Re: gEDA-user: Open Source mechanical CAD on the horizon

[Kai-Martin Knaak <kmk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:09:30 -0800, Girvin R. Herr wrote:

> Have you, or anyone in the group, used FreeCAD for any useful work?

Like I said before, at this point in time it is still lacking important 
features. E.g. there is no support for drilling holes. New primitives are 
inserted with some fixed size. There is no GUI way to choose from the 
various modes of movement that are essential for building 3D models. 
There is no library of standard parts like screws and nuts and no way to 
do your own library, either. 
Bottom line: If you want to use freecad for productive work, you'd be a 
very early adopter. That's why I put "on the horizon" in the subject 
line. 

That said, it seems like the infrastructure is set up and ready for more. 
About two years ago, when I searched for open source mechanical CAD 
suites, freecad was mentioned nowhere. So the project has evolved pretty 
fast. (I restrain myself to compare to the progress in geda and 
friends ;-) If the developers can keep up the pace, the issues mentioned 
above will be resolved in a matter of months. Since it fills a major gap 
in the open source universe, I expect freecad to quickly gather an active 
community of users/codevelopers. 

If pcb is to export, or import 3D data, I suggest to choose freecad 
format. This is fully documented XML with no NDA restrictions or dubious 
backengineering. In addition, freecad will be able to export to a number 
of standard 3D formats. 


> however, before I install and/or update a lot of Linux
> system support libraries for FreeCAD,

That's the joy of Debian: The hard work was already done by the 
maintainer. :^) 

---<(kaimartin)>---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
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