I recently got interested in 3d printing and have been interested in cad for quite3 some years. I had tried Fusion 360 but the cost is way out of my ballpark. Any way I am running Linux cinnamon 20.3 and have downloaded and installed Free Cad 19.x and after opening the program,starting to work on small project for 3d printing I’m met with hurdles of lacking the tool bar in that workbench to move forward with this project. I must be simply overlooking something in my setup. For instance In the sketcher workbench I have no dimension or constraint tools to access; they are not there! I like Dr Vax’s setup he has every tool he possibly needs at click of a mouse. I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction so I can move on with this project.
Thank you all
There are two YouTube Channels that I monitor for FreeCAD lessons - MangoJelly (https://www.youtube.com/c/MangoJellySolutions) and Adventures in Creation (https://www.youtube.com/c/Adventuresincreation). I feel MangoJelly is better and have learned A LOT from watching his tutorials. I really like FreeCAD and am running 0.20. There is a member of this forum (user name is Giet I believe) that is really good at using FreeCAD and has provided a lot of help to others (including me) on the site. He may have other suggestions. Don’t give up on FreeCAD it may look hard but once you know your way around the program it is fun to use. Initially it looks really complex but I believe that is because there are so many workbenches to do specific functions. I find Sketcher, Part, Part Design, Draft and Image Work Benches solve 90% of my needs.
Like you I shopped around for a 3D modeling product that didn’t require buying or ridiculous subscriptions, restrict how many projects you can work on or force you to make your files public. FreeCAD was my choice.
Larry