FreeCAD

[Cryoine]

With every update Autodesk is pushing me more and more away from their platforms, now with the latest madness for Fusion360 they moved all their simulation solvers to the cloud...

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/heres-why-were-moving-all-simulation-solves-to-the-cloud/

They always take the opportunity to determine what is best for me and my needs. I wonder how they determined any of this...

"We realize that a performant simulation tool is critical for you, and we are making improvements on how the solves run, how the data is utilized, and the speed at which results come back to you. Studies that work exclusively on the cloud, like generative design, injection molding, or electronics cooling, deliver experience and performance benefits that cannot be matched by a local solve. For this reason, we are moving all the local-solve study types to cloud-solve and cloud-results viewing."

Might finally be time to dive more into FreeCAD.

 

[gerritv]

If you think Fusion360 has limitations, wait till you try FreeCAD.
If you have a Fusion360 subscription you still have some simulation included. For the rest, you can buy access for the times that you need it.

 

[Cryoine]

If you think Fusion360 has limitations, wait till you try FreeCAD.
If you have a Fusion360 subscription you still have some simulation included. For the rest, you can buy access for the times that you need it.

I never said fusion360 is limited, what I avoiding is that very same uncertainty that they are bringing with these changes

 

[gerritv]

You can be sure that the decision is based on usage patterns, no need to explicitly ask you. Every sw company instruments their products..
Unless you are using the simulation why worry about it? Products evolve over time. FreeCAD has dropped/replaced a few things in the past as well. So has Appple, Microsoft, Google and countless others. Things change, part of life. Adapt or ?? Even the Fusion360 10 editable doc limit for hobby users was overblown. But individuals chose to dump their experience with it and move to a tool that has a long way to go.

 

[Cryoine]

You can be sure that the decision is based on usage patterns, no need to explicitly ask you. Every sw company instruments their products..
Unless you are using the simulation why worry about it? Products evolve over time. FreeCAD has dropped/replaced a few things in the past as well. So has Appple, Microsoft, Google and countless others. Things change, part of life. Adapt or ?? Even the Fusion360 10 editable doc limit for hobby users was overblown. But individuals chose to dump their experience with it and move to a tool that has a long way to go.

again I'm not sure what you are on about here, the simulation change is what prompted me to look more into FreeCAD, as a result of this change affecting me (I use others, both ANSYS discovery live and ANSYS workbench, Xfoil and I am learning how to use MatLab/Octave, those are more involved in the setup, but to quickly mock up something that I don't need high degrees of accuracy in is what I normally use Fusion360's simulations for) and this post is highlighting both the change being made and the reason for that change. I personally don't like when people say this software has done x and dropped y in the past and not at least list one thing as an example of what they mean. Also with FreeCAD when they change something and I don't like the changes that they are making am I forced to upgrade to that version that has the things removed that I don't want?

These specific changes also seemed to have caused some backlash on their own forums(on their part with a lack of explanation as well) which is why they came out with that post, I'm not even sure why the need to specifically mention me "no need to explicitly ask you" but the quickest way to drive the community away from your product is to make changes that seemingly damage the functionality of the product in ways no one is asking for, online solving was always a thing, at one point it was free, then they started to charge for it, no one should be surprised by this but moving all of that to the cloud with no other option.

Also a point to note about cloud based software vs hardware installed software, the uncertainty of cloud based is far higher than that of installed software the more functionality they move to the cloud the less control you fundamentally have over the content that is there. There are many cloud based simulation solvers one of which is Simscale that has a requirement that any simulations solved on their servers are to be made public or you pay if you want to keep them private, not everyone has the means to pay here and will look else where, hence the post.

also yes people will compare apples to apples when looking for software, many people discovered fusion because it was free for hobbyists(not sure if it still is i have the educational license) and FreeCAD still is, I have not tried freeCAD but I know it is an option. CAD programs are typically the same in terms of how one pilots their way around it, I ditched AutoCAD when i found Inventor, Inventor when I found Fusion and if this proves to be better(FreeCAD) will ditch fusion for it

 

[gerritv]

lots of words there. Are you using your educational license for your day job? (you mentioned using it for your day job) It's supposed to be non-commercial, this is how the hobby version got de-featured.
Fusion360 is still free for startups and hobbyists. Fusion360 has 0 requirement to make your work public.
When FreeCad removes/replaces something sure, you can stay on that beta/alpha version prior. And not get any fixes/enhancements etc.
0.16 removed/deprecated: The TechDraw Workbench, which replaced the Drawing Workbench in v0.17, has been upgraded in an important way. It has many new features with respect to v0.18, which make it much more useful to produce technical illustrations of 3D solids.

If you plan on using cad/cam in a career, I recommend that you stick with commercially available sw. FreeCAD won't get you in the door IMO (as a manager for 30+ years of hiring ppl)

Do your research on FreeCAD, I have (and Inventor and SW and Alibre) and am sticking with Fusion360. It is by far the best bang for free.

 

[Cryoine]

lots of words there. Are you using your educational license for your day job? (you mentioned using it for your day job) It's supposed to be non-commercial, this is how the hobby version got de-featured.
Fusion360 is still free for startups and hobbyists. Fusion360 has 0 requirement to make your work public.
When FreeCad removes/replaces something sure, you can stay on that beta/alpha version prior. And not get any fixes/enhancements etc.
0.16 removed/deprecated: The TechDraw Workbench, which replaced the Drawing Workbench in v0.17, has been upgraded in an important way. It has many new features with respect to v0.18, which make it much more useful to produce technical illustrations of 3D solids.

If you plan on using cad/cam in a career, I recommend that you stick with commercially available sw. FreeCAD won't get you in the door IMO (as a manager for 30+ years of hiring ppl)

Do your research on FreeCAD, I have (and Inventor and SW and Alibre) and am sticking with Fusion360. It is by far the best bang for free.

No also my day job involves working at a university... I have also done work for others as a freelancer(with inventor and AutoCAD) before and they don't really care what you use as long as they get what they want/paid for but I would agree with you on the commercial aspects of software it does give a lot of credibility to what you do but even that is shifting, Blender is testament to that

I thank you for that example but it didn't answer another question, am I not free to not update and stick with the functionality of the 0.16v of that techdraw workbench?

 

[gerritv]

I thank you for that example but it didn't answer another question, am I not free to not update and stick with the functionality of the 0.16v of that techdraw workbench?

Yep, you are free to not update. But since it is deprecated/obsolete, it will stop working at some point if you use it with the rest of the application. I find the architecture of the thing 'interesting', everything is an addon, and many are from other developers. So when one decides to stop working on their piece, it atrophies and you are left in the lurch. IMNSHO that is not a sustainable architecture, esp. for business/industry use. (https://wiki.freecadweb.org/External_workbenches)
Also, since it is FOSS, if/when you report an issue you will likely get the typical response of 'update and try again'. Which depending on how far back you are could be painful.

 

[gerritv]

And here is the death blow for me: Even for designing for 3D printing I need assemblies.
"

Assembly workbenches​

As of FreeCAD 0.19 there is no official assembly workbench. However, several external tools have been created or are in development to manipulate objects to produce assemblies.
Note that the assembly workbenches are generally incompatible with each other. If you create an assembly with one of them, you should stick to the original workbench, and not use another assembly workbench in the same document.
There are also 'pseudo assembly' workbenches which actually don't use constraints to keep relationships between parts, but simply re-position them in space."