BEST FREE CAD / 3D Modelling software 2024 - I tested them all!
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2024
- I tested every $0 cost CAD program on offer in 2024 to find out which is best to design 3D models for 3D printing! There's a huge range to choose from, each with their own pros and cons... so grab a warm drink and settle in!
Maker coin CAD video course - www.makersmuse.com/how-to-cad...
Download the Makercoin (in various formats) - www.makersmuse.com/open-sourc...
Use the timestamps to learn more about each one!
0:00 Intro
1:15 What is CAD?
2:08 The test model - a Makercoin!
4:48 Onshape
9:37 DesignSpark Mechanical
12:55 Windows 3D Builder
14:57 Ondsel ES (built on FreeCAD)
20:24 Blender with CAD Sketcher Addon
26:30 Fusion 360
29:40 Shapr3D
33:13 TinkerCAD
38:35 SelfCAD
40:37 Conclusion and where to find more tutorials ↓
Join the Maker's Muse Community - www.makersmuse.com/maker-s-mu... - Наука та технологія
Angus, thanks for using the word "Plethora". It means a lot.
😂😂😂😂
Jefe, do you know what a PLETHORA is? 😂
@@doro626yes. 😐 *noun*
1. a large or excessive amount of (something). 😒 aka: "a lot". That's the joke.
No, you missed the joke. LOL. Google Three Amigos, Plethora of piñatas 🤣🤣@@danriehl4244
To hell with “celar door”, plethora has been my favourite english word since I was a little kid.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
@@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 😁
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.
OpenSCAD also worth mentioning, just for its completely different approach.
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.
@@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.
+1 . I couldn't 3d model in traditional cad programs if my life depended on it but I love openscad.
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.
@@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.
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.
Came to the comments for this. 👍
It also appears to be completely FOSS like FreeCAD, which is a requirement of copyleft licenses like GPL anyway.
Michael actually ran into all of its deficiencies and angry toxic positivity FreeCAD stans roasted him for it. Its a cult.
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
@@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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
@@randompersonoftheinternet8012 exactly, he said that are unable to work in FreeCAD and work nicely in Ondsel with same interface ;)
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!
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.
You can also copy and paste to rotation by degrees, thus making the fillets easier to do.
@@KLP99 I've been using tinkercad for years and I can't imagine how to do the fillets, do you know of a tutorial?
@@geeklimit If you do the indentations with a torus on its side you get (sort of) fillets.
Thank you so much for these updates I can't wait to see your tutorials of each software.
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.
Did you learn following tutorials?
I'm looking to learn, I've found a few but there aren't many
@@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.
@@Sembazuru thankyou
@@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.
@@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
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.
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.
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.
@@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?
he he he siemens
@@rsilvers129 wdym by "load the files"?
You did a freaking awesome job, Angus. Thanks a million for the effort.
Angus, your a great communicator, i enjoy your videos and i learn a lot, i feel grateful for them, thank you.
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!
Also consider Siemsn Solid Edge Community edition - free, offline and very little limitations comapred to the full commercial version.
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.
@@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.
I think I've downloaded this but never got to installing it.
@@minigpracing3068 FreeCAD is the way... Those greedy companies will see in the future that professionals can't cope with their prices
That's the one I use. The best free CAD software IMHO.
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
wonderful information for someone who's new to the 3d modelling/printing world as a hobby. thank you!
Solid Edge Community Edition is a good one as well.
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
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.
@@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.
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.
@@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
@@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.
Thank you for the work, this video was missing and had to be done by someone! Great overview, that helps huge times!
I always respect and appreciate your views/opinions. Im always on the 'cusp' of making my own prints, usually modifying or adding multiple parts together.
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.
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.
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 you can't create models in Freecad? That's an interesting take. I literally have dozens of things around the house I designed in Freecad and 3D printed. Start to finish I can spit out an STL of a useful part in Freecad in a few minutes. Yeah there was a learning curve and yeah it's not without its quirks, but it works just fine if you take the time to learn it.
@@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.
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.
Why didn't you just use the free version of Fusion?
@@rsilvers129I would guess that using Linux as their OS is a major reason. For us Linux users, F360 is not a great option.
@@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.
@@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
@@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.
Thank you Angus, we are lucky to have you!
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
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.
Same with SolveSpace. Beautiful tool, not as feature rich though…
@@Xentherayou don't need to "apply", open an account and it emails you the download address which is NOT a unique address
@@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.
@@_droidmaybe he applied so student versions instead
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.
Yeah but you use Linux
@@hihellothere9569 Same on windows...
@@hihellothere9569available for Windows and Mac
@@hihellothere9569 yeah he is smarter than most people, your point is?
@@nikoraasu6929 nah I just hate Linux and it's community. Not all but most of them
This is a great overview, thanks!
Your test object is perfect to understand the limitations, very valuable infos"
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.
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.
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. 👍
Thanks Angus for all your hard work throughout the years to help so many others.
Just what I needed. Thank you for the quality content and thorough review as always.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
They cannot do that, FreeCAD license forbids that. They can only have fully proprietary plugins.
@@TazioC sorry I don't follow. Which thing specifically can they not do?
@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..
Thanks for putting in the effort! This was a momentous task.
Angus, thank you for taking the time to study all of these CAD systems and making this excellent video. I am currently a Fusion user that also has a paid, locked-in 'legacy' subcription. But at the same time, I am also interested in other CAD systems, particularly after hearing about Ondsel in Teaching Tech's recent video. I am going to watch your video again, and do some of my own research on some of these CAD systems. I am particularly interested in seeing if any of them can be used to create assemblies (as well as model individual parts), and if any of them have FEA capability (which I believe FreeCAD does, and possibly Ondsel as well because of its FreeCAD association).
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.
I was kinda disappointed he didn't test SolveSpace.
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.
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
Wow that was a great overview thx a bunch for taking the time!!!
Thanks for all of the work, excellent review!
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.
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.
Ondsel or the Link branch of FreeCAD are worth checking out.
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
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
Thank you so much for this video. You put a lot of work into it and I appreciate it.
Very eloquently-presented overview of the functionality of popular free CAD software in 2024. Thanks for creating it. I've done similar comparisons/investigations for myself having, like you, a long background in using and teaching high-end professional CAD software and then having to chose different software when I no longer had access to the high-end software.
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
That wouldn't be so bad, if it was a one-time payment afterwards. But it's subscription 😒
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.
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.
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.
agreed, I wont pay subscriptions
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
Gearing up to get a basic printer soon. Thanks so much for the info!
I’m always the type of person to make weird precise modifications to all of my already home made furniture and desks, so 3d printing will open a lot of possibilities for me
Incredibly helpful video - thank you so much!
As a Design Spark Mechanical user I can give you a few pointers. The application phones home whenever you first fire it up. If your internet is down DSM will not load. This is so they can reach into your machine at any time. A few months back they did a Studio 360 and ripped out a few features and moved them to the paid tier (which is quite reasonable, $12 a month I think). The free version doesn't play with STEP or almost any other file format. It only outputs STL or 3D PDF(??) and it only imports image files. I agree the text functionality is a complete kluge and has caused me not a little frustration. However, It's generally quick and easy to use and at least all of your files are stored locally although good luck finding another CAD that will understand DSM's native RSDOCX files. Also, there is no 3D mirror feature because that apparently is a valuable feature and is only available in the premium version. The industry type features are thousands of dollars so it's not going to be driving a laser cutter any time soon.
OpenSCAD’s worth a mention though it’s a very different take on CAD
They actually made huge improvements to the rendering performance in nightly builds, like 10x for my models
@@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...
And BlocksCAD, which is kinda Scratch for OpenSCAD ;)
@@ping170Interesting. I will check it out!
CAD Query is a similar thing. Python on OpenCascade though so you get bevels and chamfers.
Big thank you for the video!
I'm starting on this whole 3d printing as a maker (tinkering with models in slicing software is not enough for me) and I was set on Fusion 360 (even wanted to pay) and your material showed me that there is an alternative and cheaper one too :D
My first CAD software was FreeCad. I learned it in 2-3 weeks. Yes, it is glitchy, but it is completely free and pretty powerful.
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.
So... There is no software you can buy? It's all rent software. Disgusting.
It is, I bought ironcad lifetime license this year, you csn check it out
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).
Apols, Plasticity not Simplify!
Ironcad, you csn buy lifetime license
Uhm Rhino 3d
Thanks a lot for all this work. It's absolutely great to have all these informations in one place.
Thanks for discussing FreeCAD. I was going crazy with the layout.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 :)
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.
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.
Great content! Subscribed! Was wanting to get into 3D printing through blender and found this channel! More power to you dude!
This was a very informative video to watch. Thank you.
thanks for doing all that research, very helpful and greatly appreciated.
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.
SketchUp what did happen to it..... it just vanish some how!!
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.
@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
@@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.
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.
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.
Thanks Angus. Appreciate all you do.
Great video, thanks for making it 👍🏽
"Tinkercad is for kids" me as a grown adult using Tinkercad for literally every model I make 😅
Very limited and hard to measure detail
Very limited and hard to measure detail
@@weldingjunkie this is true. For basic things though it definitely does the job.
38:35 My channel has many videos that teach how to use SelfCAD for more advanced modeling
I love Self-Cad, and it's all thanks to your channel! Your videos helped me a lot. Thanks!
Thanks for this. Was just chatting to a friend about what free software to use.
Thank you for doing all the work of testing learning the different CAD programs in order to review them! It really helped me out in making a decision on which to go with :)
FreeCAD is perfectly usable IF you know how to use it. I disagree with his statement.
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!
Wow! Great video, watched the whole way trough dint even skip a moment. Thanks
Yup, need to update this list every five years or so.
Good info, though. I've been wanting to up my design game, and knowing which programs offer the functions I want is a big help. Thank you.
Thank you for your Video and the effort behind it.
I want to construct a functional case for my project and looked for a CAD software - that's why I'm here. I already tried a few systems, but none of them made me happy.
But now I think I found the right thing for me - FreeCAD/Ondsel together with OpenSCAD or OpenSCAD for its own. I did play around with POV-Ray raytracer about 20 years ago and loved that it described the scenes text based. From a comment here, I heard about OpenSCAD and had a look at it - and when I saw the first examples I felt immediately at home.
After that long time I didn't think about text based CAD or that it even exists. That will make my life much easier, as I don't need to learn complex to use software but can concentrate on the geometry, which is hard enough if you don't do it on a regular basis.
Back in 2003, I was doing a two year course in computer fault diagnostics, repairs and build. The class next door was a TWO YEAR C.A.D. course... I recently learned Tinkercad in an afternoon.
What a legendary vid. These kinds of things + looking at the historical timeline of the 3D printing world are some of the coolest videos out there.
If only Shapr3D was parametric...it feels SO good on the iPad Pros + Pencil.
Great video as always Angus. Tks
Amazing video, thanks for putting all that work into an updated version! I didn't get a chance to read all the comments but in TinkerCAD, I noticed that you didn't increase the "sides" of your cylinders, you can get a much higher resolution STL if you increase the sides to 60. This is a step I do automatically when using the cylinders tool.
100% on DSM. I'm impressed you could give such good feedback on software you don't use regularly.
Thanks for taking the time to make this - I know how long it must have taken!
Ayyy, thanks for the Blender mention, I love working with it. Haven't really had a need for any plugins myself, but I'll keep an eye on that one.
Personally, I love making really freeform models that let me do more organic shapes and joins. I use a resin printer, so I want to really use its strengths to the max when designing!
I very occasionally print someone else's model, but if you haven't learned a CAD package and started creating your own models, you don't know what you're missing. Doesn't matter how simple the part, when you make it from start to finish it is incredibly satisfying.
Thank you very much for the amazing review of so mamy apps. You test coin is a really good example for this.😊
Angus thank you for another great video with a ton of content!
Great video, and furthermore, great advices and warning about "whatch out for cloud programs / free tiers that could (...will) be shrunk/killed/modified.
As I get to switch to FOSS (Free Open Source Software), you make it very clear what are the options, and pro and cons. 👍
Excellent job.
Just keep in mind, even open source devs deserve to eat. Donate where you can, especially for programs one considers vital for whatever they use it for.
Also, remember often you're getting what you pay for. As in you really dont have room to gripe about something you're getting for free, and developed at the leisure of the people maintaining the project. If all someone wants is free, just pirate the actual industry standard programs. Its still free and most users dont build from, much less even look at, source anyways.
FOSS is not a avenue to not having to pay for your software.
And on the topic of free things coming with cavettes and changes.......well computers cost money, servers doubly so, as does internet access, and power. I often question how onshape pays its bills and am not surprised nor begrudging of them making changes particularly with all the people who tried to leverage the gift of a free cloud service FOR HOBBYISTS to build a business upon (as in abusing access, then have the gaul to complain). I mean....honestly....Id be unlikely to buy into onshape specifically because I know how much of that cost is going into this easily abused and a bit too featureful, for free, service. By the way, a lot of those background features can easily be achieved with services ran on a spare computer in the closet. Though I will give the real time multiuser design is neat, but Im not convinced that too couldnt be implemented elsewhere....ya know....FOSS and all....
Hell, most of the services advertised on YT can be....like that one that tries to make VNC/RDP sound amazing and futuristic, when all they're doing is running a daemon on your machine to keep an IP address in their databases updated....sounds like a dynamic DNS....another free easy to implement service if people bothered to look around....and lets not talk about the whole anti scammer campaign which, while cool they're screwing with scammers, they are careful not to give up the gag that the company is leverage their software to access their computers (and monitoring its use in real time when they 'see' someone get exploited) and not actually 'hacking' them. They're just basically admin logging into their VNC service. Gee, that sounds like someone Id trust....
@@TankR Indeed, I agree, developers have to eat, two :) ...FOSS means free like in freedom, not free beer. I'm an Inkscape monthly fee Patreon, and paid at least 4 devs this year only 😇 (betterbird, HomeBank, FreeSync, and Wikipedia). In my opinion, it's important to keep our hands on the code ("our" in a collective meaning, not mine particularly ;-) ), and pay the devs who do it.
Extremely helpful! Thanks.
Thanks, Angus, I know this was a lot of work! I started with a Tronxy X1 after seeing your review of it, then moved to a CR-10 Mini, and now a Bambu X1c. So far I've been able to get by designing functional parts in TinkerCAD, but this video has inspired me to try to learn Fusion360.
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.
You have provided a valuable service to the community sir.
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!
Hi Angus, thank you for one more amazing video, been flowing you for a while now, I personally use FreeCAD and Fusion 360. I'm into music also, and have the same keyboard as you (Arturia Keylab Essential) but the 61 key version. Big hug from Portugal.
thank you so so much for this comparison, I have been meaning to get back into CAD for so long and where to start was such a foggy area. You've presented all the pros and cons of each so nicely and I feel I am so much more equipped to decide what I would like to invest my time into learning and possibly using for the forseeable future (I'm starting with ondsel).
I reckon I would be an ace at the blender one, as I have years of experience using blender and am aware of all the neat functionalities and methods of non-destructive and destructive modelling alike, but polygon based modelling is a deal breaker for me when it comes to CAD sadly
What a useful video, thank you so much for going through all of these! I have a tech diploma in CAD/CAM but graduated over 20 years ago, worked for a few years doing some mechanical design and a lot of structural detailing, was trained in AutoCAD and Inventor but have used Solidworks, Alibre, Mechanical Desktop and to a small degree Fusion 360. Ended up moving into the world of GIS and not really doing 3D design however have just recently got into 3D printing as a hobby and have been very flustered trying to find tools I like. The other day I delved into FreeCAD and it is so cumbersome but seems like it has so much horsepower under the hood, so I really like the idea of Ondsel. Ideally Fusion 360 would just have better pricing models but alas it's just too expensive for me (and really isn't all that superior considering how proficient I used to be with Inventor).
Thank you so much for this!
That's an amazing effort to go through and even get a basic understanding of how these various packages work, so thanks heaps for that.
Personally, I'm intrigued by the Blender extension, as I was involved with a project recently, where the client wanted a 3D printed model made on an HP MJF colour printer (+NZ$800k - not a kick in the pants off a million dollars).
The person who did the work was using blender, as the colour had to be 'baked' into the surface, and neither the HP guy we were dealing with, or I could get our head around how my colleague had added the colour, from an aerial photograph, the model, from a lidar drone survey, using blender.
One small comment though, I'm not sure that you are using the term 'parametric modeling' correctly. In the case of the coin, if it was a truly parametric model, you would be able to specify the OD of the coin, and then the size and number of the cut outs could be automatically adjusted.
eg, if the OD were 50mm, then you could have the 8x 14mm dia cutouts, as modeled, but if you wanted to make a slightly smaller coin, say 45mm OD, then the table of parameters would adjust the number of cutouts to 7 with a dia of 13mm, so equation/rule based not a linear scaling relationship.
Once again, thanks for the video
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.
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.
For exact parts I use OpenSCAD. Takes a while to get used to but the results are very precise. It's free too.
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.
Boom! never used 3d software before, but was able to model a new armboard mount for my Pioneer plx 1000 in about 2 hours - thanks
thank you for the overview
Thanks for the video and your work it really helps me thanks .