Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Updating the High Priority List

[Andrés Muñiz Piniella]

El 6 de febrero de 2016 00:16:22 GMT+00:00, arthur_torrey@comcast.net escribió:
>The thing I've been grumbling about almost since I started using Free
>Software all to many years ago is the lack of a competent 3-D CAD
>package....  LibreCAD is OK for 2D, and it is being actively maintained
>and worked on, but it is ONLY a 2-D package, and a lot of people look
>at you like you are nuts for even considering using a 2-D package these
>days....
>
>I have looked at several open / free 3-D packages and have yet to find
>one I could actually do useful (as in can take the drawing to a machine
>and MAKE the part....)
>

http://www.freecadweb.org/ used by one of our makers to do a cnc machine. I 
believe she uploaded it somewhere.

>If we have ANYTHING that compares to SolidWorks for capability, or the
>Autodesk Creative Suite, I have never heard about it...
>

I have used solidworks, it is bloated and not one user uses even 3% of it's 
capabilities.

>There are a few 'Free Beer' trap programs like OnShape that offer
>'free' 'Software as a Service' 3-D capabilities but that is no less of
>a trap than proprietary software....
>

Agreed. Also, creates vendor lockin something not attractive for startups.

>As an 'inmate' at the Artisan's Asylum, one of the worlds largest
>hacker spaces, I get a lot of grief because I refuse to use the
>Solidworks / HSMworks / AutoDesk / MatLab / Simulink installs in our
>computer lab that are 'Free' for me to use as a member....
>

In our makerspace one of the smallest in the world I learnt and used openscad 
to do an example plot with octave then created gcode 
http://slic3r.org/ sent it to the 3D printer using 
http://octoprint.org/ it is one of the openscad examples. (AGPL)

>What FLOSS 3D package can compete?  Solidworks / HSMWorks can do FEA
>analysis on the drawing, can animate the moving parts to check for
>proper operation and fit, and can then generate the G-code needed to
>make the part on most CNC machines...
>
 
Solidworks is bloated. In fs we have different programs that do different jobs. 
Solidwords can't do parametric design without a spreadsheet which only works 
with Microsoft products. It is overpriced, new versions of software create file 
formats that by default can't be open with previous versions. Absolutely 
horrible. I think by definition is the worst kind of proprietary software. 
Worst is that it has a community of volunteers/fanboys around it with web pages 
where they upload stuff with I don't know what licence. Horrible.


>As an ethical Free Software person, I have to generate HAND WRITTEN
>G-code (can take longer than drafting the part, and mistakes are
>potentially catastrophic that we don't even ALLOW hand written code on
>some of our machines....
>

http://slic3r.org/ never occurred to me to write it by hand, it is not on the 
repos (might be submitted soon?) But code is GPL or agpl.


>Inkscape might be able to animate a drawing, as long as you don't care
>about dimensions...
>
>I'm told there are FEA tools, but not that take a drawing from anything
>else....
>

http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=FEM_Module

That can be exported to FEA tools such as https://www.csc.fi/web/elmer

There is an agreed standard (probably not official) file format for FEA forget 
what it is as it has been many years since I used it. But even proprietary 
software uses it.


>ART
>
>======== Original TRIMMED message ==========
>Message: 6
>Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2016 09:35:31 +0100
>From: Fabio Pesari <fabiop@gnu.org>
>To: libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
>Subject: [libreplanet-discuss] Updating the High Priority List
>Message-ID: <56B30D53.8060902@gnu.org>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
>https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/
>
>This list is severely outdated. What about we propose new high-priority
>projects? What proprietary programs (or network services without free
>servers) do you or the people around you use _daily_ that haven't been
>replaced by free software? Which free programs need more attention in
>order to replace their proprietary counterparts?
><SNIP>
>
>
>------------------
>Arthur Torrey - <arthur_torrey@comcast.net>
>-------------------

-- 
Richmond Makerlabs
Ham United Group