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316 points pabs3 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.214s | source
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loufe ◴[] No.42171647[source]
Every time I have a personal project and want to make a simple CAD drawing of a building or a simple model, as I would using AutoCAD at work, I go through the same song and dance. I look around at the options online, my jaw hangs open at the cost of any commercial CAD subscription/licence, then I get frustrated by a glaring lack of functionality or useability while trying some free/open source solution, and resort to a 30 day trial or MSPaint/paper.

Some of the comments already mention how blender's existence is predicated upon it filling a niche in certain senses, instead of trying to achieve feature parity with an entrenched giant. That makes sense, and it's unfortunate, as this space could use an open source option with Blender's polish. In my own industry, mining, I am certain some commercial interests would happily make their product an extension/plugin for a polished FreeCAD (or other), were it at that point.

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etimberg ◴[] No.42172360[source]
I have a similar problem, but for electrical diagrams. I want to draw out diagrams for each of the circuits in my house and none of the free options are good enough.
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snake42 ◴[] No.42173181[source]
What did you end up using?

I wanted to make diagrams for an embedded system circuit I made and ended up using PowerPoint. All of the free options seem to be focused exclusively on PCB design and not making nice graphics. Fritzing which is what a lot of people recommend is now a paid for application.

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1. HeyLaughingBoy ◴[] No.42175088[source]
Oh god, please don't use Fritzing. I absolutely despise those useless diagrams. Actually, less than useless because they're often outright misleading.

Learn to draw actual electronic schematics. It's a bit of a learning curve, but not very steep.

Use KiCad for schematics; you don't have to use the PCB design tool.