Posting these for myself and anyone else who wants to check out FreeCAD. 10-Part Series.
Part 1
Context: I was using FreeCAD when I got my first 3D Printer, but at the time is was Beta V0.20 and was still being refined and developed. It has now matured to V1.0 and it has changed a lot. I feel I need to start over at this point.
Thanks for these videos. I've always likes Digikey (the stuff that they sell, and their videos,) and Shawn does good work in his videos.
Quote from: granz on May 02, 2025, 08:25 AMThanks for these videos. I've always likes Digikey (the stuff that they sell, and their videos,) and Shawn does good work in his videos.
Totally. I will be "re-learning" FreeCAD (https://www.freecad.org/) from these videos. Ever since I saw them being posted I intended to watch them, but I kept forgetting, so by putting them here, in order, I can easily find them,
AND share them. ;)
The first videos I learned from started with this video (https://youtu.be/cJfbINgyz-k). This channel then has additional videos, however these were from back in the beta version (0.19?). In any event, I have noticed that since FreeCAD hit V1.0, there are many new tutorial videos. I will check out others and post links as I find ones I think are very useful.
I will admit that, while following these videos, somehow I ended up with a different result at some point during the example that caused me no end of frustration. I even tried starting over. I think there's too much emphasis on parametrics in this series.
I like the videos Shawn Hymel puts out, he did a few on Micropython I enjoyed.
I need to check out FreeCAD, I don't design a lot of prints but when I do I usually use OnShape, the two must be similar
Well, it's been a while and recently in order to move ahead on many projects that require custom 3D printed parts, I decided to get up to speed on FreeCAD V1.0, only to find that it has been updated to V1.1.1. Now, you might think that's no big deal, but apparently there are 200+ changes (https://youtu.be/bYdobpjTypg?list=PLvYFiDTG74hrGN8h51IQZte2KRc4TnZep) and bug fixes and well, none of the tutorials for V1.0 seems to work for me. Some tools have changed. Icons are gone or re-branded. It's a lot different!
Anyway, after trying three tutorials built around V1.0 and having two fail, I need to try again with more updated tutorials. My weekend will be mostly set around this endeavor. Wish me luck!
Good luck with that. Let us know how it goes.
I need to quickly put some stuff together and want something quick and simple. TinkerCad looks great, but I really don't like web-based/browser-based stuff - if it isn't kept on my computer, it isn't mine. >:( Does anyone have a suggestion for a dead-simple 3D print CAD program, that resides on my computer (for Linux, of course)?
Once I get done with my quick stuff, I am thinking that FreeCAD will be my next design program.
New article from Hack-A-Day:
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/13/freecad-1-1-tutorial-for-beginners-who-like-clear-instructions/
(https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/New-to-FreeCAD_-Start-HERE-Ultimate-Beginner-Tutorial-51-56-screenshot.png)
Quote from: granz on May 13, 2026, 08:05 PMNew article from Hack-A-Day:
Thanks,
@granz , many of the tutorials I have tried had their own issues. Either I couldn't understand the person (accent), they went waaaay too fast, or the tutorial wasn't for the right version of the software, so nothing matched up. I'll give this one a try.
I know what you mean about bad tutorials, run across way too many. That is why I mostly prefer to read, rather than view a video of, my tutorials.
Let us know how you like this one.
Quote from: granz on May 14, 2026, 05:10 PMLet us know how you like this one.
I sure will.