It's been improving rapidly. The upcoming (imminently) 1.1 has a large amount of modern UI affordances, such as on-canvas gizmos that at times actually are easier to use than e.g. the Fusion ones. I'm a heavy Fusion user, but for me FreeCAD is nearly there now and the improvement over 1.0.x is massive.
There's a lot more to do, but my feeling is the project is taking UI/UX design much more seriously than it has in the past, with the ramp-up of an internal design-focused team etc. I get that feeling from reading the weekly progress updates and MR discussions.
I'm very optimistic for the future of FreeCAD personally. I think it's a great time to contribute if you are interested in making UI/UX better as well because there's much higher interest in that kind of work now. I think it's close to having its own Blender/KiCAD moment.
The UI has an awkward learning curve and some tools are weird, but it has become a rather solid CAD. Don't discount it in its current state, despite its warts.
Can't agree, I'm a complete newbie in CAD, and after I opened FreeCAD I didn't know what to do at all. Watched one youtube video covering all the basics and I can design whatever I want with confidence. Besides being free – it's very intuitive and great piece of software in my opinion
Hmm. Thanks, I'll bookmark it but the cadence of the narration is VERY monotone and uneven. This makes it hard for me to focus on what is being said because my OCD brain keeps tripping over the lack of pauses between sentences (and inappropriate pauses in the middle of sentences). I can't tell if it's an AI voice or an ESL person narrating a script.
I disagree. If you switch to the Part Design workbench, it's basically the exact same workflow as SolidWorks. Draw a sketch, add constraints, extrude / revolve / fillet, etc.
Yes they have some unconventional names for certain operations, like "pad" instead of "extrude", and yes there's a confusingly-similarly-named "Part" workbench for doing CSG-style CAD, and yes it takes a bit of practice to get good at it. But it's not next to impossible.
I think it's fair. I use FreeCAD a lot, and the word I would use last to describe the UI is "discoverable". Ignoring whether a workflow is possible - whether the functionality exists at all - there's a whole lot of it that you have to Just Know, or equally as often Just Know That It's Not Actually Broken. The very fact that you started your comment with "If you <do X thing that you have to be told to do>" is precisely part of that.
I'm just a hobbyist with a 3D printer, but after watching a few tutorials it seems quite simple if you're only using the sketcher and part design 90% of the time.
Yeah I just end up using Fusion 360. But depending on a freebie for hobbyists that could be withdrawn any time it's a bit worrying. I wish there were good visual tools.
I don't like browser based and blender is too focused on animation (I'm more into 3D printing) so I haven't found a good FOSS alternative. FreeCAD isn't it anyway.
3dDune is actually pretty capable and simple for basic usecases.
Plasticity for free form hard surface CAD modeling.
If you need parametric CAD then the learning curve jumps significantly and FreeCAD nowdays actually makes sense as with a bit of practice and customization you get to great place.
FreeCAD feels like Blender few years before v2.80 - people outright dismissed it because it had a bit unconventional UX but underneath was already the extremely solid software that now dominates 3D polygon modeling. FreeCAD doesn't have that much of a momentum but i wouldn't be surprised if they became Blender of CAD over time.
Note it's only a freebie if you are on Windows/Mac, too. If you're on Linux, it works terribly on wine and you have to use the browser version, and then you need a $95/month subscription.
