FreeCAD Managing Expectations

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Purpose

The purpose of this wiki page is to 'Manage Expectations' of users using FreeCAD, especially those coming from other proprietary CAD/CAM solutions.

The Eternal Open Source Conundrum

I really like/dislike using [Insert your go-to proprietary program] but I:

  • can't afford it
  • resent that I need to pay for it
  • don't want to be locked in to proprietary format/technology
  • want to own my work
  • want to work on my local machine (not on someone else's cloud)
  • really like using FOSS better
  • don't want to be involved in a FOSS because I don't have: time, skills the community needs
  • don't want to involved in a FOSS because someone else is probably doing that
  • want to complain somewhere about a pathetic attempt at competing with [Insert your go-to proprietary program]
  • want to vent about how ugly the UI is to someone/somewhere just because wanna!

Reflections

  • How do people conceive the way open source software is created?
  • Do people expect that when a group of people with common interest come together that they will magically self-organize in to a highly productive and well-oiled machine? (see tweet)

What FreeCAD is not

Non Parametric

  • FreeCAD can be used non-parametrically. But the user needs to know how.
  • Blender is the ideal free libre opensource tool for non-parametric design.

Mesh Modeler

  • Again, Blender is the more appropriate application for mesh modeling.

Common Perspectives

FreeCAD has not reached v1.0

FreeCAD is not stable

FreeCAD UI is ugly

Where is my favorite feature?

Realities

OpenCascade Kernel

OpenCascade (OCC/OCCT) is a core external CAD kernel dependency that FreeCAD is utterly dependent on. There are many open 'upstream' bugs that the FreeCAD community has identified and track regarding OCC. We track them via the:

Qt

Volunteers

Timelines, unpaid... it's done when it's done.

Organizational Challenges

As with many opensource projects, FreeCAD has had its organizational challenges. Some of them are listed here in short:

  • Departure of jriegel (one of the original core developers)
  • The incomplete implementation of PartDesign workbench (incompatibilities with Part WB).
  • Assembly workbench development that had been abandoned several times (Assembly and Assembly2). It now has 3 separate solutions (Assembly2+, Assembly3, Assembly4). There is an intention to unify these 3 active Assembly approaches.

Relevant Links

Discussion Threads

Links to forum thread discussions related to this topic