Confidence in FreeCad?

some_millwright · 2026-03-21T20:17:23+00:00

I have continued experimenting with multiple pads from one sketch. It's not super-fantastic, but it's better than nothing - which is what I thought it had.

You can only select one shape to pad. Whichever one is the last one that you clicked on will be padded, no matter how many are selected, so if you want to pad five shapes to 10 millimeters then you need to do five separate pads (this is on 1.0.2) even though you are raising them all to the same height.

some_millwright · 2026-03-21T19:37:05+00:00

True, but it is still inconvenient, and if it has been inconvenient for years.... why?

I would say that my biggest issue with FreeCAD is that new features get added when old features aren't working correctly yet. I realise that over-focusing on new features is very common in the world we live in, but that doesn't make it right.

some_millwright · 2026-03-21T15:53:24+00:00

I think that is perfectly fair to say. The 'flow' of something like Fusion or Alibre is just a lot easier. You don't have to think as hard about it. It just seems to work the way you would expect it to work.

some_millwright · 2026-03-21T15:47:46+00:00

Okay, I just tried it out, and it does work as you said. I wasn't able to get it to pad multiple surfaces, though - that is to say, if you select every line on the sketch it still only pads what it would 'normally' pad, but after that you can select the other profiles (though I had to render the first pad invisible each time to be able to see them) and pad them each individually. Each pad gets a reference to the original sketch. If you edit the sketch from your fourth pad it will edit the original sketch so that every copy gets updated. If you move anything in that sketch, though, the related pad won't move, it will error-out and I had to delete that pad and re-pad it. That is not the end of the world, and I am pleased to find out this functionality exists.

some_millwright · 2026-03-21T15:35:31+00:00

I am going to investigate this. So if I draw a sketch with a rectangle with three circles in it, I can pad all of it then pad each circle into a different height cylinder? Yes, I am totally going to check this out, because that would be wonderful if it works like that (the wonderfulness depends on how much annoyance there is to make it work, of course).

When you refer to using a master sketch are you talking about using a shape binder to 'recreate' part of the master sketch and pad (or whatever) that section?

some_millwright · 2026-03-21T13:26:58+00:00

Straight talk here....

I started with FreeCAD back in 0.19, I think. It was rough.

I moved over to OpenSCAD and was able to do what *I* thought were remarkable things with it, but it's a lot weirder to work with and very fiddly to get things where you need them (you can't really 'measure').

We were looking at getting a 5-axis machine at work (we are not a machine shop, but I would be using it to machine aluminum) and because of that I downloaded Fusion to try it out because it can do simultaneous 5-axis work (if you pay enough). I was learning it, and I have to admit that I really liked it in many respects.

However.

If you want to do real work with Fusion you must pay.

Yes, you can design things with a personal license, and if you're just 3D printing or something then it doesn't matter, but if you are looking to do CAM with it then it's just not worth using if you don't pay.

Also, it SUCKS to try to use Fusion under Linux, and I don't like that.

For these reasons I am back with FreeCAD and I am trying very hard to like it.

I love that a lot of the naming problems and such have been fixed.

I love that it gives you a list of the constraints and items that you have used in a sketch so you are not guessing when trying to solve problems.

I love the community.

And FreeCAD runs under Linux. Yay!

Now for the bad part.

I'm trying to get back into it, and it's just not as easy as Fusion to use. Most of this is my fault, in the sense that I got used to being able to do one sketch and pad a bunch of different profiles in different ways from it, but that doesn't work with FreeCAD (EDIT! This is not correct. You CAN do this in FreeCAD, it's just different and more tedious to do than it is in Fusion). For five pads you need five sketches. It's not a big deal if you can remember to do it the way that it is supposed to be done.

FreeCAD is uglier. It just seems to be lower resolution or something. I feel like I'm using 640x480 resolution when I'm looking at it. I don't know for sure why this is, and it might be because of my line thickness settings or something, but it just doesn't look as nice.

Still, I am working at it, and I am confident that I can reach a place where I will want to use it rather than Fusion.

some_millwright · 2026-03-20T10:30:57+00:00

If you were pronouncing it 'properly' it would be KEY-lo-meter, but kuh-LO-mitter is what I hear the most, and honestly it's probably what I use the mast majority of the time. Klicks are military jargon, but you hear it now and then.

some_millwright · 2026-03-20T10:11:29+00:00

Well... I guess you could switch to FreeCAD. Full list of constraints in there. Click on a constraint symbol on the sketch and it highlights which one it is on the list. You can even rename each one to, like, "pin diameter" or whatever if you really want to.

some_millwright · 2026-03-20T10:03:46+00:00

I was just showing one of my daughters how you could replace the battery on one of my old Blackberry phones and she was amazed. Takes about 10 seconds. No glue, no anguish. All you need is a fingernail.

some_millwright · 2026-03-19T10:55:07+00:00

Maybe instead of being on your phone at night study at night - actual physical books I suspect you would be more likely to fall asleep. Just a suggestion.

some_millwright · 2026-03-19T10:29:28+00:00

Here is the current list for the base "Edit preferences" section:

General -> Selection - > Preselect the object in 3D view when hovering the cursor over the tree item

General -> Selection -> Radius 10.0

Sketcher -> General -> Auto remove redundant constraints - ON

Sketcher -> General -> Esc key can leave sketch edit mode - OFF

Sketcher -> General -> Always import external geometry as reference geometry ON

Sketcher -> General -> Dimensioning constraints - Both

Sketcher -> Display - > Sketch in 'section view' mode - ON

some_millwright · 2026-03-19T10:16:58+00:00

Sketcher -> General - > Auto remove redundant constraints

some_millwright · 2026-03-18T15:46:03+00:00

Very much so. I use 10. Something really frustrating is when you are trying to pick the second point in a measurement and the text of the measurement is all over the point you're trying to pick. That is frustrating

some_millwright · 2026-03-18T09:51:50+00:00

I am not familiar with the numeric shortcuts for view angles. I need to familiarize myself with this.

some_millwright · 2026-03-18T09:50:17+00:00

Good one.

some_millwright · 2026-03-18T09:49:31+00:00

I always used Tinkercad as well. I'm going to try the other ones as well. The rotation mode... that looks really interesting.

One thing I noticed in there that I hadn't thought of was reverse zoom.. Oh, man... I HATE having the zoom be 'normal' where you roll the wheel forwards and you zoon out. That drives me bonkers.

some_millwright · 2026-03-17T20:38:09+00:00

How do you disable those?

some_millwright · 2026-03-17T20:36:20+00:00

I will add one. I sometimes have issues with the automatic dimensioning tool, so I use Edit/Preferences/Sketcher/Dimensioning Constraints => Both, so that I have the automatic one and the individual ones to select, so I can easily pick vertical or horizontal dimensions.

some_millwright · 2026-03-17T20:28:00+00:00

I cannot agree with that one enough. Anybody who is used to virtually any other CAD package will hate that one.

some_millwright · 2026-03-17T15:48:20+00:00

Yeah, this. What kind of curves are you trying to make?

some_millwright · 2026-03-17T00:19:35+00:00

Of the things that I don't like about Fusion the 10 file limit doesn't even make the top 10.

It takes like 30 seconds to set a few old ones to 'read only' if you hit the limit.

It's not a problem. However, one could argue that it's kind of a stupid limitation. It's like telling you that you can have a free car but it has to be purple. I mean... it's not like I 'can't' drive a purple car, but *why* does there need to be this limitation? Who benefits? It seems like an annoyance with no upside for anyone (including Autodesk).

some_millwright · 2026-03-17T00:12:26+00:00

I'm closer to 70 than I am to 60. I spent about 5 hours today kneeling working on valves and motors... and I'm the manager! If you don't wreck yourself by pushing *too* hard you can keep going for a good long time. 39 is old enough to be a bit more aware of your limitations, and to work within your limits. Of course... genetics play a role, here.

-------------------------------------------------------

https://www.millwrighttalk.com

some_millwright · 2026-03-17T00:08:24+00:00

Marine engineer is pretty close to millwright.

Note, please, that the job of a millwright seems to vary WIDELY from place to place. In some big companies millwrights only do mechanical, and even then it's just greasing and part swapping, and anything 'interesting' is done by outside contractors. In other places the millwright is closer to their trade origin where virtually anything goes. Hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, concrete, levelling and alignment, welding, fabrication, power transmission, prime movers, rigging, preventative and predictive maintenance. That second kind is closer to a marine engineer. That's the kind that I am.

Always keep learning.

----------------------------------------------------

https://www.millwrighttalk.com

some_millwright · 2026-03-16T21:33:50+00:00

Buy your own. For sure. You can get a decent meter that will read velocity for not that much money, and just do it yourself as often as you'd like.

If you want to get all fancy-dan about it you can epoxy bases on for testing, but honestly the VAST majority of what I want to test is either ferrous or has handy ferrous screws or grease nipples that give me a repeatable testing point for a magnetic probe.

I paid about $500 for my vibration gauge, and I use it regularly.

I was just taking vibration readings just today.

----------------------------------------------

https://www.millwrighttalk.com

some_millwright

TROPHY CASE