

I knew about the problems with Bambu long before I bought my new printer back in December. I ended up going with an Elegoo Centauri Carbon. It works out of the box without ever requiring you to set up an account, install an app on your phone, or connect to a cloud service. I just use mine with a USB stick.
I wanted to go with Prusa but the cost difference was too great for me at that time (I’m sure it still is).






I have a licensed seat of Solidworks on my work computer; that’s where I learned to solid model. I also have an older pirated copy on my home computer but it requires Windows.
If I had to choose something free I would probably choose Onshape because it is very similar to Solidworks (it was created with help from one of the founders of Solidworks). However it sucks that all of your models are public.
Otherwise, the only viable option in my eyes would be Fusion 360.
I haven’t tried it, but I know there is a plugin for Blender that allows you to do parametric modelling but I’m sure the options are pretty limited.