Thanks to Michael, I think I have finally found my first CAD program. Your software looks great, and I am hoping that being completely new to CAD (and I mean NEW) won't be a roadblock. Really looking forward to this tutorial series.
I use Onshape in my free time, and when I have to use SolidWorks at work, it feels like pulling teeth. Our parent company does a lot of sheet metal CAD and their workflow is hopelessly intertwined with SolidWorks. So when I'm doing CAD (which is about 20% of the time with the rest in software development) I don't have a choice. Once we get this full time mechanical hire, I'm pushing for our R&D team to get an Onshape license. If I never have to boot to windows to use SolidWorks again I'll be a very happy computer engineer. You guys are doing a GREAT job, and your software team is next level. Keep it up.
20 years of Cad experience…. DesignSpark is free, intuitive and easy to learn with no limitations to use or functions. I use it for anything geometry based.
Yes yes desig spark is just very impressive as a free and no string attached cad software. Used many CAD , all need you to spend lots of money and upgrading. Design spark just changes. That are so easy to use and is really free. I.use it to design quite a few jigs fixtures ... And they all are easily done in design spark.
I am a fan of freeCAD. No need fot an internet connection. For me, the community is fantastic. As a hobbyist, I have not had any limitations, it just works.
I have finally broke the mental block on the workflows of FreeCAD and I design what I want now. I’m glad I stuck through and it feels like now I play in the space of professional level CAD. 🎉🎉🎉
Another caveat of Fusion360 and OnShape I didn't recall hearing in this video: if you plan on monetizing things based on your designs there are considerable limits with free accounts (assuming one plans on abiding by the license they agree to when setting up an account). If you don't plan on making money based off your models, this is fine. If you do, you will need to ensure you understand the limits outlined in said licenses. FreeCAD does not have this caveat, of course.
Thanks for the specific detail on this fact. I have avoided all CAD programs for this very reason. Once the 'cat is out of the bag', it's off down the road and lost. The only thing it seems you can do, is to get some large company who have similar products to your idea and have a meeting and get them to sign a legal and binding document that protects your idea. I have been to a design company with one of my idea's and just to get started was over $100,000 to set up a mold injection design for the basic component. The only real way to get my 'million dollar invention' out there, is to get a well established company to financially push it. 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration as the saying goes.
If you plan on making money with your parts, just buy a licence or go for a FLOSS project like freecad, you're also unlikely to be a "beginner" which is what this video is directed at (he states this in the first few minutes).
If you're interested more in "sculptural" 3d modeling like gaming miniatures, blender is hard, but being free and open source is hard to beat. It's also just a crazy powerful tool.
can you "slice" models made in blender? I made models back in the day and it was super simple in blender. I thought he mentioned the downside to programs like that was they arent water tight/solid?
@@channelname8623 Sure. I use Blender for simple prints. You can either export your object as OBJ, which Cura can open and slice, but I believe there's an STL exporter as well. Geometry nodes give Blender OpenScad-like procedural capabilities, but with visual scripting. And there's also the CAD Sketcher addon, which turns Blender into a parametric modeller (still needs work, but promising). I'd suggest getting the standard suite of hard surface addons though (Meshmachine, Machin3tools, Boxcutter and Hard Ops) if you're willing to spend some money. These tools are extremely helpful for maintaining proper, manifold geometry when using lots of booleans, mirrors, bevels and chamfers, on top of all the nice workflow improvements they provide.
I love tinkercad. It was the very first program I could selfteach myself to use. Everything else flew above my head. I'm glad such a simple and efficient tool is free, honestly.
My problem with onshape is the limitation for commercial uses. You technically can't sell anything you make with onshape, finished product or the model itself. Now most of the stuff I make I will put online for others but there are definitely things that I make with the intent to possibly sell. Granted I doubt they are ever going to go after someone who is doing under 10k in sales a year as a hobby but it is a potential risk.
With the paid version you'll have private designs, team collaboration and that whole thing. Michael is only comparing the free versions, so he didn't mention this.
I started into cad to switch from factory work to the office, back in, well the 1st cad package was for a Commadore 64. I took serious training 25 years ago and yea you are right they will all pretty much get you there. It is all what you are using them for but just remember the road we start on doesn't always end up where we planned to go. 👍✌🥃
FreeCAD has a steep learning curve, but it is very feature complete (and there is a large community and hundreds of tutorials). I use the Python scripting option a lot to generate objects. But the main advantage is that it is open source, so never any licensing fee, never a required registration, never a diminishing of certain features etc.
May be. But I really really really really Hate the interface.. it looks like s**t and I just can't understand what anything means. So extremely badly made. I know it's free and I should't complain but why in the world don't they just copy the ideas of the already existing nicely done programs. The colors and the thickness of lines.. the god awful icons .. just nothing makes me wanna use it. I tried.. god have I tried.. but it's just so uninspiring to use something that gruesome.. like trying to build a house using a rock for a hammer.
@@TheRealFOSFOR i have the same feelings for fusion 360 xd it looks so sweet and shiny that i just cant stand it. I think that our problem is that we allready got used to one of the programms and cba to learn the other one. I tried fusion many times but i just dont like the fact how unproductive i am there. Need to spend time to find where's the tool i need, learn how it works. In freecad i just start a project, click there do that and its done in no time. and finally the UI of fusion or onshape - just too cute. I love the minimalistic design of freecads ui, looks like made in the 90s xd. Im a retro guy after all.
FreeCAD is garbage. You can waste hours because it's parametric features don't update when you modify previous steps and it doesn't notify you, until you print and it's the old model again! Not to mention the constant bugs and memory access violations.
I might be biased, but once I got over the FreeCAD learning curve, I have found it useable enough to made decent models. And with more use, FreeCAD can get the love and care it needs to get its issues fixed.
I know it doesn't really matter that much, but the look/graphics of freecad lag so much behind other modelling software (only slightly better on the realthunder branch) I use it though because I like having the option to do things like simulations, even though I probably never will use them.
For whatever reason Freecad has been the 3d design application for me. I have tried Tinker Cad, Fusion, and looked at Autodesk, but financially none of those work for me. Freecad is a little buggy, but I have gotten some great results. Most of my design is based on photographic applications. Rear and replacement of broken items on cameras, 35mm to large format. I am using v0.20 now, and with all software, there is a learning curve for more advanced functionality. I am not very favorable with most cloud base applications, but I will try Onshape since you did such a good job on this video explaining your position.
FreeCAD is getting pretty good these days. Sure the UI is still very clunky, but it has improved quite a bit from was it 0.16 I first tried and to be honest stopped using it as it crashed frequently etc. But I've got into it bit since 0.18 and it's been much stable and now I actually occasionally use it. I still prefer Fusion360 and have license at work, but I'm heavily now biased to getting more into FreeCAD as it'll stay free and Fusion is absolutely harvesting features away all the time. Just yesterday I found out that I couldn't import my Fusion design to DXF format free to transfer it my preferred free CAM software. I actually had to export to .STEP which was possible, then open it in FreeCAD and once again export it there as DXF to work. I was aiming to learn CAM in Fusion and it has quite nice feature set, but for now I'm definitely going to learn more about my preferred free CAM, get adept with it and then possibly try to learn more Fusion based CAM. I'm sure as heck not going to pay 500 euros yearly for Fusion to use my puny home made CNC machine. If I'd use Fusion I'd actually have to work and get good money out to reason Fusion, but as hobbyist, just no.
@@Keechization Probably true. I watched a tutorial 2 years showing workarounds just to get a better feeling for the problem. But the existence of such tutorials and the insistence for years from developers that this problem is inherent to the problem space and will not be solved made FreeCAD completely uninteresting until they announced that the Realthunder patches would be integrated in 1.0. "That more intuitive thing you are doing in all other CAD software is bad, and you should feel bad" isn't exactly compelling.
After 3 months of 3d printing I have tried a few Cad software program's and onshape is legit. great video and thanks for helping with real life solutions for anyone beginning into 3d printing. you're making it so easy for people to learn this hobby ! choice mate
Another option for people who already have experience using Blender is a free addon called CAD Sketcher, which brings CAD Sketching capabilities to blender. It's a new plugin that's getting frequent updates and it's still in early days, but if you already have experience with blender it's definitely worth giving a shot. I've been using it for about a month now and it's a very capable set of tools that have allowed me to make very precise complex parts to scale. Imo it should not be seen as an alternative or replacement for a dedicated CAD application, but it may help current blender users get into the CAD space, and for smaller projects it could be more convenient than a separate application
I tried blender and it's NOT FOR BEGINNER/HOBBYISTS ADDITIVE MANUFACTURERS (3d printers). It's for people who want to make 3d art and animation, not objects. I tried it, and it's not worth a beginners time without advanced instructions.
@@xjonx1 Blender is for a LOT more than just 3D art. I have been using blender for a decade now and have taught many people how to use it for many many different processes, from CAD Precision modelling to Video Editing to composing Oscilloscope Music, there are so many things you can do with it, and this CAD Sketcher add-on just opens the doors to people who would like to get into the CAD space and already feel comfortable using blender at a hobbyist level. I'm not suggesting anybody learn blender for the soul purpose of CAD
@@xjonx1 Yes, I understand that - I felt the same way at the beginning. But once you get the hang of it, you love it. I can't say exactly why. I do 3D printing with it, including the CAD application, 3D animations and photorealistic images. You can do all of that together, and it's awesome. But - yes - in the beginning it is difficult to understand. The best way to start is with a TH-cam tutorial - the donut by Blender Guru. Just search YT and try it.
FreeCAD all the way. It is great for modeling practical parts and has a CAM module integrated in similarly to Fusion. It is limited compared to subscription software, but so far I haven't found anything that I actually needed to do that I couldn't do. Also, I'm a Linux user and none of the other programs are even available for my OS, and I have a REALLY simple way of interacting with companies that don't want to support my OS - I don't. I do NOTHING that requires the cloud. I am BUYING a copy of Lightburn for my laser engraver, BECAUSE IT'S ON LINUX. Really, it's that simple. The program doesn't have to be open source(Lightburn isn't), you just have to make it available on my platform and if I have need of it I will happily transfer money units to your company.
@@TheSuburban15 See, not being dependent on it, I didn't even know that. Think about the people that had small businesses up and running depending on that software that discovered that their small CNC business was kaput because they weren't making enough for a license?
OpenSCAD is available on Linux. It may not be the way you want to go but it is available. It also runs well enough on resource limited machines because it only needs to render when you tell it to.
Do you know of any good tutorials for freeCAD? I have been trying hard to make myself use more open source tools. Combine that with native apple silicon support, and freeCAD is the winner for me.
I'm a 123D design user. It is very powerful for what it is, It's a stand alone program and doesn't require being online. All your files can be stored locally on your pc. He's right though, it no longer receives support or updates, which is kind of sad because it can be buggy from time to time. Not buggy enough to make me quit using it though, it's more of just minor irritations. I actually think that 123D Design does a few things faster and simpler than Fusion 360 as well. With 123D Design, the best thing you can do is save often. I have experienced a few crashes during very heavy and complicated use, but it does have an auto recovery, but always recovers a few steps back further than when it crashed, and the recovered file can not go back in history. It will start the recovered file as the beginning. So SAVE and SAVE often! It's not hard to do. But I haven't found anything that 123D design can't do with out a few work arounds and clever ideas.
i did use 123D design in the past. with good succes. is this still downloadable somewhere? as it's now puched away by Adesk fusion360 amd thinkercad. i might still have it somewhere on an old system overhere.
@@janwiersma1449 th-cam.com/video/rKIchRYcvwc/w-d-xo.html This guy has both the 32-bit and 64-bit downloads for windows on his Google drive, linked in his description. I've downloaded from him a few times, and everything has been legit.
As a programmer, I LOVE using OpenSCAD. I have designed a lot of useful things (just today, I designed a little piece for my dryer door's latch using TPU, as the piece mysteriously disappeared and my dryer wouldn't close anymore.) I'm not super good at math, though, so fancy stuff is much more tricky than if I learned one of the fancier point-n-click programs...
I completely agree! It feel so natural to just program your model. The only downside for me is when you want more organic shapes. Rounded edges or bevels are a lot easier to get in e.g. Fusion 360 since you can click an edge drag its roundness.
I love the casual "that I've used for computational fluid dynamics". 😊. You're a smart cookie with excellent communication skills. Thankyou for your efforts, as you're helping me upskill quickly before i buy my first printer.
Many thx Michael! Coming into 3d printing recently and having tried free versions of Fusion360, Tinkercad and Freecad. Onshape combined with your older 101 tutorials really helped me understand and overcome some of the obstacles.
Thank you, the video is marvelous. I have been paying for Fusion 360 for years, and they just raised the price significantly, so I was looking for a new modeling program.
Hmmm... Seems like a real shame that Blender did not get a bigger feature. I've been teaching blender precision modeling on youtube for over 2 years for 3D printing, helping thousands of makers get started. The great plus of blender is you can learn one program to do both organic and precision modeling along with amazing renders and animation. By all means, if you are going for true hardcore engineering grade design stay with a CAD program for sure. But for your day-to-day 3D printing, functional prints and fun design ideas. Blender is brilliant. Not to mention now with CAD Sketcher (Open Source CAD like modeling addon for blender), Geometry nodes and blender modifers you can make close to fully parametric mesh models in minutes. Yes, one major drawback is bevels/chamfer but you can work around it... but in a nutshell, it's free, open source, and growing faster than almost anything in the 3D space. Anyway, that's just my two cents...
Your videos are brilliant. Got my first 3Dprinter a month ago and thanks to your blender tutorials I've designed 6-8 different products already and feeling increasingly confident.
Blender is God awful for precision CAD work considering the learning curve of it. CAD Sketcher is a promising addon but still early in it's development.
Hi, can You make a demonstration between Blender and Onshape (like a vs. between you) to show in slightly more complicated cases whether both can be worked in the same way? For example, the need to change dimensions after modeling, version management, etc.
I tried blender. It's NOT FOR HOBBYIST 3D PRINTERS. It's for animation artists. While you might be able to make objects to print, you are not going to download blender with no experience, install and run the program then make a simple shape. I tried and you can't without advanced instructions. For beginner hobbyists, like myself, these programs MUST WORK OUT OF THE BOX WITHOUT INSTRUCTION or with a limited (under 3 minute or 5 step) tutorial. We as beginners want to start building, not spend a week in classes or reading a manual.
@@xjonx1 It's true that advanced instructions are needed to utilize the many features on blender, however it's not a lengthy process. I watched between 3 and 5 of makers tales tutorials before trying out a project on my own. All together I think I spent 3-4 hours watching tutorials and 5-8 hours tinkering with the software before I felt comfortable modelling on my own. You aren't going to learn any type of advanced 3D modelling from 3 minute tutorials, that's a fact. If it took 3 minutes the maker of this video would have included a tutorial in this video instead of dedicating an entire future series to teaching 3D modelling.
First great video. I've only recently started modeling and feel I finally can say as a design hobby I have started pushing the limits of TinkerCad (great for beginners with no formal training). Cannot wait for this series to take off. Looking forward to using FreeCad and giving it a hard push in use.
I've been using Onshape for 4 months now, and I have been very happy with the package. I could care less that all of my documents are public as I do not work on anything of a proprietary nature. It's well worth the trade off for me. As I am fairly new to the world of CAD it is endlessly helpful to find designs of a similar nature that someone else has created and be able to go through and see what process they used to achieve a result, then apply those processes to my own creations. Access to my models at any location is also a huge benefit. Great video as always!
That Onshape is looking mighty appealing. Being on Linux, I've been limited to FreeCAD so far, but the developer has made absolutely clear that it is in no way intended to replace or even mimic Fusion 360. (Instead it's apparently trying to mimic/replace some old CAD software I've never heard of, and the obtuse interface and workflow are deliberate.)
I am running F360 in a VM. I've been using it for 3 months and I really like it but the VM part is really inconvenient. They have a Mac OS version already, why such disrespect to linux users I don't know. At least if they can patch it up to run in wine that would be good enough...
@@Anonymous-qx5uk Most annoyingly, A) It sort of runs in Wine but they keep deliberately breaking that, and B) It used to have a browser version but they locked that to educators only now.
FreeCAD was trying to mimic CATIA at the beginning, but for a long time now, it was mostly moving ahead as the devs that contribute to it see fit. It's probably the reason why it's such a mess, it's a community project. I have contributed to it in a few places, mostly when i needed some functionality that wasn't there or was not flexible enough.
I use Onshape at work. I was production department super but have plenty of Maker / DIY background. The product development head and I started talking then a few months later he said "Dude, your talents are waisted on that forklift, want to transfer?" (I was pulling product for my guys on the line.) Now 85% of my work time is in CAD either designing products, concepts or working with suppliers, engineers and other design teams (all use SW18) the other 15% is helping staff education or testing products. It was easy to switch from Sketchup and Fusion360 to Onshape with the self-paced courses.
Great video, I like to use CadQuery, which is a type of CodeCAD like OpenSCAD but is a BREP modeler with a lot of crossover with commercial CAD software. Here is how easy it is to generate a filleted box: box = cq.Workplane().box(1,1,1).edges().fillet(.25) !!
I do programming as part of my job but I've never seen the value in code to CAD so maybe you can enlighten me. The issue I've seen with it is lack of readability and scalability. I've designed a 3d printed cat wheel, while I could imagine coding up the wheel easily enough, the difficulty lies with breaking it down into printable segments. Designing the interconnects to join to wheel segments and them adjusting them after finding tolerance issues. To me that seems impossible to do via CodeCad systems?
Which, as someone coming from an OpenSCAD background and wanting something better, makes next to no sense without knowledge of Python code. OpenSCAD is far too limited and single-core-intensive with no way to offload processing to a graphics card or the like, but it's at least straightforward enough to use with simple English and common commands as opposed to having to entirely learn a whole new programming language.
@@ender-gaming That cat wheel is a specific example that I am not familiar with but I will do my best to explain general concepts. Breaking down such a wheel into printable segments is totally possible with CodeCAD, I would envision creating "tools" for cutting the large wheel into individual pieces. These "tools" could be as simple as a rectangular box with a small thickness to ensure that the pieces could be assembled later. The "tool" could be based on an adjustable parameter defined in CodeCAD that would later impact the fit tolerance. Regarding readability I would say that depends on the user, if you don't put in comments in your code describing variables/functions then yes it will be obtuse and unreadable. The true value of CodeCAD is extremely robust parametric design, you can boil designs down to just a few inputs and generate all other design features based on these. That way you can design something once and then other users can adjust a few variables and VOILA they have a whole new design specific to their application. Regarding the cat wheel, if you made it in CodeCAD it would be possible to let users make a hamster wheel by adjusting some variables (and all the complex geometry would be recomputed, not just a simple rescaling of the STL).
@@claws61821 To be clear, my code above is CadQuery-specific and has little to do with python in general. CadQuery has really good documentation and examples, which are IMHO necessary for any CAD tool as they all have idiosyncrasies. I promise if you understand OpenSCAD fairly well, it would not be difficult for you to learn CadQuery. Make no mistake, OpenSCAD is its own programming language that requires time to learn and understand!
Not only can Blender be used for CAD, it can run hard/soft body physics simulations of the parts you want to print, then renders the results as photo-realistic images. Motion-capture some video in your home, composite the model into 'real space'...see how the thing looks when it hangs on the wall by hanging on the (virtual) wall! Use the integrated video editor to layer in some sound and transition effects between scenes, throw in some title cards at the end. Export models to STL for printing, export video for uploading. All without having to use any other application. Or spend a dime.
The physic simulations in blender are so different to the physic simulations you would use in a cad environment that they cannot be used for anything with regards to product testing/modeling
Found Onshape independently a week ago, created an account easily, and have started tutorials. In the past, I have never had much success with CAD. Something about where to start, establishing real dimensions, etc. Really need a framework to point me in right direction. Subscribed, of course! You do excellent videos.
Used free cad professionally for 4 years now, the UI on it has improved drastically, theres also real thunders fork of it that is amazing to tinker with. My experience is perhaps the same as jokoengeneering on youtube, came from a pro background of solidworks and what was called proengineer, fit pretty well, just have to like to tinker.
I am glad I found this series. I just found your channel a week or two ago and I have already learned so much about 3D printing and what comes along with it. I enjoy your content and it is a cut above the rest. Modeling seemed far out of reach until I found this series. I am going to start my journey now and create my Onshape account today. A million thanks my friend!
Onshape is definitely my favorite (I’ve used tinkercad, fusion 360, and onshape). The UI is the best (imo), it’s easy to learn, and how you can make complex models easily is amazing. The only thing I find difficult in it is anything related to CIRCLES (or geometry that isn’t flat/straight), you definitely need to use a mesh model maker (or something like that) for anything that is supposed to look organic or otherwise contain a lot of rounded geometry. Simple cylinders are easy enough, but anything without a flat surface is next to impossible to work with (at least at my skill level, and I’ve been modeling for more than a year)
Yep. I've just started modeling with Onshape and an hour later I was stuck on my very first model which has a curved base. I did a sketch from a top view, then I finished the sketch and tried to modify it from a side view or extrude it curved somehow, but I can't find a tool for this. When I search for a solution all I find is forum posts complaining about the lack of a 3D sketcher. Next thing I'm trying right now is extruding the first sketch, then making a sketch from a side view, extruding that as well, and keeping only the overlapping parts of the two extruded bodies. But I can't select points of the first extrude when I'm in the Sketch 2 view... The UI is nice, but Onshape is not user friendly at all, that's my first impression.
I have been using tinkercad combined with Fusion 360 for a little over a year. I started with the free Fusion but soon after went for the full paid product . Fusion has a long learning curve and i didn’t want any walls between me and the potential in getting my ideas into production. In learning the system i found some easy shortcuts that have allowed my cnc plasma cutting part of my business race ahead in production, while still learning the 3d modeling for machining and 3d printing. Even with the limitations of the extended learning curve (my personal limitations) i have been able to make my current abilities profitable enough to warrant keeping Fusion 360 in its paid product, in my tool chest. Love your videos. They are helpful and inspirational even to a 70 year old maker.
Being a programmer, I was immediately attracted to OpenSCAD. I really like its approach, and find it quite intuitive. However, because of that immediate attraction, I haven't looked elsewhere, and this video is really good in giving me an overview of the other options available, not to mention that I wasn't even aware of the distinction between parametric solid modeling versus "mesh style" modeling.
Bloody legend Michael, Ive been using sketch up for about 11 years and am deeply frustrated with the time consumed modeling solids. It actually reduce the amount I use my 3d printers as I simply don't have the time spent cleaning surfaces to make solids. Your advice is priceless and I look forward to trying and hopefully mastering onshape
Another option to help managing your projects in Fusion 360 is to see each project as group of various projects instead of a single project in itself. You can easily create multiple "projects" within a single one by creating them as separate components (nested if necessary) and just switching on the components(s) you want. As you export to STL from components not the project as a whole it works fine in that respect too.
You mean instead of toggling 'editable' all the time? This would work ok, but I parameter-ise a lot of my stuff, so it might get a bit unwieldy. Definitely worth thinking about though as I often save iterations out separately then have to toggle.
@@thingswelike yep. Given hiding a component hides all the components, bodies and sketches nested inside it, I would have thought it'd make little difference whether they were highly parametric or not, as any dimensions, constraints, origins, etc would all get hidden along with it. And as each component has it's own design history (shown when made the active component), you should also be able to go back and make changes to parameters found there too, on a per component "project" basis. Projects frequently have multiple separate parts that get exported for printing separately, it's pretty much the same principle, just that they are actually more "separate" than usual. In your iteration case, you can just nest everything in a new component directly under the main project component, then duplicate this (or later copies) each time you want a new iteration (apologies if this is obvious to you). The only issue I see is in performance if you add too many, and this is something I can't really comment on so far.
Love Onshape been using for years now because of your videos and have made many models for my self and I can use it at home and at work when I have time due to the online side of the program.
Looking forward to this series. I learned Fusion 360 in the last 6 months and feel like I have a solid base knowledge, but being able to use a Chromebook or iPad would be a benefit, so I'll be following the video series for sure!
Fusion 360 is attractive but having tried the free solutions AND NONE OF THEM BEING FOR BEGINNERS(except for tinker cad) I'm VERY hesitant to spend what,$150, on a program that might be just as bad and hard to pick up and start using as the others.
@@prongATO Huh? How is a laptop any different than the iPad or a Chromebook??? There are laptops that you can convert into a touchscreen device like an iPad and the only difference between a laptop and a Chromebook is that you can use installed programs. If you can't sit for long periods what do you do, run around? Lay down? Stand up? I just don't see where you could use an iPad that you couldn't use a laptop. And DON'T accuse me of not thinking outside the box! Smh.
I had 2 decades of experience with Autocad for 2D before I started 3d printing. You would think I would go with Fusion360 but in reality Autodesk hates it's users so I chose FreeCad. I've been using FreeCad since 0.16 for both 3D printing and CNC and am reasonably happy with it. I've nearly 350 self designed models using it. FreeCad does have some quirks but it's been getting better. The tutorials will get you started but they way they tell you to do it isn't necessarily the most stable way. For people new to cad I would agree that it's potentially tricky to self learn. But if you can learn "what not to do" then you can create some extremely complex models using it. If I was to advise people on a couple of things it's to avoid using chamfers and fillets until the very last steps because they're the one thing that doesn't recalculate well. I also don't reference sketches off other faces. If I need to do it then I will do it and then clone it to a stand alone sketch. By sticking to those rules I have almost no problems. (Edit): And I will never ever use cloud software.
Applause is most definitely appropriate. Although I'm just a single individual and not a CAD Software company I can attest to the fact that you included quite a number of my suggestions in the run-up to your choice of 3D modeling software. Thus I sincerely hope that your positive attitude,knowledge and experience will help me master Onshape.
Freecad seemed to come quite a long way when the released 0.20, but it still suffers from the TPN or topological naming problem, where when you make a change mid way through it can lose track of which face the sketch was attached to. Although they're aiming to have this fixed in the next version. Another option is cadquery which is similar to openscad but is python based. It uses the same cad kernel as freecad.
Holy dogs! Just created an Onshape account and woof! The public files are a freaking-mazing! It really beats trying to find an already created STL file that fits exactly what you need. Being able to search then adjust to your need is absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for bringing this up because it is a game changer for me
Using mostly Fusion360 and it gets the job done for me. From sheet metal, to free-form modeling and so on its an pretty impressive package with a great GUI. I am happy to look into other programs too... Great to see that you cover a few here
I've used Designspark Mechanical for the less ambitious type things I make. Nothing super complex, just simple little gadgets like a bracket for mounting some LEDs, lens cap for a telescope eyepiece (after losing the original) etc etc. Larger precision projects like gearboxes etc would need something more capable.
Thanks for this tutorial series. It is just what I need to get moving forward with 3D printing! And you always give us details and this is no exception; if you had simply stated 'we're using onshape' I would have felt that you didn't necessarily look at the others. But of course you did and that makes it easy for me to see why you made that choice. Also thanks for making and editing these videos, and putting them online for us to view. I know it is a lot of work and I really appreciate it!
After learning Inventor I bought one similar called Alibre Design. I have been using it for over 10 years with no problems. I have designed parts to be printed on it and I also use it to design woodworking projects. Kitchens, furniture etc.
I mostly love working with OnShape and wish it had a hobbyist pricing model since I feel like they could at any time pull the plug on the free level and then my designs would be locked into a pricing model I can't afford. That said, the absolute biggest limitation with OnShape in my mind is free-form and organic designs. Trying to even do the most basic things like creating an interesting shape that isn't defined by math alone, like mesh modelling, drives me crazy and is the only time I have fallen back on Fusion 360. OnShape is simply happiest when everything is constrained and well-defined mathematically. Or perhaps I am missing something?
I exclusively use CATIA V5, which is probably akin to installing a screw with a sledgehammer. But it's the CAD software we were taught in my first year of university, and thus what I have the most experience with. Very powerful but not quite that user friendly. Buy hey, it works!
Excellent video. I tried Onshape a few years ago. It looked very good but I've been burned enough times over the years with commercial software (going back to ancient Autocad) that pulled the rug out from under me or squeezed too hard. So nowadays I use Freecad , OpenScad, and Blender for quick concept renderings. Onshape probably is easier to learn than Freecad (all those workbenches)! but it's a tradeoff I am ok with. I've lately taught children Tinkercad and a version of Openscad called Blockscad.
I have been a Fusion 360 user for a few years and even completed paid courses/training to learn it but never got fully comfortable using it. OnShape looks like a good alternative that I am keen to learn through this series. Many thanks for putting together such helpful and well presented content. Cheers 👍😎🇦🇺
One very big problem, all files made in it are publicly accessible unless you pay for the pro version. The trial is hilariously short at 14 days. (Not enough time to do more than glance at it.) So, this means that if anyone wants to use onshape's hobbyist version to develop a product, they are releasing the files publicly. So onshape is a hard no for anyone who wants to do a startup at some point in the future. That doesn't even get into how this *probably* means that there are large swathes of things that outright *can't* be developed on it due to legal issues. For example, if you were to make a NERF blaster, I wouldn't be surprised if you personally could get sued even if you were making it just for yourself. Any characters you make would probably be a no-go. And that is just business related issues, there are others that could likely get you in trouble but this comment would get shadowbanned if I mentioned them. Just look at some stuff that happened in NYC recently to see how tame things can result in massive legal trouble.
If you're creating a _product_ then you're using OnShape commercially, and you...should probably just pay for CAD software if that's the goal. You're 3D printing today because of the fine people who created the RepRap project. The goal of that project was free, open source, shared information and experimentation so that everyone had access to this wonderful technology. Why not continue that tradition by working out in the open and helping others progress in their own journeys? In fact, you're watching this series -- which is made specifically to pass along openly available knowledge, which wouldn't have been available if other people hadn't shared. So SHARE! Stop with this mindset of everything needing to be secret and proprietary.
This. This is why Onshape is off the table for many, including me. Price is just stupid for hobbyists, and without paying you can't keep anything you design private. Useless.
@@ThantiK My main concern with Onshape is no local files or software. If Onshape closed at some point the projects will need to exported in some other format, perhaps losing the parametric design tree. If say the Open RC project was made in Onshape, the original CAD files could be lost with Onshape. Having it bound to the cloud is not very open source to me and adds counterparty risk, although it looks great for one off things or commercial stuff maybe. Now I have started using FreeCAD and got used to the workflow, it is my preferred CAD software, even if I find I can do things quicker in Fusion360. This is because I am confident FreeCAD will pretty much last forever, and on most operating systems and there is no risk of a company folding or a change in free license terms or features. Plus I am working on commercial projects sometimes, and there is a bit of a grey area with some CAD programs e.g. I pay for a commercial licence for a month and design something. Then, once the licence has expired and I modify the object a little and still export it, is it still covered by the commercial license? I think this is what the "Startup" license is for in Fusion for example, but when you are making a couple of commercial things on the side, it's still a strange grey area + the costs of the comercial license. With FreeCAD, I have completely circumnavigated all these concerns, I own what I make, and can release it for free if I wish + it works on Linux so its accessible as an open source project. The main drawback is FreeCAD is a bit clunky but being an advanced CAD user it forces more robust designs and I can deal with it. It has actually improved my CAD skills, after being spoiled by F360. It is improving all the time, so eventually it will become as easy to use as Fusion or Onshape (aside from the RealThunder branch of FreeCAD which is already improved it lots), just a matter of time.
Really well done analysis of the available options. I started on fusion 360, but got nervous when they kept locking down the features for the free version. I invested significant time learning the software only to have my plans interrupted by feature removal. I jumped to freecad and am glad I did. The learning curve was much steeper but also much more comprehensive. I’m still no pro but, have a far better understanding of parametric design and best practices workflow. OnShape sounds good but I can’t ever risk my work being held hostage in the cloud again. Hopefully that will never happen for those that decide to use it.
I like your decision process Michael. I have used Autocad in my working life, but obviously a bit expensive for a hobby. Have an old version of Rhino, which sill works, but will not output in Win 10 or 11. For the past 4 years, been using Design Spark Mechanical for all my models for 3D printing. It is free as well. Can export stl direct to Cura, or dxf if that is what you need. Will continue to follow your series and see if a change is necessary.
Thanks for mention Design Spark Mechanical,, never heard of them so i just checked them out,,,, quite impressive-. (you worked AutoCad so i knew it had to be halfway decent) Cheers
I am surprised no one has ever done a review on "Designspark Mechanical" i believe it could help others, you will understand when you start using it. love the channel ♥ ♥
after casually viewing a few of your videos, i've become actively interested in your platform and subscribed. many thanks, looking forward to what the future holds.
Michael, thanks for doing this. I'm like a lot of your viewers - a long time Tinkercad user, but am ready to move forward. Your reasoning for selecting Onshape makes sense, and will be watching your series and learning.
I have used Sketch up for several years and luckily have a 2017 version downloaded that works well for me although no longer supported. I like Tinkercad but a lot of what I now do requires more complex shapes. For some time I used freeCAD but the learning curve is steep and although I get where I want to be it can take several attempts. People shouldn't get frustrated and there are a lot of TH-cam videos available to support you. I was also a DT teacher in the UK and learned my CAD skills on AutoCAD.
I have the same issue, I've been using SketchUp since it's inception and Beta and have gotten to master it but I'm having such a difficult time with almost all of the Parametric modeling programs and I have tried all of the ones highlighted with the exception of 2 that I saw in the comments Solid edge and Design Spark Mechanical which I'll probably try when I get back to the States from vacation
Long time user of OpenSCAD. On occasion I have looked at other possibilities but I'm not really interested in heavy dependence on a mouse. Generally I figure if I have to type in dimensions I might as well just use OpenSCAD and skip steps that can easily be done in a few lines of text. And yes, I have done a significant amount of programming in the last few decades. Also, the slogan "The Programmers Solid 3D CAD Modeller" really did appeal to me when I first started looking at possible alternatives. So, it is nice to be aware of OnShape as a possibility but my first choices would be with anything free and opensource. I'm proprietary software adverse when I have a choice. I'm generally adverse to running stuff on a server when I can run it on my own computer. Longer term I'm going to be watching what is happening with Blender and FreeCAD.
@@MichaelKingsfordGray Yes, math is good stuff. I'd say that one can do a lot with openscad and basic arithmetic. Throw in some trigonometry for more completeness. One does not necessarily need university level math to use OpenSCAD. On the other hand as a language OpenSCAD is more math like than imperative computer languages are. The meaning of the egual sign in OpenSCAD is a declaration and more like the math meaning of equal than the meaning used in imperative language assignments. It quite normal in Engineering to use math to describe a virtual model of something in the real world. One also may use a hardware description language to describe/specify a digital electronic circuit. It seems perfectly natural to use a descriptive functional language like OpenSCAD to describe the geometry of an object.
@@peircedan Agreed. But I have a BSc degree in both Applied Math, and Computer Science, so am a bit biased toward OpenSCAD! It is a bit like Verilog, as you suggest: you lead the process, rather than follow & stumble with a mouse.
For creating parts to make on 3d printers, it's hard to beat MOI (Moment of Inspiration). Easy learning curve and affordable. Love it and have used it for years.
Rhino 3d is an awesome cad program. But also incredibly expensive as a hobbyists. After learning it in school I can't wrap my head around fusion.. or many other other programs
Very helpful thanks. I hadn't realised OnShape has a free version for hobbyists, so now I'm giving it a try. I have 15+ years invested in SketchUP from before my 3D printing days. I'm not excited about having to learn a new app from scratch, but I think it has to be done. A big plus for OnShape is the iPad app.
i know its probably not as robust but i got started using Shapr3D on my ipad and it made it really easy to learn the basics, especially given it benefits of being able to draw the shapes i wanted and the tutorials that teach you by building actual models of things like earbuds or a water bottle or even an engine
There is one more very advanced CAD software not mentioned, and that is TurboCAD. Yes, it comes with a steep price, but it can create models using various methods to create solids. It can import and export files into other forms to use in other programs. It also has many different converters built in and one is that models can be converted into STL's directly. It runs very closely with that of Unigraphics/NX concerning parametric models with true rendering. Have been using it for years.
Wow this is some great information. I just got a 3d printer and I have experience with solidworks, but there's no way I'm paying for something like that so I'm really glad to see a free program with little to no downsides and works almost as well as solidworks.
I am surprised you did not consider the free 3d CAD by Design Spark Mechanical. I have used it for 7 years to design 100's of fully mechanical 3d printed toys and robots. It's a really great free CAD system with lots of online tutorials.
It seems to be skipped quite often in similar videos in general. Being based on Spaceclaim it just straight up feels like (and is) a moden cad, and there's no commercial use restrictions it's strange it's so often ignored. That said it does have some annoying restrictions like adding text is a pain. Also I really don't like software with hard cloud requirements (like F360).
It's nice, but exporting data to any other format is absolute hell and worst I've ever seen. That's reason why I won't even bother to learn it more. I used it for bit and it's quite nice, but as mentioned. Definite no for me.
@@jothain You can save your files for export depending on what you have desifned as .amf , ,dxf , .glb , .obj , .vdb , .pdf , .skp , .stl , .xaml , .jpeg & .png. So not shure what your trying to do but for me STL and OBJ do all I need.
@@nimeq Yes it is true when I add text to my projects I do just open the file in 3d builder and add the text. I won't use a cloud based program, I am off line and stand alone more often than not.
It took me an age to find the software that allowed enough features to create heavily decorated objects that also have strong engineering components where it's relatively easy to create threads, for example. Although by no means free, it is relatively (and I mean relatively) inexpensive when compared to others in the field. It's Rhino. It also has the feature of quadremesh where you can import a mesh and convert it to nurbs - which is what Rhino works with - and then export the edited, finished model as a mesh of your choice. Usual caveats regarding licences on the files edited and exported holds.
I’ve used FreeCAD for a few years and I would have to agree with you there, but it has done the job for me well enough. I’ll be taking a class for SolidWorks for work soon but your reasoning behind Onshape has got me interested to dive in.
As an educator, I get Fusion 360 for free and recommended to a friend who is a hobbyist. Then they changed their terms and it became far less useful for his purposes. I love the application, but I've stopped recommending it to hobbyists.
Do you know what features in particular made it less useful for them as a hobbyist? Other than renaming it from Hobbyist to Personal, I haven't ran into any limitations in Fusion that were behind a paywall for designs related to 3d printing. Personal is still free and needs to be renewed every 3 years, but I haven't seen what would make me not recommend it.
@@MallocArray He said he couldn't "save, export, or do anything" with his edits. I tried troubleshooting on a zoom call with him, but I couldn't see how to get it to work. He ended up paying for access for month-to-month to get his files.
@@ChemicalArts That would be concerning, but hasn't been my experience, so I think there is more going on. Maybe a full version trial expired? It did take a bit of looking around to find how to switch to the Personal account, but I'm not paying anything and able to export to STL, save, use on different devices, etc. But I'm going to be following along with this video series on OnShape to see if I can get my Chromebook in the mix as well.
@@MallocArray Good to know. I don't know exactly every detail, so he may have had a trial license or something. I love the program and continue to use it.
The most powerful CAD that includes many positive and even negative shape catalogs is IronCAD. Its Triball is incredibly powerful. I've used it for 7 years. Another good MCAD program that has many cost options is Alibre.
I appreciate you doing this series. Getting into 3D CAD can be rather daunting, even for an engineer like me. (Electrical) I guess I am “old” now.. I love the fact that Onshape can run on my ipad. I am disabled and sitting at a computer for hours isn’t happening anymore but I do have a windows 10 machine, windows 7 machine, MacOS machine and my ipad and iPhone so I have most bases covered.
Have you considered DesignSpark Mechanical? I've been using it for 3 years. I love it. It's only available for PC but it runs well on a relatively low powered computer.
This was an amazing breakdown and opened my eyes to something other than fusion 360 as the most recommended option across reddit. Really keen to see future episodes, thank you for your work!
Excellent overview done with an objective comparison of products. As always, I learned new things in you video. Specifically about some of the tools I haven’t spent time using. Michael, your videos are always enjoyable as well as informative. Cheers, Courtney
I learned on Solidworks as well. I also used Onshape often from home, in Linux and on a large Android tablet. Fantastic software and easy to use. It was even able to do assemblies with angle and interface measurements. However, as someone who often needs to do CAD away from an internet connection, I am using FreeCAD. Yes, there are some frustrations but I find that I am able to overcome most problems easily and I am using it to create functional parts on a weekly basis.
I chose FreeCAD a while ago. Fusion360 got me bad vibes and since their changes on the "free forever" section I feel I did well. Also I am not limited to Windows, which I don´t use for anything. Dragging people into the F360 eco system and use their models as hostage feels wrong. In the end you need to export .stp and loose all the important information on a model. The goal is to be able to return to older models at some point and when that hits a potential paywall in the future I don´t want to invest my time there. CAD files cannot be compared with images or text files. If you swap applications you loose the work flow in your files. Always. This results in more work, because your old files exported as .stp are basically stripped down versions of your work.
@@kippie80 Well Dassault (solidworks creator) is even worse. They made Draftsight, absolutely and completely product tested it on free version. When it was complete, they made program commercial only. So I'd say they're even worse.
I'm still learning how to use it but it's basically the same story for me except maybe more extreme. I don't like the idea of any CAD program that I need an account for or any kind of online connectivity. That rules out almost all options. With FreeCAD though, all I have to do is download it and it's ready to go. OpenSCAD is another that I might get into but I had problems with it slowing to an absolute crawl.
@@harbingerofwarx995 yeah, having stuff potential taken hostile is not feasible. It is always the same. It is free until it is not or they shrink the rights to use the files you made until you give in.
I had been using fusion 360 for a couple of years and really like it but I recently had to take an engineering graphics class that uses onshape and I like a lot of things about it more, for one thing even though it's completely browser based it loads and runs smoother for me with my slow internet speeds than fusion 360 does
I use both Onshape and Fusion 360. I LOVE PARAMETRIC 3D DESIGN SOFTWARE ty so much. amazing video. I still use Tinkercad when i need to make something quick, but Fusion and Onshape are so easy. they look hard, but they are more intuitive than i could imagine
Great idea for a series Michael. I've been considering alternatives to F360 for some time (in case they remove the hobby license in the future) but without much success. Very much looking forward to getting to grips with OnShape.
Try 123D design, it's basically the prequel to Fusion 360. Works very well, and probably wouldn't be hard for you to pick up. (already knowing Fusion 360)
I love tinkercad personally. Using shapes and negetive shapes to create and cut away to eventually get to what I want can be messy but the way my brain works it makes more sense than anything else.
Honored to be listed here and excited to see the rest of the series!
Got myself an teacher account. Let's 3D print some toys for the school kids
Thanks to Michael, I think I have finally found my first CAD program. Your software looks great, and I am hoping that being completely new to CAD (and I mean NEW) won't be a roadblock. Really looking forward to this tutorial series.
Your stuff is just too pricey.
I use Onshape in my free time, and when I have to use SolidWorks at work, it feels like pulling teeth.
Our parent company does a lot of sheet metal CAD and their workflow is hopelessly intertwined with SolidWorks. So when I'm doing CAD (which is about 20% of the time with the rest in software development) I don't have a choice. Once we get this full time mechanical hire, I'm pushing for our R&D team to get an Onshape license.
If I never have to boot to windows to use SolidWorks again I'll be a very happy computer engineer. You guys are doing a GREAT job, and your software team is next level. Keep it up.
Sorry but I don't have 1500 bucks to blow on a cad
20 years of Cad experience…. DesignSpark is free, intuitive and easy to learn with no limitations to use or functions. I use it for anything geometry based.
@@arekx .... It might be. Designspark_Mech is still very usefull and deserves more attention.
I second this, DS is wonderful tool for starting out and doesn't seem to have the downsides of onshape (works locally your data is yours ect.)
as a beginner, I have no idea what to do from their website. The jargon is difficult to understand.
Yes yes desig spark is just very impressive as a free and no string attached cad software. Used many CAD , all need you to spend lots of money and upgrading. Design spark just changes. That are so easy to use and is really free. I.use it to design quite a few jigs fixtures ... And they all are easily done in design spark.
I am a fan of freeCAD. No need fot an internet connection. For me, the community is fantastic. As a hobbyist, I have not had any limitations, it just works.
I have finally broke the mental block on the workflows of FreeCAD and I design what I want now. I’m glad I stuck through and it feels like now I play in the space of professional level CAD. 🎉🎉🎉
Another caveat of Fusion360 and OnShape I didn't recall hearing in this video: if you plan on monetizing things based on your designs there are considerable limits with free accounts (assuming one plans on abiding by the license they agree to when setting up an account).
If you don't plan on making money based off your models, this is fine. If you do, you will need to ensure you understand the limits outlined in said licenses. FreeCAD does not have this caveat, of course.
Thanks for the specific detail on this fact. I have avoided all CAD programs for this very reason. Once the 'cat is out of the bag', it's off down the road and lost.
The only thing it seems you can do, is to get some large company who have similar products to your idea and have a meeting and get them to sign a legal and binding document that protects your idea. I have been to a design company with one of my idea's and just to get started was over $100,000 to set up a mold injection design for the basic component. The only real way to get my 'million dollar invention' out there, is to get a well established company to financially push it. 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration as the saying goes.
Yes, but Onshape doesn't even know my real name🤫🤭
When your a paid shill you overlook that stuff.
If you plan on making money with your parts, just buy a licence or go for a FLOSS project like freecad, you're also unlikely to be a "beginner" which is what this video is directed at (he states this in the first few minutes).
@@Leynad778 😂👍🏿
I found FreeCAD is the most flexible and economic solution to 3D design and also relatively easy to learn. The community supporting it is also great.
If you're interested more in "sculptural" 3d modeling like gaming miniatures, blender is hard, but being free and open source is hard to beat. It's also just a crazy powerful tool.
can you "slice" models made in blender? I made models back in the day and it was super simple in blender. I thought he mentioned the downside to programs like that was they arent water tight/solid?
@@channelname8623 Sure. I use Blender for simple prints. You can either export your object as OBJ, which Cura can open and slice, but I believe there's an STL exporter as well. Geometry nodes give Blender OpenScad-like procedural capabilities, but with visual scripting. And there's also the CAD Sketcher addon, which turns Blender into a parametric modeller (still needs work, but promising).
I'd suggest getting the standard suite of hard surface addons though (Meshmachine, Machin3tools, Boxcutter and Hard Ops) if you're willing to spend some money. These tools are extremely helpful for maintaining proper, manifold geometry when using lots of booleans, mirrors, bevels and chamfers, on top of all the nice workflow improvements they provide.
I’ve heard a lot about Blender. Was hoping to see it in this review
I love tinkercad. It was the very first program I could selfteach myself to use. Everything else flew above my head. I'm glad such a simple and efficient tool is free, honestly.
So simple it was used to teach 3D printing in my school
My problem with onshape is the limitation for commercial uses. You technically can't sell anything you make with onshape, finished product or the model itself. Now most of the stuff I make I will put online for others but there are definitely things that I make with the intent to possibly sell. Granted I doubt they are ever going to go after someone who is doing under 10k in sales a year as a hobby but it is a potential risk.
With the paid version you'll have private designs, team collaboration and that whole thing. Michael is only comparing the free versions, so he didn't mention this.
wow good to know, gonna choose another option
I started into cad to switch from factory work to the office, back in, well the 1st cad package was for a Commadore 64. I took serious training 25 years ago and yea you are right they will all pretty much get you there. It is all what you are using them for but just remember the road we start on doesn't always end up where we planned to go. 👍✌🥃
FreeCAD has a steep learning curve, but it is very feature complete (and there is a large community and hundreds of tutorials). I use the Python scripting option a lot to generate objects. But the main advantage is that it is open source, so never any licensing fee, never a required registration, never a diminishing of certain features etc.
May be. But I really really really really Hate the interface.. it looks like s**t and I just can't understand what anything means. So extremely badly made. I know it's free and I should't complain but why in the world don't they just copy the ideas of the already existing nicely done programs. The colors and the thickness of lines.. the god awful icons .. just nothing makes me wanna use it. I tried.. god have I tried.. but it's just so uninspiring to use something that gruesome.. like trying to build a house using a rock for a hammer.
I use freecad. For small parts, it's a great program.
It is just not.easy to get use to.... For a CAD user who uses other commercial CAD.
@@TheRealFOSFOR i have the same feelings for fusion 360 xd it looks so sweet and shiny that i just cant stand it. I think that our problem is that we allready got used to one of the programms and cba to learn the other one. I tried fusion many times but i just dont like the fact how unproductive i am there. Need to spend time to find where's the tool i need, learn how it works. In freecad i just start a project, click there do that and its done in no time. and finally the UI of fusion or onshape - just too cute. I love the minimalistic design of freecads ui, looks like made in the 90s xd. Im a retro guy after all.
FreeCAD is garbage. You can waste hours because it's parametric features don't update when you modify previous steps and it doesn't notify you, until you print and it's the old model again! Not to mention the constant bugs and memory access violations.
I might be biased, but once I got over the FreeCAD learning curve, I have found it useable enough to made decent models. And with more use, FreeCAD can get the love and care it needs to get its issues fixed.
I know it doesn't really matter that much, but the look/graphics of freecad lag so much behind other modelling software (only slightly better on the realthunder branch)
I use it though because I like having the option to do things like simulations, even though I probably never will use them.
@@joeking433 try on linux
@@joeking433 they have a version for Apple Silicon.
i love freecad just the other day I threw a sketch together and start printing
@@joeking433 throw it away and get yourself a 10 year old thinkpad with linux. problem solved, wallet leakage fixed
For whatever reason Freecad has been the 3d design application for me. I have tried Tinker Cad, Fusion, and looked at Autodesk, but financially none of those work for me. Freecad is a little buggy, but I have gotten some great results. Most of my design is based on photographic applications. Rear and replacement of broken items on cameras, 35mm to large format. I am using v0.20 now, and with all software, there is a learning curve for more advanced functionality. I am not very favorable with most cloud base applications, but I will try Onshape since you did such a good job on this video explaining your position.
FreeCAD is getting pretty good these days. Sure the UI is still very clunky, but it has improved quite a bit from was it 0.16 I first tried and to be honest stopped using it as it crashed frequently etc. But I've got into it bit since 0.18 and it's been much stable and now I actually occasionally use it. I still prefer Fusion360 and have license at work, but I'm heavily now biased to getting more into FreeCAD as it'll stay free and Fusion is absolutely harvesting features away all the time. Just yesterday I found out that I couldn't import my Fusion design to DXF format free to transfer it my preferred free CAM software. I actually had to export to .STEP which was possible, then open it in FreeCAD and once again export it there as DXF to work. I was aiming to learn CAM in Fusion and it has quite nice feature set, but for now I'm definitely going to learn more about my preferred free CAM, get adept with it and then possibly try to learn more Fusion based CAM. I'm sure as heck not going to pay 500 euros yearly for Fusion to use my puny home made CNC machine. If I'd use Fusion I'd actually have to work and get good money out to reason Fusion, but as hobbyist, just no.
As soon as they fix the fundamentally broken parts in FreeCAD and release 1.0 (ETA: reasonably soon) I'm all in on moving over from Fusion 360.
@@v4lgrind What do you mean?
@@v4lgrind the TNP is not actually difficult to work around if you understand what causes it and how to avoid causing it
@@Keechization Probably true. I watched a tutorial 2 years showing workarounds just to get a better feeling for the problem. But the existence of such tutorials and the insistence for years from developers that this problem is inherent to the problem space and will not be solved made FreeCAD completely uninteresting until they announced that the Realthunder patches would be integrated in 1.0.
"That more intuitive thing you are doing in all other CAD software is bad, and you should feel bad" isn't exactly compelling.
After 3 months of 3d printing I have tried a few Cad software program's and onshape is legit. great video and thanks for helping with real life solutions for anyone beginning into 3d printing. you're making it so easy for people to learn this hobby ! choice mate
Another option for people who already have experience using Blender is a free addon called CAD Sketcher, which brings CAD Sketching capabilities to blender. It's a new plugin that's getting frequent updates and it's still in early days, but if you already have experience with blender it's definitely worth giving a shot. I've been using it for about a month now and it's a very capable set of tools that have allowed me to make very precise complex parts to scale.
Imo it should not be seen as an alternative or replacement for a dedicated CAD application, but it may help current blender users get into the CAD space, and for smaller projects it could be more convenient than a separate application
absolutely true
was just gonna suggest this. best free cad option ive tried so far.
I tried blender and it's NOT FOR BEGINNER/HOBBYISTS ADDITIVE MANUFACTURERS (3d printers). It's for people who want to make 3d art and animation, not objects.
I tried it, and it's not worth a beginners time without advanced instructions.
@@xjonx1 Blender is for a LOT more than just 3D art. I have been using blender for a decade now and have taught many people how to use it for many many different processes, from CAD Precision modelling to Video Editing to composing Oscilloscope Music, there are so many things you can do with it, and this CAD Sketcher add-on just opens the doors to people who would like to get into the CAD space and already feel comfortable using blender at a hobbyist level. I'm not suggesting anybody learn blender for the soul purpose of CAD
@@xjonx1 Yes, I understand that - I felt the same way at the beginning. But once you get the hang of it, you love it. I can't say exactly why. I do 3D printing with it, including the CAD application, 3D animations and photorealistic images. You can do all of that together, and it's awesome. But - yes - in the beginning it is difficult to understand. The best way to start is with a TH-cam tutorial - the donut by Blender Guru. Just search YT and try it.
It took me for ever with more ages to switch from 123D to FreeCad and I love it.
FreeCAD all the way. It is great for modeling practical parts and has a CAM module integrated in similarly to Fusion. It is limited compared to subscription software, but so far I haven't found anything that I actually needed to do that I couldn't do. Also, I'm a Linux user and none of the other programs are even available for my OS, and I have a REALLY simple way of interacting with companies that don't want to support my OS - I don't. I do NOTHING that requires the cloud.
I am BUYING a copy of Lightburn for my laser engraver, BECAUSE IT'S ON LINUX. Really, it's that simple. The program doesn't have to be open source(Lightburn isn't), you just have to make it available on my platform and if I have need of it I will happily transfer money units to your company.
Autodesk shut off CAM in Fusion more than a year ago under the hobby license. Maybe the student version still has it? Not sure.
@@TheSuburban15 See, not being dependent on it, I didn't even know that. Think about the people that had small businesses up and running depending on that software that discovered that their small CNC business was kaput because they weren't making enough for a license?
OpenSCAD is available on Linux. It may not be the way you want to go but it is available. It also runs well enough on resource limited machines because it only needs to render when you tell it to.
Do you know of any good tutorials for freeCAD? I have been trying hard to make myself use more open source tools. Combine that with native apple silicon support, and freeCAD is the winner for me.
@@Queldonus lots of them th-cam.com/users/AllVisuals4Uvideos
I've used designspark for a year now and it's a great one. Free and doesn't require a powerful pc. Great for quick parts and complex parts.
I'm a 123D design user. It is very powerful for what it is, It's a stand alone program and doesn't require being online. All your files can be stored locally on your pc. He's right though, it no longer receives support or updates, which is kind of sad because it can be buggy from time to time. Not buggy enough to make me quit using it though, it's more of just minor irritations. I actually think that 123D Design does a few things faster and simpler than Fusion 360 as well. With 123D Design, the best thing you can do is save often. I have experienced a few crashes during very heavy and complicated use, but it does have an auto recovery, but always recovers a few steps back further than when it crashed, and the recovered file can not go back in history. It will start the recovered file as the beginning. So SAVE and SAVE often! It's not hard to do. But I haven't found anything that 123D design can't do with out a few work arounds and clever ideas.
i did use 123D design in the past. with good succes. is this still downloadable somewhere? as it's now puched away by Adesk fusion360 amd thinkercad. i might still have it somewhere on an old system overhere.
@@janwiersma1449
th-cam.com/video/rKIchRYcvwc/w-d-xo.html
This guy has both the 32-bit and 64-bit downloads for windows on his Google drive, linked in his description. I've downloaded from him a few times, and everything has been legit.
@@janwiersma1449
Website site called - lo4d
Has it, and many other software programs-.
As a programmer, I LOVE using OpenSCAD. I have designed a lot of useful things (just today, I designed a little piece for my dryer door's latch using TPU, as the piece mysteriously disappeared and my dryer wouldn't close anymore.) I'm not super good at math, though, so fancy stuff is much more tricky than if I learned one of the fancier point-n-click programs...
I completely agree! It feel so natural to just program your model. The only downside for me is when you want more organic shapes. Rounded edges or bevels are a lot easier to get in e.g. Fusion 360 since you can click an edge drag its roundness.
openscad is amazing for procedural modeling, and that's all about it.
I've since started trying to slowly learn FreeCAD, and I like it, too. I tend to stick to free and open source apps, being a Linux user.
I love the casual "that I've used for computational fluid dynamics". 😊. You're a smart cookie with excellent communication skills. Thankyou for your efforts, as you're helping me upskill quickly before i buy my first printer.
Many thx Michael! Coming into 3d printing recently and having tried free versions of Fusion360, Tinkercad and Freecad. Onshape combined with your older 101 tutorials really helped me understand and overcome some of the obstacles.
Thank you, the video is marvelous. I have been paying for Fusion 360 for years, and they just raised the price significantly, so I was looking for a new modeling program.
Hmmm... Seems like a real shame that Blender did not get a bigger feature. I've been teaching blender precision modeling on youtube for over 2 years for 3D printing, helping thousands of makers get started. The great plus of blender is you can learn one program to do both organic and precision modeling along with amazing renders and animation. By all means, if you are going for true hardcore engineering grade design stay with a CAD program for sure. But for your day-to-day 3D printing, functional prints and fun design ideas. Blender is brilliant. Not to mention now with CAD Sketcher (Open Source CAD like modeling addon for blender), Geometry nodes and blender modifers you can make close to fully parametric mesh models in minutes. Yes, one major drawback is bevels/chamfer but you can work around it... but in a nutshell, it's free, open source, and growing faster than almost anything in the 3D space. Anyway, that's just my two cents...
Your videos are brilliant. Got my first 3Dprinter a month ago and thanks to your blender tutorials I've designed 6-8 different products already and feeling increasingly confident.
Blender is God awful for precision CAD work considering the learning curve of it. CAD Sketcher is a promising addon but still early in it's development.
Hi, can You make a demonstration between Blender and Onshape (like a vs. between you) to show in slightly more complicated cases whether both can be worked in the same way?
For example, the need to change dimensions after modeling, version management, etc.
I tried blender. It's NOT FOR HOBBYIST 3D PRINTERS. It's for animation artists. While you might be able to make objects to print, you are not going to download blender with no experience, install and run the program then make a simple shape.
I tried and you can't without advanced instructions.
For beginner hobbyists, like myself, these programs MUST WORK OUT OF THE BOX WITHOUT INSTRUCTION or with a limited (under 3 minute or 5 step) tutorial.
We as beginners want to start building, not spend a week in classes or reading a manual.
@@xjonx1 It's true that advanced instructions are needed to utilize the many features on blender, however it's not a lengthy process. I watched between 3 and 5 of makers tales tutorials before trying out a project on my own. All together I think I spent 3-4 hours watching tutorials and 5-8 hours tinkering with the software before I felt comfortable modelling on my own. You aren't going to learn any type of advanced 3D modelling from 3 minute tutorials, that's a fact. If it took 3 minutes the maker of this video would have included a tutorial in this video instead of dedicating an entire future series to teaching 3D modelling.
As a former SW user I was impressed how easy it was to adapt to the ONshape program. Thanks for the video!
im a sw user in school but cant afford personal use of it :C
First great video. I've only recently started modeling and feel I finally can say as a design hobby I have started pushing the limits of TinkerCad (great for beginners with no formal training). Cannot wait for this series to take off. Looking forward to using FreeCad and giving it a hard push in use.
I've been using Onshape for 4 months now, and I have been very happy with the package. I could care less that all of my documents are public as I do not work on anything of a proprietary nature. It's well worth the trade off for me. As I am fairly new to the world of CAD it is endlessly helpful to find designs of a similar nature that someone else has created and be able to go through and see what process they used to achieve a result, then apply those processes to my own creations. Access to my models at any location is also a huge benefit. Great video as always!
That Onshape is looking mighty appealing. Being on Linux, I've been limited to FreeCAD so far, but the developer has made absolutely clear that it is in no way intended to replace or even mimic Fusion 360. (Instead it's apparently trying to mimic/replace some old CAD software I've never heard of, and the obtuse interface and workflow are deliberate.)
I am running F360 in a VM. I've been using it for 3 months and I really like it but the VM part is really inconvenient. They have a Mac OS version already, why such disrespect to linux users I don't know. At least if they can patch it up to run in wine that would be good enough...
@@Anonymous-qx5uk Most annoyingly, A) It sort of runs in Wine but they keep deliberately breaking that, and B) It used to have a browser version but they locked that to educators only now.
FreeCAD was trying to mimic CATIA at the beginning, but for a long time now, it was mostly moving ahead as the devs that contribute to it see fit. It's probably the reason why it's such a mess, it's a community project. I have contributed to it in a few places, mostly when i needed some functionality that wasn't there or was not flexible enough.
I use Onshape at work. I was production department super but have plenty of Maker / DIY background. The product development head and I started talking then a few months later he said "Dude, your talents are waisted on that forklift, want to transfer?" (I was pulling product for my guys on the line.) Now 85% of my work time is in CAD either designing products, concepts or working with suppliers, engineers and other design teams (all use SW18) the other 15% is helping staff education or testing products. It was easy to switch from Sketchup and Fusion360 to Onshape with the self-paced courses.
Great video, I like to use CadQuery, which is a type of CodeCAD like OpenSCAD but is a BREP modeler with a lot of crossover with commercial CAD software. Here is how easy it is to generate a filleted box: box = cq.Workplane().box(1,1,1).edges().fillet(.25) !!
I do programming as part of my job but I've never seen the value in code to CAD so maybe you can enlighten me. The issue I've seen with it is lack of readability and scalability. I've designed a 3d printed cat wheel, while I could imagine coding up the wheel easily enough, the difficulty lies with breaking it down into printable segments. Designing the interconnects to join to wheel segments and them adjusting them after finding tolerance issues. To me that seems impossible to do via CodeCad systems?
Which, as someone coming from an OpenSCAD background and wanting something better, makes next to no sense without knowledge of Python code. OpenSCAD is far too limited and single-core-intensive with no way to offload processing to a graphics card or the like, but it's at least straightforward enough to use with simple English and common commands as opposed to having to entirely learn a whole new programming language.
@@ender-gaming That cat wheel is a specific example that I am not familiar with but I will do my best to explain general concepts. Breaking down such a wheel into printable segments is totally possible with CodeCAD, I would envision creating "tools" for cutting the large wheel into individual pieces. These "tools" could be as simple as a rectangular box with a small thickness to ensure that the pieces could be assembled later. The "tool" could be based on an adjustable parameter defined in CodeCAD that would later impact the fit tolerance. Regarding readability I would say that depends on the user, if you don't put in comments in your code describing variables/functions then yes it will be obtuse and unreadable. The true value of CodeCAD is extremely robust parametric design, you can boil designs down to just a few inputs and generate all other design features based on these. That way you can design something once and then other users can adjust a few variables and VOILA they have a whole new design specific to their application. Regarding the cat wheel, if you made it in CodeCAD it would be possible to let users make a hamster wheel by adjusting some variables (and all the complex geometry would be recomputed, not just a simple rescaling of the STL).
@@claws61821 To be clear, my code above is CadQuery-specific and has little to do with python in general. CadQuery has really good documentation and examples, which are IMHO necessary for any CAD tool as they all have idiosyncrasies. I promise if you understand OpenSCAD fairly well, it would not be difficult for you to learn CadQuery. Make no mistake, OpenSCAD is its own programming language that requires time to learn and understand!
FWIW, OnShape has builtin scripting in the form of FeatureScript. It looks *INSANELY* powerful and they have made it even easier to use than OpenSCAD!
Freecad real thunders fork. I wish some of these popular channels would give his work more attention.
Design Spark Mechanical is free, often overlooked and very perfect for STL output
Yep agree totally……often overlooked……completely free and easy to learn. It’s not parametric but for most 3D printing I do works a treat!
Absolutely. One of the rising stars out there. It is 100% perfect for what I like doing in 3D printing.
Not only can Blender be used for CAD, it can run hard/soft body physics simulations of the parts you want to print, then renders the results as photo-realistic images.
Motion-capture some video in your home, composite the model into 'real space'...see how the thing looks when it hangs on the wall by hanging on the (virtual) wall!
Use the integrated video editor to layer in some sound and transition effects between scenes, throw in some title cards at the end.
Export models to STL for printing, export video for uploading.
All without having to use any other application.
Or spend a dime.
The physic simulations in blender are so different to the physic simulations you would use in a cad environment that they cannot be used for anything with regards to product testing/modeling
Found Onshape independently a week ago, created an account easily, and have started tutorials. In the past, I have never had much success with CAD. Something about where to start, establishing real dimensions, etc. Really need a framework to point me in right direction. Subscribed, of course! You do excellent videos.
I choose Solid Edge instead, it's very professional, free to use forever and the downsides are minor for me. Also bought an Alibre 3D license.
Used free cad professionally for 4 years now, the UI on it has improved drastically, theres also real thunders fork of it that is amazing to tinker with. My experience is perhaps the same as jokoengeneering on youtube, came from a pro background of solidworks and what was called proengineer, fit pretty well, just have to like to tinker.
Tinkercad is great for all ages. It looks simple on the surface but it’s really quite powerful.
To me it's just too limitant, and it's simplicity is the main limitan factor, but i agree is very powerful
I am glad I found this series. I just found your channel a week or two ago and I have already learned so much about 3D printing and what comes along with it. I enjoy your content and it is a cut above the rest. Modeling seemed far out of reach until I found this series. I am going to start my journey now and create my Onshape account today. A million thanks my friend!
Onshape is definitely my favorite (I’ve used tinkercad, fusion 360, and onshape). The UI is the best (imo), it’s easy to learn, and how you can make complex models easily is amazing. The only thing I find difficult in it is anything related to CIRCLES (or geometry that isn’t flat/straight), you definitely need to use a mesh model maker (or something like that) for anything that is supposed to look organic or otherwise contain a lot of rounded geometry. Simple cylinders are easy enough, but anything without a flat surface is next to impossible to work with (at least at my skill level, and I’ve been modeling for more than a year)
Yep. I've just started modeling with Onshape and an hour later I was stuck on my very first model which has a curved base. I did a sketch from a top view, then I finished the sketch and tried to modify it from a side view or extrude it curved somehow, but I can't find a tool for this. When I search for a solution all I find is forum posts complaining about the lack of a 3D sketcher. Next thing I'm trying right now is extruding the first sketch, then making a sketch from a side view, extruding that as well, and keeping only the overlapping parts of the two extruded bodies. But I can't select points of the first extrude when I'm in the Sketch 2 view... The UI is nice, but Onshape is not user friendly at all, that's my first impression.
I have been using tinkercad combined with Fusion 360 for a little over a year. I started with the free Fusion but soon after went for the full paid product . Fusion has a long learning curve and i didn’t want any walls between me and the potential in getting my ideas into production. In learning the system i found some easy shortcuts that have allowed my cnc plasma cutting part of my business race ahead in production, while still learning the 3d modeling for machining and 3d printing. Even with the limitations of the extended learning curve (my personal limitations) i have been able to make my current abilities profitable enough to warrant keeping Fusion 360 in its paid product, in my tool chest. Love your videos. They are helpful and inspirational even to a 70 year old maker.
Being a programmer, I was immediately attracted to OpenSCAD. I really like its approach, and find it quite intuitive.
However, because of that immediate attraction, I haven't looked elsewhere, and this video is really good in giving me an overview of the other options available, not to mention that I wasn't even aware of the distinction between parametric solid modeling versus "mesh style" modeling.
FWIW, OnShape has builtin scripting in the form of FeatureScript. It looks *INSANELY* powerful and they have made it even easier to use than OpenSCAD!
@@KeithOlson Ah, interesting! Thanks for the tip :)
Bloody legend Michael, Ive been using sketch up for about 11 years and am deeply frustrated with the time consumed modeling solids. It actually reduce the amount I use my 3d printers as I simply don't have the time spent cleaning surfaces to make solids.
Your advice is priceless and I look forward to trying and hopefully mastering onshape
SketchUp is mainly for architecture.
Another option to help managing your projects in Fusion 360 is to see each project as group of various projects instead of a single project in itself. You can easily create multiple "projects" within a single one by creating them as separate components (nested if necessary) and just switching on the components(s) you want. As you export to STL from components not the project as a whole it works fine in that respect too.
You mean instead of toggling 'editable' all the time?
This would work ok, but I parameter-ise a lot of my stuff, so it might get a bit unwieldy. Definitely worth thinking about though as I often save iterations out separately then have to toggle.
@@thingswelike yep. Given hiding a component hides all the components, bodies and sketches nested inside it, I would have thought it'd make little difference whether they were highly parametric or not, as any dimensions, constraints, origins, etc would all get hidden along with it. And as each component has it's own design history (shown when made the active component), you should also be able to go back and make changes to parameters found there too, on a per component "project" basis.
Projects frequently have multiple separate parts that get exported for printing separately, it's pretty much the same principle, just that they are actually more "separate" than usual.
In your iteration case, you can just nest everything in a new component directly under the main project component, then duplicate this (or later copies) each time you want a new iteration (apologies if this is obvious to you).
The only issue I see is in performance if you add too many, and this is something I can't really comment on so far.
Love Onshape been using for years now because of your videos and have made many models for my self and I can use it at home and at work when I have time due to the online side of the program.
Looking forward to this series. I learned Fusion 360 in the last 6 months and feel like I have a solid base knowledge, but being able to use a Chromebook or iPad would be a benefit, so I'll be following the video series for sure!
Why would you want to use an iPad?
@@alejandroperez5368 I do because I am disabled and can’t sit for long periods. Might want to think a little more outside the box..
Fusion 360 is attractive but having tried the free solutions AND NONE OF THEM BEING FOR BEGINNERS(except for tinker cad) I'm VERY hesitant to spend what,$150, on a program that might be just as bad and hard to pick up and start using as the others.
@@prongATO Huh? How is a laptop any different than the iPad or a Chromebook??? There are laptops that you can convert into a touchscreen device like an iPad and the only difference between a laptop and a Chromebook is that you can use installed programs. If you can't sit for long periods what do you do, run around? Lay down? Stand up? I just don't see where you could use an iPad that you couldn't use a laptop. And DON'T accuse me of not thinking outside the box! Smh.
I am a beginner printer and this has been the most informative channel thus far. Thanks so much TT. 🙏
I had 2 decades of experience with Autocad for 2D before I started 3d printing. You would think I would go with Fusion360 but in reality Autodesk hates it's users so I chose FreeCad. I've been using FreeCad since 0.16 for both 3D printing and CNC and am reasonably happy with it.
I've nearly 350 self designed models using it.
FreeCad does have some quirks but it's been getting better. The tutorials will get you started but they way they tell you to do it isn't necessarily the most stable way. For people new to cad I would agree that it's potentially tricky to self learn. But if you can learn "what not to do" then you can create some extremely complex models using it.
If I was to advise people on a couple of things it's to avoid using chamfers and fillets until the very last steps because they're the one thing that doesn't recalculate well. I also don't reference sketches off other faces. If I need to do it then I will do it and then clone it to a stand alone sketch.
By sticking to those rules I have almost no problems.
(Edit): And I will never ever use cloud software.
what do you mean with "autodesk hates its users" ?
Applause is most definitely appropriate. Although I'm just a single individual and not a CAD Software company I can attest to the fact that you included quite a number of my suggestions in the run-up to your choice of 3D modeling software. Thus I sincerely hope that your positive attitude,knowledge and experience will help me master Onshape.
Freecad seemed to come quite a long way when the released 0.20, but it still suffers from the TPN or topological naming problem, where when you make a change mid way through it can lose track of which face the sketch was attached to. Although they're aiming to have this fixed in the next version.
Another option is cadquery which is similar to openscad but is python based. It uses the same cad kernel as freecad.
TPN is matter of using incorrect workflow. Is it an extra step that some other programs have to deal with less, yes
Holy dogs! Just created an Onshape account and woof! The public files are a freaking-mazing! It really beats trying to find an already created STL file that fits exactly what you need. Being able to search then adjust to your need is absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for bringing this up because it is a game changer for me
Using mostly Fusion360 and it gets the job done for me. From sheet metal, to free-form modeling and so on its an pretty impressive package with a great GUI. I am happy to look into other programs too... Great to see that you cover a few here
I've used Designspark Mechanical for the less ambitious type things I make. Nothing super complex, just simple little gadgets like a bracket for mounting some LEDs, lens cap for a telescope eyepiece (after losing the original) etc etc. Larger precision projects like gearboxes etc would need something more capable.
Thanks for this tutorial series. It is just what I need to get moving forward with 3D printing! And you always give us details and this is no exception; if you had simply stated 'we're using onshape' I would have felt that you didn't necessarily look at the others. But of course you did and that makes it easy for me to see why you made that choice. Also thanks for making and editing these videos, and putting them online for us to view. I know it is a lot of work and I really appreciate it!
After learning Inventor I bought one similar called Alibre Design. I have been using it for over 10 years with no problems.
I have designed parts to be printed on it and I also use it to design woodworking projects. Kitchens, furniture etc.
I mostly love working with OnShape and wish it had a hobbyist pricing model since I feel like they could at any time pull the plug on the free level and then my designs would be locked into a pricing model I can't afford.
That said, the absolute biggest limitation with OnShape in my mind is free-form and organic designs. Trying to even do the most basic things like creating an interesting shape that isn't defined by math alone, like mesh modelling, drives me crazy and is the only time I have fallen back on Fusion 360. OnShape is simply happiest when everything is constrained and well-defined mathematically.
Or perhaps I am missing something?
I have used Tinkercad almost exclusively and still do for basic shapes and ideas. Meshmixer for fixing or adjusting organic models
I exclusively use CATIA V5, which is probably akin to installing a screw with a sledgehammer. But it's the CAD software we were taught in my first year of university, and thus what I have the most experience with. Very powerful but not quite that user friendly. Buy hey, it works!
Ive spent years supporting CATIA V4 and V5 in the aerospace industry. Gave you a thumbs up just for mentioning it. lol
@@GrandpasPlace Cool! And yeah, I'm an Aerospace Engineering student so that makes sense.
Tinkercad for nearly a decade now. It works for me and I am wicked fast with it.
I look forward to learning a good alternative.
Excellent video. I tried Onshape a few years ago. It looked very good but I've been burned enough times over the years with commercial software (going back to ancient Autocad) that pulled the rug out from under me or squeezed too hard. So nowadays I use Freecad , OpenScad, and Blender for quick concept renderings. Onshape probably is easier to learn than Freecad (all those workbenches)! but it's a tradeoff I am ok with. I've lately taught children Tinkercad and a version of Openscad called Blockscad.
I have been a Fusion 360 user for a few years and even completed paid courses/training to learn it but never got fully comfortable using it. OnShape looks like a good alternative that I am keen to learn through this series. Many thanks for putting together such helpful and well presented content. Cheers 👍😎🇦🇺
One very big problem, all files made in it are publicly accessible unless you pay for the pro version. The trial is hilariously short at 14 days. (Not enough time to do more than glance at it.)
So, this means that if anyone wants to use onshape's hobbyist version to develop a product, they are releasing the files publicly. So onshape is a hard no for anyone who wants to do a startup at some point in the future.
That doesn't even get into how this *probably* means that there are large swathes of things that outright *can't* be developed on it due to legal issues. For example, if you were to make a NERF blaster, I wouldn't be surprised if you personally could get sued even if you were making it just for yourself. Any characters you make would probably be a no-go. And that is just business related issues, there are others that could likely get you in trouble but this comment would get shadowbanned if I mentioned them. Just look at some stuff that happened in NYC recently to see how tame things can result in massive legal trouble.
If you're creating a _product_ then you're using OnShape commercially, and you...should probably just pay for CAD software if that's the goal. You're 3D printing today because of the fine people who created the RepRap project. The goal of that project was free, open source, shared information and experimentation so that everyone had access to this wonderful technology. Why not continue that tradition by working out in the open and helping others progress in their own journeys? In fact, you're watching this series -- which is made specifically to pass along openly available knowledge, which wouldn't have been available if other people hadn't shared. So SHARE! Stop with this mindset of everything needing to be secret and proprietary.
This. This is why Onshape is off the table for many, including me. Price is just stupid for hobbyists, and without paying you can't keep anything you design private. Useless.
@@ThantiK My main concern with Onshape is no local files or software. If Onshape closed at some point the projects will need to exported in some other format, perhaps losing the parametric design tree. If say the Open RC project was made in Onshape, the original CAD files could be lost with Onshape. Having it bound to the cloud is not very open source to me and adds counterparty risk, although it looks great for one off things or commercial stuff maybe.
Now I have started using FreeCAD and got used to the workflow, it is my preferred CAD software, even if I find I can do things quicker in Fusion360. This is because I am confident FreeCAD will pretty much last forever, and on most operating systems and there is no risk of a company folding or a change in free license terms or features.
Plus I am working on commercial projects sometimes, and there is a bit of a grey area with some CAD programs e.g. I pay for a commercial licence for a month and design something. Then, once the licence has expired and I modify the object a little and still export it, is it still covered by the commercial license? I think this is what the "Startup" license is for in Fusion for example, but when you are making a couple of commercial things on the side, it's still a strange grey area + the costs of the comercial license.
With FreeCAD, I have completely circumnavigated all these concerns, I own what I make, and can release it for free if I wish + it works on Linux so its accessible as an open source project. The main drawback is FreeCAD is a bit clunky but being an advanced CAD user it forces more robust designs and I can deal with it. It has actually improved my CAD skills, after being spoiled by F360. It is improving all the time, so eventually it will become as easy to use as Fusion or Onshape (aside from the RealThunder branch of FreeCAD which is already improved it lots), just a matter of time.
@@ThantiK Uhhuh. Why don't you reread what I wrote and come back with something that is relevant next time?
This video is the right way to go. We all have already a 3D-printer and our interest in alternatives is therefore limited. The next thing is CAD.
Really well done analysis of the available options. I started on fusion 360, but got nervous when they kept locking down the features for the free version. I invested significant time learning the software only to have my plans interrupted by feature removal. I jumped to freecad and am glad I did. The learning curve was much steeper but also much more comprehensive. I’m still no pro but, have a far better understanding of parametric design and best practices workflow. OnShape sounds good but I can’t ever risk my work being held hostage in the cloud again. Hopefully that will never happen for those that decide to use it.
Tinkercad is what I've used! Mostly to make small edits to existing STLs. Quick and easy to do.
I like your decision process Michael. I have used Autocad in my working life, but obviously a bit expensive for a hobby. Have an old version of Rhino, which sill works, but will not output in Win 10 or 11. For the past 4 years, been using Design Spark Mechanical for all my models for 3D printing. It is free as well. Can export stl direct to Cura, or dxf if that is what you need. Will continue to follow your series and see if a change is necessary.
go blender, learn the quirks. hyperspeed. godspeed...
Thanks for mention Design Spark Mechanical,, never heard of them so i just checked them out,,,, quite impressive-.
(you worked AutoCad so i knew it had to be halfway decent)
Cheers
I am surprised no one has ever done a review on "Designspark Mechanical" i believe it could help others, you will understand when you start using it. love the channel ♥ ♥
hearing your explanation and view would be very gratifying to me and possibly others. ☺ ☺
after casually viewing a few of your videos, i've become actively interested in your platform and subscribed. many thanks, looking forward to what the future holds.
Michael, thanks for doing this. I'm like a lot of your viewers - a long time Tinkercad user, but am ready to move forward. Your reasoning for selecting Onshape makes sense, and will be watching your series and learning.
I have used Sketch up for several years and luckily have a 2017 version downloaded that works well for me although no longer supported.
I like Tinkercad but a lot of what I now do requires more complex shapes. For some time I used freeCAD but the learning curve is steep and although I get where I want to be it can take several attempts. People shouldn't get frustrated and there are a lot of TH-cam videos available to support you.
I was also a DT teacher in the UK and learned my CAD skills on AutoCAD.
I have the same issue, I've been using SketchUp since it's inception and Beta and have gotten to master it but I'm having such a difficult time with almost all of the Parametric modeling programs and I have tried all of the ones highlighted with the exception of 2 that I saw in the comments Solid edge and Design Spark Mechanical which I'll probably try when I get back to the States from vacation
Long time user of OpenSCAD. On occasion I have looked at other possibilities but I'm not really interested in heavy dependence on a mouse. Generally I figure if I have to type in dimensions I might as well just use OpenSCAD and skip steps that can easily be done in a few lines of text. And yes, I have done a significant amount of programming in the last few decades. Also, the slogan "The Programmers Solid 3D CAD Modeller" really did appeal to me when I first started looking at possible alternatives.
So, it is nice to be aware of OnShape as a possibility but my first choices would be with anything free and opensource. I'm proprietary software adverse when I have a choice. I'm generally adverse to running stuff on a server when I can run it on my own computer.
Longer term I'm going to be watching what is happening with Blender and FreeCAD.
OpanSCAD is perfect for the mathematically literate, I agree.
(I have a Math Degree.)
For us non programmers it's absolute hell to use 😂
@@jothain But you cannot even recall your own name!
@@MichaelKingsfordGray Yes, math is good stuff. I'd say that one can do a lot with openscad and basic arithmetic. Throw in some trigonometry for more completeness. One does not necessarily need university level math to use OpenSCAD. On the other hand as a language OpenSCAD is more math like than imperative computer languages are. The meaning of the egual sign in OpenSCAD is a declaration and more like the math meaning of equal than the meaning used in imperative language assignments. It quite normal in Engineering to use math to describe a virtual model of something in the real world. One also may use a hardware description language to describe/specify a digital electronic circuit. It seems perfectly natural to use a descriptive functional language like OpenSCAD to describe the geometry of an object.
@@peircedan Agreed.
But I have a BSc degree in both Applied Math, and Computer Science, so am a bit biased toward OpenSCAD!
It is a bit like Verilog, as you suggest: you lead the process, rather than follow & stumble with a mouse.
For creating parts to make on 3d printers, it's hard to beat MOI (Moment of Inspiration). Easy learning curve and affordable. Love it and have used it for years.
For me: Blender + CADSketcher-Plugin and 3D-Print-Plugin works nice.
I am so happy you are taking another pass at Onshape tutorials. Thank you!
Rhino 3d is an awesome cad program. But also incredibly expensive as a hobbyists. After learning it in school I can't wrap my head around fusion.. or many other other programs
FINALLY…Someone to explain without making me feel completely stupid!🤦♂️🤷🏻♂️👍🏻
Very helpful thanks. I hadn't realised OnShape has a free version for hobbyists, so now I'm giving it a try. I have 15+ years invested in SketchUP from before my 3D printing days. I'm not excited about having to learn a new app from scratch, but I think it has to be done. A big plus for OnShape is the iPad app.
Calling a cloud service the winning application while not even mentioning Solid Edge doesn't look like a comprehensive comparison to me.
i know its probably not as robust but i got started using Shapr3D on my ipad and it made it really easy to learn the basics, especially given it benefits of being able to draw the shapes i wanted and the tutorials that teach you by building actual models of things like earbuds or a water bottle or even an engine
There is one more very advanced CAD software not mentioned, and that is TurboCAD. Yes, it comes with a steep price, but it can create models using various methods to create solids. It can import and export files into other forms to use in other programs. It also has many different converters built in and one is that models can be converted into STL's directly. It runs very closely with that of Unigraphics/NX concerning parametric models with true rendering. Have been using it for years.
The industry standard generic file formats (IGES, STEP and SAT) can only be "imported".
Chapeau young man. You will be a kickstarter for many people
Solid Edge Community Edition is my favorite
Wow this is some great information. I just got a 3d printer and I have experience with solidworks, but there's no way I'm paying for something like that so I'm really glad to see a free program with little to no downsides and works almost as well as solidworks.
I am surprised you did not consider the free 3d CAD by Design Spark Mechanical. I have used it for 7 years to design 100's of fully mechanical 3d printed toys and robots. It's a really great free CAD system with lots of online tutorials.
It seems to be skipped quite often in similar videos in general. Being based on Spaceclaim it just straight up feels like (and is) a moden cad, and there's no commercial use restrictions it's strange it's so often ignored. That said it does have some annoying restrictions like adding text is a pain. Also I really don't like software with hard cloud requirements (like F360).
Yes its great using it my self and shapr3d
It's nice, but exporting data to any other format is absolute hell and worst I've ever seen. That's reason why I won't even bother to learn it more. I used it for bit and it's quite nice, but as mentioned. Definite no for me.
@@jothain You can save your files for export depending on what you have desifned as
.amf , ,dxf , .glb , .obj , .vdb , .pdf , .skp , .stl , .xaml , .jpeg & .png. So not shure what your trying to do but for me STL and OBJ do all I need.
@@nimeq Yes it is true when I add text to my projects I do just open the file in 3d builder and add the text.
I won't use a cloud based program, I am off line and stand alone more often than not.
It took me an age to find the software that allowed enough features to create heavily decorated objects that also have strong engineering components where it's relatively easy to create threads, for example. Although by no means free, it is relatively (and I mean relatively) inexpensive when compared to others in the field. It's Rhino. It also has the feature of quadremesh where you can import a mesh and convert it to nurbs - which is what Rhino works with - and then export the edited, finished model as a mesh of your choice. Usual caveats regarding licences on the files edited and exported holds.
What an amazing series! This will be such an incredible resource for new makers! Once again being an absolute treasure to the community!
I’ve used FreeCAD for a few years and I would have to agree with you there, but it has done the job for me well enough. I’ll be taking a class for SolidWorks for work soon but your reasoning behind Onshape has got me interested to dive in.
As an educator, I get Fusion 360 for free and recommended to a friend who is a hobbyist. Then they changed their terms and it became far less useful for his purposes. I love the application, but I've stopped recommending it to hobbyists.
Do you know what features in particular made it less useful for them as a hobbyist? Other than renaming it from Hobbyist to Personal, I haven't ran into any limitations in Fusion that were behind a paywall for designs related to 3d printing. Personal is still free and needs to be renewed every 3 years, but I haven't seen what would make me not recommend it.
@@MallocArray He said he couldn't "save, export, or do anything" with his edits. I tried troubleshooting on a zoom call with him, but I couldn't see how to get it to work. He ended up paying for access for month-to-month to get his files.
@@ChemicalArts That would be concerning, but hasn't been my experience, so I think there is more going on. Maybe a full version trial expired? It did take a bit of looking around to find how to switch to the Personal account, but I'm not paying anything and able to export to STL, save, use on different devices, etc.
But I'm going to be following along with this video series on OnShape to see if I can get my Chromebook in the mix as well.
@@MallocArray Good to know. I don't know exactly every detail, so he may have had a trial license or something. I love the program and continue to use it.
I switched to FreeCAD after the limitations came. Nowadays I'm happy with my choice and can do even commercial stuff with it if I want 💪
The most powerful CAD that includes many positive and even negative shape catalogs is IronCAD. Its Triball is incredibly powerful. I've used it for 7 years. Another good MCAD program that has many cost options is Alibre.
I appreciate you doing this series. Getting into 3D CAD can be rather daunting, even for an engineer like me. (Electrical) I guess I am “old” now.. I love the fact that Onshape can run on my ipad. I am disabled and sitting at a computer for hours isn’t happening anymore but I do have a windows 10 machine, windows 7 machine, MacOS machine and my ipad and iPhone so I have most bases covered.
Literally started looking into doing that today and then this comes out. Good timing.
Have you considered DesignSpark Mechanical? I've been using it for 3 years. I love it. It's only available for PC but it runs well on a relatively low powered computer.
This was an amazing breakdown and opened my eyes to something other than fusion 360 as the most recommended option across reddit.
Really keen to see future episodes, thank you for your work!
Excellent overview done with an objective comparison of products. As always, I learned new things in you video. Specifically about some of the tools I haven’t spent time using. Michael, your videos are always enjoyable as well as informative. Cheers, Courtney
I learned on Solidworks as well. I also used Onshape often from home, in Linux and on a large Android tablet. Fantastic software and easy to use. It was even able to do assemblies with angle and interface measurements. However, as someone who often needs to do CAD away from an internet connection, I am using FreeCAD. Yes, there are some frustrations but I find that I am able to overcome most problems easily and I am using it to create functional parts on a weekly basis.
I chose FreeCAD a while ago. Fusion360 got me bad vibes and since their changes on the "free forever" section I feel I did well. Also I am not limited to Windows, which I don´t use for anything. Dragging people into the F360 eco system and use their models as hostage feels wrong. In the end you need to export .stp and loose all the important information on a model. The goal is to be able to return to older models at some point and when that hits a potential paywall in the future I don´t want to invest my time there.
CAD files cannot be compared with images or text files. If you swap applications you loose the work flow in your files. Always. This results in more work, because your old files exported as .stp are basically stripped down versions of your work.
Out of principal I refuse to use anything from AutoDesk. A bad culture company that peddled garbage for years.
@@kippie80 Well Dassault (solidworks creator) is even worse. They made Draftsight, absolutely and completely product tested it on free version. When it was complete, they made program commercial only. So I'd say they're even worse.
I'm still learning how to use it but it's basically the same story for me except maybe more extreme. I don't like the idea of any CAD program that I need an account for or any kind of online connectivity. That rules out almost all options. With FreeCAD though, all I have to do is download it and it's ready to go. OpenSCAD is another that I might get into but I had problems with it slowing to an absolute crawl.
@@harbingerofwarx995 yeah, having stuff potential taken hostile is not feasible. It is always the same. It is free until it is not or they shrink the rights to use the files you made until you give in.
"Or something Imperial" is probably the best thing I've ever heard you say
I had been using fusion 360 for a couple of years and really like it but I recently had to take an engineering graphics class that uses onshape and I like a lot of things about it more, for one thing even though it's completely browser based it loads and runs smoother for me with my slow internet speeds than fusion 360 does
I use both Onshape and Fusion 360. I LOVE PARAMETRIC 3D DESIGN SOFTWARE ty so much. amazing video. I still use Tinkercad when i need to make something quick, but Fusion and Onshape are so easy. they look hard, but they are more intuitive than i could imagine
Great idea for a series Michael. I've been considering alternatives to F360 for some time (in case they remove the hobby license in the future) but without much success. Very much looking forward to getting to grips with OnShape.
Try 123D design, it's basically the prequel to Fusion 360. Works very well, and probably wouldn't be hard for you to pick up. (already knowing Fusion 360)
ALTAIR INSPIRE STUDIO + render.
@@grantdeisig1360 I used to use it when I first got started, but quickly moved up to F360. Appreciate the advice though 👍
@@joseguevara184 Not heard of that before, will give it a look. Thanks 👍
same crap, vendor lock-in and unaffordable prices for hobbyists
I love tinkercad personally. Using shapes and negetive shapes to create and cut away to eventually get to what I want can be messy but the way my brain works it makes more sense than anything else.