both as a stand-alone software title on your computer or as a server based package you can load on your server computer.
Time spent on learning and using 360 will probably be time wasted in the end, I've seen it to many times to think otherwise.
Sketchup had rapid development when it was free too! Many developers wrote great plugins to expand it even more. Google flushed that great title down the drain when they sold it and the plugin writers were left holding the bag.
I still use the old version 8 and version 6 of Sketchup just because of the powerful plugins that are still available as free downloads. I also use Inkscape as it's vector based and open source. If I want something organic I have Sculptris on my computer. I have 3d printed models created with Sculptris and must say you could not easily model that kind of stuff with Fusion 360 or any of the other high dollar packages.
Another free piece of software that can directly generate g-code from dxf or svg files is called GrblGru. Part of the reason of using Inkscape is that it's native output format is svg so anything I draw with it I can create g-code for and machine it, laser cut it or 3d print it.
I use sketchup too! It has all kinds of extensions you can add to keep it useful. I can convert to .stl files or import different kinds of files with these extensions. So if I want to mod a design then I download from where ever and import in Sketchup, change whatever and export as an .stl..... open in cura and PRINT! Love it.
On Inkscape, I've been trying to do small parts with Linked Offsets . The shapes get distorted! I see others submitted a bug back in 2011(?), and it still hasn't been fixed. None of the Behavior->steps->offset has any effect. Have you run into this problem?
@@WhiteG60 Sketchup has always stayed loyal to it's base although it appears Fusion360 is just like all the other Johnny Come Lately's. They were just laying in wait to betray the customer and soak up the money. As far as the benefits you mention I would say that it is much easier for me to separate how I file share from how I print. If I want a back up that is mobile then I just put it in Google Drive. If I use a special service specific to the progam I am using then all my backup files will be scattered over 20 different sites, instead all my gcode backups, stl files, GIMP files, sketchup files (skp), photos, documents, backup videos etc etc are all on Google Drive and locally on my two hard drives (backed up by Norton). If I want to access multiple files I am not running off to seven different sites to get them. It is a bad workflow practice to place all those files at the four corners of the earth. That is a young person mistake.
@@WhiteG60 Google SketchUp is still an offline program, it's just that Google makes it difficult to find and realize what it is. They are still allowing you to try it forever without buying it. Even still if they were to ever change their mind there are millions of copies floating around out there and legal too. I just downloaded it in the past 3 months.
@@BlueMacGyver hi, where did you find this
Not CAD but absolutely free forever, well supported and very powerful... Blender. Steep learning curve but never having to worry about license terms changing are worth it.
Over the years I have worked with numerous modeling tools (AutoCad, SolidWorks, Maya, Cinema4D, Blender, etc). But most recently I have been using Tinkercad for a lot of my printed projects. I know, I know, it is FAR from a fully featured CAD. But, it is so simple to use that I have even made edits from my phone while waiting at the DMV.
No, I wouldn't recommend it for any 'serious' projects, but it works great for small ones.
Open S Cad. For the person who cant draw but can maths
And there is a javascript version (openjscad) for the the myriads of javascript programmers out there.
Hey Tom. It's an opportunity to learn Fusion 360 and also create Video's of your progress for others of us that want to learn F360 at the same time.
Yes please! Fusion360 is easy for the basics, but with a focus on 3d printing would be awesome.
I completely understand your situation. I was a SolidWorks instructor and enjoy that tool, but when you have to pay for it, starts to loose its luster. I went with FreeCAD and haven't looked back. Like you say, takes some getting used to, but can't beat free.
Eventually, (soon I suspect) Fusion 360 won't be free either. Free doesn't pay their massive overhead.
As a student I have access to the academic version of SolidWorks, so I use that for both additive and subtractive manufacturing. Not for commercial use of course.
FreeCAD 0.17 is the way to go! It is very powerful, even has a workspace for Finite Element Analysis which is not too difficult to use. However, it has a steep learning curve and worse than that, a very strict way to do stuff (otherwise you'll bump into errors). It is open-source (so no artificial scarcity bull****) and I am going to make videos about it here on youtube.
it is crap, crap, crap
Looking forward to the FreeCAD tutorials!
Not sure what's going on with your F360 - I work at 4k and it's razor sharp. Sounds like you have a render setting messed up or something? I come from the solidworks world and prefer f360 now - the test is I tried to redesign a thing I was putting together in f360 over in solidworks yesterday and it annoyed me back to f360 within 5 minutes. The product autodesk have now is very good at what it does.
They redid the UI rendering recently to make it sharp at all resolutions. Perhaps that is an old clip?
Sounds entirely possible.
4k cad modeling sounds like heaven
Theres a bug at the moment with some machines where you have to disable scaling in the exe's propertys
I use F360 on a 3.5k ultrawide (Samsung CF791 @ 100Hz) it looks hella blurry like 32x anti aliasing - settings are maxed out. Im wondering if having windows scaling enabled is causing 360 to trip out. GPU is 2x RX480's in crossfire using DP connection but only one is used.
30 years customer with Autodesk and after many of thousands of $ and countless broken promises I when to Solidworks and loved it. Sadly my main client when to fusion so I had to switch. Still Hate AD, fusion is alright but is no Solidwork. I've also had to go from the fusion subscription to the free version. Yes, free f360 is still a good tool but it's frustrating to be constrained by the lack of features in the free version. Make no mistake I'm very aware Autodicks will put more and more limitations on the free f360 in the future. That's what they do. So if you are smart go FreeCAD.
Welcome to the fusion360 club. Take a look a round. We're quite friendly round here. Tea and coffee are over there. May your fillets be round and beautiful. Enjoy
FreeCAD. Yes it is growing and growth always causes pains. But for what I'm doing right now which is fairly straightforward stuff it works well enough. And seems to have plenty of room for future growth so I guess I can grow along with it.
I have really like onshape too. I have also thought that they need a lower tier license. I do a lot of work during lunch breaks at work so it worked perfectly. Fusion works well but is not as intuitive as onshape.
Careful using Onshape during lunch breaks or you might received "stern" emails like I did some time ago.
NotAvergJoe Emails from onshape? Or from your employer?
I am using Inventor at work, but fusion 360 at home. I also have the HSM add-on for inventor to program cnc milling machines. There is also a free version available,
It's HSM express, works great too.
I do wish they would add tapered thread support in F360. I use FreeCAD most of the time, but sometimes it can't do a particular shape, or I need a thread. Then I move everything over to F360 and it comes out nicely.
You should give FreeCAD a try - it is open source
i hate freecad tbh
the UX sucks, the UI sucks, it crashes all the time and it doesn't have the features i want
"Give me liberty or give me death."
FreeCad has become better with time.
FreeCAD still to buggy and way behind of other cadsoft.
RUWO it is stable for me, but I agree, UX and UI is just terrible, non intuitive at all.
OK, I learned on SolidWorks, but who can afford that,...
I tried FreeCAD which is a POS.
DesignSpark, TurboCad, ViaCad,... all crap
Spent time with F360, but well really don't like the top-down.
Just went back to OnShape, did same jobs in two hours that took days in F360.
An honorable mention to SolveSpace which is bare minimum but you can do real work with it.
You ve learnt it, use it then ;) The big projects for space were made with that posession model... no sh..t, the insider info. Nobody will proof this of course.
Big corps learn us to not be sheeps... so choose the same way!
Iâm a big AutoDesk fan. I started using AutoCAD in 1989 on version 2.61 when in Civil Engineering in the Air Force. AutoDesk isnât cheap, but they know their stuff.
Wow. I started off the first part of the video thinking "why don't you just get an OnShape license"... and then you showed the pricing. Holy crap! That is expensive. I was expecting something like $15-$20/month
Heh was waiting for this to happen... Yea they made it known a year or so ago. They have zero interest in makers and content creators.. they are only interested in getting the corporate solidworks users.
Sad that they turned down a request to do some content with you though. That's just fail.
I use Solidworks and no way would I go to On Shape for anything as cloud based is not for me or my company with OUR designs. I smell a future closure coming on or a heavy backtrack but expect the former.
I use solidworks to collaborate with other companies almost daily, which means they dump files onto the cloud and I canât get them because the internet at work is awful.
Onshape would be nice to have, but I canât imagine actually using the internet to do cad and then having it fail every 5 seconds. Also Onshape is not as feature rich as solidworks, and definitely not as rich as F360. They are losing out on a lot of people by doing this.
Don't trust Autodesk. They bought Delcam and are now bullying perpetual license owners to go to subscription. They also killed off ArtCam, a product which has really very little alternatives in the market.
I use FeatureCAM and PartMaker (Autodesk rolled them into one package now, not a good move). I did use PowerShape for my CAD but dropped it after Autodesk got their hands on it. So now I have bought Solidworks for my CAD.
I see loads of people getting hooked onto Fusion360, but fear that one day Autodesk will do something simular to what Onshape have done.
From my experiences Autodesk do not seem to be the kind of company that would give something away without there being somekind of game plan.
Years back they bought all the 3D animation software - they already had 3DS Max which was a powerhouse, they also bought WaveFront/Alias Maya and Softimage|XSI, thus uniting about 95% of professionally used toolset under one roof. And then of course they killed off XSI, which was slightly cheaper than the others, and more powerful in some regards. Videogame industry was in pain since many companies heavily relied on that. I don't think it was an unprofitable product, it was just not as profitable to Autodesk and was creating more internal competition than they liked.
There are some game plans that are absolutely fair. I mean if you get free users to upgrade later because they want to, who is to object to that. But it's logical to suspect the plan is more predatory, attracting a group of users to crush it later and force some of them to upgrade.
Absolutely agree and I think Thomas is a bit naive in that respect... "Denial" ("... no, this won't happen to me because I'm different / no, this won't happen because this would be bad for me / no, this won't happen because I am young and you are old...") is a *very* powerful mechanisms marketeers use a lot because it is working EVERY SINGLE TIME. Of course, Autodesk has a game plan and that game plan is made in a marketing department ... where there are a gazillion marketeers working who make a ton of money. These salaries need to be earned - and giving stuff away for free is not generating any earnings. So, there is no "free" stuff from big corporations, unless the free stuff is used to either make you an "addict" or to condition you to a specific workflow. Grown-ups who have been around for a while are able to recognize the pattern - "kids" however have a history of being exactly that - kids, and as a kid you are conditioned to an environment where everything is (more or less) free. Now guess whom Adobe, Apple and Autodesk are targeting today? Right, those who won't recognize the pattern.
Thanks for all that. However many think we should not have to resort to buying something so expensive in order to have a decent experience that used to be free. Lets face it, CAD programs are a bit artificially high priced because innovation needs that kind of accuracy, we all do. By controlling the program and their functionality, sorta controls the entire creative process.
Charging such high prices, because the market supports it, is a sad reality. Yes business needs these kinds of tools, but that means the average person can easily be priced out of the market. I'll pay 4 grand for a good car or pickup but not for a program that I get virtually no income from, just makes life much easier for designing things and sharing designs with others.
Pretending both companies are secretly owned by the same owner, his scheme to get people to buy, still seemed to work on you. ;)
Autodesk is cancer
I use Creo and Inventor at work, Fusion 360 and Onshape for private projects, additionally trained myself in solidworks and solid edge. Onshape for me had massive advantage of working on mobile devices - I could design without access to PC. Fusion 360 doesn't give you that option. Recently Siemens released community version of their Solid edge for members of Launchforth.io and their "friends" - non commercial licence.
I am looking forward to your Fusion 360 projects. I am still learning Fusion 360 for my designs and from what I have seen so far it is extremely powerful. I do not blame you for leaving OnShape behind just based on their customer no service responses you stated.
You know what I wanted to disagree with you but ... damn you ... I agree with everything you said you devious dude.
It's just sad that companies do this. They have EULA's written by armies of lawyers that ensure the End User (which is half of the acronym after all) has as little rights as possible. Meanwhile they can unilaterally change it to suit their needs whenever they feel like it.
Yes I understand they develop the software, they invest money in it... I get all that. But you also should cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship with your users/customers. They are the people that keep your company afloat at the end of the day. Even the free ones, Thomas being a good example as one of the main influencers in the 3D arena.
As to what I use. OpenScad ... Because as a developer myself it just fits my ... I guess ... style better.
xConundrumx I used OpenSCAD for a while. I like the concept. The lack of true circles is a real killer though.
John Dunlap True although you can set how many fragments you want. Still it does not outweigh the amount of flexibility you have in terms of parameters and actual logic you can embed in the 'design'. Which since I usually use if for small project cases, parts containers and other such things is of great benefit to me. You can do that a little in Fusion360 too of course, well quite a bit even. It all just depends on what you do as always.
@John i think even F360 do not have a true circle, I think none of the CAD tools do. Simply because you only have limited resolution with PI on a desktop computer. I actually managed to create non-manifold model with 2 circles/cylinders when I just started.
Mega Making When I say that OpenSCAD doesn't have a true circle, I mean you have to configure how many facets circles have. You can set it really high but then the program becomes slow. You can set it really low and the program is fast but then your "circle" looks more like a hexagon.
yea... i know what you said but the reality is non of the CAD tools have true circles, you are always limited by the resolution.
My tool of choice: Autodesk Inventor. Hands down. But aint nobody got money for that so Fusion360 it is ;)
Been a f360 user for about a year and are now holding workshops, mainly I try not to focus too much on the design tools but more on how to "think" in 3d, just get a feel for the tools and some experience and you will find a workroom that works for you. There are so many ways to get the same result, maybe you find one that works before you try them all....
CZcams is your friend, I like that guy from autodesk Lars Christensen's videos on f360
I was testing on Vectric and CamBAM when I decided to dive into Fusion 360. Now I dont look back at any software except Fusion 360. It has CAM for CNC, Laser and lath, as well as I can save my file as STL which I can 3D print. Fusion 360 can be used as simple as your need needs be or as complicated intricate engineering parts as needed. It really is the best software out there for CNC and mechanical parts. Thomas, you should do the same and dont look back at Onshape.
I love fusion 360, just hope that autodesk doesn't go the same route. I don't think they will since having a large userbase is very important for a tool like this
I still mostly use Blender, but that can be a pain so I'm learning F360 too.
I have had ambitions for a long time to add some solid modelling capabilities to Blender, as I think it will always be the leading open source 3d editor, and it already has some nice features that you only get in the CAD world when you pay Solidworks prices, like FEA and other kinds of simulation.
I personally use Inventor at home, just because it's what I learned to work with. Fusion always feels a bit sluggish to me. I also fiddled a bit with Solid Edge, but not too much to be able to say anything about it.
At work I mainly do stuff with Rhino (and Grasshopper), but that is more about mesh manipulation than modelling at its core. We use it to create lattice structures and the like.
Fusion is sluggish compared to Inventor and I believe it's 'cos it's using web browser technology under the hood for the UI (in addition to being on-line by default). I think the UI is terrific tho and am seduced by it coming from Inventor. I use both but would love to see Inventor adopt some of the graphic architecture of Fusion. Inventor is feeling as old fashioned as AutoCAD did when I first used Inventor.
Yep, I use Onshape with VisualCAMc. The simplicity and mobile use of onshape is just so good and I can use it on a computer at work that doesn't allow installation of software without admin privileges.. Don't forget F360 has rendering built in too if you're into that kind of thing.
Been warning people about this on the 3D printing group on FB for weeks now since you mentioned it and no one listened me. Product favoritism creates blindness all to often.
why would they listen? Use it while you can. It's not like onshape is locked down now, and you can't export your designs as .step files and move on.
0:45 - Astérix? And yes, Astérix is the small one, the big one is Obélix.
I thought the exact same thing :)
For CNC (I have an X-carve 1000mm unit) I use vectric pro for cad and cam. I dabble in tinkercad for 3D printing on my reality CR-10.
Edit: I have access (non paid for licence) to fusion 360, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it, when your 64, learning comes slowly.
I use Alibre Atom3D. It was one of the few products with a clear license and extremely low cost for what you get. As a newbie, I found it much easier to get into and navigate around than Fusion 360. The interface is more intuitive.
"Scienci cee en cee"
What? You mean Bob, right?
Um... wait... what? You can no longer use Onshape commercially unless you pay them money but they will let anyone else use your models commercially? That isn't right. If you can't use your models commercially no else should be allowed to do so.
I do my modelling using Rhinoceros 3D. It is a surface modeller and is is quite inexpensive for what it is and can do. Just a one time payment ($895US, last time I checked). No subscription nonsense. You can download the full program and use it on a trial basis for about 30 days. After 30 days saving of files is disabled. I bought version 3 and later upgraded to version 4. Version 6 is the latest available. I mostly run Linux so I run Rhino using a virtual machine running Windows. If I want to use a solid modeller I would look at using FreeCAD. It is a cross-platform program that I can run in Linux without needing to use a virtual machine.
Fusion 360 user now for CAD & CAM (recently renewed free one year license) .. Previously used AutoDesk 123D Design but got frustrated when trying to edit previous projects as it had no parametric capabilities. It was a step up from Tinkercad (excellent for beginners).
As a mechanical and industrial design, I used PTC products. If you think Onshape was expensive try CREO full seat. I switched to Fusion for what you are seeing in it. The depth of tools and I do like itâs GUI.
That's basically the worst decision they've made so far. They should support CZcams creators and makers, both of them basically are the only and most powerful marketing they really had... I really hope they paddle back with that decision đ€đ
A donut shop gives a homeless guy a free donut...all you get is 100+ homeless guys lining up for free donuts and not a booming business
I have 25 years of professional cad experience as a mechanical engineer. Mostly using ProE (now called Creo). I tried Fusion360 for a solid year on personal projects a couple years ago, and it was the worst CAD I've ever used. Then my company switched to Onshape one year ago, and I've been using it daily since. Its by far my favorite CAD. All the hobbyists hating on it must not design actual products. If I had to use Fusion to design a real, mass produced product, with multiple injection molded parts, I'd quit. This video is nothing but click bait because Fusion is popular, and the author is hating on another product. Also this video was made in 2018, and since then, Fusion has added about 100 more restrictions to their "free" plan. Bottom line, with any CAD platform, if you are actually making products, you need to pay up. "It costs money to make money." I also think the author is incorrect about having to have a paid version for making youtube videos. I may be wrong on that, but that's my hunch.
I started using Onshape when it was in beta, moved there from Tinkercad. In beta I had the largest project there and it was used to test Onshape (I remodeled the a larger version of the Herculien which I had plans to make). I even met the founder of Onshape and his wife when they went to Europe and it came quite clear to me that there was no plan to have any sorts of free plan for hobby users, and since I was not about to start paying $100 a month for subscription, I exported everything out and switched to Fusion360 and haven't looked back since. The tutorial videos from Lars Christensen and his support for Fusion360 users are more than enough to get everyone up and running in no time.
Hey Tom.
I wanted to let you know that SolidWorks has Is Not more expensive. I am a current user. the initial package is expensive ($5000). After that it is $1450 a year. That includes all of the extra add-ons and support. Little know thing (and how I use the program) is Military vets can use the program for only $20 a year. It is the student version and all drawings are watermarked saying so. However, with that vet subscription you have access to all of SolidWorks and certifications in SolidWorks are available as well.
Just though you would like to know,
Adam
Dont go free. Go opensource. witch often happen to be free
To clarify: free-as-in-beer might not always be so; free-as-in-speech is usually guaranteed to stay that way and is often *also* free-as-in-beer.
FreeCAD is open source for those who might think it is just offered as free software.
I run Linux on my desktop so I found Freecad as the best solution for me. I skipped Onshape many month ago as they started to allow only public documents in free mode.
Tom, I use Rhino3D for CAD and RhinoCAM from MecSoft for CAM. Highly recommended. They are not "free" as Fusion360 is for the time being but I would not count on Autodesk keeping that promise for long. Check their history. Rhino's tour de force is surface modeling and the software is easy to learn, intuitive and much faster than Fusion. Many SolidWorks jockeys use Rhino for their initial models that very reason. And, then there's Rhino3D's pluggins. Grasshopper is THE tool for visual parametric design.
I make my living using this software for furniture desugb, sculpture and other woodworking tasks via CNCs and I teach woodworkers to do the same. I can't recommend these programs enough. MecSoft's CAM software has tremendous power. Integrated with Rhino3D it's almost invisible. You get a 90 free trial for Rhino3D and unlike other CAD and CAM programs, there are no perpetual licenses. You pay once and you're done. Contact me if you'd like to discuss in more detail.
I really liked the fact that I could use onshape on my phone. Unfortunately I've had similar issues with there rep's. There is a button on the app that asks for help/suggestions. So I sent them a suggestion, they replied back very rudely. So I replied back with "well you put the button up there if you don't want suggestions you should take it down." They took it down.