Currently, our team uses a variety of different CAD software, many of which are proprietary and save proprietary file formats. We have no native CAD drawings in our repositories; only STEP files that have terrible data fidelity, even if they are in theory a suitable file exchange format. As a compromise solution given the issues with file interchange with CAD models, I propose the following plan:
- The recommended CAD software will be Fusion 360, since it has a free version and RPI also gives an educational license. Ideally, everyone should use it*.
- However, everyone is allowed to use any CAD software they are most familiar with (the native file format of Fusion 360 are F3D files), and store the files in the
Source Models folder in the model drafts folder in the laser repo. Each file must be documented in the README in the folder.
- Whenever anyone makes a change, they should export a STEP file for their models
- This way, people can use program-native files for CAD (hence avoiding data loss during file interchange/export), while keeping our models open-source and not locked-in by proprietary file formats
While I don’t want to promote proprietary software, FreeCAD is just not very user-friendly at all and extremely frustrating to use. By using this composite approach, we are able to still ensure that our CAD files can be loaded in FreeCAD/another open-source CAD software (since they can generally all import STEP files) while avoiding the inevitable data loss that comes from using a non-native file format.
*: There are a few exceptions; for instance, the solar mirror uses OpenSCAD since it is a simple geometry, has a high degree of symmetry, and requires easily-adjustable parameters for rapid iteration.
Currently, our team uses a variety of different CAD software, many of which are proprietary and save proprietary file formats. We have no native CAD drawings in our repositories; only STEP files that have terrible data fidelity, even if they are in theory a suitable file exchange format. As a compromise solution given the issues with file interchange with CAD models, I propose the following plan:
- The recommended CAD software will be Fusion 360, since it has a free version and RPI also gives an educational license. Ideally, everyone should use it\*.
- However, everyone is allowed to use any CAD software they are most familiar with (the native file format of Fusion 360 are F3D files), and store the files in the `Source Models` folder in the model drafts folder in the [laser repo](https://codeberg.org/elaraproject/laser-research/). Each file must be **documented** in the README in the folder.
- Whenever anyone makes a change, they should export a STEP file for their models
- This way, people can use program-native files for CAD (hence avoiding data loss during file interchange/export), while keeping our models open-source and not locked-in by proprietary file formats
While I don’t want to promote proprietary software, FreeCAD is just not very user-friendly at all and extremely frustrating to use. By using this composite approach, we are able to still ensure that our CAD files can be loaded in FreeCAD/another open-source CAD software (since they can generally all import STEP files) while avoiding the inevitable data loss that comes from using a non-native file format.
\*: There are a few exceptions; for instance, the solar mirror uses OpenSCAD since it is a simple geometry, has a high degree of symmetry, and requires easily-adjustable parameters for rapid iteration.