I’m currently getting by with a mixture of Design Spark Mechanical, FreeCAD, and OpenSCAD for prototyping/editing files, I’d love to find a good alternative that isn’t from a predatory company like Autodesk
Coming from a programming background, I love OpenSCAD. It’s just simple enough that I think I can easily do what I want, and powerful enough that I can do anything with it.
Unfortunately it’s usually more difficult than I expected, and when you start using nested loops to define polyhedron vertices, you should probably be using other software.The main thing I love about it is the ability to define global constants that can be changed later. If done correctly, you can design a part first and take measurements later.
Definitely fusion. I had no trouble learning fusion with no tutorials for the basics. ie draw, extrude etc. I loaded up freeCad yesterday and had no idea what to do. this is my current little project designed in fusion.
I really liked fusion360 the only problem is they keep changing licensing. All of my experience is as a hobbyist so it really is a pain when they cripple my cnc or limit the number of projects. Who knows they might start charging for colors or something crazy like Adobe.
I wish i would have started with onshape or freecad. Also I think solidworks is extremely discounted for EAA members
Onshape is really not hard to pick up coming from Fusion 360