I'm Learning FreeCAD
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I've only ever used Tinkercad really, wanted to use a program that is not tied/locked/unusable without the internet, found FreeCAD and found the "Lessons" on youtube and am going through them with a few others doing the same, uploading my progress as I go along, so I have access while out and about, these are not for printing just a personal reference. Ok right, I started these tutorials using v0.17 got as far as lesson 3 and it was beginning to feel like I was learning how to work around it, rather than with it, I mean there must obviously be ways to do it properly using the newest version but its not what's shown in THESE tutorials/lessons. There may be more suitable ones out there, but I haven't found any with an explanation of what or why there have been these changes. I just want to make stuff I can just print. without having to read screen after screen of unfinished help pages. So then I downloaded V0.16 and it's been plain sailing since, works exactly as in the videos (no beeping/panic/error sounds telling me a draft needs a "body" repeatedly with no explanation of how where or why, just click and go now :) , progress? ) and has taught me a lot about what's possible with this stuff, while I'd personally like to have an isolated version of tinkercad (got an old copy of 123D Design works for making/playing about with idea's has more features than online tinkercad too, but is slow, glitchy and now unsupported :( but the speed is probably down to my computer :) and then together this program would be for more precision/technical stuff. would be the ideal solution. OK completed all 13 lessons, and they just makes so much more sense by having objects to make that involve most of the major tools, than approaching it with having to make a random object. ( using V0.16), and can actually see how to make it do what I want, or at worst know what I`d actually need to look for to find out how. I'd recommend downloading the videos and watching them in an "always on top" minimised window so you can do it as you watch, and thanks to the narration you can go at your own pace (pause/play) as you follow them. Lesson 01 - Turners Cube - Done Lesson 02 - Wiffle Ball - Done Lesson 03 - Casino Dice - Done Lesson 04 - Bearing Bracket - Done Lesson 05 - Fork Bearing - Done Lesson 06 - Compression Spring - Done Lesson 07 - propeller - Done Lesson 08 - Inner Threads - a) Plain Nut (No thread) - Done - b) Concentric Circles (Cosmetic thread) - Done - c) Helix (Actual thread) - Done Lesson 09 - Outer Threads - a) Plain Bolt (No thread) - Done - b) Concentric Circles (Cosmetic thread) - Done - c) Helix (Actual thread) - Done Lesson 10 - Heart Shaped Ashtray - Done Lesson 11 - Bird Feeder - Done - Possible Brain Fart moment - When trying to select the mid-point of a line/part and you choose the mid-point icon and it just won't work, make sure you haven't started (as mine did on first run-through) with them ALL selected and you feeling that you're choosing an option when you're actually turning it off, turn them ALL off (unblued) and just turn on the ones you need. (not the tutorials fault, looks like the icons changed from V0.15 to V0.16). See pic above... Lesson 12 - Ball Bearing - a) Using Part Workbench (starts at 5m43s) - Done - b) Using Part Design Workbench (starts at 14m00s) - Done (as can be seen results look Identical.) - c) Bonus Turners Cube from Lesson 1 Re-done. (starts at 31m47s) - Done Lesson 13 - Draft Shapestring Tutorial - Done ------------------------------------------------------------- Currently I`m adding all the stuff/videos and links to the comments section. I've added the links in the comments section to two sets of tutorials so far, and I'd personally say do them in the order I've put them as I found doing these 13 first then watching the second set I got more out of them. ------------------------------------------------------------- If anyone else feels like doing the same here are the links I got FreeCAD from: Latest Stable Software - V0.17 from freecadweb.org/ I'm now Currently using - V0.16 from github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases (v0.16.6712 64bit version) and I'm using Win10. I would say get the file and keep it as a back up, because if/when you want to go back that will be the time it`ll be hard to get :) My Conclusion So Far.... I'm not saying FreeCAD is the best one but after doing it this way I have it's been the easiest (again using V0.16), figuring out the shortcuts (but knowing what I'm cutting short), the extra tools to make things pretty (chamfers fillets thickness) I haven't really looked at Tinkercad since I started, and it is completely offline (major plus in my book), but without tutorials like these I don't think I would have stuck with it. It's just a thought but these same tutorials done the same way inclusive of the changes and explanations for them,made for V0.17 would increase newcomer numbers. These have at least saved me an hour trying to find out what I need to actually find help doing, followed by another hour finding out how to actually do it, every step :) until then I`m sticking with V0.16.
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