RealThunder used to make a forked version of it that focused on making the user interface a lot more sensible and usable, I think he’s still doing it and I wish his version became what we know of as FreeCAD. I’m used to working in multiple major CAD and CAM softwares, FreeCAD is more like an obtuse windows XP file navigator than anything else. The other 2 things that hurt usability- the UI is confusing as hell. The videos I have found are often confusing and conflicting. Number 1 is outdated tutorials that are never named by version.įreeCAD team- if you are reading this- you really need a dedicated serious youtube channel that has comprehensive user tutorials. I WANT to use FreeCAD, I want it to succeed and be useful, but three things I can think of continue to hurt it’s usability.

Posted in 3d Printer hacks Tagged freecad, STEP file, STL file Post navigation There are many FreeCAD tutorials we’ve watched. If you want to learn more about FreeCAD, you can spend a lot of time on his channel, which has a dizzying array of tutorials. In fact, after working with the basic object, he downloads a power supply cover and then punches a new hole in it. Sometimes working with a very simple part hides issues that you run into when you try to use a technique in real life. We liked that the example part isn’t a boxy design. The video shows how you can convert such an object into a proper FreeCAD part. However, in real life, you may have an STL file and nothing else. Of course, in this case, it doesn’t matter much because he has the original file, the STEP, and the STL. The same part imported from STL, however, is one single mesh. It doesn’t have all the operations that make the part up, but it does have proper faces that you can work with like a normal part. A part brought in from a STEP file is closer to the original CAD object. If you’ve ever wondered why designers like to work with STEP files and not STL, this video answers that question immediately. has a large number of video tutorials on FreeCAD, and the latest one, below, covers working with STEP and STL with the tool. If you’ve tried FreeCAD, you know that it has a daunting number of workbenches and options.

Freecad online