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Comment by faeranne | Hacker News Reader

FreeCAD has some pretty hefty backing from the likes of Opulo, and a history (like KiCAD) of working with CERN and other groups like them. Fusion def has a larger laundry list of features, but if the question is "What open source cad tools exist" (and given the question is explicitly asking about open source electronics design, so I'd assume they want to stick with open source for model design too), then the answer is gonna likely be either FreeCAD or OpenSCAD. And given that most popular cad and edm software has repeated pushed back on the open source community (and given they are profit driven companies, they eventually have to), I don't blame a person for seeking exclusively open source tools. It's the same reason I decided FreeCAD's flaws are worth working through. I already had both Eagle and Fusion force me to scramble to recreate projects before, I wouldn't wish that upon anyone else who is doing this under- or at-cost.

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> pretty hefty backing from the likes of Opulo

... A two-man band YouTuber and his mate bootstrapping their first product?

It's a cool product, admirable work, and great that they're supporting FreeCAD (even just in awareness by using it), but can you seriously call it hefty backing from the likes of?

Totally agree. Just trying to help other people prevent the same thing that happened to me, which was spend time investing in a tool significantly in the design phase (FreeCAD) and then find out the tool just straight up couldn’t meet the requirements I needed it to. So in my case the question is “what open source tools exist that can do XYZ” and the answer is, unfortunately, none of them. So check and make sure XYZ is possible with FreeCAD when you evaluate it and don’t assume like I did that because it’s mentioned in the same breath as something like Fusion360 that they are equivalent enough.

A lot of FOSS tools are often “XYZ is possible but requires 10-30% extra work to achieve”. FreeCAD is not like that in a lot of cases, it’s more like, “XYZ is not possible without rebuilding your model from the ground up, every time”. Which is obviously not something you can do on a product you need to be constantly iterating on. If you’re at home doing a one off to print a piece of your chair that broke that’s totally fine though.

I also love OpenSCAD and its design philosophy and to be frank as a software guy would love if all 3D modelers worked like OpenSCAD. But it also is just far too limiting to do anything professionally like the kind of stuff I mentioned in my parent comment.

I’m always preferring FOSS if I can. FWIW I used KiCAD for the chip design of the product I was working on and it worked beautifully. KiCAD has absolutely come into its own in the last decade or so and is basically a full enough featured alternative that you can select it over its closed source competitors with few qualms. Not so much the case with FreeCAD. Also FWIW KiCAD also uses OCCT under the hood - but an EDA has such fewer requirements of a BRep than a 3D modeler does there is not an issue.

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