This advertisement for an awful commercial software package with a restrictive license in NO WAY helps the original poster learn FreeCAD.

I love this feature too - never having to worry about filament running out and using up the last bit of every spool is so handy.

It’s not as much as you might think, plus you have to purge to switch filaments with a single nozzle design. I would argue my Bambu saves filament on the balance because print failure is so low.

Simple - I don’t worry about it at all, I just load up a second spool of compatible material and let the printer switch when the first spool runs out (X1C with AMS).

Interesting! I haven’t had issues with ABS at stock temps in my X1C - 90C for the build plate - and I print a lot of large flat ish designs. I have had more trouble with PETG warping, and for HIPS I have to crank up the first layer to 110, then 100 for subsequent layers of it won’t stick to the Engineering Plate with glue stick at all.

My chamber temps do tend to be a bit lower, since I have an exhaust fan hooked up the carbon filter fan output to vent outside since ABS and HIPS fumes are nasty.

But yes, I’ve found 10C or so can make a huge difference when things do go south, it just hasn’t been an issue on my X1C for ABS, fortunately. Interesting to see how much a towel improves your chamber temps though!

Overall I love my X1C, one of the best decisions I made, don’t miss my old kludgy FlashForge Creator Pro and all its quirks one bit.

I just put it in my dryer at 40C for a few hours with little regard to a target humidity. I also live in a dry climate where the ambient humidity is low, so maybe it's not enough in wetter climates, but this works for me.

I've found the same thing with regard to workflow - I find it really weird when people say it's nothing like any other CAD programs, because it really is. You start with sketches and build up from there. Yes, the spreadsheet feature is amazing! I couldn't believe SolidWorks forces you to buy Excel to do the same thing, which is crazy. The spreadsheet integration in FreeCAD is great - with the macro that handles the reference labels.

There's not a single thing you can't do in FreeCAD that you can do in other CAD programs - but you do have to understand how it works and it's limitations.

I finally realised how freecad wants me to use it and found it much nicer to work with after that

Exactly this - once people invest the time to understand the FreeCAD flow, and get over it, they'll find it's an amazing and extremely productive tool.

I tried out SolidWorks and it's a complete mess. You can't just download and install it, it runs a bunch of weird background programs on the computer, and interacting with the multiple web sites is a nightmare. I've been waiting well over a month for them to refund under the promised 30 day guarantee. I'd never, ever do anything with that awful company again.

I'm really looking forward to see how Ondsel does. I've been using it for the last week or two, as it's integrated 0.22 features, and I think it could be a really good thing for the FreeCAD community.

Strongly disagree. There's nothing I can do in any of the commercial CAD programs that I can't do in FreeCAD. Most people just don't want to invest the time to learn it - and instead blame the tool. Yes, there's a learning curve and it requires understanding the tool's limitations, but if it wasn't for FreeCAD we'd have nothing in the free, open source space for CAD.

Same here. Useful breakdown on tools, several of which I've used. I've invested a lot of time in FreeCAD thus far, and as I've learned how to do things with the right workflow to prevent errors it's really quite nice and very powerful - and it will continue to only get better with each release. Fortunately, there are great videos and posts when I do get stuck. I can't say enough good things about MangoJellys YouTube videos in learning how to do things the FreeCAD way - probably half of FreeCAD I'd never learn to use by just clicking around. I intend to continue down this road too, and have donated to the FreeCAD project and supported creators versus paying for commercial software. No regrets!

Blender, even with the CAD plug-in, does not have the dimensional precision required for real engineering modeling. The Blender UI is also even clunkier than FreeCAD in many ways.

I've found MangoJellys YouTube videos to be fantastic whenever I get stuck in FreeCAD. Worth following for random things that's over learned from his videos as well, such as some of the tutorials.

I did the same thing over the past 6 or so months ago. There's nothing I could do in Fusion360 that I couldn't do in FreeCAD. People love to complain about FreeCAD, and it does have a steep learning curve, but once you learn to design in the way FreeCAD wants you to, it goes quite smoothly.

CAD Sketcher improves Blender a bit, but it's still not good enough to turn Blender into a dimensionally accurate CAD, and I found the UI to be fairly clunky and if anything even less intuitive than FreeCAD, honestly.

My experience in trying Blender for 3d printed part design was short lived because it's not really built for doing accurate and precise modeling, where FreeCAD is.

Exactly this - FreeCAD is great, but you have to learn to do things its way if you want stable designs. While there is a learning curve, it's really no worse than Fusion360 was in figuring out how to achieve my design goals. There are fantastic YouTube channels out there, like MangoJelly when you do get stuck. I converted all my older designs from Fusion360 to FreeCAD, and everything since is in FreeCAD, and I haven't looked back. I think many people are just afraid to admit they are daunted by FreeCAD, and rather than work to understand it, they just complain and say it's bad, without ever actually putting any effort into learning the platform.

That's not true. FreeCAD can do those things just fine. In fact, I have been able to do every single thing in FreeCAD that I used to do in Fusion360. There is a learning curve, but FreeCAD is extremely capable.

Hatchbox has been my primary brand in the 5 years I’ve been printing - I’ve had great success with their PLA, ABS, and PETG.