It's still at the very unintuitive stage. I've done loads of CAD in loads of different programs and still struggled to figure it out.
If you want to do simple CAD e.g. for 3D printing and you must use FOSS then I would recommend SolveSpace instead. It has some awkward flaws (most notably there's no bevel/chamfer feature) but aside from that it is much much better and easier to use than FreeCAD.
If you don't want to punish yourself by using FOSS then I would either way use Fusion360 and put up with their recently gimping of the free version, or simply pirate Solidworks. It's still by far the easiest CAD software to use, though the latest versions are getting kind of bloated.
FOSS CAD is not in a good shape yet.
Off topic, but until recently I would have said the same for EDA. Kicad may be powerful but it was also apparently designed by a UX sadist. Even if you are really familiar with other EDA tools it still makes approximately zero sense and has loads of weird "features" (like if you drag a component in the schematic it doesn't bring it's wires with it!) Eagle and gEDA are even worse.
Fortunately there's at least one decent FOSS EDA program now: Horizon EDA. There's also LibrePCB which I haven't tried, but Horizon is good and pretty easy to use (it has a rather confusing and over-complicated component/gate system but you can mostly ignore that).
KiCAD's UI isn't that bad. I was productive almost immediately using it, and it was my first exposure to PCB design. I can't say the same for FreeCAD though. :-)
Off topic, but until recently I would have said the same for EDA. Kicad may be powerful but it was also apparently designed by a UX sadist.
Kicad is way better than it used to be.
(like if you drag a component in the schematic it doesn't bring it's wires with it!)
This is usually different modes in a schematic editor, because often "bringing the wires" does more harm than good. The default is different in KiCad from most-- "g" to bring wires, drag to not.
Weird. I gave up on Eagle before I was able to get PCB ready for manufacturing, but I found KiCad to be very intuitive. (Except when importing external libraries, that’s one horror show.)
Horizon EDA is nice, with push and shove router (from KiCAD), but I truly dislike (in addition to part management you mentioned) that instead of highlighting track/part/via it draws, often ambiguous, ugly, bracket around it.
FreeCAD is great and very capable (I used Fusion 360 before) if you spent more time with it and switch to glass add-on and other tweaks. Program defaults make it unappealing.
This was actually a bonus for me. The minimal capabilities of SolveSpace made it much easier to pick up what was going on with constraint-based modelling and just getting the mental model sorted out in my brain. Then going to FreeCAD after that was pretty much "oh, this UI wants me to do that thing in this particular way" rather than needing to learn it all at once.
Oh wow I've been looking for something like that for ages! Not surprising I didn't find it given that that page seems to be literally the only place they mention it.
Also, unfortunately it seems to already require a licence key of some kind to download. How do you even get one of those?
Oh, you're right. Just tried it again now, and it's clearly not working properly.
I've just emailed their customer support people to find out what's going on.
Hopefully they haven't changed their mind about giving people access to Solidworks for free. A decent alternative to Autodesk's Fusion 360 is kind of needed. ;)
Strange because they told me that that version is only for "SWUG Leaders" (SolidWorks User Group), and they are planning a separate version for makers that costs $99/year and also seems to be some shitty cloud-based version (it's exact nature is shrouded in marketing nonsense):
Comments
It's still at the very unintuitive stage. I've done loads of CAD in loads of different programs and still struggled to figure it out.
If you want to do simple CAD e.g. for 3D printing and you must use FOSS then I would recommend SolveSpace instead. It has some awkward flaws (most notably there's no bevel/chamfer feature) but aside from that it is much much better and easier to use than FreeCAD.
If you don't want to punish yourself by using FOSS then I would either way use Fusion360 and put up with their recently gimping of the free version, or simply pirate Solidworks. It's still by far the easiest CAD software to use, though the latest versions are getting kind of bloated.
FOSS CAD is not in a good shape yet.
Off topic, but until recently I would have said the same for EDA. Kicad may be powerful but it was also apparently designed by a UX sadist. Even if you are really familiar with other EDA tools it still makes approximately zero sense and has loads of weird "features" (like if you drag a component in the schematic it doesn't bring it's wires with it!) Eagle and gEDA are even worse.
Fortunately there's at least one decent FOSS EDA program now: Horizon EDA. There's also LibrePCB which I haven't tried, but Horizon is good and pretty easy to use (it has a rather confusing and over-complicated component/gate system but you can mostly ignore that).
KiCAD's UI isn't that bad. I was productive almost immediately using it, and it was my first exposure to PCB design. I can't say the same for FreeCAD though. :-)
That is very surprising. Though I guess if you haven't used any other EDA software maybe you just didn't notice the really bad bits.
Give Horizon a try - it's really much better!
Kicad is way better than it used to be.
This is usually different modes in a schematic editor, because often "bringing the wires" does more harm than good. The default is different in KiCad from most-- "g" to bring wires, drag to not.
Weird. I gave up on Eagle before I was able to get PCB ready for manufacturing, but I found KiCad to be very intuitive. (Except when importing external libraries, that’s one horror show.)
Horizon EDA is nice, with push and shove router (from KiCAD), but I truly dislike (in addition to part management you mentioned) that instead of highlighting track/part/via it draws, often ambiguous, ugly, bracket around it.
FreeCAD is great and very capable (I used Fusion 360 before) if you spent more time with it and switch to glass add-on and other tweaks. Program defaults make it unappealing.
I have tried SolveSpace before FreeCAD… it really did not impress me. I liked FreeCAD way more. SolveSpace felt way too minimal and limited.
This was actually a bonus for me. The minimal capabilities of SolveSpace made it much easier to pick up what was going on with constraint-based modelling and just getting the mental model sorted out in my brain. Then going to FreeCAD after that was pretty much "oh, this UI wants me to do that thing in this particular way" rather than needing to learn it all at once.
Solidworks has a Community Edition now, that's free for Hobbyists:
https://www.solidworks.com/support/community-download#no-bac...
That edition seems to have the stuff that most Hobbyists would be after. :)
Oh wow I've been looking for something like that for ages! Not surprising I didn't find it given that that page seems to be literally the only place they mention it.
Also, unfortunately it seems to already require a licence key of some kind to download. How do you even get one of those?
There's a reddit thread about it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SolidWorks/comments/iv3ocg/solidwor...
Someone posted a key, but I don't feel like stealing theirs (may as well pirate it if I'm already stealing license keys).
Oh, you're right. Just tried it again now, and it's clearly not working properly.
I've just emailed their customer support people to find out what's going on.
Hopefully they haven't changed their mind about giving people access to Solidworks for free. A decent alternative to Autodesk's Fusion 360 is kind of needed. ;)
Asked the Solidworks Customer Service people about this, and they said to use "XSEK12" as the serial number when filling out that form.
You may need to choose "Maker" in the user type drop down too (unsure).
When trying it quickly after receiving the email, it seemed to work fine. :)
Strange because they told me that that version is only for "SWUG Leaders" (SolidWorks User Group), and they are planning a separate version for makers that costs $99/year and also seems to be some shitty cloud-based version (it's exact nature is shrouded in marketing nonsense):
https://discover.solidworks.com/3dexperience-solidworks-make...
:/
Yeah. I gave them a throw-away email address for that "Makers" sign up page a few weeks ago when they announced it.
They immediately began spamming it. Ugh.
Lost all interest in it at that point. They really don't seem to understand their audience.
Since we're on the subject of free "Community Edition" CAD software, Siemens Solid Edge seems decent (but no CAM):
https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/plmapp/education/soli...
Should be completely fine for 3D printing. :)
Or join the Experimental Aviation Association, which is super cheap and comes with free Solidworks.