What CAD can you guys recommend for progressing beyond TinkerCAD?
I really enjoy OpenSCAD and will continue to build that skillset but sometimes I just want to much about with a mouse in 3D space. I used to really enjoy doing mockups in SketchUP when that was still a free Google project.
I’m definitely not designing engines or commercial products. I’m mostly just designing small things for the 3D printer.
Also, Open Source is a must. I’d rather struggle with a free product that could be made better than pay for a commercial product that does way more than what I need it for.
For open source, you have exactly two and a half realistic options: FreeCAD and SolveSpace, or Blender plus a CAD Sketcher addon. The first two use a parametric history paradigm, and need a bit of a rethink coming from TinkerCAD (as I did), but both are more flexible, though SolveSpace doesn’t support fillets and chamfers as an independent feature any more than TC does.
FreeCAD is more user friendly than it used to be, but I highly recommend at least one or two intro tutorials for either FOSS option. The time it took before I realized which FreeCAD workbenches to use (and, importantly, which to ignore for my rather basic needs) was rather silly, in retrospect. SolveSpace is very quirky, but I can’t recommend its tutorials enough. Even if I didn’t quite memorize where everything was, in following them I got a better feel for how parametric modeling actually works.
Blender is blender. If you don’t need to move beyond 3D printing, I understand you can get add-ons that make it act enough like a CAD program to make it work for you. I wouldn’t LEARN Blender just to use that functionality though. FreeCAD will do it better and support non-mesh models that can be used in other manufacturing methods or be exported to a slicer with arbitrary detail levels.
For Free-as-in-beer, things get more interesting, but pretty much every free tier gets enshittified somehow. Fusion raises prices and hides features behind the paywall. DesignSpark removes interoperability that the free version used to have. Shapr3D’s free version is effectively a tech demo unless you are printing literal cubes. OnShape not only lets everyone see all your models, but lets other people (not you) sell them. Still, the odds that someone actually wants YOUR models are low. Solid Edge is just a simple non-commercial use. Either of the last two are at least feature complete for basic part and assembly modeling, as is Fusion (for now)
I really appreciate the write up!! I think I’ll dig into solvespace as that looks to be a good blend between openscad and tinkercad. basically exactly what I was looking for. Sometimes I wanna nerd out and other times I just want to click and drag.
I found fusion360 to be a pretty easy transition to make from tinkercad once I took some tutorials.
Still I really like tinkercad for all it does.
Sorry, I missed your open source requirement.
It’s all good. I only run Linux so Fusion isn’t really on the table for me.
So its closed source, but Bricsys includes “BricsCAD Shape” in their BricsCAD package, including on Linux. After the free trial ends, Shape still works fine. It’s positioned as a Sketchup competitor, though I haven’t used Sketchup in forever so I couldn’t compare them in any deep way.
My hangup with open source is mostly about affordability. There’s no real “casual” CAD licensed software. I pay Adobe the 10 bucks a month tax because it’s nice to have real Photoshop when I want it and my time is better spent doing a thing in Photoshop and moving on vs. learning gimp [just…no…] so I’m not morally opposed to a non-FOSS solution I just don’t want to spend the money.
Definitely curious about Shape. Thanks!
I have gone on ad nauseum about my concerns over OnShape’s business model and lazy EULA, but if you use Linux exclusively and find you dislike FreeCAD, just know what you’re getting yourself into and it’s a fairly nice tool, as long as your internet is stable.
Linux options for mature and full-featured mechanical CAD are… limited. Free ones even more so, as you’ve seen.
For quick, uncomplicated parts, SolveSpace works pretty well. It’s missing some features (like chamfers) that limit the kind of parts you can design, but it’s lightweight and relatively easy to use.
For everything beyond that, FreeCAD seems to be the only option (Or one of its forks, I find Ondsel easier to use). It has some issues and a pretty steep learning curve, but it is open source and you can design basically anything with it.
