Can’t even take a short break from 3D designing stuff. Glad I’m switching over to FreeCAD. All I wanted was to grab some dimensions from an old model.

  • Blackout@kbin.social
    0·
    5 months ago

    I use Fusion every day for like 10 hours a day and never see these messages. You just have a local bug. If you aren’t making production models then the free services are for you. This software is still a bargain compared to what was available 15 years ago.

    • Naich@kbin.social
      0·
      5 months ago

      I like FreeCAD. I know some people hate it, but I find the requirement to do things carefully and properly to avoid horrible errors later on really focusses my mind on what I’m designing. I end up with something that is probably better designed than if I could just lash something together and let the software sort out the mess.

    • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.comOPEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Thanks for the reminder! I remember reading an article recently where Ondsel was mentioned - hadn’t clicked that I should be considering it for myself too. Cheers!

  • teotwaki@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    Had this happen to me as well this week after a few months of not using Fusion 360.

    Turns out it’s a software update issue. Just close the app every time it fails, and eventually it will manage to update. I have an insanely fast internet connection, so maybe you need to keep it open for a while to download the updates.

    • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.comOPEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Yeah, I’m on 1Gbps fibre and have been trying a few times. It just seemed to get an update, so hopefully that’s it. Bloody annoying.

    • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.comOPEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Thanks for this - I think I remember reading about Ondsel recently (used to design a toilet roll holder key, so they could replenish toilet paper at FOSDEM?). I’ll give it a look. Cheers!

    • KingRandomGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Ondel has a nicer user interface, but I personally use and recommend realthunder’s LinkStable branch of FreeCAD. Mainline FreeCAD (and by extension, Ondsel) suffer from the topological naming problem, which can be especially jarring to users coming from proprietary CAD software. realthunder put a lot of work into a solution that handles the problem pretty well, so I’m using his fork until toponaming gets mainlined.

        • KingRandomGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          5 months ago

          Last I tried it, there was no fix. Their latest update on the website says:

          The work on the toponaming problem is an ongoing project, and we are very grateful to the FreeCAD community for contributing a lot to that effort. But it’s not complete yet, there will be much more to say when it’s largely done. So let’s focus on the other three.

          So I take it they haven’t implemented a fix. They previously said they were going to work with the FreeCAD team on mainlining a toponaming fix, using realthunder’s work as a proof of concept, but said fix has not landed in mainline FreeCAD yet. I believe that’s the major feature they’re looking to implement for FreeCAD 1.0.

          Definitely excited for Ondsel though! Hopefully that fix can be integrated quickly.

    • MuchPineapples@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Ah FINALLY there is a good fork. FreeCAD exists now for like 15 years, but almost no one uses it because the ui absolutely sucks. And the worst part is, the maintainers know it but they refuse to change it because they think they’re geniuses and everyone else should conform to their twisted vision of cad ui instead of following the standard of literally every other cad program out there.

      • KingRandomGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        IMO the bigger problem with FreeCAD is the topological naming problem. It’s very easy to get frustrated because your model broke due to a change you made in an earlier feature.

        The UI isn’t amazing though, and that unfortunately happens quite a bit with open source software. Hopefully it’ll go the way of Blender and KiCAD with an eventual major release that overhauls the UI.

        • drphungky@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          5 months ago

          Yeah, coming in with no prior CAD experience I actually think freecad’s interface makes sense, especially since I’ve used it for both 3d printing (one workbench) and mocking up building plans (a different lumber one I was able to download as an add-on - very cool).

          I did run into the topological naming problem once though, and I’m far from a power user, so I’ve been meaning to check out the real thunder fork.

        • RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          5 months ago

          I keep bashing my head against the horrible UI way more as a beginner. Just as I manage to bring the million toolbars into a reasonable arrangement, I switch workspaces and then they’re all messed up again. I couldn’t care less about the topological naming problem right now

          • KingRandomGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            5 months ago

            Hmm, that actually sounds like a bug. I haven’t seen that on my end (once I set the locations of options in my toolbars they stay there, even after restarts). You may want to report that on their issue tracker. Sorry that you’re having a rough experience!

    • asbestos@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      This looks interesting. In your opinion, does it improve on FreeCAD much? I tried FreeCAD some time ago and I felt like an absolute moron

      • skilltheamps@feddit.deEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        It is not a fork aiming to replace it. It is rather a spin with saner defaults to cater to companies as customers. The product which shall carry ondsel financially is their freecad compatible cloud offering, and the hope is to use that for elevating freecad itself too. They need their spin to be able to ship an ootb experience fitting their motive and brand. So if you would like a less confusing experience it might be something for you. Currently there’s a lot of borderline deprecated and also redundant functionality in freecad, so I hope that ondsel’s cleanup mantra will make it to the ootp upstream experience as well.

      • einlander@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        At this point it’s a just a fork of freecad with a slight ui overhaul and some usability improvements. It’s still freecad underneath. Ondsels product is their freecad compatible collaborative cloud. They have made some changes to the workers to simply them and are contributing it back to main freecad. But the learning curve is still there. The bugs on Windows that can crash your projects still occur. But you can use wsl to install the Linux version and not have any issues.

      • KingRandomGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        One of the big changes in my opinion is the addition of a “Smart Dimension” tool where the system interprets and previews the constraint that you want to apply instead of requiring you to pick the specific constraint ahead of time(almost identical to SOLIDWORKS), and the ability to add constraints such as length while drawing out shapes (like Autodesk Inventor, probably also Fusion but I haven’t used that). It makes the sketcher workflow more like other CAD programs and requires a little less manual work with constraints.

    • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      They have been around for a year and are already in the habit of missing deadlines and setting unrealistic timelines that lead to a bad first impression on the market.

      https://ondsel.com/blog/the-road-to-freecad-1-0-is-shorter-than-you-think/

      I said it back when this came out, but they assured me that they were “well on track” even their to-do list was 2x as long as their in progress and completed combined lol.

      I think it will still be a long time before things are upstreamed and ready to go. I am cautiously optimistic, but development of freecad has always been outpaced by a snail.

  • romkube@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    I use Autodesk Inventor when at work, but I’m trying to learn FreeCAD for my own hobby project. And while I’ve had to reprogram some workflows I’m slowly getting there. What really excites me about FreeCAD is the different workbenches, such as CfdOf which gives you a nice and understandable gui for OpenFOAM, finally making CFD somewhat accessible to the masses.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      My favorite feature of FreeCAD is the spreadsheet. F360’s Parameters window…it’s been awhile since I’ve used it, but you weren’t able to rearrange or sort parameters, there weren’t any hotkeys or ways to quickly enter values so you had to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse a lot, plus it wasn’t as multifunctional.

      • aesopjah@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        F360 parameter entry was so lacking. And what a strange feature to not fill out since as you say it’s basically just a spreadsheet. Hell, let us import actual spreadsheets so I can have a baseline each time for parameters I’m always inputting such as 3d printer specs (line width etc)

    • oatscoop@midwest.socialEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      I just wish there was a FOSS alternative to Rhino 3D, or they offered a license that didn’t cost $995 for a single user.

      None of the cloud crap, doesn’t required a subscription, and it can run on a potato … it’s just too damn expensive and Mac OS/Windows exclusive.

    • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.comOPEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Look, I’ll happily admit that F360 is an excellent CAD program. It kinda sets the standard, but the constant shifting of the goal posts for the free personal use license, plus the Hotel California nature of cloud streaming the app, just pisses me off.

      My brother’s using it professionally and he’s quite happy with it. But his business is paying for a full license for him, so he gets all the benefits, and very few of the annoyances. He’s readily admitted that, were that not the case, he’d be looking at FOSS alternatives himself.

  • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    I’m getting disappointed in F360 as well, but existing open source alternatives are pure cancer. Basically, I’ve started making my own open source CAD. Hope to release some basic POC in a month or two.

    • Richard@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      They are not pure cancer. You should be more grateful for the effort the FOSS community volunteers are putting into creating a free as in freedom ecosystem, without any reimbursement whatsoever. Instead, they’re having their work attacked by folks like you.

      • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        Look, mate, I’ve contributed to many many open source projects over the last two decades. Including Klipper if we’re talking about 3D printing. FreeCAD is a piece of shit. It’s just a fact.

    • stallmer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      You’re saying you’re starting from scratch on a brand new CAD program yourself rather than contributing to an existing, established project like FreeCAD?

      • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        Cue xkcd comic about how we end up with new standards. It’s the same with FOSS projects. Every new stubborn headed dev things they will get it right this time, wasting work instead of contributing and pooling efforts and resources that would get better improvement and quality faster than starting from scratch.

      • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        FreeCAD is a ridiculous mess. The only way forward for the project is to dump the code base and start from scratch.

      • jkrtn@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        I mean, it would be cooler to not call the existing ones “cancer,” but I support them trying something new. Yes, it will be an uphill battle, but wasn’t LuaJIT done by a lone genius? I hope they’re successful and we have a new CAD option.

      • Dimand@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        The existence of foss projects should never exclude the creation of alternatives if someone wants to try.

  • space@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    Give Solid Edge (from Siemens) a try. It has a free for hobby use edition. It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty happy with it, and none of the stupid restrictions of Fusion.

    • AKADAP@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Fusion 360 used to be free for the hobbyist too. FreeCAD is GPL licensed, so it will always be free.

  • uis@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    Here’s how to not run into topology naming problem: use Parts workbench instead of Part Design

    Edit: 69th comment on new instance!