FreeCAD

[adrian]

My itch has been scratched - and I'll scuttle back to other softwares now. I haven't used SolidEdge before either, but that may well be the best free and competent CAD package. I avoid AutoDesk products because of past shenanigans where company profits, tax avoidance and executive payouts were more important than, and impacted customers.

Thanks very much for that - I will watch the video and have a session with curves.

I've not tried SolidEdge for CAD mainly because I don't have a Windows computer. For me QCAD is the best free cross platform, Apple OSX and Linux, 2D CAD. The free version locks the new layer generation after 15 minutes or so so all you do is plan in advance the layers you'll use and create them at the start or restart the application when a new layer is required. I was that happy with it's capabilities and updates that it's one of the very few applications where I have actually upgraded to the paid version.

 

[John_B]

As Mr Hymel explained in his video, some of the tools described are a bit erratic as to whether they will work or not. FreeCAD, has certainly advanced, but I wouldn't recommend its use for organic shapes.

I think I'm on my third attempt to learn FreeCAD, and this time it's finally working, but I haven't got to this level yet! I wish there were model railway specific videos about doing stuff like this!

It's a shame that he used v1.0 RC1, and also mentioned 0.22 at one point, when v1.0 had been out for some time when the video was uploaded a month ago. When he mentions bugs and workarounds that leaves uncertainty about whether they've been fixed in the latest release. It's hard enough getting my head round this, without that extra complication!