There are many good applications for FDM printed items. But I still have a metal lathe, mill, drill press, and welders for all the other times that FDM is a poor choice.

As long as you tie his shoelaces together when buried, there won’t be any risk of zombie trump…

We would be paying for it anyway.

Already taken.

Meh, 5 second rule applies here.

Not surprising. Since high velocity rifle bullets very often get very deformed on impact and some are even specifically designed to fragment on impact. Unlike low velocity pistol rounds which don’t move fast enough to deform a lot.

People need to stop watching CSI reruns.

Grid infill often leads to the nozzle dragging across the infill. You will always get those little bumps as the nozzle passes over each intersection. It can cause clogs and actually knock a print loose sometimes.

Choose a different infill. For this model, since it’s a light duty part, I might choose 5% to 10% adaptive cubic to save some print time and filament. This will still provide good support for your top layers to get that nice top surface finish.

Deltahedra is fast-paced for sure. I enjoy his tutorials also. Another person you can check out is AllVisuals4U. He makes short and to the point tutorials also. He keeps them to 5 to 6-minute videos.

Depends on what your goals are. Despite my inability to grasp Blender, it’s a great piece of software for those organic and artistic designs. And to be fair, it can do a bit of CAD work with an add-on. But it soon hits a limit for that kind of work.

But not everyone can “see” the different type of workflow and end results that each type of software is good at. I certainly cannot see that Blender doughnut well enough to make it. Even with my hand being held in the video tutorials. But I can take that same doughnut and turn it into a torque converter for an automatic transmission. Go figure…

Still, I keep trying to make that Blender doughnut despite my lack of success so far. And I encourage you to keep trying to make something with CAD. Don’t give up. We’re going to win someday!

I understand. But I made an “executive decision” for the video link because most people like to see some the improvements in action. I felt that it would get more people excited and would be quicker for them to get through.

The extensive change log is on the FreeCAD github page if you want to read all about it. Download FreeCAD 1.1 while you are there!

And I highly encourage everyone at least skim through that page to see all the changes as they get the time to do so.

I think the 1.1 release is the end step of the original plan started back at the .18 release of fixing the major underlying issues that FreeCAD had. And the mitigating of TPN and the need to redo a fair amount of code to make FreeCAD better. That effort led to the 1.0 release. And the 1.1 release is the result of the cleanup and optimization of the code in FreeCAD. Which is the final step in the roadmap. And the video talks a lot about those improvements in stability, speed, and simplification of use.

I used SW professionally for years before I retired and SW was suddenly not free to use for me anymore. Personally, I found the switch to FreeCAD was pretty easy for me. But the ease or struggle to learn something new varies a lot between people.

Best I can tell you is to forget everything you “know” from SW as best you can. And when you get frustrated that what you are doing in FreeCAD doesn’t work like SW, try to remember we ain’t in Kansas anymore Toto. That’s how I had to approach things.

Good Luck! I’m pullin’ for ya!

I’ve been using it since it was a weekly release, (now I mostly use the 1.2 weeklies), and it’s been very stable even on a low powered mini desktop with 8 Gbits of shared RAM. I think they are finally finishing up the timeline that was set out when they went after the TNP mitigation and general cleanup of the disaster that was .1X series of FreeCAD with the 1.0 release.

Spoiler Alert: I think the 1.2 Weekly releases are even better yet. So give that a shot if you are willing to put up with occasional breakage and problems. The more users of different skills with different hardware can really help speed the killing of bugs if you report issues. Besides, it’s just plain fun!

Keep trying and keep practicing. Install FreeCAD and practice with MangoJelly tutorials to learn.

One thing that often makes it hard for people switching to any new CAD is things don’t work the same way. So do your best to forget the way you used to do things. Fusion isn’t FreeCAD and FreeCAD isn’t Fusion. You will need to learn new things. So don’t expect it to work the same way.

The next thing that is very helpful is to find models to practice and gain confidence and skills. MangoJelly tutorials are great to learn from, but you need varied practice to gain skills. Here are 50 models you can practice with to gain confidence and skills using any CAD program. Other practice models can be found if you do some searching.

Good Luck!

It’s ok to not get it when it comes to parametric CAD. I can’t get the hang of OpenSCAD. And don’t get me started on Blender. Years of trying, and I STILL can’t make that doughnut…

I have used Fusion and can get what I want from it. But I have an intense dislike of the clown car UI.

So sit down and watch MangoJelly’s tutorials and practice them. Enjoy that smooth Aussie voice. It takes time to learn new things so don’t give up. We’re pulling for you!

He’s very good. He is one of the developers of FreeCAD. MangoJelly tends to be my go to though.

It’s pretty simple don’t watch it then. No one, least of all me, is going to force you to watch it.

A nice thought. But the Great Unwashed Masses do not care. They want a Quick Start Guide that just says “Plug it in” and no other steps required. They want the black box because they don’t want to learn and understand.

And that attitude is less about the oligarchy and a lot more about all lazy people.

For my use case, the Pixel 10 doesn’t offer enough over the 9a to make the extra cost worth it for me.