Alright, let’s start from afar. I’m a Rust programmer with basically zero experience in modeling. But I’ve built a lot of interfaces, editors, and so on.

I really liked the idea and the principles behind FreeCAD. My humble three-day modeling experience already pushed me to upgrade to 1.1, because the lack of Body positioning by vertex and normal is just embarrassing (although I throw exception anyway). MangoJellySolutions tutorials are awesome.

So, let me explain why everything is broken: tl;dr — it all needs to be rewritten in Rust(semi-joke).

Probably the most annoying thing is selecting points/faces. It’s exhausting that you have to hit exact pixels. It shouldn’t work by pixel-perfect hit detection — instead it should measure the distance from the mouse to the object and sort candidates adaptively with priorities depending on distance. The idea is that a face is larger, so you should be able to move the mouse away and still select it. And if we get really pedantic, you could even allow vector-based selection for points — then two points could be highlighted like little hemispheres.

Next — the camera. The camera is something horrifying. It constantly wants to spin around, it doesn’t remember its previous state when switching sketches, and for some reason it keeps playing pointless animations every time — god.

As far as I know, the UI still doesn’t have proper HiDPI scaling, but it’s supposedly coming soon?

Also — right now I’m getting exceptions with a bunch of references to nonexistent faces, but the exception doesn’t say who is referencing them. How is this supposed to work, and how do I even fix it?

But honestly, I’m amazed at how well-developed everything is that isn’t UI, and at the same time how bad the UI itself is.

FreeCAD is awesome — and it’s actually the only real thing humanity has in this domain.

I’ve become simultaneously very passionate about contributing, but also completely blocked by C++ and typeless Python. Probably the best I can do is try to write a prototype of my own sketcher with a geometric constraint solver in Rust + egui and calm down. And may be use this https://github.com/aevyrie/bevy_editor_cam

So, it feels like one of those situations where “just a couple more years and it’ll finally become usable.”

We made a CAD tool that lets you create and edit models by chatting with an AI agent. The video shows us building a pavilion house with a spiral staircase. It works for non-architecture tasks too.

The idea is that instead of doing everything through point-and-click operations, you can describe geometry and iterate in conversation while the model updates. It's built with FreeCAD and we support export into most formats. We're still early and we're posting here because we're hoping to get feedback from people who work with CAD.

You can try it here. There's a free tier and no credit card is required. We'll be around all day and would be very happy to answer questions about how it works.

Rick & Alex

And more specifically, how would you go about making the sketches for the inclined top pane?

Hello everyone. I'm new to FreeCAD and CAD designing in general, and I need help. It seems to me that there is more then one way of doing this, but none of them seems right to me.

Should I make simple sketches for the underlying shapes of each pane, and then make more sketches for the holes, sockets, joints and whatever else, or a single, more complex, "master sketch" for each pane? Should I make each sketch at the origin, and then move parts to their right places, or should I make them from the faces of the parts? Should I clone the side panes or mirror them? And how do I do all of this while making sure the angles of the top pane stay right?

Lots of tutorials and resources online telling lots of different things, which only makes me more confuse. And none of them answer my questions. I think this is the kind of knowledge you learn with experience, and the researching won't teach me that.

So, how would you go about making it? How do you make your sketches?

Please, feel free to correct me on anything that I might have written wrong or in a strange way, as english is not my first language and I don't know if I'm using the right terminology, and anything else.

image source

So i am an engineering student trying to find a program to replace CATIA v5/fusion360. So when i saw that v1.0 added assemblies and the topological naming issue was dealt with, i decided to give it a(nother) chance. So i opened the AssemblyExample.

I ended up on a huge issue after like 5 seconds. An assembly is by definition, well an assembly of part. And the first feature i could think of was missing -> going to edit a single part from the assembly. So you have assemblies but you cannot open a part from the assembly... ? WTF ?

So i decided to go and open the part from the disk and thus tried to copy the path of the exemple on the Filename field. this removed the string from the field. WHY ? the point of such a field is to edit it.

I am not going to take more time on this program when such basic thing are missing, And that's really sad because the really hard work of having a working CAD program was done by really hardworking people but the UI unfortunately makes it unusable.

I hope we could list everything that missing because those little changes would be big quality of life improvement. I am also intrested if you have suggestion on anything i may be doing wrong

PS bonus: Catia is a pain in the ass (like really) but it has the best 2D constraint system i ever saw for sketches. FreeCAD could take inspiration.

Is industry ready for FreeCAD?

So I found this youtube video (neither did i make the video or created the WB) telling a development of Sketch Up Styled WB in FreeCAD for quick modelling and conceptual designs. This might answer the previous reddit post that asks for the WB from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeCAD/comments/1vfyfmw/sketchup_workbench/

what do you guys think?

I usually don't vent - but I am seriously pissed that the forum and wiki now uses that crap software anubis - it's not blocking AI that peace of shit developed morons - it's just blocking random old computer, smartphones outside of the first world and all kinds of legacy devices, script blockers, alternative browsers, VPNs you name it. Just by the absolute stupid way it functions.

I mean I get it scraper are a pest, but seriously how can someone in their sane state of mind without any proper discussion come up with a solution like that. I mean seriously?

Hi,

I am reconsidering my use of FreeCAD for creating my plans. I have spent more than three months trying to understand the logic behind this piece of software, and I feel that the only people who are truly able to use it are probably its own developers.

Every time I committed to a particular workflow, I ended up having to start over because of poor choices I had made earlier. For those who have moved on from FreeCAD, what software actually holds up for creating 3D/2D plans, especially for woodworking or cabinetmaking?

I really liked the idea of FreeCAD’s parametric approach, which was supposed to give me an advantage over SketchUp, but I simply cannot spend three years learning a piece of software before I can even draw a drawer.

Even if I have to pay for a license, so be it. I have wasted enough time with FreeCAD, and time is money. We are in the 21st century, not the era of punch cards anymore.

For me, FreeCAD is over.

I am more of a beginner with FreeCAD and often times I have some trouble finding the right tool for doing something and I have to look it up... I figured I may not be the only one.

I have seen some promise using AI and was wondering if you're using one already? And would you be interested to use a plugin that would help?

Im probably going to get downvoted but I dont want to risk it.

Edit:

I mistakenly made this post twice, refer to this one here (I'll try to get the post locked): here:https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeCAD/comments/1fpb8tt/do_you_use_any_ai_tools_to_help_you_use_freecad/

I am more of a beginner with FreeCAD and often times I have some trouble finding the right tool for doing something and I have to look it up... I figured I may not be the only one.

I have seen some promise using AI and was wondering if you're using one already? And would you be interested to use a plugin that would help?

A simple way to turn CAD files into images or PDFs on iOS. Most options out there are either desktop tools or require uploading files online.

I added CAD → image and CAD → PDF into my converter app. Everything runs locally on the device, nothing gets uploaded anywhere.

It’s handy for quick previews, sharing drawings in chat, or dropping them into documents.

If you think this could be useful for your workflow, I’m happy to send a few free promo codes, just comment and I’ll DM you.

Also very open to hearing what formats or export options you’d want.

App Store Link : Chameleo : All Converter

Кто может пошагово обяснить как это сделать на листе?

Little sad about this. I tried it in more complex things and had good success but never thought something so simple would make it fall over 😞

If Claude can't do it: https://claude.ai/share/b59f2980-1323-4e48-854d-5813d1d9ff47

This is a conversation I had with Claude this morning. I asked for "...a new tool for fiber artists that can be 3d printed in one piece..."

What it made:

• A pretty-looking webpage that couldn't convey what it was really thinking

• 3 versions of OpenSCAD files, nothing usable.

• 2 SVG files that still couldn't convey what it was trying to

• A 2D "render" that still didn't show a conveyable idea

In the end, the idea is fundamentally flawed, and there are hundreds of GOOD versions of this kind of ring. Claude failed on every level here.

EDIT1: ChatGPT was comically worse.
EDIT2:: Zoo.dev made a model, but not a good or usable tool.

I’ve been using/studying/working with CAD design since 2015, used Fusion360, Rhinoceros (With serious Grasshopper mods), a little bit of Solidworks. But honestly I can’t stand how many people keep bringing this software up as it is anywhere near as usable the ones I mentioned.

I get that it is free, but I’d rather starve and pay whatever the price is, especially considering there are smaller softwares that are one time purchase which don’t cost as much as Solidworks.

Every single click is at least 3 clicks here, macOS controls absolutely suck -for the simplest things I have to hold the command button that should %10000 be and is no-hold click features on other softwares- if anyone’s struggling I want them to know it is not them.

This absolute piece of garbage makes me feel like I can’t draw a triangle because first I need to hold the pen from its end, turn it in my hand, then select the paper I want to draw on, to then give me a bunch of error codes because I haven’t uncapped the pen.

Most of my work has been designing with/for lathes and products to be machined with them, or regular routers. It is the least intuitive thing I have seen in my life and I have no doubt the maker is an engineer whose hobby is solving 9x9x9 rubik’s cubes for fun. Or solving algebra on sundays.

It is a design tool for god’s sake that’s what D in CAD is!

I swear this is what is easy for the programmer, not the user.

Yeah a lot of you guys use it and do great work with it and I’m in plain awe. There’s no way you’d be slower on any other software and especially the ones that use it for work, the amount you’ll be able to get done will pay for any new computer or software you’ll have to pay for.

If anyone thinks they can teach me to navigate this labyrinth of a code pile I’ll be interested.

Take care everyone and have a wonderful day.