Wanted to share this since this was a long Project. Since Autodesk started changing Fusions functionality, from limiting active projects, to changing their terms of service. Since I need a CAD tool for my 3D Printable designs, I started migrating to a new cross platform CAD tool. That happened to be FreeCAD.
Learning FreeCAD wasn’t easy, but was well worth my time. And after slowly pecking at it for 11 months, I was able to re-build every design I made (that I cared about).
I’ve made my 3D Printable designs available on my GitHub if you are interested: https://github.com/the16bitgamer/16BitVirtualStudiosDesigns
How is FreeCAD’s toolset compared to Sketchup? I have long been irritated with F360’s tools because it really wouldn’t let me do super simple things very simply that sketchup, or even Blender does easily. Wasn’t worth putting up with the hassle of basic functionality just to take advantage of the limited more advanced functions IMO. Been giving FreeCAD the side eye and not sure if I want to torture myself with sorting it out.
I haven’t used Google Sketchup since 2017/2018 so take this with a grain of salt.
Sketchup is a simple to use, and a very beginner friendly CAD program, with crippling limited capabilities for my needs. I moved to Fusion 360 around 2017/2018 since I wasn’t able to make the shapes I wanted to. Chamfers, Fillets, and referencing previous parts for current designs.
If you are making simple shapes Sketchup is good, like boxes and circles… I feel it’s a step up from what I’ve seen of TinkerCAD. But I feel a better comparison for FreeCAD is with Fusion 360.
For what tools I need with designing 3D Printable parts, FreeCAD is comparable with Fusion 360. It’s just missing some Quality of Life features, like Chamfers that go beyond the edge and cut into a part, or text that can warp to a cylinder or exist between points A & B. There are some plugins that help and do work, but not to the same extent that Fusion does.
With that said play with the tool enough and you will find workarounds and alternatives that might even make your models better.
Thank you. Exactly the kind of comment I was looking for. You are exactly right about sketchup, way too many limitations.
Edit: went with Solidworks. Tried out FreeCAD and just couldn’t wrap my head around it, the workflow seemed too disjointed. For some reason Soldiworks clicked right away despite my dislike of F360’s system and the similarities between the two. Yeah, not free, but for a few bucks a month for the Maker subscription I couldn’t argue. None of Autodesk’s constant fuckery with license agreements and feature reductions.