FreeCAD

I first heard of FreeCAD years ago when I started looking for that elusive opensource CAD system. At that time it was as painful to use as it was to install. Recently I had the pleasure of giving it a second try. All I can say is it's Amazing how much difference a couple of years can make in the opensource community. The new installation was a breeze. I copied and pasted the repository into the package manger, did a quick search and loaded the entire package with the press of a button. The interface is stylish a the layout makes it easy to find what your looking for. The modeler is parametric and, from my limited experience, is equal to any purchased CAD system on the market. If you familiar with SolidWorks you will be in familiar territory. There are of course a couple of drawbacks that, for now, will keep this system out of the corporate world. The first issue is the actual drafting package lacks some functionality. When I tried it I had a little trouble with dimensions and tolerances. With the pace of development that will not last long. There are various groups working on drafting packages and I would not be surprised to see this CAD system in the industry soon.

 

Step one, finding a CAD system on a the cheap.

In the next few post we will discuss CAD systems, both hobby and professional. I will eventually reveal my final CAD solution for Midnight headquarters.

Here, at Midnight headquarters, we are strictly dedicated to open source. It's been years since we have had a MS product in this house, a direct result of some rough treatment from Windows ME. Up until this adventure in ME I had dabbled with various Linux systems when I purchased a Slackware book in the mid 90's. It was mostly for hobby use on and old computer I had laying around. After my run in with ME all future computers got a clean hard drive and a fresh install of Linux/GNU of various flavors, and we have never looked back. 

Midnight Engineering

Midnight engineering is the practice of fooling around, with your choice of brain prattle, late at night after the kids and wife have gone to sleep. It evolves from a large dose of coffee that you shouldn't have drank so late in the evening. And sometimes, when sleep eludes you, you just want to get your hands on something to fiddle with from the comfort of your favorite easy chair. It's great if you have a list of designs or inventions that you have been fooling around with, or some pieces of junk that your neurosis implores you to assemble into a useful object of desire. With this blog I will document some of my projects along with review of the tools I have accumulated on a budget. Thanks for visiting and stay tuned awesome blather about engineering.

ME