MadModder

Russell, I would really have liked to become proficient in FreeCAD.

I should say to be fair, it didn't crash often. I think I lost some work one time, but at a bad time in terms of overall frustration in trying to achieve a particular goal. And certainly, running old SketchUPs in WINE (a Windows-like program environment for Linux) occasionally crash, too.

If I'd ever found a path in FreeCAD, no matter how difficult, to achieve that flywheel shape, I would have stuck with it. Because I would then have then thought I'd find quicker and easier ways to do that with practice.

At one point in trying to taper an elliptical sectioned spoke, and then fillet that into the flywheel rim I reached a dead end.

It seemed to me that a possible solution was not to do that in the round, but split the spoke lengthwise -- as if making a half-pattern, before tapering it. But when I tried that, the taper was applied vertically as well as width wise, lifting the flat face, which I didn't want.

I kept running into these sorts of problems. I think they are due to functions (like taper) being pre-defined, rather than achieved through applying primitives -- as you do in SketchUP. In the latter, it's easy, just draw a straight elliptical sectioned spoke, rotate to one end, and then scale it's section with grab handles. Which you can do either uniformly or in one direction only, depending on which handle you grab.

In FreeCAD, you often have to fill in numeric specifications and preferences for an action before you actually do it. If there isn't a slot to change some spec that you need, you're out of luck.

Manipulating SketchUP objects is more analogous to manipulating physical objects made of clay. You form or deform them with on-screen tools, then afterwards set the amount of deformation more exactly by typing in a number.

I still regret not being able to use FreeCAD -- it bothers me not to succeed with something I set out to do, and I don't really want to be dependent on just a single old CAD system.

Quote from: vtsteam on March 26, 2026, 04:26:55 PM

I've tried to learn other 3D CADs and I find them really difficult/clumsy (for me). Maybe it's just the way my mind works.

Do you mean apps like Freecad? If so, yes, it's free, but it has rather steep learning curve - and the fact that it keeps crashing often doesn't exactly help the learning process. That's why I've used it only for converting meshes to another format. 

Yup. I made a really concerted effort to learn it, using a set of video tutorials -- which worked okay. But then when I tried to draw a flywheel with fillets on tapered elliptical sectioned spokes, I found the tutorials were fine for the kinds of shapes each concentrated on, but nothing I tried would allow me to make the shapes I wanted. I gave up after it became too frustrating -- and yes there were also crashes.

I then tried the same thing in SketchUp which doesn't have native filleting ability, and yet surprisingly, I was able to get a very close approximation of what I wanted with primitives, and an add-on I found. It was SO much simpler to draw that, and modify it. One big difference I noticed is that in FreeCad you work in a 2D sketch generally to start with, while in SketchUP, you start right in 3D space and create your drawing.

Anyway, SketchUP to me does mirror the way my mind visualizes things, with basic tools that are easily understood intuitively -- at least for me.

I've tried to learn other 3D CADs and I find them really difficult/clumsy (for me). Maybe it's just the way my mind works.

Do you mean apps like Freecad? If so, yes, it's free, but it has rather steep learning curve - and the fact that it keeps crashing often doesn't exactly help the learning process. That's why I've used it only for converting meshes to another format. 

In the same vein, another issue with possible solution. I've used Notepad++ on Windows in the past, and now on Linux, I use Notepadqq, which is basically a clone of Notepad++.   

But after installing Notepadqq, It seems to be very prone to crash with default settings. It has done that with all the Linux distros I've tested so far.

I may have read about it on the net, but one option to fix that is to go to Settings--> Preferences--> General--> Backup open document every..seconds or minutes or whatever, and uncheck that option.

In other words, disable autosaving feature. After doing that - I've not experienced such crashes.

No major climate excursions

True... but 3 months of nearly continuous rain & windy days is just as tortuous. Mind you, rain = time spent in sheds = why we invented so much stuff!

Most of the nuts and bolts that I'll need have arrived and I got the bed bolted to the bed/bearing mounts last night. I centered the bed between the rails. The frame diagonals are as equal as I can measure with a metric tape measure, and the edge of the bed is flush with end of the frame, so the bed slots SHOULD be perpendicular to the X axis. If they aren't - well that's future Don's problem. A kind soul on another forum suggested flush zerk fittings. I found some M5 fittings that should fit and ordered them, they arrived today, I should have about 2mm of clearance between the fitting and the base - it worked like a champ.

I'm almost done with the Z axis slider redesign to fit the 300W spindle, something that would have had to happen anyway - might as well get it over with now. I've also been working on the design for the X axis lead-nut block. If I've counted on my fingers and toes correctly, I should have about a 3mm gap between the lead-nut block and the bottom of the bed. I plan on measuring that gap with a stack of feeler gages, and printing a shim to fit. That should be close enough for gubmint work.