There really isn't much good FOSS software in the CAD/Engineering world. I've tried the 2D and 3D solutions that I've beena able to find and they are missing way too many features or the learning curve is crazy steep. If anyone knows of good CAD software let me know, I'd love to try it.

[–] Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I wonder if it's because of patent-trolling crap, like Adobe's case.

(Adobe runs patents on individual good-design features, like "having x option available on the right-click menu", forcing competitors to have that same option buried in some other dropdown menu somewhere, or have the same option split in multiple steps, in order to avoid being sued...)

AutoCAD's company has done other sleazy copyright-related shit, so I wonder if something similar is going on, just like Photoshop alternatives being shit.

[–] WaxiestSteam69@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's probably a mix of that and how CAD/Engineering software is a complicated niche market. It's not as ubiquitous as something like an office suite or even a phot editor like GIMP. I don't have anything to back that up other than a hunch.

[–] DumbAceDragon@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh wow that's actually evil. Imagine having such shit software that the only thing keeping competition away is having a literal monopoly on your features.

[–] Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah.

[–] germanatlas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How’s that even patentable? If it actually is, then whichever game dev decided to use WASD to walk missed out on something.

[–] Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Because huge legal teams make sure to find the right loopholes.

Here's a good 10 minutes of some of the more disgusting offenders.

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[–] SpeakinTelnet@sh.itjust.works 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I second that. I work mostly with Catia and I've been searching forever for a Foss and Linux compatible replacement to a point I was seriously thinking about creating one from scratch.

[–] WaxiestSteam69@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

I do a lot of 2D civil drawings for underground utility construction and I haven't found anything that does what I need. Also the selection is pretty much limited to Windows. The CAD programs on Mac seem to be limited compared to their Windows brethren.

[–] Thrashy@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's a damn shame, too, because the commercial software in the sector is abusively overpriced, and there's just nothing to be done about it (unless somebody can get antitrust regulators to pay attention, which hasn't happened yet, and I'm not holding my breath for it).

It's not like the FOSS options out there aren't fundamentally capable of doing the job, either -- it's just that they almost universally seem to have been designed by people who think of GUIs as a concession to the normies, and don't understand typical or expected design workflows. I'd love to be able to use FreeCAD instead of Fusion for hobby projects, but just creating a sketch in the former is like fighting through molasses compared to the process in Fusion. A bit of focus on UI instead of under the hood features would go along way towards making these programs viable competitors -- look at how Blender's perception changed amongst professionals after it ditched its idiosyncratic pre-2.7 UI, for instance.

Don't even get me started on BIM software... Ridiculous subscription pricing, barely a bug fix to be found, and feature requests ignored for a decade or more! The last release of Revit's headline new feature was (drumroll, please...) A dark UI mode. Good to see Autodesk put my employer's seven-figure subscription payments to good use. 😑

[–] WaxiestSteam69@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

You are right about the current state of CAD/Engineering software being a mess. Crazy subscription models and no real innovation. Buggy software everywhere.AutoCad crashes at least 3 times a day or does weird stuff like the ribbon and menus disappearing. I'd love to find something that worked as an alternative.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

What CAD software doesn't have a crazy steep learning curve?