BEST FREE CAD / 3D Modelling software 2024 - I tested them all!

[@Ondsel]

Thanks for the kind words, Angus :) You can change the navigation style to a different preset, we provide that choice in the first-run wizard, but you can also switch that later in the lower right corner of the main window via a drop-down list. Simplified text addition definitely needs to happen, although we'd probably focus on doing that in Sketcher, not in the Draft workbench. Regarding future changes, Ondsel ES is distributed under the same terms as upstream FreeCAD. This basically means that we cannot hide changes to the original pre-existing source code.

[@cristhianserpa]

Just to clarify, the different navigation styles come from FreeCAD. I really liked the additions that you guys did tho, like the little circle when you're rotating. Rotating in native FreeCAD feels wild and weird, the circle helps so much.

[@deltafactory]

Came here to say exactly this. The GPL license applies forever to this fork of FreeCAD. Worst-case, the source code for any version can be copied and the application can be built/distributed/forked by others legally without regard for Ondsel's future development decisions (or existence.) That's not to say that their efforts to extend the app and offer related services shouldn't be rewarded by subscribing. I only mean to explain that this is not an unsurmountable "gotcha" as with OnShape, or SketchUp. @Ondsel, thanks for your efforts and support of open source.

[@Ondsel]

@@cristhianserpa Yes, people in the upstream FreeCAD project are doing great work, we really like recent changes in how the project is managed, it's more efficient to everyone's benefit.

[@LFANS.FreeCAD]

@@cristhianserpa In native FreeCAD you just do not get the red dot but it does exactly the same function. Choose a vertex or enven over empty space and the rotation will be focused aound the spot you've clicked previousy. My favorite Navigation Mode is GESTURE.

[@cristhianserpa]

@@LFANS.FreeCAD yes, I'm aware the camera rotates the same in freecad. The red dot makes it so much easier to visualize tho. My favorite navigation mode is blender. It made sense since I was coming from blender 😁

[@danriehl4244]

Angus, thanks for using the word "Plethora". It means a lot.

[@ironman5034]

😂😂😂😂

[@doro626]

Jefe, do you know what a PLETHORA is? 😂

[@danriehl4244]

@@doro626yes. 😐 *noun* 1. a large or excessive amount of (something). 😒 aka: "a lot". That's the joke.

[@doro626]

No, you missed the joke. LOL. Google Three Amigos, Plethora of piñatas 🤣🤣@@danriehl4244

[@mikescholz6429]

To hell with “celar door”, plethora has been my favourite english word since I was a little kid.

[@danieltilson4053]

I use Freecad. I don't know how good it is, and I know I'm not the best at using it, but it does what I need in ways that make sense to me.

[@PascalxSome]

It's a steep learning curve. You did it and got behind it, so everything's fine.

[@ukaszbiernacki8659]

Ondsel is na evolution of FreeCad it has the same functionality with proper way of achiving your goals.

[@nachot6592]

Try a more capable and user friendly program if you can. It will rock your world. You can try fusion 360 or solid edge community edition.

[@EridaniOpsCG]

@@nachot6592 Do you know how evil Autodesk is as a company? Really dark stuff. Maybe you don't care, but I can't in good conscience support them

[@N17C1]

It's actually really good, even compared to high end CAD software. The tutorials by MangoJelly on YT will give you a really good start and help expand your skills so that you can easily do advanced work or just speed up your workflow.

[@cadmiral3d146]

As a CAD program application owner at a large company, I am always messing with CAD. it's nice to see reviews on what's free instead of stupid expensive. Thanks!!

[@ziggy-stardust]

I work for a company that develops electronic devices. Six months ago, we switched from SolidWorks to FreeCAD due to the exorbitant cost of SolidWorks, which was also quite buggy. FreeCAD fully meets our needs and is completely free.

[@DavidLindes]

I agree that FreeCAD's UI is... less than entirely intuitive, to say the least. That said, it has been seeing major improvements over time, AND, it's actually Free (as in freedom), not just Gratis (for now). Maybe go visit their sponsorship page, and send a donation (one-time or recurring)?? As a community, we need to support community-driven development, if we want it to remain viable. I hope you'll join that side of things.

[@KirillFrolov77]

Look, no offence, but after Fusion it looks like no amount of donations is going to change the problem. It feels like the whole design philosophy is wrong. Where is history for example? Or, because of the internal naming scheme, changing things in the dependency tree that alter the topology of the body just doesn't work. It is again a design philosophy problem, only this time internal. Just think about it: a company tries to build a successful business on rethinking the UI (and adding some cloud-based workflows). I just can't think about many other cases where this could be a successful business model.

[@AM-yk5yd]

I don't understand why we should reward bad design. Even in 1.0 UI is bad. Yesterday I wanted to rename a datum plane. I typed a new name in properties. Pressed enter, expecting result is just finishing renaming. Instead free cad switched the view from my model to the home page. Donate to this? Nah. As long as free cad believes "ui is not bad just different" there are better foss projects to donate. At least it didn't crash in five minutes, which was the case when I tried it before

[@DavidLindes]

@@AM-yk5yd I doubt they're making a conscious choice to make bad UI. Good UI design is hard, and from what I can tell, folks are trying to improve things, but it takes time, especially for anything being done on a volunteer basis, which I'm sure some of it is.

[@skeletico]

The amount of ignorance about free and open source software is unbelievable, freecad is an awesome product, freely maintained, so if you donate maybe the developers may expend more time into UI and UX, otherwise they gonna be doing functional work. Just take it as it is, is an amazing product available and maintained freely for you or anyone, so don't hate on the work of others. If you don't have anything nice to say, then say nothing

[@KirillFrolov77]

@@skeletico well, moralising doesn't work. No matter how much you donate, it won't change the product conceptually. I consider myself proficient with Fusion 360, I designed pretty sophisticated 70+ part quite sizeable mechanical devices. In FreeCad I don't understand how to design even trivial stuff, let alone multi-part designs where parts need to match.

[@awwastor]

Ondsel’s business plan is fully focused around collaboration and online sync, so if you don’t care about that it’s basically entirely free. Also important to note that the people behind free cad aren’t some giant company trying to co opt the software, they’re a start up made by long term FreeCAD contributors (main founder being the maintainer of the Path workbench). Also, Ondsel, while not community driven, is open source/source available with the changes being published under LGPL (all or most I’m not clear on?), though it’s not community or foundation driven. So it seems like a safe option

[@BloodyMobile]

If it works out for them as planned, maybe at some point it'll turn into the equivalent of the Blender Foundation. That'd be awesome.

[@AndrewHelgeCox]

@@BloodyMobile To match the Blender story Ondsel would have to go bankrupt like the venture capital-backed company that owned Blender around the year 2000. Then the founders could pick up the pieces and keep going towards a Foundation, which would be awesome.

[@TazioC]

Not being the original creators of FreeCAD, they cannot change the license or take their changes back once distributed. It's Free Software, not just OSS.

[@awwastor]

@@TazioC a) it's not even the original creators, to change the license they'd need permission from every single contributor b) In this case, they can distribute their contributions as closed source. Freecad is under the LGPL not GPL proper, so as long as they provide a way to use their contributions with FreeCAD source code not distributed by them, they can keep them closed source

[@tarakivu8861]

@@awwastor They would need to integrate things to be able to link to them afaik. Not sure if thats even easily possible in Freecad in its current form.. They would need to build their own UI which links the Freecad code.. thats alot of work just to keep your own UI closed.

[@superdau]

I am regular FreeCAD user, and it really does the job (mostly for hobby projects, including creating toolpaths for CNC, but sometimes also for work). I especially love its parametric features/formulas that can be used pretty much everywhere (I guess other programs can do that as well, but I never used any of those). I have models where I can change a single number (like the thickness of a part for example), and the whole model, consisting of tens to hundreds of parts, updates (...if I got all the constraints correct everywhere 😅) But yeah, that's the major gripe I have with FreeCAD: its default UI settings are just bad. And it really doesn't help that the naming scheme can be confusing (e. g. the yellow "Part" object, has nothing to do with the "Part" workbench, and neither does the "Part Design" workbench with any of the two). That said, I haven't seen anything in the Ondsel version you've shown, that couldn't be done with or isn't in stock FreeCAD as well. It seems they have more or less just improved the default settings of the program. If that's the case you aren't dependent on them at all.

[@Th3_Gael]

Did you learn following tutorials? I'm looking to learn, I've found a few but there aren't many

[@Sembazuru]

@@Th3_Gael I've found a lot of good tutorials on the @MangoJellySolutions channel. I'm not sure if MangoJelly gets into creating toolpaths in any of his tutorials. The biggest difference I saw with this demonstration of Ondsel is it provides a single button to start a new project and get into the PartDesign workbench/workflow. This probably solves the first stumbling block that many have using FreeCAD (how do I start?). Everything else seemed to just be a reskinning of the interface.

[@Th3_Gael]

@@Sembazuru thankyou

[@superdau]

​@@Th3_Gael Tutorials don't work for me. I don't think it is an efficient way of teaching/learning (the same with books). There's often so much stuff in them that just doesn't fit your needs and is more of a distraction than help. Learning works way better if you have a project in mind (start small) and then search for solutions to your specific problems along the way. That's pretty much how I learned programming and electronics as well. Tutorials or books are definitely not useless though. I just don't see them as a learning tool (for how something can be done), but rather as a reference (for what can be done) maybe showing different ways than you already know.

[@Th3_Gael]

@@superdau it's the reference I need. I don't know much of anything about CAD, what the functions are and how they work. The green jelly channelentioned above is pretty helpful. Once I have the basics figured out I'll be going as you suggest, using things largely for reference

[@andreasbramftl1106]

Little hint for TinkerCAD: You can switch between bounding corner and center dimensions. That's the circle next to the ruler with the 3 lines.

[@KLP99]

You can also copy and paste to rotation by degrees, thus making the fillets easier to do.

[@geeklimit]

​@@KLP99 I've been using tinkercad for years and I can't imagine how to do the fillets, do you know of a tutorial?

[@weineohlson5985]

@@geeklimit If you do the indentations with a torus on its side you get (sort of) fillets.

[@miloscabel3407]

One more hint for TinkerCad: using duplicat button in the tinkercad (instead of CTRL+C and CTRL+V) provides great functionality: 1. duplicate one pair (looks like nothing happened, because the new copy is at the same place), 2. keep selection + rotate by an angle (e.g. 60Deg), 3. keep selection + duplicate again - and it copies also the rotation => done.

[@dukenuke2690]

tinkercad actually has tons of features, you can do stuff that first seems not practically possible but with a little tinkering it is a super powerful tool

[@astroplutonium]

This is what a call a properly made informative video. You are doing the 3d community a service Angus.

[@gyorgynagy1682]

Onshape <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="535">8:55</a> DesignSpark Mechanical <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="764">12:44</a> Windows 3D Builder <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="880">14:40</a> Ondsel ES (built on FreeCAD) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1214">20:14</a> Blender with CAD Sketcher Addon <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1525">25:25</a> Fusion 360 <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1770">29:30</a> Shapr3D <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1950">32:30</a> TinkerCAD <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2248">37:28</a> SelfCAD <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2423">40:23</a>

[@mrsimo7144]

People like you that does the chapters is epic. Thanks!

[@motorbyclist]

not all heroes wear capes

[@tomastelensky-vlog8723]

your timestamps seem to be totally off. (e.g. the ondsel). See the vid description.

[@gyorgynagy1682]

@@tomastelensky-vlog8723 Why is it? I put the time stamp on the final result with the designer.

[@tomastelensky-vlog8723]

@@gyorgynagy1682 ????? What? I am talking about thimestamps in this video!

[@chasewichert4490]

Solid Edge Community Edition is a good one as well.

[@shredo2]

I'm using FreeCAD on Linux. Don't know about the default user interface on Windows, but on Linux, v0.22 you have the exact same taskbar for Part Design (basically I only use this tab for 3D printable parts). You create a body, then a sketch, then you pad/revolve, and so on. The top toolbars are also replaceable, you can change what shows up in settings, and then just move them around.

[@hihellothere9569]

Yeah but you use Linux

[@thetubaguy5853]

@@hihellothere9569 Same on windows...

[@APT4308]

@@hihellothere9569available for Windows and Mac

[@nikoraasu6929]

@@hihellothere9569 yeah he is smarter than most people, your point is?

[@hihellothere9569]

@@nikoraasu6929 nah I just hate Linux and it's community. Not all but most of them

[@Gosuminer]

FreeCAD is weird on so many levels. The price for its great feature set is a steep learning curve. For me it was still worth it because I value freedom very much and just won't use software that cease to work when I'm offline or holds my models ransom.

[@BloodyMobile]

FreeCAD is currently like Blender ~2.6, the functions are there, but the UI's the issue to utilizing them. Blender back then had a giant learning curve, but once you understood it, you really had a powerhouse available. Same with FreeCAD, once you DO manage to claw and tear through the learning curve, it's really powerful. But it's a fact that it WILL take serious fighting to get there (and good video tutorials, shoutout to MangoJelly and JokoEngineering). Which was the same for me with Blender back then too. I actually needed 3 different attempts over several years before I finally managed to get into Blender. Only reason the 3rd got anywhere was because I finally found enough good tutorials. Before 2.6 it was just abyssmal... the UI too.

[@itsverygreen532]

That's the neat trick FreeCAD has to make sure your models won't cease to work for any reason, the software is so bad you can't create them in the first place! I've tried several times with FreeCAD and it really is completely awful, there is lots of great open source software out there (I contribute to and even publish some) but Free CAD sucks badly.

[@itsverygreen532]

@onekattsopinion726 I can use Catia, Solidworks, Sketchup, Blender, Rhino and others with out issue, they work as expected and have a sensible UI. Freecad? Nah, it is not user friendly, and has serious problems in the way components work when you delete features. The version I tried seemed to renumber the feature tree and everything fell apart. One of the worst UI's I have ever used.

[@BernardGisin-e1d]

My students learned Freecad in 3 lessons of 90 minutes. If you learn to use the rights workbenches, you can use it in 5 minutes and learn the basis in a few hours. It is so complete that you don't learn everything in 100 hours. I hope it will continue to improve.

[@itsverygreen532]

@@BernardGisin-e1d I can drive Solidworks with ease, Catia? No problem. Inventor, easy. Sketchup, absolutely fine. Freecad? Disaster area. I am sure it is possible to use it, but compared the the UI experience and ease of use of commercial products, it has a VERY long way to go. It just needs the UI dev team to listen to the users and accept the need for change.

[@markmccluskey9042]

I needed this video. My 13-year-old daughter and I were just about to embark on our 3D printing journey but realized 3D modeling needs to come first. Getting marketing materials on CAD software is easy; getting a benchmarked comparative experience is invaluable. Many thanks for your efforts. The decisioning process seems a lot less daunting now.

[@ragan1425]

I am in the exactly same situation as you right now, with my 13 year old daughter. Which one do you choose?

[@RoyImpolse]

@@ragan1425 Me too. For me it is quite obvious from this video that I need to choose Fusion 360 or OnShape. I heard good things about Rhino as well, I wonder why it wasn’t mentioned.

[@micknorthyard815]

I started learning FreeCAD a year ago, I felt like I was a hostage of Fusion 360 with how great but expensive it is. FreeCAD is far from as convenient to use, but I'm learning and now it feels I am able to do what I need. It has some problems with fillets etc. but it is free and open source!

[@sarahb.8186]

Hey Angus, the current ondsel version contains freecad development features. If you download the current freecad development version (or wait until next release) you will have the same features like ondesl (minus the special ondsel cloud features). BTW the founder of ondesl is the developer of the PATH workbench (CAM), so no new person showed up the place, only some who want's to work more for freecad in general, but making also money with it to live. Also good timing, micheal from TT did a video about ondsel some days ago, but he didn't managed the workflow.

[@p-thor]

Came to the comments for this. 👍

[@marsandbars]

It also appears to be completely FOSS like FreeCAD, which is a requirement of copyleft licenses like GPL anyway.

[@BeefIngot]

Michael actually ran into all of its deficiencies and angry toxic positivity FreeCAD stans roasted him for it. Its a cult.

[@vanarsdalelance]

Honestly I don't even feel you need the dev version. the only extra steps needed to get to the type of cad software he is used to using in the current version of freecad is after starting a new file, go to "parts design" workbench and follow the prompts in "tasks" for most of it, only caveat is when adding text being in drafts using the "text to shape tool" .. really it's just that freecad is a jack of all trades kinda program (each workbench makes it function like a completely different kind of cad program) so the starting point isn't obvious,,, like if you open a new file and switch to/stay in the "part" workbench you have what is basically tinkercad, or like it has an openscad workbench that's primitives based programing cad (I first used this bench cause I started modeling using openscad). But freecads biggest advantage imo is the thousands of youtube tutorials on each function so after 10-15 mins of watching some videos on whatever problem you are having you'll be able to solve it (unlike a lot of the others, and if you don't understand one explanation you can select another video and will probably be good). Big difficulty in freecads current version imo is switching workbenches well having something selected may cause a default on that new workbench to be different then what you would expect after using/learning on something like AutoCAD/fusion360, but it's a feature for faster design once you understand the behavior. since that behavior makes it faster to use like creating a draft on the selected surface of a part instead of having to type in all the offsets

[@p-thor]

@@vanarsdalelance I user freecad from flatpak version 0.21.2.33771 and is the stable. It can do everything. The only thing that Ondsel changes is the UI configuration. Plus adding the ease to share files online but that is the paid part of it. They also contribute back for changes they make to FreeCAD.

[@kingofnfsfan]

Another suggestion: Siemens Solid Edge. I learned this programm in university and have been using it ever since. The main reason why i switched to it from Fusion360 is the multi part assembly. I have used several CAD programs before and i never had any software that could compare to SE. The positioning of parts is just phenomenaly easy. For single parts the modeling is not as easy as Fusion360 though and the UI is quite overwhelming at first.

[@Bruno-cb5gk]

Yeah, I definitely wanted to see Solid Edge in this round up, its free version seems quite fully featured compared to what F360 has become, though of course there's no guarantee they won't go down the same path in the future.

[@davydatwood3158]

How does Solid Edge do on converting STLs to their CAD body? I use the free F360 and it will *do* that - but it leaves all the triangles in place and the memory load becomes enormous, to the point where some things I'm trying to reverse-engineer/cusomise just crash the program.

[@rsilvers129]

@@Bruno-cb5gk Problem is, you cannot load the files in the pro version. While that is not the end of the world if this was the only choice, why deal with it when Fusion doesn't have that limitation?

[@digadigado]

he he he siemens

[@Bruno-cb5gk]

@@rsilvers129 wdym by "load the files"?

[@gregbloor7618]

Ondsel looks almost identical to the weekly compilation (download) of FreeCAD. Which is currently at version 0.22.0 revision 36117. You will probably like the next release of FreeCAD as much as Ondsel.

[@josephspiros]

As I understand it, that's basically what Ondsel ES is: FreeCAD's latest development state plus the addon to support their cloud stuff, and a different default UI theme (not made by or exclusive to Ondsel, normal FreeCAD can be configured to use it too).

[@randompersonoftheinternet8012]

Thats what I thought. He was talking about how the UI is improved in ondsel but it literally looks the exact same but with the buttons in different spots lmao. Literally doesn’t change the workflow at all.

[@GlennPierce]

Are changes being push upstream then ? I don't think the company can change the program they ship as it is LGPL. Any changes to the program have to be made available.

[@roseat2]

@@randompersonoftheinternet8012 exactly, he said that are unable to work in FreeCAD and work nicely in Ondsel with same interface ;)

[@AshleyGittins]

Ahh, I was wondering what was going on. I was watching thinking "that looks exactly like the part design workflow I've been using for a while", so wondered if maybe the windows builds of freecad just lag a long ways behind dev or something. This video is an amazing creation though, the amount of time it must have taken to do a decent effort on so many packages, astounding dedication!

[@markpurcell8075]

FreeCAD is an extremely capable, fully parametric and completely free open source 3D CAD suite. Yes the user interface takes a bit of time to learn, but just watching a few tutorial videos will fix that (it's not that hard). Once you figure that out using a 3rd party front end won't be needed. I've done some very complex designs with this. The concept of having a design tree that you can modify is just brilliant.

[@gustavlicht9620]

FreeCAD seems to have taken cues from CATIA. It was a massive pain for me to transition from Fusion360, but once I watched a few tutorial videos I figured out the UI mindset and how to deal with TNP, but once it clicked I don't really find it painful any more. Also, for any commercial activity, FreeCAD is the only game in town. I need to make fixtures for my lab at work, and we are in the situation where do not do enough mechanical design to hire a full time mechanical engineer, and pay for SolidWorks license, but the overhead for outsourcing small designs is also just crazy. It also helps me whip out concept designs quickly, and use them as a starting point for discussion on new designs, than can later be taken over by a subcontractor. It is easier to put together something in FreeCAD and get a feel for how it will work and how much it will cost, compared to making cartoons in PowerPoint, where there is no sense of scale or dimensioning.

[@bradleykurtz2605]

My 3D modelling program wishlist, in no particular order: 1. FOSS 2. Offline 3. Suitable for precision 4. Easily dimensioned text 5. Parametric I think that is everything I can think of off-hand, assuming all the standard stuff we would expect. I know these companies have to monetize somehow, and I want them to be able to. Finding a way to monetize while keeping everything accessible will be a challenge.

[@hectoraracena7076]

try SOLIDEDGE

[@lever1209]

i use mainline freecad all the time despite not having any prior experience and being a highschooler i chose it a few months ago simply because open source is number one to someone like me

[@robertmartinu8803]

Also consider Siemsn Solid Edge Community edition - free, offline and very little limitations comapred to the full commercial version.

[@minigpracing3068]

Is the 3d version free now? I've done a lot of things in 2d and really like it. But the licensing aspect eventually broke for me and I couldn't get it recovered. Same happened to my Fusion360 license. I'm just going to stick with learning Freecad knowing that it should be around for a while.

[@robertmartinu8803]

@@minigpracing3068 You get 3d and most of the simulation&generative design stuff now. But then the features they turned off make only sense if you know the properties of the material after the manufacturing process really well. More for use with SLS than fdm or even msla.

[@ifell3]

I think I've downloaded this but never got to installing it.

[@LFANS.FreeCAD]

@@minigpracing3068 FreeCAD is the way... Those greedy companies will see in the future that professionals can't cope with their prices

[@jcziviani]

That's the one I use. The best free CAD software IMHO.

[@jctoth]

Thanks for the video. As someone that had some CAD experience, albeit many years ago, I wanted to do some 3D design and printing. I so desperately wanted FreeCAD to work but it was so counterintuitive I gave up and opted for the free version of Fusion. The workflow in Fusion actually makes sense and works like a charm. Thanks again.

[@meddlepf]

Thanks to the comments on this video I decided to give Solid Edge a go and WOW what a lovely intuitive piece of software. I've been using Freecad since I got my printer a couple of years ago and have been constantly frustrated by how much effort and time it took to get things done. In the early hours of this morning after coming up against the usual where it just wouldn't close the model I uninstalled and started trawling YT for suggestions of a replacement. So a huge thank you to all the commenters who recommended Solid Edge. First part is now printing after only 2 hours of getting used to the way it works.

[@bryanwelsh1773]

All I can say is man you are brave for making this video. I came to the comment section just to see all the folks defending their choices and/or correcting you on some little detail. Like: suprised you didn't use the duplicate function instead of copying to make the cutouts in Tinkercad.... Thanks for making this!!

[@jeffhohner9298]

Hi Angus, I appreciate the video guide because it has shown me some alternatives to FreeCad,, which I have been using since I bought my 3D printer. I have to mention though that your complaint about FreeCad being virtually impossible to use, when you open the Part Design Workbench in FreeCad, you start your model exactly the same way you showed in Ondsel. If you select 'New' from the top left of the tool bar, it opens the panel on the left, offering you to start a new body and when you click that the next step is to start a new sketch and choose a plane, even showing the three planes in the main window. I can't comment on the other differences that Ondsel employs because I haven't tried it yet. Thanks for the video! Cheers

[@InfestedGlaaki]

Yeah. This was hillarious. "Freecad is unusable! Ondsel makes it better!" ... then goes on to show a workflow that is litterally 1:1 the exact same workflow with same screens, dialogs and toolbars, just themed slightly differently...

[@Dmitry_IMHO]

OpenSCAD also worth mentioning, just for its completely different approach.

[@Phaedruses]

Open Scad is built into free cad, so by starting with free cad, you also get open scad, and can seamlessly go between the two. I have downloaded a couple of big clive designs in open scad, his preference, and changed things in open scad. Then converted to the free cad so I could see what I had done, since I am mostly visually orientated in design.

[@Sembazuru]

@@Phaedruses I could be wrong, but I didn't think that OpenSCAD is built into FreeCAD, rather a workbench to interface with OpenSCAD is there. You have to configure FreeCAD to know where OpenSCAD is installed.

[@eruiluvatar236]

+1 . I couldn't 3d model in traditional cad programs if my life depended on it but I love openscad.

[@TheNickelGhost]

Glad to see other people in the world using OpenSCAD! I find it a lot easier to conceptualize projects using OpenSCAD versus traditional CAD software, and a huge bonus IMO is that OpenSCAD runs on basically anything: my computers are all pretty ancient but they handle OpenSCAD rendering just fine, and the raw .scad files themselves are just text, they don't take up much room.

[@eruiluvatar236]

@@TheNickelGhost The runs on anything part is quite dependent on which operations you use. Once you begin using hull or worse minkowsky, bump up %fn or the other parameters that control the amount of geometry and the part gets a bit complex, the rendering time can get quite large. It is somewhat mitigated by using preview while developing the part and keeping $fn at 100 or so until the final render. There are also huge performance improvements in the development build vs the stable version. Took one of my things from needing over 8 hours and 80GB of ram to render to less than 4 minutes and 8.5GB.

[@ConorFenlon]

I just use Blender without CAD Sketcher. I create most models with very simplistic combinations of basic shapes and modifier operations. You can get ridiculously precise in your measurements with the built-in MeasureIT addon that ships in every Blender version. You'd be surprised how accurate you can get things made in a very short amount of time. Far more resolution than the limitations of an FDM 3D Printer, for whatever your application may be.

[@Smoth48]

I've found that Blender just feels horribly non-intuitive for me when it comes to accurate 3D modelling. I've tried several different add-ons for it, but they all seem to have their weird caveats that just make it unpleasant haha.

[@ConorFenlon]

@@Smoth48 That's fair. Everyone learns different softwares when learning how to design in 3D initially. For me, it was Blender from the start pretty much. I also happen to enjoy the puzzle of figuring out how I can use it to do things that CAD Engineers insist "cannot be done" in Blender. Like 99% of the time, it can. Besides that, it's FREE. I'm willing to put up with a few caveats to maintain that freedom in my design workflow. In any case, to each their own, as the old saying goes.

[@AM-yk5yd]

Yeah. I found blender to be awesome when you don't care about exact precision, eg you make something like miniatures for d&d. But for cad... Nope.

[@ConorFenlon]

@@AM-yk5yd Funny you should say that. I've used Blender to make a few custom D&D models for people who play pretty regularly, and they seemed to be very happy with them! It all just depends on how much time you're willing to apply yourself to make Blender work for you. Anything is possible if you really want to make it work.

[@EPeltzer]

Thus far I've done all my 3D print models in blender. I keep looking around at these other CAD programs for amateurs and 3D printers but then I just go back to blender. Of course I have taken quite a bit of time to train myself on it and I realized the learning curve is steep. But even bone stock blender with no addons can be absolutely precise. I mean like fractions of millimeters. It's not that hard but there are plenty of videos on how to set up blender precision. By using stacks of booleans it's also possible to do a sort of parametric modeling, though it looks a very different from your typical CAD parametric workflow. Another advantage of blender is you can import any STL and work on the mesh very precisely and minutely. Now dimensioning exists sort of but this program does not do 2D drawings at all really. Rendering capability of course is astonishing.

[@GreenOcean1990]

I've been using Freecad for a while and the more I use it, the more I like it and the easier it gets. I've used Fusion before but never looked back. There is a learning curve I have to admit. But the reward is price-less, pun intended.

[@mrstanlez]

For me the BEST FREE CAD is: 1. Free, 2. Multiplatform, 3. Offline functionality, because I travel a lot, 4. Have updates......And the winner is Blender, FreeCAD,....

[@Andreasonline3]

not realistic, you need to pay for updates my dude

[@Xerkies]

​@@Andreasonline3pay.. for updates? When and where?

[@user-ztghR65Dtsk]

Free CAD не могу использовать. При изменении теряет ссылки на внешнюю геометрию и восстановить деталь практически невозможно. Ещё и странная структура и отсутствие необходимых функций усложняют задачу построения детали.

[@mrstanlez]

@@Andreasonline3 Pay for updates ? No need to pay anything. You are welcome in free world of Linux (as Free of charge). With Blender(10 years), LibreCAD(8y), etc. you need only two things, a PC/laptop and a second one, to be creative.

[@lawabidingcitizen5153]

@@Andreasonline3 Haven't had to with FreeCAD so far... I have donated a couple of times though...

[@UncleJessy]

Shapr3d 🤘 sooooo damn good on an iPad and I’m excited for their upcoming Apple Vision Pro app. But yeah, the free version is basically a software trial

[@henninghoefer]

That wouldn't be so bad, if it was a one-time payment afterwards. But it's subscription 😒

[@SRad666]

I come from a professional modelmaker background, and Shapr3D has been the the only one that my brain works with intuitively. I'm getting my first patent soon, everything was modelled in Shapr3D. Well worth the subscription.

[@tarakivu8861]

You cant work well in 3d modelling on touch alone really. There is so much stuff, a combination of keyboard and touch really works best. So i have my graphic tablet and keyboard, so i can quickly touch keybinds and do things.

[@Iisakki3000]

I'd love to have a proper 3D modeling app for Android. We have a galaxy tab s9 ultra which is mainly for my so to draw with, and not being able to use the pen and the humongous screen on it for cad, seems like a wasted opportunity. I've already tried viewing 3d models on it (in printables mainly), and it feels so intuitive to spin and zoom them around on the big touch screen.

[@Iisakki3000]

​@@tarakivu8861that's definitely true, but a tab would still be nice for simpler things.

[@cigp]

Angus, your a great communicator, i enjoy your videos and i learn a lot, i feel grateful for them, thank you.

[@troublemakershenzhen]

You did a freaking awesome job, Angus. Thanks a million for the effort.

[@JoanneHastie]

Thanks for this video. Just got a 3D printer but I haven’t touched ProE and SolidWorks in years. Having spent decades in both, I know I could not work without parametric modeling. So you reviewing each option high level was super helpful to get me started back into CAD. Huge time saver! Thanks!!!

[@elijahclifford863]

I'm coming to this video after about 2 weeks of using the FreeCAD weekly build - interestingly in the 8 months since you recorded the vid the UI I see looks almost identical to the Ondsel UI you're showing in the video. I guess someone in the contributer group really took your points to heart :)

[@censoredeveryday3320]

Try out the Freecad 1.0 RC build. It's a lot different and the UX is much improved.

[@figurativelythedevil5042]

You missed SolidEdge community edition! Free for makers. Would have been interested to see someone with a lot of CAD experience's take on it

[@Xenthera]

I applied for the community edition, which is already weird, but then GOT DENIED. What a dumb way to turn people off of learning your software.

[@highmastdon]

Same with SolveSpace. Beautiful tool, not as feature rich though…

[@Techpriest1010]

​@@Xentherayou don't need to "apply", open an account and it emails you the download address which is NOT a unique address

[@_droid]

@@XentheraApplied? All I did was verify email, fill out the form, and it sent me to the download. Maybe they changed it since you tried.

[@jonjon3829]

@@_droidmaybe he applied so student versions instead

[@paulinmt2185]

After all this, it still comes down to FreeCAD (with all its bugs and warts) if you want completely open-source parametric CAD on your computer. Great update. Cheers!

[@jetblackstar]

Quick jump in here. Supporting onsel. I'm a software engineer. I'm a MASSIVE fan of open source software. But free as in speech, does not mean free as in beer. Onsel have stated they will publish upstream changes they are making to freecad core. If they can provide a better UI and improvements and make a business out of it. That is still open source and they add to the work by making it commercially viable. As opposed to depending on free time from community coders to some how keep up with all the demands. For no money to live on. Sure id still love personal versions to be free as in beer too. But I put no shade on them for offering a commercial option.

[@TazioC]

They cannot do that, FreeCAD license forbids that. They can only have fully proprietary plugins.

[@jetblackstar]

@@TazioC sorry I don't follow. Which thing specifically can they not do?

[@tarakivu8861]

@ckstar Any changes and additions to the Freecad code they do and which is shipped, needs to be made available under the same License as Freecad. This is typically archieved by maintaining a public fork, which could then be used to pull changes they made back into Freecad. Most Businesses which operate under these Copyleft licenses make their money via support and service contracts. Some can circumvent these licenses and also offer some additional packages and features (usually addons or they made a split license when they made the project themselves, which allows them to do so). This way we get open software and businesses still get revenue. Of course some want to pull shady stuff..

[@marcin8432]

For all those wondering - this video is not another clickbait video. That dude really went over the board with testing all the best CAD software options. Damn good job, thanks a lot Maker's Muse for summing it all up for us.

[@MakersMuse]

Thanks, it means a lot!

[@veryboringname.]

@@MakersMuse Plethora?

[@Anu8ius]

Shapr3D has one huge advantage over most other programs- the tablet version is SO well done and intuitive. Using it with an Apple Pencil makes modelling so simple and fast, especially since the pencil does has other functions than your finger would have.

[@Rozbujnik_Rumcajs]

Im trying to learn freecad on and off for years. At this point im thinking that it would be a lot easier if I didn't have prior experience with autodesk. They give licenses to schools for free and the you hooked with little to no escape path out of their ecosystem.

[@KitKat-tj8ds]

Yep, it's the adobe model.

[@engrokst2581]

You said at the beginning you tested 10 to see which is best but you did not say which one you thought was best.

[@solarr69420]

re-tweet

[@aksks371]

Exactly

[@stuk5787]

Bro I'm so frustrated I watched this whole video and a minute before the conclusion chapter he says "you can guess what I like more" to then in the conclusion not conclude anything at all lol

[@jean-baptistebonaparte2200]

I think he loved FreeCad. 😂

[@nofluffDIY]

He said at the 2 minute mark that “best” Is not realistic. But he might have said “best if [A | B |C].”

[@dudleybarker2273]

i'm sure i'm not the first Blender user to point this out, but the reason you're getting facets is because you didn't use the 'shade smooth' function (interpolates vertex normals), nor did you auto-smooth your normals around the text, which is why they are also faceted - but Blender is complex as hell, and it takes a good while to get into it, but with the Sketcher addon (thanks Jonathan over at Maker Tales for that one), it does pretty high quality 3D printing - not to mention a million other really cool and useful things - and no, i don't work for Blender ;)

[@Hobbes746]

This is very helpful, thanks! I used to have access to Solidworks via my job, and want to move to a low-cost solution for my hobby CAD projects, and this got me pointed in the right direction.

[@tadasnanartonis9092]

I would recommend only to go FreeCAD route, it is the only competitive product to SW. Can be fully used with integrated SpreadSheet without requiring any other spreadsheet software, and Dassault failed to do that and has to be integrated to MS products, so it is aimed for enterprise companies only. FreeCAD has blender's zoom, move actions and that is best way to navigate. The largest drawback is that comming from SW to FC, there will be adjustment period, because you have learned a habit to think in SolidWorks way and now you need to develop new habit to think in FreeCad's way, which is sometimes is less intuitive. Otherwise it is great software and has strong development and becomes better and better within a years. (I'm using freecad on and off for about 10years now, so the project is alive and continues to move in right direction, if the community would be that large as blender's, probably we would be using only two software tools for FreeCAD and Blender...)

[@thinkdunson]

our computers at work are heavily managed, so onshape is nice because it doesn't meet any of the banned categories of website. and it runs fine on our low end work computers. i've actually made a few models for work, like 3d signs we mounted to the tables in the picnic area and a large company logo for the front entrance. nothing really functional, just decorative stuff. but it makes an impact on prospective clients and impresses the higher up execs when they visit.

[@critical_always]

So... There is no software you can buy? It's all rent software. Disgusting.

[@szymonpabis1805]

It is, I bought ironcad lifetime license this year, you csn check it out

[@keithvidion4221]

You could try Simplify3D. Free trial for a month, then a fixed amount to buy the current version. Can stick with that version or there’s the option to pay to upgrade as new versions come out. As a hobbyist I’m currently looking at it to move from Shapr3D (similar UI).

[@keithvidion4221]

Apols, Plasticity not Simplify!

[@szymonpabis1805]

Ironcad, you csn buy lifetime license

[@christosteyn9501]

Uhm Rhino 3d

[@dylanbye6659]

As a hobbyest, I absolutely love the power and ease of use fusion360 has, when trying out other software there always seems to be something that doesnt work as well as fusion360. I'm not against paying for software for a hobby, but my dream is for someone to design something that is powerful and easy to use as fusion, but as a 1 time purchase, no subscriptions, doesnt even need to be cheap, make it $150-200+. I very rarely touch the latest and functionality updates, give me a fully fledge program that i can still use in 5 years and im happy.

[@T0tenkampf]

agreed, I wont pay subscriptions

[@BrownMInc]

I'm not sure if you've come across it but you essentially just described Alibre Atom3D. The license is perpetual and you only pay for the updates if you want it. It's pretty fleshed out. Genuinely surprised that's it not as popular when I randomly came across it

[@xeraoh]

plasticity is very good for small projects it's not as smooth as fusion but the perpetual licence is cheap

[@oddlytimbotwillison6296]

Hey Angus, nice video. I appreciate how much work went into it. I have a few thoughts that I don't think were covered. Like yourself, I use CAD professionally and I'm an educator. But I work with a small team at a community makerspace, and there are almost NO licensing options that work in that scenario, and would price our courses far outside what our members could afford. We also use linux, further limiting options. So we went with FreeCAD, and it has been great. I have taught hundreds of people to use it, and they've made hundreds of projects with CNC, Laser, and 3D Print. My observation is that it is the highly experienced CAD users who have the hardest time with the UX simply because they are used to different conventions. And for the beginner - well they need help! But with some assistance and good resources before long they are making good stuff. I usually suggest that people try their options - but keep that open-source option just in case.

[@rsilvers129]

Why didn't you just use the free version of Fusion?

[@andrewwakefield4519]

@@rsilvers129I would guess that using Linux as their OS is a major reason. For us Linux users, F360 is not a great option.

[@oddlytimbotwillison6296]

@@rsilvers129 The licensing does not allow it, as this is considered commercial use. And Fusion has no linux version. But it worked out okay, FreeCAD has been good.

[@Th3_Gael]

​@@rsilvers129I'm looking to learn CAD,i started with fusion as there's loads of tutorials and everyone says its great. It was, kinda, it lasted 2 weeks before it spat it's dummy out because the pc I use has no internet access. Freecad from here out for me

[@oddlytimbotwillison6296]

@@rsilvers129 Our use is considered commercial, so the licensing would price us well outside what our members could afford. And there is no linux version. But all is well - FreeCAD has been great.

[@AlexSwavely]

A couple of points regarding ondsel - * you can change the camera control schema using the callout in the bottom right, or in the preferences " they're a Canada 'public benefit company', which is a 'not for profit' status * the paid features are for their cloud services, not the software itself

[@DutchRonin74]

For exact parts I use OpenSCAD. Takes a while to get used to but the results are very precise. It's free too.

[@jeffb5798]

Angus, great review! While slicing software has vastly improved over recent years (thanks to being OpenSource, IMHO), it's unfortunate that our hobby has been hampered by the lack of a decent 3D modeling application which is low cost (or free), non-subscription, non-cloud, not crippled, and has an intuitive interface. Unfortunately, none of the options we have at the moment meet these criteria. Until something comes along that is feature rich, not crippled, doesn't time out/expire, runs locally and saves locally, and has an intuitive UI/UX, I'm sticking with 123D Design. It has bugs and it has its limitations, but (for me) it's still the best option in 2024... it's not that 123D Design is that great, it's that the other options are so bad.

[@logicalfundy]

Ondsel or the Link branch of FreeCAD are worth checking out.

[@Aikano9]

Solid edge community edition is a fully featured CAD package, but it takes a bit of time to get used to its interface. I think I’ll move over to it after my Inventor license runs out

[@SpeedyGwen]

I been using 123d design for many years and I do sometime have to go search on other programs for certain functions like characters but generally, 123d design does everything for me too, sadly its quite underated

[@alihms]

The inability of many of these softwares to easily create chamfer / fillet is a huge deal breaker. In many cases, 3D printed parts do require having proper chamfer/fillet to be useful. As a hobbyist, I am willing to pay a small amount of money to get a more capable CAD software. Solidworks or Rhino 3D seems to be a better overall option to me right now. Maybe you could do a similar list for paid hobbyists version of CAD softwares?

[@bbrnkyle74]

Designspark is a free version of Spaceclaim. They do have cheap subscriptions that can be paid month by month for more import options and other stuff. (like import OBJ and SLDPRT files) Chamfer and fillet are easy in DS. I have been using it for 12+ years. Made a ton of money on very dimensional specific parts I designed. It's worth checking out.

[@jorkki5907]

SolveSpace is an open source parametric, constraints based CAD that could have been included. It's small has the design history, constraints much like F360 but it could use a few talented developer to take it to the finish line. It's missing a proper geometry kernel with fillets etc. and the quality of the STLs generated is a bit shaky but there is definitely potential.

[@clb92]

I was kinda disappointed he didn't test SolveSpace.

[@alexvonhoene1391]

Solvespace is also the software that underpins the Blender CAD Sketcher program. I really like SolveSpace. It isn't everything that everone need for every project, but it's super-useful for tons of projects, and a great tool in which to learn CAD.

[@daveofyorkshire301]

I've used FreeCAD for years, still on 0.19 despite two upgrades pending... Complicated YES but FULLY functional and free. It interfaces fully with Cura for 3D Printing...

[@yodal_]

I find it funny that one of the biggest advantages of open source software nowadays is that you don't need to worry about a company changing things out from under you. People have been screwed over too many times to trust any company.

[@robinmorritt7493]

Angus and SketchUp are like old friends for me. Nothing overly fancy, just reliable and dependable for the long haul. Some pay for the privilege, some don't. Both are treated with respect. Long time no see. Excellent video. 👍

[@ThisisDD]

I too started on Rhino 3D during the long beta period in the 90's when I was a teenager. Loved it at the time! Loving this channel!

[@spamcatcher2760]

Maybe an honorable mention to the new "Maker" version of Solidworks. Not free, but only $40 a year. It's basically the full-featured Solidworks with a watermark. Can save files locally and you can work off-line for weeks. Time invested with this CAD package could easily be put on a resume and land you a job.

[@tamgaming9861]

I had the same idea as rhino user, and found out in Europe you don't get paid a lot of salary even if you have some SolidWorks certifications.

[@4floWenoL]

I tried this version quite some time ago, and I don't remember being able to go offline, and ended up hating the 3D experience thing. might need to revisit it, the biggest problem is once you want to go commercial it gets very expensive, sure there's the 2k yearly for the maker version but meh to low IMO.

[@spamcatcher2760]

​@@4floWenoL "Maker" version is $40 per year, not $2k. If you want Solidworks for commercial purposes, then the next tier up is their "Entrepreneur/Startup program" for businesses with less than $1M in revenue. You enroll your business and get three years. First year, you get everything for FREE. Next year you pay 30% of the normal price. Final year 50%. The discounts apply to the "3DEXPERIENCE" products, which are nearly identical to the traditional Solidworks 'DESKTOP' software. The only real difference is that it is a pay-for-access type of software. Yearly cost is about the same as the traditional 'desktop' Solidwork's subscription ~$1k. So you'd pay $0 first year, $300 next year, $500 third year, $1k each year after. After the second year it might make more sense to just purchase a traditional desktop license.

[@TheNerd484]

One thing you should have mentioned is that the CAD sketcher addon for Blender uses the geometry solver from SolveSpace, which is in itself a full CAD program. SolveSpace is very light (literally just an exe) and powerfull enough to do most of what anyone might want to with a CAD program.

[@surferdudemi]

I've used FreeCAD for many relatively simple shapes. Clay stamps, fan shrouds / adapters, filter clips, etc. I haven't used other CAD applications before, so I didn't have any preconceptions about how the interface should work. There are some decent tutorials to get one started. The main issues I have had are: 1. Sometimes the application seems to lose track of things and I have to wipe out geometry and redraw from the beginning. Just deleting later constructions that fail doesn't roll it back to a working state. 2. Getting a sketch to a fully contrained state can be maddening. If you watch the DoF counter count down as you add constraints, you don't always get to the end where it's fully constrained. I often end up with over-constrained geometry, so I have to back up and try a different approach. I'm familiar with datums and basic part geometry, but I just can't consistently get the constraints right. 3. Navigation is also maddening. The whole drawing can sometimes go off screen and it's hard to find it again. 4. It doesn't seem like the limits and positions on extrusion and intersection work properly. Sometimes I have to flip to the other side of the extrusion space and go in the negative direction. 5. Why does ASCII STL export work in Cura, but binary STL fails?? Ugh. And while there appear to be many options for the meshing parameters and algorithms, it's not intuitive at all. I don't recall having issues with fonts (on Windows). I made some letter stamps for a friend to use with clay. I was able to swap letters from an unusual font to make the next stamp pretty easily once I got the workflow down. Making the mesh to export to STL is also easy, though you have to remember to turn off the mesh or delete it if you go back and edit.

[@Liberty4Ever]

I love FreeCAD and it has come a long way since I started using it. It's a fully functioning 3D parametric CAD program and Angus' user interface complaints are mostly related to earlier versions of FreeCAD. One of the things I love is the design flexibility. If you want to sketch 2D and stretch it into 3D as seems to be the preference of *real* CAD technicians, FreeCAD will do that. If you want to use it like TinkerCAD by adding and subtracting 3D primitive elements (cube, sphere, etc.) you can create surprisingly complex designs.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Have they fixed the topological naming problem yet?

[@Liberty4Ever]

@@TheRainHarvester - I don't know if the topological naming problem is completely fixed. That class of problem was common a few years ago, was better but still happening two years ago and seems to get better with each release. I'm not a developer so I don't follow the progress from a code perspective, but things are getting much better from a user perspective. FreeCAD is much more stable, but there is also a learning curve where FreeCAD crashes if I do certain things so I learn not to do those things. I save intermediate versions of my designs often. Initially that was to protect me from crashes, but now it's mostly to protect me from my design mistakes. If the topological naming problem isn't completely solved, it seems to be solved for the way I use FreeCAD. Practically, it's not a problem for me, at all. I'm very productive in FreeCAD and I'm doing useful paying work. It certainly doesn't have the industry support of SolidWorks or Fusion360, but I greatly prefer free open source software, for a number of philosophical as well as practical reasons.

[@kloakovalimonada]

⁠AFAIK it's one of the major updates in the 1.0 RC version that came out Sept 22 2024

[@Liberty4Ever]

@@kloakovalimonada - Yes. FreeCAD 1.0 finally resolved the topological naming problem.

[@MaheerKibria]

So a couple of things about Blender and CAD Sketcher. First, unless you are on a really old and slow computer it can handle millions of polygons so don't worry about adding more steps. unless you go absolutely ham you will be fine. Next, while you can use modifiers if you want to truly have control while being non-destructive geometry nodes are kind of king. It might have a bit of a learning curve but geometry nodes open up access to a lot of parameters and variables you do not have in the modifier. For example, the boolean geometry node allows you to know which edges were intersecting edges and by storing that as a vertex group you should be able to feed that to the bevel node or modifier to create that fillet non-destructively. You can even store that node setup as a modifier with your own inputs so it can be reused. Blender isn't the greatest CAD tool but you can make some really complex parts and assemblies if you know how. The problem is learning how.

[@TheREALDocRabbit]

The beauty of the node based approach, literally you can build your entire shape using nodes, each with parameters that you can change, hook up differently to give something completely different in the end, something that even the best parameter-based cad program doesn't do.

[@notverygoodguy]

I have a problem with geometry nodes in Blender. WIth Davinci Resolve video editing I LOVE nodes. My default for any kind of video effects is to skip right over the billions of built in effects and build things myself using nodes. However, I absolutely HATE Blender geometry nodes. I am in the middle of a paid tutorial on Blender geometry nodes and it is still as impenetrable as the FreeCAD interface. It may be just the naming of the nodes or it may be the insane resolution of the nodes so you end up with enormous node trees full of nodes that do small things where you forget why on earth they are there. I get that having nodes that do tiny things gives power but other node based software seems to handle it with attributes and functions attached to sensibly named more generic nodes. Oh well, I'll keep banging my head against it :)

[@bentontramell]

100% agree that geometry nodes adds that "parametric" capability especially if you have a programmer's mindset. Those red nodes...the Blender manual has to do a better job of explaining and providing examples.

[@benveasey7474]

If you're doing a one-off part then using Plasticity (very cheap) with the Blender Bridge is the way to go. Plasticity is a direct modeller which will always create bespoke parts faster than parametric/history based approaches. Blender is king of the modellers when it is used with it's add-ons (such as Tissue). The video didn't mention Blenders sculpting ability. Try to model someone's face in one of the other programs to see why sculpting is very useful.

[@deterdamel7380]

I'am very happy using Freecad. In the beginning it was frustrating, but after learning howto not do things in Freecad, it's my very first choose. All these other 'free'-products are more or less a trap. The easiest way is not always the best.

[@DonLang-j9b]

Thanks Angus. As a user of AutoCad in another life I share your frustration with FreeCad. I will give ondsel a try.

[@christopherkecun8349]

You have provided a valuable service to the community sir.

[@xAsphyxiatee]

"Tinkercad is for kids" me as a grown adult using Tinkercad for literally every model I make 😅

[@weldingjunkie]

Very limited and hard to measure detail

[@weldingjunkie]

Very limited and hard to measure detail

[@xAsphyxiatee]

@@weldingjunkie this is true. For basic things though it definitely does the job.

[@Axelius89]

I still have the installer for 123D Design saved on my computer and hold on to it for dear life. I really like it, and it's a shame that it's been discontinued.

[@SpeedyGwen]

I been using it for many years and its still an incredibly good software, it does lack many features I would like to have but I have ways around that as there isnt anything better yet

[@FuchsDanin]

It looks to me like your FreeCAD has been rearranged, default panels are not showing, and the toolbar is all wrong. The buttons you need aren't in the right places, and the info windows are missing so you can't tell what's wrong. FreeCAD is difficult to start, but it's pretty incredible once you've gotten the hang of it. You need the Tree View, at minimum. View, Panels, Tree View. Right-click empty space, set Navigation Style to Gesture or anything else you like, this changes how you move the camera. Part Designer is for creating a body and modifying it using Sketches, the Sketcher is for creating/editing 2D drawings aka Sketches. New Body, New Sketch, draw, then use Part Designer to extrude/cut/etc, and I'm POSITIVE you can figure the rest out.

[@ZizzysVods]

I love that Tinkercad is on this list, was my first software I used back when I was in high school, and recently decided to make a Rubik's Cube Scrambler in the software, just as a challenge. I was genuinly surprised at the simplicity of doing it that way. took about 3 hours.

[@PrinceWesterburg]

Outstanding! I know Blender very well and had some vague memory of a CAD addon but this will make my next projects much simpler. The re-write of FreeCAD was so very needed too, again, I was unaware of this. My dad was the engineer, I'm an animator who builds valve based guitar and hifi stuff so just being able to export a roun mesh and get dimentions and a cutting list is super useful expecially for chassis, can't thank you enough!

[@awwastor]

OpenSCAD’s worth a mention though it’s a very different take on CAD

[@froqstar]

They actually made huge improvements to the rendering performance in nightly builds, like 10x for my models

[@Sembazuru]

@@froqstar Hmmm. it would be nice if they were able to drive a stake into one of their development builds to offer as a public stable release. The current stable release is dated in 2021...

[@ping170]

And BlocksCAD, which is kinda Scratch for OpenSCAD ;)

[@AndrewHelgeCox]

@@ping170Interesting. I will check it out!

[@AndrewHelgeCox]

CAD Query is a similar thing. Python on OpenCascade though so you get bevels and chamfers.

[@MattQrillz]

I had my first experience with CAD on SketchUp. Took half an hour to get a very basic understanding to make 4x 2"x 4" legs and a table top. I was addicted, stayed up all night on it learning what the functions were. By lunch the next day i had designed a 2400mm x 1200mm 'bookcase' with 7 shelves. 2 days after that, i had built it and now it's in my old mans bedroom. I'm not stroking my ego, just saying how great CAD is for bringing visions to life, coming from someone who has never looked at a PC in that way.

[@rvarsigfusson6163]

SketchUp what did happen to it..... it just vanish some how!!

[@Vipcioo]

I also use Fusion 360. My son "placed an order" for a table that will match the colors of the furniture. It took me half an hour to design it in Fusion, much longer than it took to make and paint it. My son now loves the new table. And I have the satisfaction of having transferred the idea to a specific, satisfying item at home.

[@MattQrillz]

@Vipcioo The design aspect is addictive. I'd compare it to kind of like spicy foods or even PubG. Stressful when in the thick of it, but always keen to go again

[@rolfnilsen6385]

@@rvarsigfusson6163 They became expensive, and the free version is web based and very limited like no plug-ins. And plugins was what really made Sketchup shine. I still have Sketchup installed as that was the first 3D design software I learnt. Have tried to jump over to FreeCad but find it to be a struggle using after using Sketchup.

[@05Matz]

FreeCAD is fine for me, and I'm pretty annoyed that you didn't even try a recent (preferably dev branch) version of mainline FreeCAD, where the awkward interface is starting to be gotten under control. All the features you were raving about in Ondsel are just FreeCAD features, only the theme and tying it to some untrustworthy proprietary "cloud" "service" (and pay-walling things like the Python scripting?) are new. All the actual desirable functionality is FreeCAD. It's just the interface that's more basic, but improving fast.

[@rainmannoodles]

I looked up “decades” and the word “fast” does not appear in the definition. FreeCAD might be viable in another 20 or 30 years at the rate we’re going.

[@mikepettengill2706]

Thank you Angus, we are lucky to have you!

[@mainleveladdictgd]

If you import a STL file into Shapr3D and union it with the project you’re making, the software treats it as a full resolution model when you export it. Even if you choose to export low quality, the software can’t decipher the STL file and simplify it, so you get smooth edges. I love the software and I found a work-around so I don’t have to pay. Hope that helps!

[@brunoyudi9555]

$1000 A YEAR?! cant wait for the open source options to start stealing market away from fusion 360 just like blender is doing to Maya and 3ds Max

[@3dmodeling101]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2315">38:35</a> My channel has many videos that teach how to use SelfCAD for more advanced modeling

[@hardknocks1192]

I love Self-Cad, and it's all thanks to your channel! Your videos helped me a lot. Thanks!

[@hakunamatata324]

FreeCAD is perfectly usable IF you know how to use it. I disagree with his statement.

[@projectsspecial9224]

I concur with FreeCAD for product dev. I have professionally worked in Silicon Valley with high-end CAD systems and simulators like Solidworks, PTC along with Mentor Graphics and Cadence for advanced electronics and product development for over 20 years. FreeCAD is amazing for FREE!

[@CosmicAerospace]

I design alot of parts for model rockets and focus mostly on mechanics designs and I use the the personal version of fusion 360 which is completely free, I just needed to prove that I was a student and you are given the main package.

[@John_Ridley]

As a programmer, I'm still solidly using OpenSCAD for everything but I do hit things that it's not suited for sometimes. Thanks for the video.

[@rolisaenz]

where is FreeCad ??

[@Iisakki3000]

It was featured for about 25 seconds, which is about the time it takes to get frustrated with it and uninstall 😅. Just joking, but I really hope it can improve in the future to actually become nice to use.

[@The-KP]

​@@Iisakki3000 It takes about five minutes of tutorial video to learn FreeCAD's basics. That a video titled "Free CAD Programs" doesn't include FreeCAD marks this channel as something of a numbnut.

[@redsquirrelftw]

@@Iisakki3000 That's more or less my experience with it too lol. I looked at a tutorials too and that did not help. I was like "you have to do ALL THAT, just to do one thing?". So many clicks and steps, for something that you should just be able to do really fast in one swoop movement.

[@18JamesBlond]

Aaaaaaaaand Ondsel is deceased 😢

[@MakersMuse]

Whaaat???

[@UncleManuel]

@@MakersMuse Yepp, read the blog on their site. They basically ran out of money and said that their concept pretty much failed by lacking market interest. The companies supposedly rather use Autodesk or Solidworks as software. ✌ We'll see, a lot stuff from the Ondsel fork got integrated into FreeCAD 1.0 - so slooooooooooooowly it finally gets somewhat useable. 😄

[@JohnDoe-zr6bk]

Nope, only the "Lens Server" is shut down, whatever that means...

[@acekozmo]

Where is plasticity?

[@nxzstudio8495]

Plasticity is not free

[@colinhare4722]

Free for 3 months then for just 150 US, it's on your computer for life... Yep no need to have an internet connection at your local cafe. No licence renewal demands etc. I've been using it for about a year and modelled a perfectly formed maker coin in less than 3 minutes. When it comes to creating surfaces though, this thing really comes into its own.

[@behelith]

Having the choice to choose the fonts folder I would say is a crazy good feature. It allows you to create a fons folder where only the fonts you want to use in Ondsel. This is an option we don't even have in Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator. It is extremely frustrating to have all the system fonts and all the multi language fonts mixed up with the fonts you would use for a 3D CAD design.

[@shokdj1]

I appreciate these software developers letting us use their software for free. Been using fusion for a while and not had to pay a penny and it does everything I need

[@Sychius]

This actually came at a perfect time for me, after I left my previous job I lost access to my CAD, Autodesk Inventor, so I’ve been wanting to find a new one I can use as a hobbyist.

[@alexchliwnyj5941]

Fusion 360 has one feature that doesn't matter for 3D printing but does matter when you are cutting metal. The whole 3D experience was a lot of fun and I learned so much from this channel but I need to build bigger and stronger parts for my hobbies. Recently I lucked into a couple of great deals on a CNC mill followed by a CNC lathe. Fusion has CAM, which is kind of like the slicer but much more complex because there are different cutters, different materials and a lot of knowledge you need to tell the program how to cut metal. The Fusion CAM has a post processor that generates the g-code for your CNC machine and I am upgrading my machines to Centroid Acorn cards because Centroid is an industry standard. So if you plan to move up to CNC Fusion is the way to go.

[@Larry_Is_Printing]

Angus, in regards to blender and a lower vs higher number of triangles, pretty much any computer with 16GB of RAM and a $100 video card will handle, the equivalent of 64 triangles in the maker's coin. As an example, I can open and edit a model with 500,000+ triangle meshes on my 6 year old Alienware laptop before the system and program starts to slow down I do love the updated video. Keep doing what you do. It is amazing work.

[@TheEvertw]

Thanks for putting in the effort! This was a momentous task.

[@ebridavid179]

been learning Solidworks at my Uni. This video helped a lot with what i was looking for so thank you so much for all of this!

[@muayyadalsadi]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="256">4:16</a> tip: use inkscape (free and opensource) to draw the text you want in the font you want then convert text into path then save the svg file then import it in your cad.

[@LuxBacelo]

I used Design Spark Mechanical for the last 7 years and works great BUT the fact that there isn't a MacOS version is why I ended up in this video. Btw, I started watching your vids like 9 years ago when I started on this world and it's great comming back to one of the best channels in this topic and see not only your channel is way bigger but the quality of your videos are still amazing if not better. Cheers from Argentina!

[@Cam2Art]

I also use Fusion 360, free version, but was wondering about some of the other "free" CAD programs this review sure brought me up to date.

[@eugeneng2721]

Thanks for your hard work. I really needed to identify suitable CAD software for serious hobbyists and I very much prefer to be able to retain my files and projects for years.

[@ostrogoten]

Totally fantastic.. since I'm totally unbiased, since i have not used any 3D modeling programs before, Free Cad will be my choice. What you disliked so intensely doesn't bother me at all. :0)) I'm impressed by both all your work invested in doing this and your presentation of the results. It was definitely a great help in deciding what to do next for my part! A big Tank You!! 👍👍!!

[@otallono]

In tinkercad it was only lowpoly because you didn't change the amount of sides for the circle, the slider was almost all the way down lol. If anything, this allows MORE functionality because it can be a 20 sided polygon or it can be a smooth circle, if you wanted.

[@OlafsLeftArm]

OpenSCAD for the win! Defining models as written instructions makes later changes so much easier.

[@caseydbani1419]

This is a great overview, thanks! Your test object is perfect to understand the limitations, very valuable infos"

[@m8harry]

3d builder is awesome to use for cutting models to fit the build plate. Its so simple to use. Thank you for including it in your review

[@amorton94]

This is the first time I've seen anyone else even mention Design Spark! I haven't messed with it much, but it is definitely another viable option. Another option available to hobbyists for free is Siemens Solid Edge, which is a professional level software. Regardless of the one that anyone chooses, the only way to get good is to actually use the software. Repetition is key.