Hi, first time posting in this community, so sorry if this doesn’t belong.
I’ve been (slowly) designing some customizable input devices via a hobbyist license of Fusion360 the past few years. Unfortunately, Autodesk decided to remove the hobbyist tier and made all my files read-only, so now I need to migrate everything to a new software. For some background, I’m a mechanical engineer with experience in NX, Solid Edge, Solid Works, and Inventor, though I mainly code for my specific job.
My question is: what would be the best software for my use case?
OnShape
- Has version control
- Collaboration tools so other people can precisely fork and adjust dimensions to fit their needs
- Professional-grade software, so less friction or need to find work arounds for some functions
- Free tier automatically makes my designs open source. While I don’t want to release until it’s at v1.0, it’s not a deal breaker
- The software isn’t open source, and I’m worried about them doing the same thing as Fusion360 in a year or so
FreeCAD
- No built-in version control, and updates to files can’t be tracked by Git
- It’s a bit jank to use, honestly. I’m trying to port my stuff over to it for now, but I’m having to force myself to do the work
- Open source, so no worries about rug pulls
- Can upload the original CAD files to a Git repository, and users can install the software and make adjustments themselves
OpenSCAD
- Coding-based design means Git should be able to track updates
- Significantly different to use from other CAD software, which is a downside for me. Part of the benefit to me for this project is to keep my CAD skills polished for work as a mechanical engineer, since my specific job doesn’t do much with CAD
- Open source
- Users can easily make adjustments
Blender
- Focus on meshes means it works very different from other CAD packages, and I explained why that’s a downside previously
- From what I understand, Git can’t track changes between versions
- Open source
- Users can make adjustments, but being focused on meshes instead of precision means adjustments are more difficult
Is there any other software that I’m not aware of that fits my use case? Are some of my points about OpenSCAD and/or Blender wrong? Is there something else that’s off? Helpful feedback is appreciated
Blender user here. I think you got it right, and FreeCAD is probably your best bet. Maybe give it a second chance.
OpenSCAD is in a different category, it’s more like a coding tool or software library. There are other options if you’re into that, e.g. build123d.
I can’t use FreeCAD myself, but then I don’t have a mechanical engineering background, so I was also learning the basic CAD workflow when I tried it. At work my colleagues (who occasionally 3D print some part) seem happy with it, and keep telling me I should use a proper CAD to design parts.
Personally I’m happy with Blender, using it for my hobby 3D print designs. Most have some playful/artistic touch in addition to being functional, and Blender shines at that. But you totally can do a parametric design in Blender natively, it just won’t be a CAD workflow with the constraint solver you expect. The CAD plugins I have tried felt experimental. The native tools are very solid, and Blender is very polished and mature. But it is targeting expert users (including teams, since you asked about that). Learning Blender is an investment, it took me a long time. If you are still curious, look for a video demo/tutorial of someone designing a 3D part in Blender. Don’t just open it and expect to be able to do stuff, you will not figure out on your own which tools/modifiers you should use.
(And since you didn’t say what kind of CAD, also check out KiCad if you are doing PCBs!)
learning blender is a crazy good investment though, gotta be one of the most polished pieces of software ever written
(And since you didn’t say what kind of CAD, also check out KiCad if you are doing PCBs!)
I’m likely going to need to design some PCB’s eventually, so I’ll definitely look into it. Thanks!
I think FreeCAD has potential. It’s not there yet. I’m trying to learn it but I’m getting a lot of grey in my beard and have been using Solidworks at work so long any new friction is frustrating.
For PDM/PLM. I’ve been looking at this recently. It also is not ready.
https://github.com/grd/FreePDM
Its more work to setup but I am of the opinion parts should have drawings to show critical dimensions. Drawings should have rev blocks describing differences.
There are issues to this approach, but it solves a lot of problems.
I asked similar a few weeks ago: https://startrek.website/post/33957879
The answers were all pretty much what you’ve already listed: FreeCAD/OpenSCAD for parametric parts and Blender for sculpted shapes.
The only one not covered in that post was OnShape because I was specifically asking for ones that weren’t SaaS/cloud based.
Thanks for the link! I’ll look through it.
Just skimming through I already learned that FreeCAD has extensions. I’ll try digging through those too
You can disable compression for freecad project files and they will become git-trackable.
There is also a plugin for blender (CAD sketcher) that allows for CAD-like flow. It’s a mesh still so your point still stands.
// For my own needs I’ve tried to use onshape and found it clunkier than freecad. Freecad has its limitations and can be slow on some operations, ofc.
You can disable compression for freecad project files and they will become git-trackable.
That’s great news. I wonder how it works. Thanks for the help!
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